"[A] Great voice and fine tunesmithing....the arrangements are truly hand-in-glove and proportionately faultless." - Van Dyke Parks, legendary producer and arranger
"...an album of small epiphanies, breathtaking enough to have me weeping in public." - Ryan Doyle, HX
About Reuben’s duet with Antony: "They have an easy chemistry.... [Butchart's] high, tensile voice melds dramatically with Antony's voluptuous vocals, and the strings quiver so delicately they sound like a current pulling them along.... achingly palpable...." - Stephen M. Deusner,
Pitchfork
“Reuben is a masterful songwriter in the tradition of Donny Hathaway and Stevie Wonder. His voice is uncannily pure.” - Antony
of Antony & The Johnsons
“…lush, string-kissed arrangements and melancholy piano lines… [Reuben] has the vocal chops to pull off this kind of high drama.” - Time Out New York
“Often sounding like Musiq in his quiet storm sensuality, with a band equal to Ben Folds Five, lyrics that have a unique charm reminiscent of James Talyor's, sung in a voice with the quiet intensity of Phil Ochs, and arrangements that pull from the George Martin and Stevie Wonder songbooks, this multi-layered experience is a treat.” - DJ Bill Realman Stella
of WRSU
“It’s an ever-shifting landscape of breezy strings, rumbling bass lines, ivory-soul vocals, and quirky rhythms, all framing tense lyrics that seek – and find – the light.” - The Advocate
“Reuben blends yearning, soulful vocals with emotionally deep lyrics…. He has a quality in his voice and delivery that evokes a sense of wide-eyed youthfulness and innocence, as if he’s still looking at the world with fascination.” - PM Entertainment
INFLUENCES
Reuben is influenced by classic American pop, rock, and soul.
His heroes are Goffin & King, the Funk Brothers, the Beatles, the Beach Boys, Stevie Wonder, Aretha Franklin, Donny Hathaway, Gladys Knight, Roberta Flack, Marvin Gaye, Joni Mitchell and Prince.
Reuben also feels aligned with Antony & The Johnsons, Beck, Ben Folds, Rufus Wainwright, Simon & Garfunkel, Harry Nilsson, Joan As Police Woman, John Legend, Sondre Lerche, Sufjan Stevens, and Sade.
Reuben Butchart (Boo-SHART) is a singer-songwriter whose clear and pure voice has garnered comparisons to Chet Baker and Stevie Wonder - by turns both soothingly delicate and triumphantly powerful. Blending together classic American pop and 70's soul with today's avant/indie influences, Reuben shapes the singer-songwriter form into a unique blend of soul-tinged chamber-pop.
Reuben's sound creates a sweet sanctuary - a place for listeners to relax, reminisce, re-evaluate, and renew. From this world comes Reuben's sophomore release "Golden Boy," a lushly orchestrated collection of alternative soul gems and mid-tempo art ballads that thematically harken back to his golden days by the golden gate in the golden state.
Growing up in San Francisco, Reuben studied at alternative music schools with a variety of eclectic and masterful musicians including Tom Constanten, the original keyboardist for the Grateful Dead.
A recipient of the Martin Luther King Jr Scholarship, Reuben studied classical composition and arranging in New York, where he immersed himself in the colorful East Village spectacle of do-it-yourself oddities and legendary avant-garde performers.
He entered the downtown scene as the original pianist for Antony and the Johnsons, while completing his own debut album "Dusk." An eclectic blend of electronic samples, R&B flourishes, and strings, "Dusk" received the 2003 Outmusic award for Outstanding Debut Recording.
His second album "Golden Boy" was co-produced with Noah Simon (Bill Frisell, Greta Gertler, Susan Tedeschi) and features "All There is to Tell" -- a duet with Antony.
Reuben is currently mixing his 3rd album, a collection of songs written to poems by John Carroll and developed with a group of eclectic musicians during a Spring 2008 Residency at Robert Wilson's Watermill Center. For progress on the Watermill Sessions, visit the Watermill Blog.
Hey, REUBEN... Greetings from a band of rock n' roll astronauts for peace. Thanks for letting us land our eco-spaceship on your beautiful planet of great tunes and excellent vocals... kudos, bro. You are always welcome at dreamland11, our Cosmogaian outpost of social justice, activism, and rock. Peace and friendship, RE-VO
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