"Rhett Butler is one of those artists that has to be seen to be believed. 10 fingers, 2 guitars and a room full of jaws hitting the floor."
The Austin Chronicle
Oh brother, I love thou
By ANDREW MARTON
STAR-TELEGRAM SENIOR ARTS WRITER
Last November, jazz guitarist Rhett Butler was heading home on Interstate 20, exhausted from a two-week concert tour that took him from Georgia through Alabama and Louisiana, when his cellphone rang. Lowering the blare of his favorite Van Halen CD, Butler heard his father's slightly shaken voice on the other end: Doctors had discovered two possibly cancerous tumors growing on his younger brother's neck. Once again, Ashley Butler faced the grim prospect of hospital beds, chemo treatments, and perhaps losing a battle he had been waging for more than 20 years.
On hearing the news, 31-year old Rhett, usually a tower of older-brother strength and resilience, crumpled into a mass of frustration and fear. All he could do was pull his Nissan Frontier truck to the side of the freeway, turn off the ignition and cry. For 45 minutes.
"I always feared getting that call," Butler recalls, "when I did, it just about destroyed me."
After his eyes had no more tears to give, Butler slowly collected himself and headed for his baby brother's side.
Of the ensuing daily vigil at the hospital, Rhett Butler would later write in the liner notes of his most recent CD: "In a fairly comfortable chair, I sit with my feet propped up on the bed. One hand is holding a pen and the other is holding my baby brothers [sic] hand. I listen anxiously for every breath that he takes . . ."
Ashley's lifelong struggle against cancer is the underlying refrain in the sibling saga of Rhett and Ashley Butler. It has informed nearly every facet of Rhett's personal and artistic life. It's the reason he picked up the guitar in the first place and why it became his primary escape. It's embedded in his passionate guitar style, all percussive bursts of melodic energy.
It's apparent in the grin that animates Rhett's face every time Ashley walks into a room.
The stoic grace with which Ashley has shouldered his cancer has made him a role model of strength and resilience. It is Rhett who relies on Ashley as both musical muse and flesh-and-blood compass -- offering perspective as Rhett navigates the narcissistic waters of professional music.
"People always ask me if I'm getting stressed out about getting a new CD done or what I'm thinking before attempting to play two guitars at the same time," says Rhett. "And I always say that my brother's life-and-death fight with cancer is more than I ever could do just playing the guitar. I mean, he's defied the odds just to be here, and that makes him so inspirational."
As Ashley gently pats his big brother's arm, Rhett adds: "He just makes me believe I can do whatever I need to do."
All about Ashley
Rhett Butler -- yes, his real name, chosen, along with Ashley's, by their mother, Cindy, who was a huge Gone With the Wind fan -- was born in Atlanta. His family moved to Humble when he was 3.
In 1982, when Rhett was only 8, his family was brought to its knees by the news that a golf ball-sized tumor had been discovered on 2-year-old Ashley's brain. Formerly known as primitive neuroectodermal, the cancerous growth is notorious for metastasizing so rampantly that doctors at Texas Children's Hospital in Houston excised 90 percent of the growth before telling the Butlers "to simply take Ashley home and just love him."
Translation: Ashley had only months to live.
But the Butlers would fight that gallows timetable. They took Ashley to Memorial Sloan-Kettering Hospital in New York City for six months of radiation, chemotherapy and bone marrow transplants, all designed to burn away the rest of the tumor and any lingering cancer cells.
Against all odds, Ashley began to grow stronger. There would be setbacks. Two more operations to remove tumors on both Ashley's brain and neck left him almost completely blind, with a stunted physique (he's 5 feet tall and weighs 175 pounds) and with partial learning disabilities.
But he's alive. And having just celebrated his 26th birthday, Ashley Butler is one of the world's longest-living survivors of this especially ruthless pediatric cancer. "He's really one of a kind," beams Rhett.
Only three years after weathering the trauma of Ashley's first brain operation, 12-year-old Rhett asked his parents for a guitar for Christmas.
"Everybody in the family had been dealing with Ashley's condition in their own way," recalls Rhett. "For me, I just got a guitar, then disappeared into it."
After seven months of lessons, he pursued the instrument on his own intense terms. Day after day, he retreated into a musical shell. What blossomed was Butler's fiery musical work ethic marked by his constant repetition of some blindingly fast guitar passages by everyone from Eddie Van Halen to Stevie Ray Vaughn.
"We listened to so much Eddie Van Halen, it was coming out of our ears," says Hugh Butler, Rhett's father. "We never had to tell Rhett to go practice. It was more like: 'Rhett, it's time to eat. Rhett, it's time to go to bed.' "
The obsessive-compulsive guitarist was born.
"Rhett's drug is definitely his guitar," says Kelly Brown, a Dallas musician and Butler collaborator. "A drug in that the way he has dealt with his family pain; instead of taking drugs to numb it, he has become obsessive about that instrument."
Admitted to the prestigious jazz program at the University of North Texas, Rhett lasted two years before quitting the program. UNT probably didn't understand his idiosyncratic approach to the instrument. Early on, Rhett developed a trademark hammer-on style that allows him to play two guitars at once by fingering each of their fret boards, coaxing filigreed harmonies and shimmering melodies without needing to strum.
By 1999, Rhett had saved enough money to buy recording equipment, but he needed a polished demo to launch his music career. Enter Ashley, who dug deep into his personal savings to come up with a $1,000 loan for his brother to complete his first serious CD demo, Live and Uncut.
"Yup, I really did believe he could be good," Ashley says, sitting next to his brother. "I really believed in you."
Not a single live concert goes by in which Rhett doesn't speak proudly of his younger brother. And Ashley is omnipresent in The Kid From Kilkenny, Rhett's recent CD.
Rhett is channeling profits from The Kid From Kilkenny to the Ashley Grant Butler Pediatric Assistance Endowment, whose funds go to Houston's MD Anderson Cancer Center -- the clinic that has treated Ashley. Rhett will play a fund-raising concert Saturday at Fort Worth's Artistic Blends Coffeehouse and Theatre.
