Music
20.08.2009 / Guy Buttery’s musical roadtrip: Leaving and returning to Fox Hill Lane
Guy Buttery - Fox Hill Lane: Album review and interview
It has been five years since Guy Buttery last released a record. In these years he has become renowned for his guitar wizardry on stage and has established himself as one of South Africa’s most reputable live acts – touring extensively across the country and abroad.
With Fox Hill Lane (2009), Buttery has produced a solid, textured album that blends the frenzy of life as a travelling musician together with a good cup of calm retrospection. The album creates a space in which Buttery can roam wherever he wants, but the listener is never left behind.
Fox Hill Lane features “over 20 different instruments on 14 new compositions”, including collaborations with Tony Cox, Nibs van der Spuy, Dan Patlansky, Syd Kitchen, Madala Kunene, Piers Faccini – and so the list goes on.
On this album, Buttery departs where Songs from the Cane Fields last ended: the opening track, 7” postcard [45RPM], is a haunting composition that settles in slowly. Buttery plays alone on this track – the instruments ranging from acoustic guitar to bowed guitar, ebow to musical saw. Half a Decade, the second track, flows out of this and picks up some speed, while Buttery experiments with a bowed acoustic bass and singing bowls.
The first collaboration on the album is on Burnside with Tony Cox on acoustic guitar and Syd Kitchen on hosepipe flute. The song is a rhythmic and melodic jam, and the raw, African beat will move you in some way – at the very least it will get you to move your feet.
The good folk at the N.G. Kerk in Knysna are apparently to be thanked for letting the team use their grand piano, resulting in the beautiful ambiance on tracks like The Headwaters and Umtumvana. Martin Wolfgaardt’s piano playing in reaction to Buttery’s guitar melody on the latter song is… well, I don’t think I have the right to spoil it for you. Be kind to yourself and go lend your ears to it.
Sibanisezwe is a proper jam session by a group of musician friends which I like to refer to as the ‘KwaZulu All-Stars’ – featuring Nibs van der Spuy, Dan Patlansky and Syd Kitchen. The jam is like a conversation that is introduced by a bit of an exchange of words between the acoustic guitars of Buttery and Van der Spuy, followed by Dan Patlansky’s input: a lekker blues slide on the dobro. Then Syd Kitchen chirps a bit on his hosepipe flute. Buttery even plays electric guitar on this number.
Mirleft might just be my favourite track on the album – not that it is possible to choose, since the album flows so eloquently between styles and interpretations. On this track, the tabla, played by Ronan Skillen, shapes the contours of the song alongside the acoustic guitar. The rhythm is soothing and powerful. The melody played by the violin (Ant Cawthorn-Blazeby) is of the kind of familiar beauty of a recalled memory. It just moves you. In comes the sitar; its exotic tone in brilliant harmony with the violin.
This flows into the next track, Mama – where Madala Kunene’s vocals and Buttery’s guitar melody combine into a soundscape shaded by a sense of nostalgia and a contentedness with simple beauty.
The hint of melancholy of the opening track is echoed in Travel by Packets, but an optimistic groove and tabla beat emerge that seem to say, ‘Hey, look on the bright side!’ Consequently, it flows into Sibanisezwe II – an elated acoustic guitar dialogue between Buttery and Van der Spuy.
The album bows out with the song, Fox Hill Lane. The calm, seeping creations by Piers Faccini on dulcimer, tanpura, harmonium and harmonica add to the sober perspective with which Guy Buttery ends the last composition on this remarkable record.
If you have read this far, you will have gathered this much: Guy Buttery's latest album is a true accomplishment. Layers of musical landscapes are woven together to harness the listener, note by note. Fox Hill Lane is a timeless record and of the best stuff to ever come out of South Africa, I’d say.
Guy Buttery on Fox Hill Lane - Read the interview:
Acoustic Image: Your previous albums - When I Grow Up (2002) and Songs from the Cane Fields (2004) - have implicitly evoked thoughts/connotations of ‘landscape’. Now, in the cover sleeve of Fox Hill Lane (2009), Greg Lomas writes,
"In the frenzy of a rigorous period of travelling with his music, songs were born from Guy interpreting his connection and understanding of home and Kwa-Zulu Natal into song, and learning that his relationship with the land, whether close at hand or terribly far away, is in music."
Any thoughts about this?
