John R. Butler
Broward Folk Club Featured Performer – 06/01/12
Your Big Picture Café – Davie FL
The Broward Folk Club (www.BrowardFolkClub.com) held it’s monthly open mic and featured performer event at Your Big Picture Café (www.YourBigPictureCafe.com) this past Friday, and it was an hour and a half open mic that was followed by ninety minutes of featured performer John R. Butler’s (www.johnrbutler.com) self-described southern boy, hill-billy, honky monkey music.
The open mic featured many regular and admired club members including Arlene Boumel (the club’s president), Bob Singer (the club’s vice-president), Dan and Doodle, and yours truly (a club board member). In addition, the multi-talented Joe Virga (musician, singer/songwriter, luthier – www.myspace.com/joevirga), who made the trip from Naples, FL, with John Butler that evening, also played the open mic, as did a new addition to our acoustic music scene: Rifas (www.RifasBand.com). A duo consisting of Evan Rifas (lead vocals and guitar) with accompianist Ron Huneycutt (lead guitar and backup vocals), Rifas intoxicated the audience with Evan’s vocals which combined the power of Pearl Jam’s Eddie Vedder with the elegance of the Dave Matthews sound, while Ron effortlessly played dynamic leads with cascading runs. We look forward to hearing more of their acoustic wizardry.
After the open mic portion of the show, Naples native John R. Butler took the stage. As his website describes, “Butler has played on stages before thousands of audience members all over the country…just before having been ejected by security, in order that the scheduled acts could get started.” Lucky for us, the cafe’s security, which consists entirely of one or two outside feral cats and a sign in the bathroom that states, “if you sprinkle when you tinkle, please be neat and wipe the seat,” allowed John to perform during the entire featured performer portion of the show. And John did a wonderful job entertaining us with his humorous and witful compositions, including the stingingly sinful She Came On To Me, the woeful daughter-mother menage a trois called Blue Cheese (co-written with fellow Nashville songwriter Fritz Hester), the holy-sh*t hilarious Hand Of The Almighty (a.k.a. – He’ll F*ck You Up!), and the leave ‘em laughing Lullaby For Men (a.k.a. – Titty Town). Counterposing these uproarious tunes was a fine selection of sentimental songs including Calypso Lullaby on which Joe Virga accompanied John, Lover’s Lullaby, and Love Looks Good On You. All in all it was a night that John hoped would “only moderately offend you,” but which turned out to be an evening of laughs, smiles, and fun.
John has three albums: Airborne Figures, Vampars, and Surprise! And like John, they’re all worth listening to.
Dr. Bob