Writing and producing The Kid From Kilkenny, a reference to Ashley's roots in the Irish town, was one of Rhett's primary antidotes against his brother's latest bout with cancer.
"He manically worked night and day, just sweating blood over it all, to express how he felt about Ashley," recalls their father, Hugh.
The material ranges from Irish-sounding reels to songs whose names carry some Butler family significance. In Lil's Fried Chicken, Butler rhapsodizes about his grandmother's kitchen specialty. The Piddler is a direct reference to Ashley's favorite activity of "piddling," which is creatively doing nothing.
"I really believe that Ashley is the basis for so much of Rhett's music," adds Cindy Butler, the boys' mother and a math and English schoolteacher. "Because Ashley is so musical himself, he will listen to Rhett's songs and say whether he likes them or not -- he'll even critique Rhett when he has hit a wrong note."
On a recent warm October night, Rhett is the opening act at Dallas' Granada Theater for one of his musical heroes, jazz-fusion guitarist Al DiMeola. Standing onstage in Diesel jeans and fitted black shirt, Rhett Butler sways, trancelike, before beginning his first composition.
Not one of his shows goes by without the guitarist weaving Ashley's story into his stage patter.
"Ashley is thrilled to sign autographs of The Kid From Kilkenny," says Rhett after the show. Butler recalls playing to a packed house in April in Houston where Ashley was so in demand he was signing autographs before Rhett hit his first notes.
"So before I went onstage, I went up to Ashley and said, 'Give me a hug' and he then joked: 'Leave me alone, I'm working here.' He is just thrilled to be part of what I do."
"I think my brother's music is good," adds Ashley. "But what I really like is to autograph it."
Motivation and weakness
Rhett Butler's love for his brother is not borne of some forced sense of obligation or even any "but for the grace of God go I" guilt. It stems from a heartfelt sharing of childhood memories of playing with action figures or building Lego fortresses.
"Ashley is really a big Peter Pan," says Rhett. "He may be 26 today but he's also 11. He's always going to be 11."
"Whenever Ashley gets to spend a long time with Rhett," says Cindy Butler, "just hanging out at the Sonic or the mall, he considers Rhett to be that somebody who can make him whole in his handicapped state. When Ashley is with Rhett, nobody is blind, nobody is handicapped."
On a recent Saturday in Butler's Denton home, Rhett runs his athletic hands gently over the contours of his brother's shaved head, stroking the outlines of Ashley's cancer operation scars visible through his wisps of hair.
"He was always the best patient," Rhett says. "Just a little soldier."
Ironically enough, for all of the love Rhett lavishes on his brother, and how their bond nourishes his music, it may ultimately prevent him from realizing his full musical potential.
"I think in Rhett's life," says Kelly Brown, "Ashley is both the thing that motivates him and the weakness that brings him to his knees. I think he feels so responsible as a big brother to make his little brother's life better that that feeling is the one thing that may interrupt his artistic and professional drive."
But Cindy Butler isn't convinced. She has often witnessed Ashley cajoling his older brother to be more aggressive about his music, egging him on to play in bars and other venues where Rhett is, so far, reluctant to go.
"Ashley would be very disappointed in Rhett if he were to allow his music to fall by the wayside," she says. "In fact, Ashley is always saying that if Rhett could just tell his story on the Oprah Winfrey Show, his music would really take off."
For Rhett, though, it all comes down to balance. After touring extensively two years ago, Butler realized how much he risked burning out on the full-time-musician's life. He now works part time as the soccer and basketball coach for Denton's Selwyn School, which allows him to pursue his highly specialized music at his own pace and, most vitally, still be in close proximity to his brother.
"From the road, he talks to his brother every night, and I really think it just centers him," says Chris Miller, a musician who has toured extensively with Rhett. "You know the musician's lifestyle, especially on the road, allows for a lot of drinking, partying and girls, but I think that his relationship with his brother shows him how these things are not so important."
Being with his brother gratifies Rhett in ways no multi-platinum CD or a week's run at New York's Village Vanguard ever could.
"I really feel that if I just did the music, it might be an empty thing," Butler admits. "From my point of view, being successful means having the guitar part fit in with all the other parts of my life, because it is those other parts that keep me grounded. And if it takes me longer to have recognition for being able to play, then I'm willing to wait."
Using Talent to Fight Cancer
By Ellen Rossetti
The North Texan (UNT)
When he was 12, Rhett Butler (’97) got a guitar for Christmas. He shut his door and immersed himself in the music — escaping from the pain of watching his younger brother, Ashley, struggle with a second brain tumor.
“I was old enough to understand what was going on,” says Butler, a Dallas resident. “Everybody in my family had their own way of dealing with it. I would spend hours and hours playing. It’s come full circle so I can use my abilities to give back and try to do something about cancer.”
Now, the 34-year-old Butler uses his musical talent and his reputation as a rising Texas guitarist to increase awareness of pediatric cancer and raise money to help find a cure. Butler honed his music skills at UNT, where he studied psychology as his major and music as his minor. The College of Music attracted him to UNT in the first place, he says.
“I got a chance to play onstage with a lot of great musicians, and I feel like they taught me everything I need to know because it’s so intense,” he says. “The music foundation I have from UNT is wonderful.”
He has gained fame for his unique technique — like playing two guitars at once.
“It’s what people ask about the most — the two-guitar thing,” he says. “It started out as a gimmick. A couple of years after I graduated, I started solo guitar music with two guitars to get attention, and then realized I could make it musical.”
Butler has performed with Al DiMeola, Eric Johnson, Joe Satriani, Larry Corryell and Tony Trischka. But he is perhaps most proud of his work to combat cancer. In 2006, Rhett and Ashley Butler (whose mom was a big Gone with the Wind fan) ran into former heavyweight boxing champion George Foreman at a restaurant. Rhett Butler had met Foreman previously, as his sister, Amy, was friends with Foreman’s daughter, Michi.