Guy Buttery: This record is a combination of a few things. It’s the mixture of a very hectic life on the road the last few years, juxtaposed by my quiet and relatively insular time up the North Coast of KwaZulu. All of the music on this album was either written out on tour or at home in Fox Hill Lane on the border of Zululand. Fox Hill was my security blanket on many levels over the last three years and was a great place to return to after weeks away from home.
It seems all touring musicians have songs about the road and this album is full of them. And inevitably, songs about the longing of home and all the niceties associated with it. And, often when one is away from home for long periods, there is some kind of yearning for regular life and the regular faces or surroundings that one connects with. I usually get reflective and try to interpret my connection and understanding of KwaZulu-Natal into song. However that may come across to others, I don’t know; but for me, my honest sentiment and relationship with the land is there in the music. The album also pays homage to all the diversity and beauty to the numerous people and places that have crossed my path and made me who I am.
Is a collaboration song like Sibanisezwe, in which you play with many musician friends, like "coming home" for you?
In a sense, yes. The tune was written upon my return from India where I was travelling for three months. Without a guitar! Probably the single most idiotic move I ever made. I had full-on cold turkey and locked myself in my bedroom with numerous stringed instruments for sometime when I got home. Anyways, I guess it gave birth to this tune at least. Sibanisezwe really is a joyous little number reflecting the landscapes I missed away from home and features some of my favourite South African musicians – Nibs van der Spuy, Dan Patlansky and Syd Kitchen. I suppose it’s the closest thing I've ever done to a "band" song. Anyway, the title is slang or a kind of made up word in Zulu, which means the ‘light of the country’. In hippie terms, you could say it means the aura of a landscape. The word was invented by my second mother, Edith Ngubane.
What sparked the idea to have so many collaborations on the album?
Over the last few years, I have had the honour of working with some of my favourite musicians and childhood heroes. It’s usually been in a live environment and I figured my new album would be the perfect platform to showcase all the collaborations I've been involved with recently. I also wrote a lot of the material with people in mind from the beginning. Having said that, throughout the record, the guitar is the main voice – often accompanying, but always the focus. Essentially it’s a guitar record. In a way, all the input from the featured guests does take this recording out of the typical guitar CD box. The whole process was really refreshing for me. It was the first time I’d really opened up to working on a deep level with my own material with others in the studio. I guess when you give someone a song you have to step back, trust them and allow their contribution to hold its place in the music. It seems strange, but it took a while for me to get used to hearing these songs with some of the new arrangements. It’s amazing how one gets so attached to a piece in its original, solo form. Especially after playing it a certain way for so long. Now, I couldn’t imagine these songs dressed in any other way.
Throughout the album, it sounds as though the instruments are 'in conversation' with one another - more than just merely holding the song together or adding on to it. Did you give the musicians free reign to do as they pleased with your songs? How did the final product (in terms of songwriting) come together?
I love that idea of instruments "conversing" and not just playing parts. I know all the musicians who worked on the album very well and respect them both as people and as players. I had a pretty solid idea of what kind of sound they would put down, but always gave them free reign to interpret the space as they liked. Most importantly for me, it was about having a good energy. Music is transparent in that way and you always hear and feel when it’s coming from a good place.
You recorded all your parts on the album at Peace of Eden in Knysna. What was that like?
To date, recording these songs has been the best documentation of my playing as well as a solid picture of my headspace and my current ideas about music. I’ve never been so relaxed in a studio environment before. And for this, I have to give a giant thank you to the engineer and co-producer, Howard Butcher. From day one, before I had decided where I was going to record this album, we connected like brothers. Like true brothers. I have so much respect for Howard and honour him deeply as a person, an engineer and a friend. We share a lot of the same interests and would sip sherry and roll tobacco cigarettes until 2-3am most nights – talking music, microphones, production and birds (the feathered kind). The environment he sets up for musicians to create and record is unsurpassable and is right up my street. I also think he helped me centre myself and in doing so, allowed me to deliver my best performances yet onto tape. We tried numerous things I wouldn’t have otherwise explored (like bowing a guitar and an acoustic bass, playing singing bowls, arrangement of ideas and experimenting with unusual mic techniques). I think, together, we made a beautiful record in a surrounding that was perfectly conducive to the music.
