Butch Hancock | |
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 Hancock performing at the 2011 Texas Book Festival | |
| Background information | |
| Born | July 12, 1945 Lubbock, Texas, U.S. |
| Genres | Country, progressive country [1] |
| Occupation(s) | Singer, songwriter |
| Years active | 1972–present |
| Member of | The Flatlanders |
Butch Hancock (born July 12, 1945, in Lubbock, Texas) [2] is an American country recording artist and songwriter. He is a member of The Flatlanders along with Joe Ely and Jimmie Dale Gilmore, but he has principally performed solo.
Life in Lubbock, Texas, taught me two things: One is that God loves you and you're going to burn in Hell. The other is that sex is the most awful, filthy thing on Earth and you should save it for someone you love.
-- Butch Hancock [3]
Hancock entered architecture school but dropped out in 1968 and worked for nearly a year driving a tractor on his father's farm in Lubbock, Texas. [2] He recalls that the experience of elemental simplicity and reading books opened up the metaphysical universe for him. [4]
In 1970, he formed The Flatlanders together with his old high school friends. [2] Although critics were positive, the enterprise was not successful and they disbanded the following year. Hancock continued to write songs and in 1978 he founded a recording company, Rainlight Records and released his first solo album, West Texas Waltzes and Dust-Blown Tractor Tunes. [2] He continued to bring out albums with folk tunes, first with only guitar and harmonica and subsequently with expanded use of instruments and arrangements. From the late 1990s he has reappeared with the Flatlanders, with whom he was to release a series of albums in 2004.
Hancock lived in Austin, a place congenial to his progressive country style, for a couple of decades until he moved to the ghosttown region of Terlingua, Texas in the 1990s, preferring more rural environs.
Butch Hancock has been called "one of the finest songwriters of our time" [5] and is acknowledged by his peers as one of the premier Texas singer-songwriters. [4] His lyrics are ingenious, excelling in metaphor and irony and displaying a world-weary trait, just as he is a master of seeing the miracle in the ordinary. His lyric style has often been compared with that of Bob Dylan,[ citation needed ] and his songs have been sung by the likes of Emmylou Harris. [6]
In addition to the more traditional sounds, Hancock infused eclectic styles in his earlier recordings with artists Alex Coke, Austin Klezmorim's Bill Averbach, Spyder Johnson, John Hagan, the Squeezetones' Ponty Bone, and pianist Marcia Ball.
Hancock has deliberately avoided satisfying the cravings of the markets, preferring to see his music as an end in itself, recording and releasing much of his music on his own and spending his energies on other things than a musical career. [7] He is a talented photographer, with a gallery named "Lubbock or Leave it" in the 1980s and 1990s, and currently (Fall 2009) showing his photographs and drawings at Bluebird Gallery in Wimberley, Texas. [8]
Interviews with Butch Hancock, Joe Ely and Jimmie Dale Gilmore along with many others of the so-called Lubbock Mafia appear in the film: Lubbock Lights , [9] which was released in 2005.
The album titles Own & Own and Own The Way Over Here are making use of a play on words, own being a Texan dialectical pronunciation of the word on.
On February 28, 2012, Hancock was the guest musician on Larry Monroe's "Texas Radio Live" show broadcast on KDRP from Guero's Taco Bar.
Jimmie Dale Gilmore is an American country singer-songwriter currently living in Austin, Texas.
Outlaw country is a subgenre of American country music created by a small group of iconoclastic artists active in the 1970s and early 1980s, known collectively as the outlaw movement, who fought for and won their creative freedom outside of the Nashville establishment that dictated the sound of most country music of the era. Willie Nelson, Waylon Jennings, Johnny Cash, Kris Kristofferson, and David Allan Coe were among the movement's most commercially successful members.
Lloyd Wayne Maines is an American country music record producer, musician and songwriter. He was inducted into the Austin City Limits Hall of Fame as one of the first three members, the other two being Willie Nelson and Stevie Ray Vaughan. He is the father of Natalie Maines who is best known as the lead singer of The Chicks.
Thomas Wayne Hancock III better known as Wayne "The Train" Hancock, is an American singer-songwriter. Known as "The King of Juke Joint Swing," his performances incorporate jazz, blues, western swing, country and rockabilly, styles of music that he began listening to as a kid. His influences include Jimmie Rodgers, Glenn Miller, Tommy Dorsey, Hank Thompson, Hank Williams and Hank Snow because they were all in his parents' record collection.