“My brother had never met Mr. Foreman before,” Butler says. “My little brother shook his hand and punched him in the arm, and he just fell in love with him. He told my brother, ‘Ashley, you are the real champ. You keep punching.’”
Foreman’s words inspired Butler to create the Knock Out Pediatric Cancer organization. With Foreman’s help, the organization works to raise money for M.D. Anderson Cancer Center through events and activities such as a recent 5K run at UNT and Texas Woman’s University. In addition, Butler used his contacts in the music business to create a compilation CD with Texas artists, including Eric Johnson, Ian Moore and Sara Hickman, to benefit the charity.
Today, his music career helps pay to take Ashley Butler on vacations to Florida, New York City, Ireland and a cruise to the eastern Caribbean. Though Ashley Butler was told he would not live past childhood, he is now 28.
“He’s well,” Butler says. “He’s been clear for a year and a half. They’re baby steps, but we hope it doesn’t come back.”
In October, Butler will perform the opening gig for world-famous guitarist Tommy Emmanuel at Bass Hall, fulfilling one of his career goals to play at the Fort Worth facility. But his main goal, he says, is just “to be the best big brother in the world.”
Dream Holiday for US Cancer Patient
Kilkenny People – By Tess Felder 7/29/05
Rhett Butler of the US city of Dallas, Texas is making his younger brother Ashley’s dream come true in Kilkenny this week.
At age two, Ashley was diagnosed with a rare malignant brain tumor, and his doctors estimated that he would live for another four months.
He is now 25.
Then in November last he returned to hospital because of two tumors which had formed as a result of the radiation he received as a child.
Knowing Ashley’s interest in their family’s ancestry, including roots in Kilkenny, Rhett promised to take his brother on the journey of a lifetime.
In order to raise the money to pay for a holiday for the two brothers and their parents, in March Rhett released a CD on which he plays guitar. He also promoted the CD with a number of gigs as fund raisers.
After the initial $9,000 (7,200 Euro) for the family’s nine-day trip to Ireland, the remaining proceeds will go to the MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, Texas where Ashley receives treatments, Rhett said.
The CD called The Kid from Kilkenny, available on www.rhettbutler.org features Rhett on guitar and includes Irish-style songs as well.
The Butler family arrived in Ireland on Sunday and spent three days in Kilkenny. They didn’t meet up with any distant relatives but they did visit Kilkenny Castle, which their very distant relatives would have called home.
The brothers and their parents also enjoyed “driving on the wrong side of the road.” On their first holiday outside of the US, Ashley was surprised that the Irish had not discovered the joy of iced tea – and that a can of Coke could cost twp Euro.
Still, Rhett said: “This is a dream trip to come here.”
This time the Butler really did do it.
Danville Register and Bee - By Amy M. Nodden 6/20/05
Rhett Butler, hailed by some music critics as “among the next generation of Texas guitar heroes,” has achieved his goal and now will reward his biggest fan with the prize of a lifetime.
No, it’s not concert tickets or a backstage pass. Not a limo ride or a walk on the red carpet at the Grammys. Instead, the prize is a trip home – which is where brothers belong.
Home, in this case, is Ireland, and Butler’s biggest fan is his younger brother, Ashley. And while these facts may not seem outstanding on the surface, there is a story underneath that tugs at the heartstrings in much the same way as Rhett Butler works his acoustic guitar.
Ashley, now 25, is the longest living survivor of PNET, or Primative Neuroectodermal Tumor, a rare malignant cancer that struck Ashley at the age of 2. According to Rhett Butler, doctors advised their parents not even to attempt treatments, but instead to take the child home and love and care for him for the four or six months that he was expected to survive.
But Hugh and Cindy Butler, Ashley and Rhett’s parents, “were not interested in watching their child die without a fight,” Rhett wrote in the liner notes for “The Kid from Kilkenny,” an acoustic album entirely dedicated to songs for and about his brother. Hugh Butler devoted himself to learning about PNET – outpacing the physicians treating Ashley, according to Rhett – while Cindy Butler moved to New York with Ashley to enter an experimental treatment program.
Somehow, Ashley survived.
“He’s a special person – he’s the reason I am who I am,” said Rhett.
“He makes life worth living,” Hugh Butler is quoted as saying in the liner notes.
Ashley did not emerge unscathed, however. The cancer treatments left him visually impaired and the tumor impeded physical growth, leaving him with a perpetually youthful cast and a personality that has “childlike qualities,” Rhett said.
Worse yet, the radiation spawned additional cancerous tumors. A benign brain tumor was discovered in 1987, and in November 2004, doctors discovered two thyroid cancer tumors in his neck. The tumors were surgically removed, Rhett said, and Ashley has just passed the six-month mark since the operation and the cancer has not recurred – a terrific sign, according to Ashley.
While such trials and tribulations seem almost too much to imagine, let alone to bear, Ashley has battled through the difficulties with the unvanquished spirit of a warrior. It was Ashley who initiated research on the family name and traced their roots back to Ireland – a project that inspired Rhett to embark on a fund-raising tour that would allow him to take his brother back to the old sod, in Irish parlance: the ultimate trip home.
To raise money, Rhett stepped up his self-describe campaign to “make his mark on the guitar world one coffee shop at a time,” scheduling a series of shows on college campuses and intimate venues throughout the country. As part of the series, Rhett played at the Purple Onion in Danville on Saturday, adding $500 to his collection coffers.
The trip funding-goal, however, has been more than met; Rhett has collected $13,000, well above the $8,000 required for the trip across the pond. But the extra proceeds will not be wasted; they will be given to the Ashley Butler Foundation, a charity established in his brother’s name that assists the families of pediatric cancer patients receiving care at the MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston.
Rhett’s visit to Danville was more than just a coincidence. His sister, Amy Carter, is a former Danville resident who has since moved to Virginia Beach. Ashley, meanwhile, lives in Austin, Texas, with his parents. According to Rhett, the Purple Onion was suggested as a venue by Tony Turner, director of the “The Acoustic Runs Groove” concert series, which helps promote independent music acts.
