Love, people, goodness, saddness, good times, chickens that squawk, Jim Brighton, Brad Riesau, Music Compadres,The Band, Bob Dylan, Talking Heads, Jerry Garcia, Creedence Clearwater Revival, the Blues, John Prine, The Beatles, Bob Dylan, Grateful Dead, Neil Young, Bluegrass, That Great Americana sound, NRPS, Abbot and Costello, Van Morrison, MDC, Gram Parsons, Merle Haggard, Joe Ely, Butch Hancock, David Bromberg, Guy Clark, Lyle Lovett, Alison Krauss, Emmylou Harris, Willie Nelson, and Peter Tosh; Devin, Mo, Joe and Annie Z, Mad Sweet Pangs and all the Swordfish Society
Born in Brooklyn, New York, January 15, 1956, songwriter Butch Zito first realized he was musically inclined when his parents would put him up on the table for a musical rendition of "Que Sera Sera."
So began his love of the stage. Luckily for all of us, his musical tasted developed over the years. Early musical influences include classic Broadway musicals, 60's and early 70's op, The Grateful Dead, New Riders of the Purple Sage, Commander Cody and His Lost Planet Airmen, Bob Dylan, The Band, Bob Marley, John Prine, David Bromberg, and Guy Clark. Obviously a man with a love of songs, Zito has taken these myriad influences and honed them into a songwriting style long on communication, heartfelt emotion, and fun.
Before he ever played an instrument, Butch wrote his first song at the age of ten for a neighborhood band. "It had one chorus, one verse, and went somthing like 'Twelve o'clock and the party is over.'" At 19, Butch learned to play the guitar and song number two came shortly thereafter. "My friends just had a baby, so I was inspired and wrote something." The very next song he wrote did much more than he'd ever expected. The song, which he still performs today was called "Burned on Love". Stackabones recorded it in Austin in 1983. That summer we talked the Grateful Dead's soundman into using it for pre-concert warm up music. The song also made a commercial playlist on an Austin radio station, not to mention getting major spins on local jukeboxes."
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MUSIC REVIEWS
Butch Zito - Butchie Songs
From the big sky country of Montana and the little white Pontiac of Butch Zito comes the Butchie Songs. The songs of Butchie are simple and uninhibited songs that focus on an acoustic musicality and the words of Zito. "Your Love" starts off the twelve tracks with a vocal harmony lauding the love of a person met in the white winter grounds. The song delivers love in a realistic, rather than romantic mindset; Zito tells the lover, "There is going to be hard times." "Roslyn Town" uses an acoustic guitar and strings together with vocal harmonies to relate the pain of being geographically estranged from the place where one has buried their heart. The mandolin plucks and clucks in time as Zito's sad-eyed tenor tells the town, "I think of you all the time." "When I Was On the Road" pulls bit of swing from the downtrodden bluegrass infused music of Zito. Butchie Songs is a great entrance into the vocal, and lyrical view on life and love contained in the music of Zito.
BZB -
--New York Times Syndicate: Author and Date Unknown
Last Chance Hotel
"Philadelphia’s Butch Zito Band, now simply known as BZB, has been featured in this column several times before. Zito was a founding member of Stackabones and the Delaware-based Porch Chops. Zito and fellow members of BZB still play in various incarnations of the aforementioned. Regardless, BZB has a new CD, the very fine sounding Last Chance Hotel. It is, undoubtedly, the most cohesive and consistently pleasing project that Zito has been involved in and surpasses expectations from previous demos previewed a while back. Not only is there a real sense of maturity in his writing (and that of the other members, who incidentally are Frank Milewski, lead guitar; Bill Schultz, bass and vocals; and Steve Gregg, drummer), but the band really gels musically. Sure, there’s overt San Francisco and Grateful Dead influences and a joyous, hippie sensibility about the proceedings, but this really is quality stuff. You can also hear snippets of Dylan, Bruce Cockburn, The Band and even a little R&B. The songs are strong, the lyrics intelligent and the playing crisp and inventive. There’s no point in rattling off a string of titles. If you are reading Relix, you’ll undoubtedly find plenty of interest in this quality disc. If you do pick up the disc, make sure you let it run long enough to hear the lighthearted bonus hidden track at the end. Highly recommended."
--Relix Magazine: Issue 25-01, January/ February, 1998
Stackabones - This Ribbon of Highway
Stackabones has been entertaining crowds from coast to coast since the early ‘80s. Their first single, "Texas Town," was played over the sound system during a set break at a Grateful Dead show, which led to a record deal with Dead spinoff label Relix Records. The connection with Relix translated into an instant buzz among the Jam Band scene, cemented with Stackabones’ improvisations on their solidly written songs. Founding members Butch Zito and Jim Brighton have kept the flame a-burnin’ ever since, punching out original material in the tradition of The Band, Bob Dylan, The New Riders of the Purple Sage, and American Beauty-era Grateful Dead. Zito and Brighton extended their repertoire with the addition of former Relix magazine writer and bassist Scott Cooper and veteran West Coast Deadhead guitarist Steve Doblick. The foursome’s latest collaboration is This Ribbon of Highway, a tantalizing taste of the band’s folky roots. The CD features songs by all four members of the band, as well as a cameo by pedal steel legend Bobby Black. Tunes like the opener "Skin & Bones" and the New Riders-esque “I Been Knockin” are upbeat knee-slappers, while moody ballads like Doblick’s “You Want to Be Alone” and the intricate waltz "Ladder v. Shovel” slow the pace. Lyrically, the band covers political issues, religion, relationships and story-songs like the gambler’s curse in "The Ballad of Maxwell." Even though none of the songs extend beyond few minutes, the jam band ethic and hippie looseness still abound. These are the beautiful frames which their live performances fill in with tasteful solos and energetic jams. Stackabones took their name from a nickname of Woody Guthrie’s daughter, but references to the Dead in the name are readily apparent, just like the band’s music. I’ve been listening to this band for years and years and they can’t get any better, can they?
--New York Times Syndicate: Author and Date Unknown
Porch Chops - Prototype
Back in 1988 on a rickety porch in West Chester, Pennsylvania, a band called the Porch Chops formed. Since then, it has played numerous gigs, covering material as varied as Poco, Frank Zappa, Otis Redding, Utah Philips and a hundred or so other diverse artists. The band has recently released its first CD of original material, Prototype (Rolling Thunder). Like its varied influences, the Chops' original material has a habit of genre-jumping, although country-rock seems to be the closest moniker. Former member Butch Zito (also formerly of Stackabones) contributes three songs. Best cuts in this nineteen-song collection are the ten-minute "You Stand In Between," the short, but sweet "Martha's Glen" and the Neil Youngish "Sight For Sore Eyes." Country-rock fans won't be disappointed with this album.
--Relix Magazine: Issue 22-02 -- March/April - 1995
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"On Wednesdays, Butch Zito, a local top-notched musician, singer songwriter is using a 4W5 as a venue to encourage even more singer songwriters to come out and “try to help each other out.” Butch is proving that Wilmington “is an artist’s community.” We want to resurrect the esprit de corps that existed Downtown some 20 years ago. Musicians cannot now lament that no venue exists because it does."
--Out & About Magazine: December 2004
Hey Butch Zito! Come take a ride on a rocket ship with Alex Hirsch to the outer reaches of the cosmos. We can take the time to look around and find out all the great and magical things about Einstein and physics and the universe!
Hey Buddy, a great big howdy from Austin. Gimme a call next time you're in town. Also, check out the short video of Roy & me doin' the old Cat Mother tune, "Strike a Match and Light Another" on my page.
