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Erin McCarley w/ Butterfly Boucher and k.s. Rhoads
Thursday October 29, 2009 at 8:00 PM
- 18+ Show -
A 29-year-old native of Garrison, Texas, Erin McCarley's debut album suggests she fits somewhere between Fiona Apple and Colbie Caillat, a landscape that accommodates pop that's clever as well as cloying and calculated. Ms. McCarley is an interesting songwriter, and as a singer she knows how to use the music that surrounds her.
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Find Erin McCarley w/ Butterfly Boucher and k.s. Rhoads on...
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Schedule
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KS Rhoads
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9:00PM
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Butterfly Boucher
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9:45PM
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Erin McCarley
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10:30PM
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KS Rhoads | 9:00 PM
 SOME SAY THAT K.S. RHOADS IS THE MOST EXCITING NEW ARTIST TO COME OUT OF NASHVILLE SINCE JOSH ROUSE. HE WRITES DARK, ROMANTIC POP SONGS OF LOVE AND SADNESS. HIS SONGS OFTEN BORDER ON VAUDEVILLIAN WITH BIG STRING SECTIONS AND SWEEPING CRESCENDOS. BASICALLY, HE'S RUFUS WAINWRIGHT BUT DARKER, STRAIGHTER AND WITH LESS OF A JUDY GARLAND FIXATION. HIS MUSIC CARRIES A HEAVY AND BROODING MASCULINITY, DESPITE SOUNDING MORE LIKE THE MUSIC OF A 1930'S GERMAN CABARET THAN A MODERN-DAY NASHVILLE CLUB. THE TRACK LISTING INCLUDING "DARK HOTEL", "DEAD LANGUAGE", "DARKNESS IN THE YEAR OF OUR LORD" AND "THE LAST GOODBYE”OF HIS DEBUT ALBUM, DEAD LANGUAGE, GIVES A GOOD INDICATION OF RHOADS' MUSICAL MOOD LESS THAN SUNNY. HOWEVER, THE MELANCHOLY IN HIS SONGS IS JUST OVER THE TOP ENOUGH TO BE ENDEARING INSTEAD OF PRETENTIOUS OR MOROSE. IT'S LIKE THE SMITHS, WHO MADE FEELING BAD FEEL SO GOOD.
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Butterfly Boucher | 9:45 PM
 “I found out I can only be who I am. I won’t try to describe the relief.”
It would be difficult to write a boring biography about Butterfly Boucher’s career to date. It would have to exclude her youth in Australia, growing up in a family that picked up roots every few months traveling the outback in a Toyota Corolla wagon and eventually up-grading to a small motor-home. You would look past the fact that she’s made records on three continents. And you would have to turn a blind eye to the scars that are just now healing after a three-year battle to release her new album, Scary Fragile.
Raised one of seven sisters, Butterfly grew up around a pile of instruments and music-loving parents, her father teaching her how to use a four-track recorder by the time she was ten. Not often finding any other eleven-year old musicians to hang out with, she learned how to play each instrument herself (a skill that she still puts to use at her home studio).
Her first crack at the big time arrived as the bass player of The Mercy Bell, her older sister’s band. Only 16 years old and too young to sign the deal herself, her parents inked an agreement with a major label and the band made an album, making noise in Australia and giving Butterfly a taste of success. The label wasn’t impressed enough to continue and the band moved to America, chasing new dreams.
An American demo deal came relatively fast. The band hopped between Los Angeles, Nashville and London, making as many Visa runs as they did songs. After three years of development and recording, the band was dropped and an album was never released.
Determined to keep going, Butterfly moved to England and bought a laptop with her life’s savings. She spent months crashing on couches and recording demos, eventually cobbling together enough songs to make a solo album. Her music made its way to industry veteran Mike Dixon, who helped introduce her to Brad Jones and Robin Eaton who would help produce her first album, Flutterby. Word began to spread about her new songs and before she knew it, Butterfly was being courted by labels. She even had a sit-down with Madonna (a meeting at which she chose not to wear her glasses and initially mistook Madge for a receptionist).
A buzzing and excited Boucher signed to A & M Records in 2003 and officially released Flutterby, an album chock full of big, tasty hooks. Songs from the album quickly made their way into television shows. Butterfly began touring in earnest and “Another White Dash” went off to radio stations.
Nobody was more disappointed than Butterfly when the label faltered in promoting the album, not sure how to market music that wasn’t of-the-second. “They’d say that I was too indie for pop and too pop for the indie scene”, she says. To give you an idea of just how flustered they became, they even sent her back into the studio to re-record a single word (“can’t”) which she was told needed to be re-sung in an American accent for American radio. It never occurred to them that the album was recorded in Nashville and was as American as any other.
A break came in the form of one big fan, Sarah McLachlan. Butterfly was chosen as the opener for Sarah’s Afterglow tour, an opportunity that she did not take lightly. She spent hours at the merchandise table after each show, selling and signing over 20,000 copies on these dates alone. While even other labels took notice and began calling Boucher’s management, A&M showed little interest in continuing to help the album along. Flutterby’s case was closed, in favor of making a new record.
Butterfly waited while her new producer, David Kahne finished other projects. She wrote and recorded at home for a year, eventually finding a hole in Kahne’s schedule and putting to bed the best songs that she had written to date. The album was delivered in January of 2006. “And then it just went quiet”, she says.
