With a father who would scour thrift shops and second-hand book stores to add to his enormous record collection, Houston-born Bett Butler grew up surrounded by the eclectic music that would later influence her songwriting: jazz standards, Tin-Pan Alley, classic Broadway, singer/songwriter, Brazilian sambas and bossa novas, European and Latin American classical. She discovered her passion for piano at age three and worked in theater for several years before settling into a full-time career as a performing musician. Her musical journey has taken her from theaters to jazz festivals; from rowdy roadhouses to upscale clubs; from writing and performing gospel music in tent revivals to accompanying silent movies.

She’ll tell you that her single biggest influence is Billie Holiday, and that she tries to follow the musical approach of Miles Davis, who constantly incorporated the sounds around him into his own voice. She sees the artist’s role as that of a storyteller and storytelling as the foundation of civilization, for it is through sharing stories that we connect with each other’s humanity. She feels that songwriting is a particularly effective method of storytelling, because music has the potential to overcome limitations of lyric and language.

But she’ll also tell you that it’s not about the storyteller, it’s about the story; it’s not about the musician, it’s about the music; it’s not about the singer, it’s about the song.

Butler’s new CD of ten original songs, Myths & Fables, is scheduled for release in the spring of 2007.

Learn more about Bett Butler... www.bettbutler.com