Rhett’s popular appeal, however, is not based solely on his heartwarming story. Rather, he is an accomplished musician who has opened for such legendary guitarists as Eric Johnson and Joe Satriani.
“I’m known for playing two guitars at the same time,” said Butler, who also admitted to musical aspirations that go beyond fund-raising. “I want to be respected by other musicians – I’d like to be in guitar magazines and for others to say, ‘I really like what he does.’ I want a career in music and to play for as many people as I can.”
Judging by his progress thus far, it would seem that those goals are well within reach – because unlike his namesake in Gone with the Wind, this Rhett Butler does give a damn.
Have guitars, will travel
Look Who's Coming: Rhett Butler, guitarist
Raliegh News and Observer - By Matt Ehlers
Rhett Butler is the definition of a traveling troubadour, driving his pickup across the country with four guitars and a sound system in the back, ready to set up at your neighborhood coffee shop.
Without a record deal, the Texan has managed to sell more than 12,000 CDs of his instrumental guitar music. It's not jazz, exactly, or new age, although his sound has elements of each.
He also does a little something that sets him apart from your average guitar slinger. Those who stop by Thursday night to see his set at Six String Cafe in Cary will be treated to a handful of tunes played on two guitars at once, as he uses a stand to prop up the second instrument in front of him.
Butler, 32, spoke from a tour stop in Nashville.
Q - Tell me about the first time you tried to play two guitars at once.
A - It was just an idea that I had. I was playing a Starbucks maybe six, six-and-a-half years ago. I had an electric guitar and I had an acoustic guitar. I was sitting around the house, just trying to come up with some stuff that I thought would attract new people to watch me play. I just came up with that idea, and I guess that qualifies as some kind of gimmick. But I think it's a little more useful than that. I discovered that it was more. I was like, "oh wow, you can actually make some music that sounds bigger than just one instrument."
Q - I read on your Web site that you're trying to conquer the world one coffee shop at a time.
A - (Laughing.) I don't know where I got that.
Q How's the coffee been?
A - When I say coffee shop, you know they have those acoustic coffeehouses. It's not like a Starbucks. There are a lot of concert series around the country where they don't serve alcohol; they'll serve coffee and cakes and all that stuff. ... I have no complaints. I understand that you can't make that big a deal of yourself if you're playing instrumental guitar music. If something happens and you get a break, that's great. Other than that, you've got to realize that you are what you are. You have this little place inside the music business, and you just play and perform as well as you can. I guess maybe I should take that off the Web site. I don't know if I really feel like that's accurate. (More laughing).
Q - Is Rhett your middle name? Or is it your first name?
A - Rhett's my middle name. And it's the name I've always gone by. My first name is William.
Q - What's it like carrying the Rhett Butler name around?
A - You know, people remember it a little easier. But I always have to go through the typical jokes: Did your mother not give a damn or something? But for one week in my eighth-grade year, I was the most popular kid in school, while we were watching "Gone With the Wind."
The Kid from Kilkenny
Georgetown man's triumph over cancer inspires musician brother to devote CD profits to charity
Austin American Statesman - Thursday, April 28, 2005
GEORGETOWN -- One day in November, entertaining people was suddenly not enough for Rhett Butler, a musician known for playing two guitars at once.
Sitting in a hospital lobby in Houston, Butler watched a pianist tickling the ivories for somber patients a day after doctors removed a malignant tumor from his little brother, Ashley's, neck.
"I understood (the pianist's) role was to entertain them for the moment, but I didn't feel like she was helping them much beyond that," Butler said. "I wanted to start helping in a tangible way, so all this time I have spent learning to play the guitar will have meant something to someone."
That revelation began the Ashley Butler Foundation, a charity that will give profits from Rhett Butler's latest CD, "The Kid from Kilkenny," to the families of patients undergoing lengthy treatments at University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, where Ashley is a patient.
Ashley lives in Georgetown with parents Hugh and Cindy Butler and is recovering from the successful removal of his tumor.
The idea for the foundation is rooted in the Butler family's first struggle for Ashley's life in 1982, when the 2-year-old was diagnosed with a rare brain tumor. Doctors told the Butlers to take their baby home and love him because he only had a few months to live, Butler said.
The Butlers researched an experimental procedure at a New York hospital. Broke and living at the Ronald McDonald House, the Butlers toughed it out in New York for several months.
"People need money during these times, if nothing else for eating out," said Cindy Butler, who teaches special education and accounting in the Granger school district.
Now 25, Ashley is a 2002 graduate of the Texas School for the Blind and Visually Impaired in Austin. Radiation therapy and the removal of a benign brain tumor in 1987 left him visually impaired and with childlike qualities. Hugh Butler said Ashley collects Yu-Gi-Oh! cards and keychains and is a "fanatic" about genealogy.
Because his latest prognosis seemed bleak for a while, Rhett vowed to save $10,000 of the CD's profits to take Ashley to the lands of ancestors, Ireland and Greece. In Greece, joked Hugh Butler, Ashley wants to visit Paradise Beach, which features scantily clad women in a travel book picture.
"I also want to go see if I have any cousins," Ashley piped in.
Produced in two intense months, the CD is named for the origins of the Butler name in Kilkenny, Ireland, diligently researched by Ashley at Barnes & Noble Booksellers and on the Internet.
"I cried with every note," Butler said of recording the CD. "When I finished, I literally ached."
Butler lives in Denton, where he coaches athletics at the Selwyn School. He regularly performs across Texas and has opened for Eric Johnson at the Cactus Café on the University of Texas campus.
Ashley goes to Butler's shows and signs copies of the CD.
"He is as much a part of this as I am," Butler said. "He inspires, and my job is to entertain. We are going to work together and use the strengths we have and make a difference for people."
How to help
Visit www.rhettbutler.org to find performance information or buy 'The Kid from Kilkenny' online. Butler is schedule to perform at the Cactus Cafe in Austin at 8 p.m. July 14.
Celebrated guitarist plays two-at-a-time for charity
By Michelle Broussard
Humble Observer - 3/2/05
Sometimes, healing must come from within...from a song. For one family, healing has been a life-long commitment and a member of this extraordinary famil has found a purpose, a muse, and a message.
