The Reinvention of Hot Buttered Rum

For starters, they added a drummer in Matt Butler, which for a band primarily known as a bluegrass string band presents a bold sonic transition. While pure bluegrass bands tend to avoid drums with the bass and other stringed instruments providing a chugging rhythm of their own, it is immediately clear how much Butler opens things up for Hot Buttered Rum. While it does move the band away from the more traditional bluegrass sound, this was totally by design; remember the omission of “String Band” in the band name many moons ago? What this does, in effect, is free up space whereby the instruments can play less, as that need to fill all that space with the string instruments dissipates. The result becomes a much more song-based approach.

“Every change in Hot Buttered Rum’s development has happened in the usual loping kind of way that most of life seems to unfold in when you just let it. Having drums definitely changes our relationship to every kind of music we play. This includes bluegrass, Irish-influenced material, rock, folk, everything. We have always played songs from these worlds, but, with the possible exception of the bluegrass material, having a drummer instead of a mandolinist makes them more stylistically recognizable.”

“I do not think of this as good or bad, but it has been a real shift for us. We’re all used to being drummers, saying things like “the guitar strum is the ride cymbal here,” or “the banjo’s got the backbeat.” Now that that ride cymbal is there, and that backbeat is always covered, we’re finding other ways to use our acoustic instruments. It’s also really changed our relationship to performing as singers – whoever’s singing lead can do more performing, if that makes sense, and less managing of the beat.”

The choice of picking the right man for the job came easy given Hot Buttered Rum’s widespread notoriety and their connection to the music scene in Northern California. Matt Butler also maintains Bay area stalwart status as a longtime player in the band Jambay, but most notably as the driving force behind organizing the rotating cast of characters in festival superjam band, the Everyone Orchestra.

“We had worked with Matt on a number of previous occasions, maybe most memorably at one of our Yosemite festivals. We felt we knew enough about him musically and personally to invite him aboard and it’s working out really well thus far.”

In constructing the more song-based album, Hot Buttered Rum also sought out to change directions in their selection of a producer. The previous album, Well-Oiled Machine, which happens to be one of the finest modern bluegrass records in existence, came under the direction of American mandolin and multi-instrumentalist legend, Mike Marshall, but they needed to go a different route with Limbs Akimbo. Hence, they chose Tim Bluhm from the Mother Hips, an old veteran at the art of transforming a band’s sound from longer more improvised, part-oriented pieces to concise, song-oriented music.

“We dubbed him ‘the Butcher.’ He has a great ear for what needs to be in a song, and what doesn’t need to be in a song. He helped us pick which songs to use, and helped us shape the shorter tracks on the album into what we hope will be good tunes for radio play. On the other hand, being a lover of live music, he knew when to let longer performances breathe, and how to egg on that side of our playing. A tune like Summertime Gal just can’t be short.”

Another big change for the band, as Erik alluded to earlier, came from the loss of a longtime bandmate, Zac Matthews, who sadly parted from the band back in late 2008. Opting not to say much on the subject, Erik simply remarked, “All of us agreed it was the right time to part ways. We did so with a load of good memories under each arm.” One could speculate the reasons behind the departure, but all I know is that Zac gave his heart and soul to Hot Buttered Rum both with his mandolin/fiddle playing and also with his singing, and he is missed.

We have talked a lot about this not-very-phenomenal phenomenon on Hidden Track before, but frankly, bluegrass bands have a glass ceiling. Despite the critical acclaim and mass respect for the technical skills and creative conquests of composing and playing great bluegrass music, the genre simply does not have the same level of appeal or marketability of say indie rock or even that of more accessible improvised music.

On the other hand, the competition amongst bluegrass bands to attain the level of success that Hot Buttered Rum has achieved may be more intense than that of any genre. In doing so, there basically exists a need to be world-class virtuoso musicians. There exist a huge number of amazingly talented string bands in the country right now vying to be the next HBR, Yonder Mountain or String Cheese Incident, but for every one of them, there are a hundred talented small ones.

Frankly, this phenomenon presents a tough pill to swallow. The reason being bands like Old Crow Medicine Show, the Avett Brothers and the Dixie Chicks broke through to much more diverse audiences that laud their roots approach to songwriting and endears the high lonesome spirit, yet likely know little of the more traditional bluegrass scene.

Hence, for Hot Buttered Rum to seek a bit more crossover appeal makes total sense for a group of immensely talented musicians and singers as they progress into the next phase in their career. For bluegrass fans and die-hard Well-Oiled Machine. fans, this probably presents mixed feelings, but anyone who has heard Limbs Akimbo,

“We’ll always be proud of Well-Oiled Machine. I think it is some of the best all-acoustic playing we will ever record. Mike Marshall brought out great things in us, and singing with Peter Rowan was one of the better recording days of my life. We are most excited about what is happening now, though, and what’s to come; that’s just the nature of being a musician. I think making albums that are focused on songs, as opposed to instrumental work or purely acoustic playing, is how we’ll do what we do best, and in that realm, the best is yet to come.”

Finally, one thing about Hot Buttered Rum remains constant; they keep their heads up and at attention with regard to the issues of the day. What are they if not San Franciscans? We all know about their efforts on the environmental front, particularly with regard to the string of bio-fuel buses that run on vegetable oil, but what else is keeping them busy these days?

“We’re all watching the health care debate play out. As independent artists, I’m sure you can imagine how tough it is to find ways to keep ourselves healthy. We’re surrounded by great medical care that’s off limits to those who don’t work for large organizations with the leverage to command lower rates. It’d be a great help to the little guys if there was a way to group together. Is a public option the way to go here? Government-run bureaucracy has earned its bad rep. It wastes time and money. Then again, so has corporate bureaucracy. It makes its decisions based on profit. This is not inherently a bad thing, but maybe it’s a better fit for making chairs than for dealing with people’s lives. I’m no political genius, but I wouldn’t want a shareholder deciding how long it was going to take for a fireman to get to my apartment.”

In closing, I wanted to share a great quote from Erik’s recent update on the HBR website about their Salt Lake City show. This puts forth what Hot Buttered Rum is all about better than anything I could say and more importantly, gives a sense of the reinvigorated spirit of the band: “The band felt like a mirror, shining back everything the audience had to give. On a good night, that’s all we do.”