The next two years would involve tinkering and ‘suggestions’ from the label, a machine which simply had no idea who Butterfly was, let alone who they expected her to be. It was a terrible time for her, with most days spent digging in her heels and still others conceding to demands. There were points at which nobody thought the album would see the light of day.
Sadly, it was also not an unfamiliar situation for her. “That’s what was so frustrating. I had been there before and I managed to do it again.” After a sigh she adds, “I wasted those three years and lost my love of music in the process, trying to figure out what other people wanted.”
Despite the drama, she hoped that her label would perk up after one of the unreleased tracks, “Bitter Song”, was placed in a pivotal Grey’s Anatomy scene. The haunting song (now Scary Fragile’s album closer) rallied impatient fans that couldn’t figure out why an album didn’t follow. Message boards went wild as Butterfly kept her secret, knowing what was coming but unsure of just how to talk about it. And then it was there; she was dropped.
You’d expect to talk to a seriously bitter woman, one year after such a difficult extrication. You’ll get the opposite. Butterfly is radiating with positive energy, alive and happy. Scary Fragile will be released via her own imprint on June 2nd. She’s been touring in advance of the album and playing new songs, including the first single “Gun For A Tongue”. Talking to her feels like talking to a person who is just starting out. She’s completely reborn.
Already on a roll and writing new material, Butterfly has vowed that she’ll never let anyone stop her from holding back what is inside of her again. She’s come to an important realization. “It’s not going to be worth anything unless I’m enjoying it.”
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Erin McCarley | 10:30 PM
 Erin McCarley calls the music on her debut album, Love, Save the Empty, a document of her search for authenticity in herself and in others. If that sounds heavy, there’s a reason why: According to McCarley, “Loving You” is about “being honest at the beginning of a new relationship and saying, ‘I have nothing left to give,’ to this amazing person standing right in front of me.” “Sleepwalking” profiles a cynic that can’t hear it come back his own way. For the title track, McCarley was inspired to write a song about the effects stemming from a lack of role models in a parentless world. And yet the 11 songs collected here (songs that ignited an industry-wide frenzy when McCarley performed them at SXSW earlier this year) pull off the trick that all great pop performs: They do heavy philosophical lifting with a lightness that boosts the spirit. This is elegantly crafted, deeply melodic music that resounds with echoes of the Beatles and Aimee Mann, Alanis Morissette and Amy Winehouse. McCarley grew up in the Dallas suburb of Garland, where she says her parents couldn’t have done a better job raising her and her older sister. “It was a very happy home with very little pain to deal with,” she explains, describing days filled with dance class and choir rehearsal. In a way, though, her ideal childhood led to an unexpected wake-up call later in life. “It kind of gave me an unrealistic view of everything,” McCarley notes with a laugh. “That’s not how the world is, you know?” In McCarley’s music you can hear her charting the distance between fantasy and reality, as well as the heartbreak that inevitably accompanies its discovery. McCarley’s brand of honesty doesn’t come without the occasional flash of regret. “I’ve looked back at some of these songs recently and thought to myself, ‘Are you serious? I can’t believe I put that out there!’” Near the top of the list of McCarley’s favorite artists are names like Fiona Apple, Patty Griffin and Greg Laswell (the latter of whom co-wrote “Bobblehead”). “I just love how true and raw their lyrics are,” she explains. Listening to records by these musicians is more than enjoyable for McCarley—it’s inspiring. “I get one line into one of their songs and I have to stop and write my own,” she says. McCarley singles out her favorites’ unique phrasing, the way they’ve taught her to concentrate not only on her words but on her delivery. “Their lyrics are that much more powerful because of the way they sing them.” McCarley currently calls Nashville home, but she cut her musical teeth in San Diego, where she’d moved after college to pursue a life that didn’t feature music at its center. During her undergraduate days she’d spend weekends singing with a country cover band for extra cash, yet in San Diego, selling clothes in a boutique and hanging out on the beach, she began thinking not just like a singer, but as a songwriter, which satisfied a different artistic jones. “Once I discovered songwriting it became an addiction,” she says now, remembering countless days she spent holed up in her house from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m., doing writing exercises (and staring at the wall) while wearing the same pair of linen pants. “Most nights I’d end up with an unfinished song. But when the day would come when all the pieces would align, and I’d know this is a song for people to hear, there is no better release in the world. Those are some of the only times that I can go out at night or sit on the couch next to my loved ones and feel at peace—like, ‘Job well done.’ I can rest, at least for a second.” It was during this bout of creativity that McCarley met producer/writer/keyboardist Jamie Kenney (the rare partner she felt 100 percent comfortable with), and the two began honing the songs that would make up Love, Save the Empty. “It’s hard for me to write about being happy,” McCarley admits. “I don’t prefer being sad, but it’s a real spot for me. If you met me, I’m not this dark, sulking person, though I’m not bubbly by any means, either. I guess it comes down to the fact that I’m not afraid of being sad. Love, Save the Empty arrives this fall on Universal Republic Records. McCarley will spend the summer laying the groundwork for the album’s release with a pair of tours. Her goal an artist is as simple—and as profound—as they come. “When I’m onstage,” she says, “I’m trying to communicate with every single person out there.”
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