City band will wear Maple Leaf to Memphis
Charlie Butler is not the first musician to find spiritual guidance from the blues.
But the Philadelphia-born guitarist and singer, who currently leads Calgary’s Charlie B and the Groove Crew, decided to put all his spiritual cards on the table with his latest song, a rollicking Bo Diddley-flavoured number called Blues is My Religion.
“It’s sort of a mixture of Bo, and B.B. (King) and Keb Mo,” explains Butler.
“In the song, it says: ‘The blues is a temple made up of gospel and soul. It’s the birthplace of pop, rap and rock ’n’ roll.’ Because it is.”
It should also fit right in when the band goes down to the International Blues Competition in Memphis next week, a city officially known as “the home of the blues and the birthplace of rock ’n’ roll.”
And like many a bluesman, Butler is a lifer; a versatile and amiable entertainer who also seems particularly adept at producing one-liners about a life in the blues (i.e. “Every time I stick my hand in my pocket I get the blues,” was one gem.)
He grew up in a musical household.His mother sang in the church and would fill the house with Big Mama Thornton and Bessie Smith records. But his Beethoven-loving father preferred young Charlie play classical music. So at eight years old, he was given a violin.
“He loved violin music and I hated it,” Butler says with a laugh. “But I practised day-in and dayout, only because if I didn’t practise I didn’t eat.”
His mother finally convinced his father to let him trade the violin in for a guitar a few years later, which he would eventually put to good use performing at family gatherings or neighbourhood parties and barbecues for nickels.
It certainly helped prepare him for a life in the blues, as did having a bit of a nomadic childhood. Butler’s father was a military attache for the U.S. State Department, which meant he grew up all over the world. He graduated high school in Stuttgart, Germany.
After his own stint in the military, Butler moved to New York where he became a fixture in the East Village’s blues and jazz scenes. He moved to Montreal in the ’70s and Calgary in the ’80s. Roughly 12 years ago, he moved again and continued a globe-trotting career playing hotels and clubs throughout the world.
He returned to Calgary last August and began fronting the Groove Crew, an already-established outfit that now includes Ferdi Braithewaite on keyboards, Yuji Ihara on guitar and vocals, George Phillip on bass, Casey Davis on drums and Peter Johnson on harp. On Nov. 5, Charlie B and the Groove Crew took first prize in the regional qualifying competition organized by the Calgary Blues Association at Mikey’s On 12th Avenue (Disclosure: Eric Volmers was a judge for the competition.)
The win means Butler and his crew will be heading for Memphis for the International Blues Competition, which will find them vying for prizes against bands from around the world in venues along historic Beale Street. On Sunday, Charlie B and the Groove Crew will join Debra Power, who picked up first prize in the solo category, for a show at Mickey’s on 12th Avenue to help pay for travel expenses.
“We’re going down there to represent Canada,” Butler says of the international competition. “We’re an international group. I’ve got one person from the U.K., I’ve got one person from Japan, I’ve got two people from the Islands and two people from the United States. We’re an international band and we’re going down to the International Blues Festival to represent Canada, which we all love and live in.” The Road to Memphis Blues Challenge Fundraiser will take place Sunday at Mikey’s on 12th Avenue at 3 p.m.