In 2002 we made our first trip here to the International Country Music Conference. At that time we were proud to pay homage to four members of the small group of North Georgia Bluegrass Pioneers. As we both were introduced to the Bluegrass community in the mid seventies we assumed that the individuals and groups we knew at that time as the ìshakers and moversî on the scene were in fact those who had first transitioned from Country or Hillbilly music to the sounds of Bluegrass music in the 50ís and 60ís. This belief was reinforced by the stories we heard from and about these musicians. For this reason when we decided to document, in some small part, the earliest bluegrass community in North Georgia we began with those we knew well, safe in our belief that they constituted the core group of Bluegrass disciples. We also identified other important personalities and groups that we hoped to include in our later research. Again we were confident in our knowledge that we knew who constituted that early core group.

We were wrong. And it didnít take long for us to learn that there was at least one (and possibly more) very prominent name with which neither of us was familiar. That man was Walter Butler and his band was the Sun Valley Boys. His name came up in every interview we conducted and as we delved deeper it became obvious that the next profile in our research would have to be Walter Butler.

As we began directing our energy towards phase 2 of this project we learned that not only was his home in Pine Lake Ga. the focal point for many in the local bluegrass community but that he was known to many or most of the touring Bluegrass groups as well.

When we completed our presentation here in 2002 we left those in attendance with the question, ìWho was Walter Butler?î. That question has proven to be even more important to our project than we knew. So here in 2004 we turn our attention to Mr. Walter Butler, North Georgia Bluegrass Pioneer.

The above indeed begs the question,who is the best-known North Georgia Bluegrass pioneer that you have never heard of..? A contradiction in terms? Well, consider this...such highly respected practitioners of the bluegrass art in Georgia as J.N. and Onie Baxter, Murray Freeman, Don and Ron Norman and Robert A. Tut Taylor list Walter Butler as having the distinction of being the person around whom the music coalesced in the 1950s and sixties. One might even surmise that his house in Pine Lake near Stone Mountain, GA served as "ground zero" for the formation of the thriving North Georgia bluegrass tradition.

Born in 1919, Walter grew up in Lawrenceville, GA and always loved listening to the Grand Ole Opry and had a large collection of records. Included in the record collection were such early influences as Gid Tanner and the Skillet Lickers and the Blue Sky Boys. In addition, his musical influences included Flatt and Scruggs, Jim and Jesse, Reno and Smiley and the Osborne Brothers.

As daughter Dale Talton recalls, "We used to listen to the Grand Ole Opry and to records. At first, he just liked to sit around and strum on his guitar, but later began to play with a neighbor who played mandolin." From that, people began to congregate at his home in Pine Lake, GA which is between Stone Mountain and Clarkston. "Walter's going to have a pickin'" soon became a familiar phrase for local musicians. ... that was between 1955 and 1965. He was in his early to mid thirties when this began to happen so what had been an enjoyable hobby soon turned into a sharing of his love for music with many other like minded friends.

Since there was no festival scene in Georgia in the 1960s, it was a natural thing for Walter and friends to venture out to other areas where they could get together with musicians. Asheville, North Carolina was a favorite spot with the Asheville Folk Festival. Many bluegrass musicians congregated at the Westgate parking lot and it was here that Walter met Ralph Lewis - more or less by just introducing himself after hearing this great Carolina group in a jam session. "Dad never met a stranger," recounts Dale. "He met Ralph Lewis in Asheville by just walking up to him and saying, "Hello, I'm Walter Butler." This was the beginning of a long-time friendship and Ralph was a familiar visitor to the Butler home in coming years. Other frequent visitors included banjoist Tom McKinney, the Burches (Curtiss, jr. of New Grass Revival fame) from Brunswick, the Cross Family, the Bluegrass Five (J.N. and Onie Baxter), Kenneth Hood and band, John McAfee and Darryl Wilson, the Ridge Runners (Murray Freeman, Charlie Abernathy, Dillard Rogers, among others), James Watson and many others. Most traveling bluegrass bands knew of Walter's home and would frequently stop and visit as they were passing through.

[click on above photo for additional information supplied by Martin Beckman.]

Walter joining with Curtis Blackwell and theDixie Bluegrass Boys including (L to R) Al Osteen - banjo, Larry Jeffries - mandolin, Martin Beckman - guitar, Walter, Curtis Blackwell on guitar,  and Sam Cobb on bass. Circa 1961.

In the mid-to-late 1950s, Walter formed his first and only bluegrass band - Walter Butler and the Sun Valley Boys - which commonly consisted of himself, fiddler Leonard Pickens, Don Norman on banjo, brother Ron Norman on guitar and 'Nippy' Green on bass. This group with some slight variations in personnel was very popular throughout the 1960s and into the early seventies and played hard driving bluegrass music reminiscent of Monroe and Flatt and Scruggs of that era. They played a weekly radio show in the area - the Dixie Jubilee out of Hapeville, GA - and fortunately, there are still a few tapes that reveal just what an excellent, traditional group they were.