Rhett Butler (yes, Rhett Butler), formerly of Humble, has built a reputation for his innovations in guitar. He is best known for playing two guitars at the same time. It is what he calls. "Obsessive-compulsive guitar music," although reviews have heralded him as an instrumental genius, incorporating sounds which stretch across genres.
Butler's latest CD pays tribute to someone very special in his life - his brother Ashley. This collection entitled, "The Kid from Kilkenny," will not only see a dream realized, but it will help families at MD Anderson pay their expenses while battling pediatric cancer.
Ashley was diagnosed with cancer at the very young age of two. His rare malignant brain tumor was identified as PNET (Primitive Neuroectedermal Tumor) and he was given a mere four to six months to live and that treatments would be of no benefit. In fact, according to Butler, his parents were told to take the baby home and just love him for the few months they had left.
"Hugh and Cindy [parents] were not interested in watching their child die without a fight," explained Butler. "By the time of Ashley's surgery, my father knew more about PNET tumors than the physicians. An experimental procedure at New York's Sloan Kettering Hospital was found that Hugh believed would save his son's life. If Hugh was the tactician, Cindy was certainly the foot soldier."
Butler explained that his parents were told if the tumor did not return within nine months, that it would simply not return.
"It didn't return and Ashley Butler is the world's longest living case of a PNET brain tumor," said a very proud Butler. "Ashley is now 25 years old, and lives in Georgetown, Texas. His hobbies are genealogy and family history as well a politics."
Ashley's fight continued with the more recent discovery of two tumors, which were removed on Nov. 18, 2004. The first to be removed was a benign thyroid tumor, which incidentally, is discovered in approximately 85 percent of those who receive treatment as children. The second tumor was a malignant nerve cancer or Nuerofibrosarcoma, and according to the attending physicians, Ashley should not require additional treatment and he's currently on standard check-ups, every four months, for CT scans.
Over the years, according to Butler, Ashley has developed a keen fascination with the Butler family history. Originating in Kilkenny, Ireland, the Butler's lineage also includes Greece and it is Ashley's dream to visit both countries.
Butler has created "The Kid from Kilkenny" in an effort to show his brother a piece of the past. The initial proceeds from this CD will finance a trip for Ashley, which Butler said would constitute up to 1,000 copies sold.
"Later, I will be donating earnings to the Ashley Butler Foundation," said Butler. My mother came up with the idea for the charity. In 1982, when he was first diagnosed, our family was struggling financially - my mother wanted to help families with that financial burden."
Butler is holding a concert to benefit the foundation on April 2 at the Houston Northwest Church, located at 19911 Hwy. 249 in Houston. Tickets will cost $5.00. For information call (281) 469-3389.
Butler has played shows with Eric Johnson, Phil Keaggy, Joe Satriani, just to name a few. For videos, reviews, and further information concerning his career visit www.rhettbutler.org
Additional information may be obtained by visiting www.ashleybutlerfoundation.org
Music from the Heart
Guitarist to Play at CTC to raise money for his brother's rare illness
By Erin Steele
Killeen Daily Harold - 2/18/05
Musician Rhett Butler is renowned for his ability with the guitar - the University of North Texas grad can play two instruments at once with greater ease than most can play one.
But dispite the kudos he has received, Butler couldn't help but feel that something was missing. When his little brother, Ashley, once again began a battle with the rare malignant brain tumor that had plagued him since childhood, Butler finally knew what it was he was searching for: a purpose.
In response, the musician set up the Ashley Butler Foundation, with proceeds from his concerts and CD sales going toward the fund. Butler is scheduled to play at Central Texas College on Feb. 24, where he hopes to raise even more money for his little brother's cause.
Butler - who has been playing solo guitar for the past six years - was approached by CTC music professor Celinda Hallbauer asmost one year ago about doing a concert at the college. Though it was initially set up as a typical show, his brother's renewed medical problems in November caused Butler to change the format of the concert.
"I do all of this fancy guitar playing, but I kind of felt like it was just for me," Butler said. "I didn't feel like I was really helping anybody else, and I wanted to change that; I'm trying to do something positive. When my brother ended up in the hospital, it shook me up pretty good."
Butler's brother was 2 years old when it was discovered that he had a primitive nueroectedermal tumor. Now 25, he is the world's longest living case of PNET.
"I was 13 when he got sick, and that's when I started playing the guitar," Butler said. "I just kind of dissapeared into it. He's the reason that I started playing, and now it's coming full circle, because I can use music to help him."
In the two moths following his brother's surgery, Butler recorded a new CD entitled "The Kid from Kilkenny." The title of the CD refers to his brother, a genealogy buff, and the fact that the name Butler originated in Kilkenny.
"I have never put my heart into anything like this before; it is light years ahead of any of my other CDs," Butler said. "There's so much emotion in this one, and it's hard to get that across sometimes when you're recording. This CD is pretty emotional, I think."
The procedes from the CD are first going toward a trip to Europe for Ashley - whose lifelong dream has been to visit the countries of his heritage, Greece and Ireland - and later to the Ashley Butler Foundation. The foundation provides families of pediatric cancer patients at MD Anderson hospital in Houston with financial aid during extended treatment.
Butler will perform at 7:30 p.m. Feb. 24 in the LBJ Fine ARts Auditorium. Tickets are $5 per person.
Austin Chronicle
RECOMMENDED (11/19/04 @ Hard Rock Cafe)
Anyone slipping in early for Tony Trischka's master banjo class at the Cactus Cafe in August would've first heard the sound of their jaw hitting the floor for opening guitar duet Rhett Butler. Eric Johnson, for whom the Dallas picker opened most recently at the Cactus, endorses Butler with: "I've never heard anyone get the sounds out of [two guitars at once] like Rhett does."
From Scott Joplin to Queen, Butler's ambidextrous doublenecking also goes electric, so Sixth Street's Hard Rock Cafe needn't worry about the clamor of dropping jaws.
