Butch Crouch
Butch grew up on the corner of Texas,
Louisiana, and the Gulf Of Mexico (Pt. Arthur, Tex.). He
considers himself lucky to have spent his formative years in a
time and place that had big cars, cheap gasoline, young Rock and
Roll, classic Country, timeless Cajun music, and rules. The
area, and that time span, produced many musical giants: Janis
Joplin, The Big Bopper (J.P. Richardson), George Jones and
Johnny and Edgar Winter, just to name a few.
Cutting his musical teeth playing with
Johnny Preston and the Shades (“Running Bear”), Butch’s
heart was never far from his music, even though he got a degree
in Mechanical Engineering and pursued a corporate career. Over
the years, no matter what his “day job” was, he kept his
chops up by playing gigs and sitting in whenever and wherever he
could.
In the early seventies, he met and formed a
lifelong musical partnership with Bax Taylor (formerly with the
New Christie Minstrels and The Wayfarers). They have been
arguing over who really wrote "The Pooh House" song
ever since.
In the late eighties Butch moved to
beautiful Santa Fe, N. M. where for the last seventeen years
he entertained tourists and locals at El Farol, a
nationally known tapas restaurant. He spends quite a bit of time
wondering if this gig is a wonderful retirement program or an
omen that his musical career isn’t going anywhere: either way,
he considers it a blessing.
Butch has been described as a troubadour in
the tradition of Woody Guthrie, Cisco Houston, Hoyt Axton and
Ramblin’ Jack Elliot, and his recent CD (produced by Bax
Taylor) is available on the BaxTrax Music label, a company that
Taylor founded. It contains songs that Butch wrote alone, songs
that Bax wrote, songs they wrote together, a song by a “gone
but not forgotten” friend, Jim Montgomery, and a song
co-written by A. J. Masters, an old friend and legendary
Nashville songwriter. |

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