Peter Butcher was a very dear friend who left us way too early. Peter touched much of Austin's music during the 1980's and early 1990's. We worked creatively on many projects including: New Generations Productions, Music Etcetera, Dan & Dave Live at the Backroom, Sweethome Baptist Church, Shammy, Housewives Choice and many others.
He worked out of Cedar Creek Studio, Rollingwood studio, Parrot Tracks, Europa, and many other studios around Austin. We even created the studio that became Riverside Recording Studio.
The creation of South by Southwest. Many folks don't recall, or never knew Peter Butcher was contacted by New York folks from the New Music Seminar in the mid-1980's. They were exploring the possibility of a similar event in Texas. Peter took the New Music Seminar folks around introducing them to Austin's music community. At one point he connected them with Luis Meyers and other folks at the Austin Chronicle. There was a strong concern that such an event should be created locally, not by New Yorkers.
See history of SXSW
About the New Music Seminar
In June 1980, Tom Silverman, Mark Josephson, Joel Webber, Danny Heaps, and Scott Anderson brought 220 people together at a New York City rehearsal studio to discuss challenges in the music business. The event grew in subsequent years to act as a catalyst for change in it. The New Music Seminar added music showcases and a festival, initially called "New York Nights" and later, "New Music Nights." These were held in various New York City clubs. At its peak, the first series of seminars attracted more than 8,000 participants from 35 countries.
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Martin, Cheryl, Peter, Peter's daughter and friends
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Martin first met Peter at an event at Lake Travis promoting new recording services that evolved into New generations Productions.
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Martin produced the Austin Texas album "Dan & Dave Live at the Backroom" This is a picture of the Teac 80-8 and mixer set-up in the back of Phantom's van. Peter provided final mastering oversight.
Go
to more on Dan & Dave and listen to some of the album
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Engineer Ben at Cedar Creek studio with Dave, Peter and Dan
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Martin and Peter with engineer Ben at Cedar Creek studio in Austin, Texas mastering Phantom's Dan & Dave "Live at the Back Room"
See also Phantom's History 1980's |
Martin took the position of Chief Engineer at Austin Custom Records. Later New Generations Productions staff also located at the Austin Custom Records offices.
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Martin responded to this ad when he first came across it in 1978 in El Paso. He had purchased the equipment previously, however wanted to connect with the referral service. In 1979 ,Len Clark contacted Martin and indicated he had obtained my information when he bought Land Voice. A new company was formed that included Len Clark, Cheryl & Martin and Peter Butcher. The new company was named New Generation Productions, Inc. More Land Voice info
Brochure 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
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New generations productions staff in Austin Custom Records offices.
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New Generations Productions officed out of Austin Custom Records and eventually Martin designed and NGP began building studio and office space a t the MET Center at Austin's East Ben White and Riverside Drive (pic right) Plan 1 Plan 2
Initially NGP was also working with the band Shammy consisting of James Mikulenka, Larry & Wayne Gathright (Music Lane Recording), The group was originally from Victoria and owned a recording studio that was built into a mobile home. The MET Center allowed the band to park the trailer behind Building 1 and Martin engineered some of the groups sessions.
When NGP closed their offices, Riverside Sound eventually  became the new owner. The studio was completed by Bill Johnson and Herschel Cunningham. One of Riverside Sound's first projects was recording tracks for Stevie Ray Vaughan's Texas Flood, for which the studio won gold records. read more... and more
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When NGP dissolved, Martin & Peter joined to produce and promote music through Music, Etc. , and Rich Records.
 
While continuing Phantom Productions, Martin formed a new company with Peter Butcher. Peter and Martin had met while working on NGP projects. Using Peter's European resources, Music, Etc. worked to secure new music from recording studios in the US and promote them to international publishers and record companies. Peter and martin also enjoyed success during this time charting Leslie Gore's "It's My Party and I'll Cry if I Want To " on the US Billboard charts. See more
More Music, Etc. - Business Plan Newsletter 1 2 3 Artist Form
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Phantom van during recording & production of the Sweethome Baptist Church album
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One
of Phantom and Peter's early collaborations was the production of a demo for
the Cain Sisters who had secured backing from Willie Nelson.
This came about, so the story goes, by their blocking Willie's exit from his
ranch and talking him into to listening to some early tracks. That's Peter
(above) dancing to tracks at the on-location session. Poster
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Peter's birthday with Tina, Lara and Tina's family
Peter unusually speechless after Tina surprised him with a nurse-o-gram.
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Peter and Tina
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Martin Cayce & Peter working on Rich Michaels record view more Peter Butcher
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Music
Etcetera worked with quite a few bands during these years. One band that created
a large following was Shammy. The band members included James Mikulinka (who was also our real estate agent) and
Wayne Gathright (previous Austin Music Lane Recording Studio owner). The band
owned its own recording studio built into a mobile home and included a great
Trident mixing board. Poster
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 One
of the artists Music Etcetera worked with was Kim Meyers.
 Click
here to go to photos and a clip from Phantom's recording of Kim Meyers at
a country venue on RR2222.
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James
Martin & Bruce Newlin at Rollingwood recording studio where Peter was working with James Hinkle and Housewives Choice.
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Jeff
Mark
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Peter
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