- Raoul Hernandez - Music Editor
Guitarist seeks out challenges
Denton Record Chronicle
Thursday, November 11, 2004
By Mariel Tam / Staff Writer
For Rhett Butler, music and sports have always been intertwined. After his father gave him a guitar for Christmas when he was 13, young Rhett (his real name) would shoot hoops after school until it got dark, and then head inside to play guitar in his bedroom. His parents would have to tell him to quit playing and go to bed.
Rhett Butler 10 p.m. Friday at Hailey's, 122 W. Mulberry St. Call 940-323-1160.
"I never practiced a day in my life - I just played it like it was playtime," said Butler, who was into Van Halen and rock 'n' roll. He's now an innovative guitarist who takes his cues from jazz and a host of genres. Butler also coaches middle school soccer at The Selwyn School, and in late October, he led the team to a tournament win and the league championship in its division in TAPPS, a private school league. The title is the team's first soccer championship in seven years.
Butler tried taking a year off from coaching last year in order to focus on touring, but he felt that a part of his life was missing. So he took the chance to coach at The Selwyn School, where he'd done some work while he was a student in the University of North Texas jazz studies program. In coaching, he found the part he was missing.
"I have a knack for playing the guitar," Butler said, "but I also have a knack for coaching."
The 1997 UNT graduate recently moved from Dallas back to Denton. His show at Hailey's on Friday will be his first real gig in Denton, outside of his stints at the university.
Butler will play solo for part of his set; then he'll bring onstage his bandmates, drummer Martin McCall and bassist Phil McNeese. He describes their music as "Flecktones meets Pat Metheny," with songs delving into pop, country and Western, even Eastern European music and more -"instrumental but not obscure jazz kind of stuff."
With the mix of styles, they try to keep things entertaining, and it's for that same reason that Butler came up with his way of playing two guitars at once - a method he perfected before he had a backing band, when he played just solo.
With an acoustic guitar around his neck and an electric guitar on a stand, he uses his fingers to tap the strings on the frets. The results keep the listener's eyes and ears affixed.
Butler calls it "obsessive-compulsive guitar music."
The musician restricts the two-guitars-at-once thing to a handful of songs in each set. But, he notes, "It started off as kind of a gimmick and it developed into a useful tool."
The style makes songs sound more full and complete. "It really sounds like there are two people playing," he said.
Butler seems to enjoy the challenges he finds in his songs, stretching the limits of the six-string. Both sports and music involve competition, whether it's against other players or as a challenge to oneself.
The art forms of athletics and music are almost one and the same in Butler's mind.
"I still have dreams about playing soccer and then having to make some cool guitar lick to get past a player," he said.
Report from the 27th Annual Dallas Guitar Show - April 29, 2004
by MATT TAPP
The 27th Annual Dallas Guitar Show and Music Fest took place April 17-18 at its new location, the cavernous Market Hall complex. This year’s show, bolstered by news media coverage and a musical guest lineup that seemed more in line with a national outdoor festival than a mere guitar show, broke all records for attendance and numbers of exhibitors. “We’ve waited nineteen years for this facility,” said Mark Pollock the event’s co-promoter. With over 216,000 square feet of exhibition floor and a huge adjacent room providing ample space and isolation for the music stage and seating, Market Hall proved to be a wonderful setting for the 27th Dallas guitar event.
On stage in the 1,500-seat adjacent concert hall, Eric Johnson, Joe Satriani, Johnny A, Ronnie Montrose, Rick Derringer, Andy Timmons, Phil Keaggy and Rhett Butler were some of the artists that performed entire shows supported by their own bands. The stage, lighting and sound system were full-bore. Most shows filled to beyond capacity.
Other performance highlights were the guest guitarists who performed with the Stratoblasters and during the Stratoblaster-hosted jam. The special guests included: Greg Martin (Kentucky Headhunters), extraordinary blues-man Michael Burks, Andy Timmons, Rick Vito (Bob Seager/ Fleetwood Mac), Johnny A, Ronnie Montrose and many others.
Also notable was Rhett Butler playing two guitars at once. This is no joke folks! The music was complex (both hands were very busy) and he nailed every bit of it.
This was the first year in a long time that weather wasn’t a major factor in the enjoyment potential of the musical performances. Saying Texas weather is unpredictable is like saying that Lake Michigan is a pretty good-sized pond. The ability to have the Main Stage shows indoors, and out of the elements, was a significant improvement.
Less to fret about
Solo guitarist tries letting a band help carry the tunes Dallas Morning News - 1/2/04
By Matt Weitz
Dallas' Rhett Butler is familiar to most area music fans - after all, he's the guy who plays not one but two guitars in his effort to "get as much sound ...as possible."
He does it with one guitar around his neck and the other on a stand in front of him, tapping on the instruments' frets with his fingers.
It sounds like a gimmick, but Mr. Butler's skill makes the trick impressive; in his hands, a hoary classic rock number like "House of the Rising Sun" has the delacacy of a baroque madrigal.
His single-guitar work often sounds just as complex, and the focus and dedication that such technique demands have kept his music a one-man show.
Since he once told an interviewer, "I don't fit in well with a band," it's a bit of a surprise to learn that his upcoming album, Action Figure, will feature supporting musicians.
"I know most artist go the other way, taking a break from the band to work on something solo," the 30-year-old explains. "I just needed a break from pushing the limits of the one guitar."
Rough cuts from the album, slated for Jan. 31 release, reveal Mr. Butler's playing to be cushioned by bass and drum parts but pretty much the same as his solo work: clever arrangements, complex technique and a lot of attention paid to tone.
"The hardest part for me is not to play all the parts, to scale it back but still get a full sound," he says. "The real benefit is live, because it's so much easier to improvise - you don't have to hold the song together like you do playing solo."
And despite his obvious stylistic refinement, he considers himself anything but "some stuffy jazz guy. I owe more to Eddie Van Halen than Joe Pass."