The press release for your album states that you believe you have produced your best album yet. Whilst not taking anything away from your previous two albums, what do you think has contributed to the outcome of Fox Hill Lane? Has anyone/anything specific influenced direction of the album?
This album is far lighter and more melodic, but at the same time quite groove based. Since recording Songs from the Cane Fields [my previous album], my rhythmic understanding has developed and I haven’t been shy in exploring it on this record. What used to be very unnatural for me rhythmically now seems like second nature. And I clearly remember certain feels just happening for me overnight. I didn’t try and suss out new rhythmic ideas, they just appeared. I often think the best music is written this way. It’s far less premeditated and conceptual and is really just about the overall mood, the experience and the heart of the music.
A lot of these songs were also written during a time of falling in and out of love, and that for me is very prominent in the music on all 14 tracks. There is a youthful, care-free enthusiasm on songs like Umtamvuna, Half a Decade and Mama. There is the thrill to be alive and in love on tunes like 7” postcard [45RPM]. Pieces like Mirleft, Travel by Packet and Chefchaoun have the drive of being on the road, of longing and anticipation. Joni Mitchell shares this exact emotion so well on a tune called Blue Motel Room, and in fact all over her album, Hejira, which is predominately about being a travelling musician.
So, I guess all the themes on this record are my life experiences in one way or another. Every tune has a story for me. Four of the tunes are named after places or towns I’ve visited where the music was either written or my head and heart were in that place when it was composed.
How do you translate the songs on Fox Hill Lane into a live set-up?
As I mentioned earlier, Fox Hill Lane is essentially a guitar record. I suppose I have taken it out of the box a bit, but the main sonic picture is really about the guitar and the compositions I based the collaborations around. Having said that, I will be doing numerous shows with various people featured on the album and plan to further that even more so, in the future.
The recording process of this album has obviously allowed for songs to come into being and be eternalised in a way that's not always possible when playing live (for example, Piers Faccini recording his input in France). So, from a musician's perspective, how does recording compare to playing live – considering both the strain and joy of constantly creating and performing?
In my opinion, performing live and recording in a studio are two completely different animals. Simply because everything surrounding each environment is so unlike one another. Firstly, from a head/heart space perspective, a live setting comes with way more unpredictability and requires a whole bunch more valour. There is also the process of energy exchange with an audience involved. Secondly, from a technical perspective, the pickups that amplify my instruments through a PA system to a crowd of people require a relatively different approach to high-end sensitive microphones in a studio setting. Both have their pros and cons and I think it helps to make a musician a more well-rounded player.
How much improvisation is there involved in your live show?
Quite a fair amount. My sitar improvisations are always off the top of my head and allow to me really bust out at my live shows. And the recent addition of a looping pedal and a musical saw allow me to experiment more and more every night on stage. I also try to leave my guitar compositions relatively open-ended to allow for improvisation – or at least in their dynamic changes so I can breathe new energy into the tunes at each show.
From saw to sitar, you've really branched out your repertoire. However, is the acoustic guitar still your preferred instrument to play?
I literally only dabble with sitar, mandolin, and the musical saw. Guitar has and always will be my musical soul mate. I don't suppose I'd be the same person without the 6 string in my life.
Lastly: Joanna or Feist?
That’s a real tough one, but I always told my ex-girlfriend that I wouldn't leave her for anyone except Joanna Newsom, so...
Besides, an angelic, folk-star harping tunes around the house couldn't hurt [laughs].
//End
Tour Dates - National Album Launch
KWAZULU-NATAL
Venue: The Elephant & I, Richards Bay
Date: Saturday, 22nd August 2009
Venue: The Red Door, Pietermaritzburg
Date: Tuesday, 25th August 2009
Venue: Vagabond Café, Claremont Farm, Sheffield Beach Road
Date: Friday, 28th August 2009
Venue: S’Khumba Crafts, Southbroom, South Coast
Date: Saturday, 29th August 2009
Venue: Elizabeth Sneddon Theatre, UKZN, Durban
Date: Monday, 31st August 2009
GAUTENG
Venue: Steak and Ale, Pretoria
Date: Wednesday, 2nd September 2009>
Venue: Back 2 Basix, Melville
Date: Thursday, 3rd August 2009
Venue: Arts on Main, Johannesburg
Date: Friday, 4th September 2009
Venue: 52 8th Street, Linden, Johannesburg
Date: Saturday, 5th September 2009