Terry Allen is an American musician and artist from Lubbock, Texas. Allen's musical career as a singer-songwriter has spanned many Texas country and outlaw country albums, and his work as a visual artist has included painting, conceptual art, performance, and sculpture, with a number of notable bronze sculptures installed publicly in various cities throughout the United States. He currently lives in Santa Fe, New Mexico.
The Flatlanders are an American country band from Lubbock, Texas, founded in 1972 by Jimmie Dale Gilmore, Joe Ely and Butch Hancock. The group garnered little success during their brief original incarnation from 1972 to 1973, but when the individual members found success in their solo careers, interest in The Flatlanders was rekindled with the band reuniting several times since. An earlier incarnation of this band was known as The Double Mountain Fork Of The Brazos River Boys.
Progressive country is a term used variously to describe a movement, radio format or subgenre of country music which developed in the late 1960s and early 1970s as a reaction against the slick, pop-oriented Nashville sound. Progressive country artists drew from Bakersfield and classic honky-tonk country and rock and roll, as well as folk, bluegrass, blues and Southern rock. Progressive country is sometimes conflated with outlaw country, which some country fans consider to be a harder-edged variant, and alternative country.
Joe Ely is an American singer, songwriter and guitarist. He was "one of the main movers" of Austin, Texas's progressive country scene in the 1970s and '80s.
Bob Livingston is an American singer-songwriter, guitarist, bass player, and a founding member of The Lost Gonzo Band. Livingston was a key figure in the Cosmic Cowboy, progressive country and outlaw country movements that distinguished the Austin, Texas music scene in the 1970s. Over the years, Bob Livingston has gained a reputation as a band leader, solo artist, session musician and sideman in folk, Americana and country music. He has toured without stop for 47 years, and is one of the most experienced and world traveled musicians in all of Texas music. Livingston's CD, Gypsy Alibi, released by New Wilderness Records in 2011, won the "Album of the Year" at the Texas Music Awards. In January 2016, Livingston was inducted into the Texas Music Legends Hall of Fame in 2016 and into the West Texas Music Walk of Fame in 2018. Howlin' Dog Records released Livingston's latest CD, Up The Flatland Stairs, January 10, 2018.
Thomas O. Hancock was an American musician widely regarded as the godfather of West Texas music.
Honky Tonk Masquerade is the second album by country singer-songwriter Joe Ely, released in 1978.
Joe Ely is the 1977 debut album by Texas singer-songwriter, Joe Ely. The album includes several tracks written by Ely's bandmates in the Flatlanders.
Spinning Around the Sun is an album by country music singer-songwriter Jimmie Dale Gilmore. It was released in 1993 on Elektra Records, and was his second record for the label.
The Cactus Café is a live music venue and bar on the campus of The University of Texas at Austin. Located in Austin, Texas, a city frequently referred to as "the live music capital of the world," a number of well-known artists have played in the Cactus, and Billboard Magazine named it as one of fifteen "solidly respected, savvy clubs" in the United States, "from which careers can be cut, that work with proven names and new faces."
Joe Ely is an American singer-songwriter. His discography consists of 16 studio albums, 6 live albums, 20 singles, 13 compilations, 1 studio EP, and 6 music videos. In addition, he has been a performer on numerous albums by other artists.
Butch Hancock is a country and folk music recording artist and songwriter. His discography consists of 12 studio albums, 2 singles, and 2 compilations. In addition, his songs have been performed on numerous albums by other artists.
Jimmie Dale Gilmore is an American country singer, songwriter, actor, recording artist and producer. His discography consists of 9 studio albums, 1 live album, 2 compilations, 2 EPs, and 6 singles. In addition, his songs have been performed on numerous albums by other artists.
Jo Carol Pierce was an American singer-songwriter, playwright, and screenwriter who lived in Austin, Texas, from 1970. In 1993, Karen Schoemer described Pierce as "an official local hero in her adopted hometown."
"After Awhile" is an album by country music singer-songwriter Jimmie Dale Gilmore. It was released in 1991 as his debut album for Elektra Nonesuch Records.
One Endless Night is an album by the American musician Jimmie Dale Gilmore, released in 2000. It peaked at No. 29 on Billboard's Top Heatseekers chart. Gilmore supported the album by touring with the Flatlanders.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)The Dallas Morning News Sunday, May 29, 1994.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)| International | |
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