Natures Course is the new single from Queensland storyteller Brad Butcher. The single is a taste of what is to come from Brad's highly anticipated fourth album Travelling Salesman to be released on Friday July 5 and available to pre-order NOW.
The instrumentation is raw and exactly how it was captured in the studio with ARIA and Golden Guitar winning producer Matt Fell. Influenced by artists such as Rodney Crowell and John Hiatt, the song is filled with images of wrecking balls and raging fires in a song that isn’t afraid to show some anger about what we’re doing to the world.
It’s frustration,” says Butcher. “Now I believe in some pretty out-there stuff but I think there’s more that we can be doing as a human race to be smarter about technology and about everything moving forward. The song is a global idea but I also tried to humanise it so there’s this couple who are the narrative of the song and that was one way for people to understand this relationship [between humanity and the environment].”
“From the get go I’ve been trying to make this album,” says Brad Butcher looking over his new record, Travelling Salesman.
It may sound surprising for a man releasing his fourth long-player, having already won a Golden Guitar for New Talent Of The Year at Tamworth, and Country Song Of The Year in the 2018 Queensland Music Awards. But Travelling Salesman is a landmark for the former Mackay boy whose hallmark is sometimes brutal honesty.
“In the past, because I wasn’t confident enough with my musicality, I let the producer take control. But this time around, after learning three previous times, and working with [producer] Matt Fell again, I was relaxed and confident and I walked into the room knowing exactly where the songs wanted to go.”
The confidence extended into his songwriting where “in the past I would still send them away to co-writers and stuff, to get that little finishing touch put on there. But this time around, I trusted myself and my gut a little more.”
The result is an album which focuses even more Butcher’s mix of country, folk and blues, brings some different toughness to the sound, and highlights his ability to write about families, the natural world, and something close to his heart, mental health.
“It’s coming from experience,” Butcher says. “I worked in a few different areas where I’ve seen the effect it had on people and families. You see it everywhere, and I’ve been deeply affected by it so I feel like as much as the expression [of it] helps other people, it helps me too.”
In these songs, about breaking out of the boundaries others set for us, finding a way through personal darkness, or just remembering the love your grandmother showed, these might be people you know. They might be you. But even if you’ve never experienced something like this, Butcher wants you to understand more.
“It’s all good and well to write a song and have people connect with it because it’s happened to them, but if you can listen to it and you’ve never been through it but you understand it, that’s what I’m most proud of.”
It’s a fourth album with a lot to be proud of….“Yeah, I think we did okay.”
May 3rd - Triffid Beer Garden, Brisbane QLD 6PM (solo)
May 4th - Country By The Beach, Woodgate Beach Hotel, QLD 1PM - 1:45PM
May 5th - Country By The Beach, Woodgate Beach Hotel, QLD 12pm (Songwriters Round with Kelly Cork)
May 6th - Charming Mondays Songwriters, James Squire Brewhouse, Grey Street Sth Bank QLD - with Brendan Radford and Vaughan Jones plus very special guests 6PM - 9PM
FELICITY URQUHART & BRAD BUTCHER
May 16 – Merri Creek Tavern Northcote Vic
May 17 – Torquay House Concert Vic
May 18 - Healesville house concert Vic
May 19 - Caravan Club Vic
May 25 - The Music Lounge Wollongong NSW
May 31 – Hardy’s Bay Community Club Hardy’s Bay NSW
June 1 - Acoustic Picnic Dee Why NSW
June 22 - Cowora RSL Cowora NSW
June 23 – Carrum Downs House Concert VIC
July 13 - The Pub Tamworth with Brad Butcher
July 19 - Milton Theatre NSW with Brad Butcher
September 19 - Edge Hill Tavern Cairns QLD
September 20 - Dalrymple Hotel Townsville QLD
October 3 - Hamilton Hotel Hamilton QLD
October 4 - Highfields Tavern Toowoomba QLD
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