Bett Butler  

Gasping for air in the polluted refinery town where she grew up, Bett Butler was often confined to her room, where she absorbed the music from her father’s bizarre and eclectic record collection, the dark stories of Edgar Allen Poe, and the freakish fantasies of the Brothers Grimm, all of which made their way into her songwriting. She began her professional music career playing for tent revivals and moved on to regional theaters, rowdy roadhouses, upscale clubs, and jazz festivals. Her songs are inhabited by offbeat characters and contradictions, and she's written music for silent movies, musical theater, art openings. readers theater productions, and commercial jingles. She sees the artist’s role as that of a storyteller and storytelling as the foundation of civilization, for it's through stories that we connect with each other's humanity. SHORT STORIES, her first CD on independent co-op label Dragon Lady Records, earned a “recommended” rating from All Music Guide. Her latest release MYTHS & FABLES was supported by a performance grant from the Artist Foundation and features “When Love Has Left the Room,” first-place winner out of over 10,000 entries in the Jazz Category of the International Songwriting Competition.