Practice English Speaking&Listening with: The Butler Twins - Inner City Blues

Clarence and Curtis Butler were born seconds

apart, in Killen, and grew up in nearby Florence,

Alabama. Their father, Willie "Butch" Butler,

was noteworthy as a local guitar player, and

with his harmonica playing partner, Raymond

Edwards, both proved useful tutors. By the

age of seven the twins were proficient enough

musicians to win a talent contest, and played

in the abandoned house where W. C.

Handy once lived. They were in the middle of a family

of sixteen siblings, and the twins put together

their first musical ensemble at the age of

14, and two years later started to tour the Southern United States.

They relocated to Detroit in 1960 and worked

in automobile assembly plants. By night they

were part of the local nightclub scene. Clarence

Butler supplied harmonica and vocals, while

Curtis Butler played rhythm guitar, and they sat in with other musicians, until the local

blues scene faded away in the late 1960s. In the early 1980s, with the Butler Twins

still in residence, they were lauded as blues survivors.

JSP Records, based in London, issued two albums

by the Butler Twins: Not Gonna Worry About

Tomorrow (May 1995) and Pursue Your Dreams

(May 1996). The relative success led to tours

across the United States, Canada and Europe.

The Twins, as they became known among blues

fans, became more famous overseas than in their own country.

In 2000, the Detroit Music

Awards gave the Outstanding Blues Writer award to Clarence Butler.

The Butler Twins were granted Music Achiever

status by the Alabama Music Hall of Fame.

Clarence Butler died after a heart attack on December 22, 2003, in Hamtramck, Michigan.

Curtis Butler died just over three months later, on April 9, 2004