Thursday, May 21, 2009

Blues Caller: Wednesday Night Honky Tonk Gospel

Posted by Berry Anderson on Thu, May 21, 2009 at 9:17 AM

Have you ever felt the spirit at Knuckleheads?

In the back of the biker-friendly blues venue in the East Bottoms, there is third stage, back  behind the bathroom. In this small, intimate, three-room area, Reverend Carl Butler hosts Gospel Lounge every Wednesday from 7:30 to about 8:45 p.m.

click to enlarge Carl Butler gets down with God.
  • Carl Butler gets down with God.

"We play some Jesus music, we play some other stuff," says Butler while he's on stage speaking to the 12 people in the room. He calls it "a church geared toward service-industry people."

It's definitely free-form and definitely honkytonk, and when Butler and his crew played Merle Haggard's "I'm Always On A Mountain When I Fall," I felt the spirit. 

Butler is a pastor at New Song Christian Fellowship in Gladstone and was offered the Wednesday night spot in Knuckleheads' Retro Lounge by the club's owner -- a  churchgoer himself -- Frank Hicks.

The small room has a couple of couches, a hightop table and a few chairs, but Butler says it's best that way. "I kind of like that vibe. 50 people in here is a success. I like the crammed-in thing."



Butler simply plays with whomever is available, like singer-songwriters

or bands that have come to play at Knuckleheads, such as last week's

guest, Oriole Post.

At

the end, Butler has a message. He'll speak for about ten minutes, but

he likes to keep it simple and universal. Last night, he told the story

of Bartimaeus and asked the group, "How do you view people?"

Good stuff.

Later this week, Knuckleheads will also host harmonica virtuosos Lee McBee and R.J. Mischo,

with the Confessors playing back up. Billy Ebeling opens with a Bob

Dylan tribute. Tickets are $10 at the door and the show starts at 8:30

p.m.


Tags: , , , , , , , , , ,

Comments (0)

Subscribe to this thread:

Add a comment

Author Archives

Slideshows

All contents ©2012 Kansas City Pitch LLC
All rights reserved. No part of this service may be reproduced in any form without the express written permission of Kansas City Pitch LLC,
except that an individual may download and/or forward articles via email to a reasonable number of recipients for personal, non-commercial purposes.
Website powered by Foundation