Mr. Butler will play with a band at the Dallas Museum of Art on Jan. 22, as part of the museum's Jazz in the Atrium series. 6 p.p. Free. For more information on Mr. Butler, visit www.rhettbutler.org
2 guitars, 2 hands, 1 Texan make ambidextrous melodies
Staten Island Advance - 6/19/03
How often do you see someone play two guitars at the same time?
Rhett Butler brought his ambidextrous talent to the Muddy Cup in Stapleton last night in an intimate show for 25 people.
He was accompanied by childhood friend and fellow Texan Chris Miller.
"It's so much more calm here than it is across the river," said Butler in a warm Southern drawl. "This is a cool place. It's kind of inspiring . I like this more than when I was playing in Manhattan."
Jim Svets, co-owner of the coffee shop, was thrilled to have the two play.
"I try to leave one or two spaces open a month so we can hear music from around the country," he said.
Miller got the listeners charged up with some acoustic Texas honky-tonk.
His toe-tapping licks, mixed with blues vocals and folk lyrics gave the crowd something to clap to - and laugh to, as he cracked jokes between songs.
"There is no argument," Miller said, of playing with Butler. "He'll be the best jazz guitarist and I'll be the best vocalist - because he doesn't sing."
Butler took the stage and started offf with an acoustic cut before breaking into his signature move - one electric guitar on a stand in front of him and another strapped over his shoulder. With a hand on each neck, he played both.
"I can play so many more notes," he said. "With one guitar, I can play the same songs but I have to dodge around the notes. This way, it makes the sound so much bigger."
He introduced each song which included country, Irish, jazz and classical influences, with a little story about it's origin.
The sound was hard to describe. At the same time, it was frantic and melodic, smooth and agressive.
His fingers danced across the strings with the deftness of a surgeon and mechanic speed, producing rich sounds filled with emotion.
According to Butler, playing two guitars isn't the hard part. It's the tapping - playing the strings on the neck like a piano - that's difficult.
"I like to call it crazy guitar music," he said. "It's not jazz, it's not new age, it's not classical, but the techniques are. It's obsessive-compulsive guitar music."
"They were spectacular," said Barbara Lynch of Stapleton. "These two guys really fit into the feel of this place."
OK, we might as well get it over with. His name is Rhett Butler.
Yes, Rhett Butler. And it’s his real name - at least, it’s his real middle name.
But, if you can help it, don’t associate this guy with some Deep South tapscallion who has a bad moustache and a worse way with women.
This Rhett Butler is a guitarist from Austin, Texas. And while we’re smashing stereotypes, he’s not the swaggering troubadour you might expect to come out of a Lons Star honky-tonk either. His music is a gentle, beautiful synthesis of pop, folk and jazz tones. It’s instrumental music, and the kind of stuff you expect to hear on NPR instead of “Austin City Limits.”
“I can’t put it into words when someone asks me what your genre is,” Butler says. “I say ‘crazy guitar music.’ As long as I can have an audience of people who will sit and listen, I’m comfortable with it.”
He’ll seek that audience at The Loft on Wednesday. It’ll be his second time at the club but his first show on a Wednesday night, which he hopes will bring a crowd that has more of an appetite for the dynamics of his acoustic and electric guitar work.
Butler is not afraid to hijack some listeners with some gimmickry – the whole name thing and his well-publicized ability to play two guitars at once – because he can keep and audience with honest-to-God talent. In fact during a recent phone interview, the only time the conversational guy was at a loss for words was when he was asked if he was ever afraid people would dismiss him as a gimmick.
He recovered nicely.
“If that’s what people need to be interested in the music, that’s OK with me,” he said. “In some ways, I guess it is a gimmick. But I do the two guitars maybe three tunes during a show. …Anything I can do to make the guitar keep their interest for so long works.”
That is not to say that it’ll be a stuffy show. Like the best of Texas songwriter, Butler is likely to tell jokes and stories between songs. Just don’t look for him to sing.
That, he said, would be just too big a joke.
“I have a singing coach and all that stuff. I contemplate it,” he said of singing.
“But then, when I do it, I find I’m not a great singer. And I find it takes away from my guitar playing.
That’s why I use so many techniques on the guitar. So I don’t have to sing.”
Rhett Butler is named after the character in Margaret Mitchell's Gone with the Wind, but the Dallas musician says he wants to more like recording artist Kenny G. A solo guitarist who studied jazz at the University of North Texas, Mr. Butler's already earning a name for himself locally and nationally for playing two guitars at the same time.
"The reason you do it is because on the guitar you can only play one note per string, no matter how you pluck it or tap it," he said. With two guitars, it allows you to play on the same string... Each hand can go anywhere on the fret board it wants to go.
"What I try to do is incorporate every way that I've ever seen or thought about to play the guitar," Mr. Butler said.
A member of St. Paul's United Church of Christ, Mr. Butler said performing has always been a religious experience for him. "You get to this place where you are totally immersed; you know that the music isn't coming form your brain, and your not doing it," he said. "That's the way I feel when I'm performing."
Most of his fans like jazz and new-age music, but the 28-year-old said that he's seen all types of people stop to watch him perform. He has an ongoing contract with Barnes & Noble that allows him to perform inside the bookstores to promote his CD's. His CD Solitaire is currently the highest selling independent album in the country for the bookstore chain.
Though Mr. Butler said he doesn't expect to become famous, he wants to perform in front of as many people as possible and hopes to do for the guitar what Kenny G did for the saxophone. "He took a jazz style, and he kind of brought it into the mainstream," he said. "I've always kind of thought of myself like that... a musician for the common man."
A relative newcomer to the field, Mr. Butler has already earned several honors. Substance TV magazine named him one of its People of Substance and the Dallas-based Dallas Observer nominated him as Solo Artist for the 2001 Dallas Music Awards.
His two other CDs, The Physic of Acoustics and A Guitar for Christmas are also reporting strong sales. He plans to release a new full-length CD this spring.
Since Sept. 11, Mr. Butler has been performing benefit concerts at area churches and donating the proceeds to victim relief groups, such as the American Red Cross. He has raised about $3,500.
