It's no surprise that this is the voice of someone who collected old records as a child, and who would grow up to share stages with Jim Kweskin, Spider John Koerner, Peter Stampfel, John Cohen, Jeffrey Lewis and others.Įlizabeth brings something fresh to each arrangement, and she is not timid in her interpretations. Her enunciation and her New Hampshire accent give her an apparent innocence, even on, for example, the blue notes of "Crow Jane." Elizabeth has said she'd love to be a circus trick rider, and her voice somehow pulls off the trick of simultaneously riding Innocence and Worldweariness, who might want to travel in opposite directions but instead are guided wherever she wants them to go. Some old philosopher or other once said something about the reconciliation of opposites, and listeners to Elizabeth Butters are likely to find themselves fascinated by the tension between her cheerful, unaffected voice and the seemingly morose and gruesome subject matter of some of the songs. If you're like me, she'll often make you smile or laugh. Her whole demeanor and presentation approach performance art (but in a good and genuine way).ĭespite Elizabeth's obviously heartfelt wistfulness, listening to her sing is the opposite of depressing. She brings to her work an archivist's love of authentic clothing. She strives to be faithful not only to a period's music but also to its look. (Her MySpace name, winslowhealthandhygieneseries, should give you some indication of her preoccupations.) The antiquarian and documentarian impulses she pursues began as a bulwark against her fear of a (hypothetical) onset of dementia, as if Elizabeth wanted to leave herself clues she could use to mentally piece herself back together. Affectation just doesn't seem to be in her nature. The sorrow you'll hear in that voice is real, not forced or fake, and Elizabeth's love of the past is in no sense a pose. And how wouldn't songs of melancholy, mayhem, and murderwhether plaintive blues or Appalachian murder ballads and death songsbe augmented by the agreeable incongruity of a guileless, honey-caramel voice? Though her repertoire shows a strong mindfulness of mortality, she never comes across as morbid. Vocal histrionics are often passed off as soulfulness, but at the heart of Elizabeth's plain-tone singing you'll recognize genuine passion. But this ain't your "I Gave My Love A Cherry"-type stuff. Some people react to folk musicor even to the mere term itselfas if if they'd like to re-enact Belushi's response in Animal House. One part Bonnie Parker, one part Maybelle Carter, two parts Addie Pray (or, as a friend more concisely described her, "the adorable singer girl with the shotgun"): that's Elizabeth Butters.Įlizabeth performs mostly traditional and folk songs, but has an untaught (and probably unlearnable) ability to take old sounds, make them sound new, then make them sound old all over again, by threading them through her own identity, which is deeply rooted in the past. "I feel that there's a little bit of hope in acknowledging the sad aspects of life." ≾lizabeth Butters Official home page of folk singer Elizabeth Buttersīuy Elizabeth's LP, Folk blues for Appalachian dulcimer and guitar
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