LARRY BUTLER, R,I.P.

Reporting from New York....(I've always wanted to say that!)

Some sad news to report with this blog......Larry Butler passed away this week. Chances are, if you weren't in - or hadn't studied the business, you might not know who Larry Butler was. He was one of the great record producers in Nashville history. It was Butler's records that he made with Kenny Rogers from 1975-1980 that made me first love this business.

Though there were certain early memories I have of music - "Sunshine On My Shoulders," "Sleeping Single In A Double Bed," and others of the era, it was the music of Kenny Rogers that made me a music fan from an early age. I remember going into Nashville each weekend with my mother to 100 Oaks Mall, and I would drive her, my father, grandmother, and whoever else could hear, crazy by repeating each track on 8-track tapes like TEN YEARS OF GOLD, THE GAMBLER, and LOVE OR SOMETHING LIKE IT. I also remember my mother bringing me home records of Kenny's from that same era. The United Artists logo with the clouds going around in circles as the record turned. Those were the days. It's funny that most people talk about Kenny being a master of the love song, and make no mistake about it----he and Butler cut some classics....but if you listen to those albums, there were some of Nashville's best moments of the 1970s....Mickey Newbury's "San Francisco Mable Joy," "King Of Oak Street," "While I Play The Fiddle," and a song that I would love to hear someone re-cut today, "Buried Treasure." These two men cut some great Southern Gothic records, that covered everything from prostitutes to voo-doo queens. Of course, the singles Butler cut on Rogers were classics too...."Lucille," "The Gambler," "Coward Of The County," plus all of those classics with Dottie West. He also cut records on artists like B.J. Thomas and Jean Shepard. Butler might not get mentioned in the same breath as Atkins or Bradley, but to this child of the 70s, his creations had no less impact. Thanks, Larry, for the memories! I am the better for them!