One thing that should be mentioned was a song that seemed to be Walter's favorite and one that had to be played at all gatherings... "Love and Wealth" - the Jim and Jesse number was a favorite of Walter and was christened the "Pine Lake National anthem."

One Georgia musician who quickly found his way to Walter's house was Robert A. "Tut" Taylor who describes those days in the early sixties as "Great, wonderful times...it was a labor of love. Little did we know then what would happen on down the road with the music." He remembers various members of these gatherings getting together to make regular pilgrimages to North Carolina to Union Grove and Asheville in addition to also making it up to Galax, Virginia. He also recalls this group of musicians playing on the noted folklorist Bascom Lamar Lunsford's program, "Along About Sundown." (www.folkheritage.org)

Doyle Lawson is one of the most recognized and influential Bluegrass musicians and bandleaders in the past 40 years. He began his career in 1963 with the King of Bluegrass Jimmy Martin and then moved thru a succession of top tier bands such as J D Crowe and the Kentucky Mountain Boys and the Country Gentlemen before leaving in 1979 to form his own group. Since that pivotal point Doyle Lawson and Quicksilver have had a major influence on an entire generation of Bluegrass musicians and fans.

In January 2004 Doyle shared a few early memories of the Georgia Bluegrass community and particularly of Walter Butler. His first recollection of meeting Walter and others from North Georgia was in the mid-sixties at the now infamous D J Convention at the Noel Hotel in Nashville. At that time the bluegrass crowd would take over a couple of floors at the Noel and host their own informal meetings, social events and jam sessions in conjunction with the Convention. From that meeting Doyle describes Walter as ìpretty much a fixtureî at any Bluegrass event in Georgia and surrounding states. He states, ì Every time I would come to Georgia with J D Crowe or the Country Gentlemen we would always see Walter and his wife Faye and we got to be good friends. They fixed food for more musicians than you could count. Walter was really a great guy. He had his own band, the Sun Valley Boys and he loved every facet of the music. I remember really being surprised by the intensity of the Georgia bluegrass crowd. They had a real passion for the music. I remember one summer Walter took his vacation and went on the bus with the Country Gentlemen. He really loved that. I was always invited to a New Years Eve pickiní at their home but never got to go. When Walter got ill we (the Country Gentlemen) stopped at his house for a visit. Everybody knew him and everybody liked him. His passing was great loss.î

An historic event for North Georgia Bluegrass came about in the early sixties. Walter and friends met with the Everetts in Lilburn, Georgia where they were playing at a Dairy Queen and the groups soon came together to provide the nucleus for the Georgia Bluegrass scene. By the late sixties, Kenneth Hood's shop in Austell, Georgia served as the site for the first bluegrass 'festival' in Georgia and from that came the Marietta festival - promoted for many years by Dillard Rogers and family - part of the Ridge Runners bluegrass group who had frequented Walter's house years before.

Daughter Dale also recalls a couple of other points as she talks about her dad. One day in 1967 a young man by the name of Tim came to one of the pickings at the house. He was a very good upright bass player and Walter immediately took a liking to him. Of course, Tim Talton later became Dale's husband and well-known bass player for George English and the Blue Ridge Gentlemen.

Also, Walter's treasured guitar was a D28 Martin. That instrument is now owned by Brenda Cross of the Cross Family.

Banjo stylist James Watson remembers meeting Walter through his association with J.N. and Onie Baxter. "He just opened up his house..he was so good. We were all packed in there pickin'. That was where I met a lot of people...Ron and Don Norman, Tim Talton, Joel Aderhold."

And has been mentioned, not just Georgia musicians were aware of Walter. For example, Knoxville, TN musician, instrument collector/trader Allen Collins recalls, "Why yes, I knew Walter Butler! Met him in Asheville...we visited his house on many occasions...one time we picked there all night...in the attic!"

So why the anonymity for someone who played such a vital role? Perhaps timing may be a good explanation. Walter was playing bluegrass in the available venues and outlets before the festival scene in Georgia and therefore was playing to a much more limited audience both numbers-wise and geographically than would have been possible a few years later. Also, during the 1970s-1990s bluegrass music was much more widely heralded in the media, both local and national, than in Walter's heyday. As a result, by the time North Georgia festivals were in full bloom and more and more musicians were being drawn into the genre by attending these events, he was not around to be a part of the scene. And though many of the most prominent musicians had come into the music through attending those musical gatherings at Walter's home, newer musicians were 'once-removed' from that experience and therefore not as knowledgeable - if at all - of his giant presence in the foundation and formation of the 'bluegrass experience in North Georgia.'

By the 1970s - music at the Butler house was slowing down - illness soon prevented Walter from playing and getting around as much as he was used to..and in 1979 at the age of sixty, Walter Butler died. Daughter Dale says, "I wish he could go to some of the festivals of today..he would be in heaven to see all the pickers...the quality of it...the young pickers coming up. He's probably smiling up there."

Dale Talton (2002)