Article by: Kristen Holland
When SubstanceTV met Rhett Butler while researching one of its first features, we knew right away we had been introduced to an enormous talent.
The 28 year-old Humble, Texas native first picked up a guitar fifteen years ago, and he has since developed a style and technique both extraordinary and entertaining in this age of three-chord guitar heroes.
From classical to blues to rock, Rhett has demonstrated uncommon virtuosity and passion for his art, and we are proud to name him among SubstanceTV's People of Substance.
This guy's a hustler. You have no idea. An unassuming presence with a soft confidence that is not conceited but is truly engrossed in the music that pours forth from him like expensive wine. Or vodka. I drank a lot of vodka tonight.
He came in tonight wearing just a pullover shirt and jeans, carrying what looked to my uneducated eyes like a regular acoustic guitar, but I later found out it's one of those kindsa guitars that other musicians drool over. No pearl inlays or fancy stuff. Very unassuming appearance but a wholesome, full and rich sound. And he just walked up to the stage and set up. Very quiet voice. Head bowed down solemnly. I wasn't expecting shit from this guy. I've heard some acoustic artists in Club Dada. It's usually when I get a chance to go pee before the next full band. And I HAD to go pee, but something about his very matter-of-fact and inconspicuous ways kinda perked my attention.
Then he started to play. After his first song. He introduced himself and said simply in a very quiet, almost scratchy voice, "all I ask is that you watch the guitar, and let yourself spin." And I did.
If you haven't heard this guy play, you do not appreciate the air you breathe, the water you drink, and the things in your life that you take for granted. Your very life will be realized to you. I mean stuff you do every day. Simple things. Stuff that's always been there. Suddenly it'll be like something came along and tapped you on the shoulder and said quietly, "see that? That's cool isn't it? You do it all the time, but in its own small way, it's really neat isn't it? You should appreciate that for a second. You should just acknowledge the quiet precious things in your life that you don't normally see."
His music is like stopping to smell the roses on a busy day. His name is Rhett Butler. Remember this name. Kinda hard to forget. Get this. It's hard to explain this. Seeing him live is just outstanding! Why? Okay. You know how 95% of the guitarists in the world just hold the guitar by the neck with one hand and hold down the strings for chords, then the other hand strums right at the round hole near the bottom of the guitar? Regular routine stuff right? All guitarists do this, right?
Rhett Butler TAPS the NECK of the guitar. At times it's like hearing two different guitars simultaneously. He uses the hand that normally just holds down strings for the chords, and you can barely see it, but he almost strums the strings with those fingers, and the result is a breathtaking sound that keeps changing. I was just staring wide-eyed at his finger work, like a kid trying to figure out how the magician does his tricks.
Early on, for one song, he left the neck for a moment and played the guitar like normal. Now, later I talked to him about this and he says he just does that to get the different sound. He likes to change it up and keep things interesting. However from my perspective looking at it while he was playing, it was like he was nonverbally saying to the audience: "See? I can play like everybody else does. I just choose not to." Then he went from the classic way of playing back up to the neck with this almost whimsical elven smirk on his face.
This guy had the entire room in the palm of his hand. The entire ...everybody there! Wrapped up in his swirling magic. Like he was some wizard's apprentice toying with forces just barely in his control, with this almost dangerous sensation that any moment everything can go wrong. Occasionally I thought I heard him hit an offbeat chord and everything was about to falter, but he just smiled and kept on playing and it all unfolded perfectly like a lotus blossom. I can't think of enough similie and metaphor to properly convey this!
At times I thought for sure I was listening to a synthesizer. At other times it sounded like a bell ringing, or a bass drum, or someone mischeviously running and sliding on a patch of ice on a cold winter street. He'll tap the higher strings while treating the lower two like a bass, so it's like there's two or three guitarists playing together. If you closed your eyes you'd swear it was more than one person making these sounds. And remember. I had to pee when he started his set. I couldn't leave cuz I didn't want to miss anything. So I'm sitting there and the vodka's going straight to my bladder and I need to pee but I just can't leave! Now THAT'S a sign of an artist who keeps your attention!
Now, there are other artists who do this. Eddie Van Halen made it famous, I'm told. During and after Butler's set, I was sitting there with guitarists: people who are highly skilled in their own right, and they were comparing this guy to names that escape me now, but they're big talented artists. Big names in the industry. Jim Scott was saying this guy wasn't just a guitar player. He's a virtuoso. Someone who's devoted several years to making the guitar sing. They were comparing Rhett Butler to guys who tap the neck of the guitar, but most of them do it to electric guitars. Rhett Butler does this acoustically. He uses a normal looking guitar that's mic'd at the hole and plugged into an amp. He's got an album called Solitaire that I just got done listening to twice back to back [before I put Jevette's in *smirk* .
In this country, there might be a dozen people who can tap the neck like this on an acoustic guitar. And maybe they're better than Rhett. Rhett's very humble about it. He thinks he still has a long way to go to be as good as he thinks he can be but I think he could stop now and... I mean shit! Perhaps out of SIX BILLION people on this planet, there's MAYBE FIFTY people who can do this. That's how rare and precious this is!
This was a rare and precious night! Thank you Touch, Jevette and Rhett for a very precious and memorable evening.
You haven't lived until you hear Rhett Butler play. His inspirations and influences are so diverse! At times he's using the guitar like a slide guitar. Other times like it's a bass. Still other times there's percussion.. At one point I swore I heard a heartbeat. It just stirs raw emotions inside. I was spellbound. How can anyone do this to a guitar!? I swear what he does to that thing must be illegal in some states.
And occasionally he has this almost euphoric expression, mouth agape, eyes closed and face aimed at the ceiling. It's like the soul of Jimi Hendrix is with him, and he's practically making love to that guitar! Outstanding work!
It's incredible! He plays two guitars at the same time and he's not even looking. Truly outstanding.
Gordon Keith
The Ticket
This kid is going to be big and I mean sooner than later. The techniques are wonderful and the compositions are lovely... A must see and worth the price of admission at any cost.
