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Lindsay Butler OAMLindsay Butler was born and raised on a dairy farm about 13 miles from Tenterfield, a small town on the edge of the Northern Tablelands of New South Wales, Australia. He is the youngest in a family of four. Lindsay was about eight years old when his eldest sister, Aileen, taught him his first guitar chords. "I used to fiddle around with that old guitar and learnt to do a few Tex Morton and Buddy Williams runs. I suppose I was about 10 when I began seriously playing the guitar and singing around the farm. My aspirations were to be a singer first and a songwriter second, and the guitar helped to do that." When he was about 16, Lindsay formed his first band - a dance band - which played all the many and varied functions around the Tenterfield district. His first break into professional show business came in 1968, when Athol McCoy asked him to join his show for a tour right around Australia, as the featured lead guitarist. "That tour really was a big help to my playing. I realise that I learned a fair bit from that first trip." After the tour Lindsay went back to Tenterfield, re-formed his band and settled down until 1970 to regular work with music as an after hours job. Then came the next step. Lindsay received a call from Buddy Williams, who also wanted a lead guitarist for his show. Again, it was to be an Australia wide tour, this time as Buddy's own guitarist. "I covered hundreds of thousands of miles with Buddy, and learnt a lot about our great outback. I respected the man so much for his talent and what he did for Australian country music." Lindsay stayed with The Buddy Williams Show for two years and during that time, in 1971, Lindsay cut his first record for the Opal label. Then, his stay with Buddy over for the time being, he returned home to Tenterfield. However, within days of his returning home, Lindsay was in demand once again. In April 1973, Slim Dusty signed him up to once more hit the road; this time with the Slim Dusty Show. "I remember going for an interview with Slim and Joy at the Tamworth Travelodge and being surprised that Slim did not even ask me to play." The first year included a tour of New Zealand, and this was the beginning of a long and happy association with Slim. Over the years, Lindsay has toured Australia many, many times with Slim and Joy and their show. Naturally, Lindsay has also played guitar on many of Slim's E.M.I. recording sessions. Among these sessions was one for the award winning "Things I See Around Me" Album. "I learned a lot from working with Slim, particularly about our Australian bush ballads." Finally, family responsibilities made it impossible for Lindsay to undertake any more lengthy tours, so in 1974, he settled in Tamworth and became involved in the Country Music Capital recording scene. At that time, he joined Brian Kelly's "Capital Three Ranch Band." Since coming to Tamworth to live, Lindsay has taken part in hundreds of recording sessions for Hadley, Opal, Selection, EMI and RCA Records, and has become one of Australia's most sought after country guitarists and musical arrangers. Well deserved honours have come his way. At the Australasian Country Music Awards at Tamworth in 1977, he won a Gold Guitar for "Best Instrumentalist," and in 1990 he was chosen as "Producer of the Year." He was inducted into the Tamworth "Hands of Fame" in January, 1980. In between playing guitar and producing records for the likes of Stan Coster, Gordon Parsons and many others, Lindsay found time to join shorter tours with showmen like Rex Dallas, Brian Young, and Terry Gordon. Lindsay is one of a very small and select band of musicians whose input to Australia's country music has allowed it to survive and prosper in spite of a seemingly overwhelming challenge from overseas. After some 10 years dividing his time between touring with a small club show, and producing country music recordngs for all comers at his own LBS studios in Moonbi, New South Wales, in 2000, Lindsay moved his studio to the Queensland Gold Coast. 20th October 2001 |
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