Butch Walker Rocks the Banjolin With Taylor Swift at Grammys
Did you see that guy on the banjolin during Taylor Swift's performance at the Grammys? (The banjolin is a banjo with a mandolin neck.) Well, I knew he was not in her band, so I had to know who he was and what earned him the right to such a remarkable spot on stage.
That guy is this singer/songwriter/producer named Butch Walker. And after a career of writing and producing for himself and artists like Avril Lavigne, Pink, Lindsay Lohan, the Donnas, Fall Out Boy and All-American Rejects, he's way more into the alt-rock thing than he is country. But last November, he tried this experiment where he asked fans and followers on Twitter to tell him what song they wanted him to cover. And when the votes came in, he found himself covering Swift's "You Belong With Me." That live cover inspired him to film himself doing a stripped down version of the song with a banjolin. (This Walker is crazy multi-talented.) And then like most videos these days, it made its way around the Internet until Swift herself saw it and tweeted, "@butchwalker covered You Belong With Me and I'm losing my MIND listening to it! Blown away."
So blown away, I guess, that she invited Walker to play with her and Stevie Nicks at the Grammys. Walker's blog recounts the whole thing, about "i said 'yes'. i then said, 'only if i can play my banjolin'. she said 'yes'. it was a date. then i go to rehearsals and Stevie Nicks walks up to me and says 'hi,'" and a joke about how he got the cameraman to pay him so much attention.
Afterwards, people like Fall Out Boy's Pete Wentz said Walker was awesome and actor-comedian Adam Sandler told him he killed it on that "thing." I'm sure he loved being in that Grammy spotlight for a few minutes, but Walker has his own music to concentrate on. His new album, I Liked It Better When You Had No Heart, is out next week on vinyl and later in the month in formats for people who no longer have record players.
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trink says:
I didn’t even realize that was him tell I read that article yesterday. It was great!
fantasia says:
too bad taylors dismal performance kinda overshadowed his genius. really sad
Aaron says:
So….the most embarrassing and awful performance of the night was a remarkable spot on stage? How many times do you think he cringed while listening to the playback?
Sugarland Express says:
Actually if you read the articles he loved the performance like the majority did.
Nicole says:
The majority love the performance? Majority of kids probably so. Something they could relate to like the last high school musical.
Always Right says:
What Alison, no response to the huge backlash concerning Taylor’s performance? You must be sticking your head in the sand with the others that don’t want to admit that she can’t sing.
We hate to say “we told you so,” but….
Buck says:
NPR pointed out that Taylor Swift can’t sing over a year ago. Now everyone knows it. How come Big Machine doesn’t focus on the music as much as it does the marketing? I know… still, it’s good to remind people it doesn’t have to be this way.