Guy Buttery - Songs from the Cane Fields (20th Anniversary Edition) (2004/2025) [Official Digital Download 24/48]

To a large degree Songs From The Cane Fields delivered on the promise foreshadowed in the title of its predecessor.

Perhaps it was at least partly because Guy Buttery, though already so unusually gifted a guitar player, was so young when his debut, When I Grow Up … was released, that its successor did not suffer from the difficult second album syndrome that so often afflicts new musical acts. The point is that the artist has his whole career to date to prepare for the first album, so the second, delivered under considerably greater pressure, frequently more or less repeats the dose.

Of course, the commercial imperatives of acoustic guitar instrumentalists differ from those of aspiring pop and rock stars, so, while the 18-year-old Buttery might have lacked the career experience of many, comparatively speaking time was on his side. However, as the youngest nominee in the history of the South African Music Awards – that debut saw him nominated twice – in the days when CDs ruled there would surely have been some pressure on him to deliver a follow-up. But he took his time and exactly three years passed between the two release dates.

The musical growth is clearly apparent. There’s a sense on the debut of a young gunslinger trying all the tricks in his armoury at once, possibly in case he doesn’t get a second shot. This time, besides the obvious technical improvements in the playing, his compositional skills begin to assert themselves as he starts to find a voice of his own. The sound of his instrument has become as much a characteristic of Buttery’s playing as the notes he draws from it and Cane Fields is where this distinction is first made.

The opening track, ‘December Poems’, with its enduringly memorable five-note central motif, might be the best example of this and, twenty years later, the composition is a two-part highlight of Buttery’s superb Orchestrations album that is full of them. In addition, Indian music, which has become such a critical part of his musical output, and whose connection to those cane fields of the album title is so historically and culturally significant, is introduced by way of a sitar improvisation named after a local bird. There’s also a rare sighting of Buttery’s pianistic proficiency on an extended piece in tribute to guitarist Ralph Towner that starts like a Satie-esque miniature and takes in Cecil Taylor-styled free improvisation along the way. Meanwhile ‘Mad Scientist Ritual’, bookended by what appears to be a wry comment on the blues featuring scratchy slide guitar, continues Buttery’s explorations into a sonic world beyond the open, guileless and often lovely melodies of pieces like ‘Driving North For The Sun’.

Inevitably not all of this sticks and some of these threads have been abandoned, or at least significantly altered, over the past twenty years. Yet none of them was wasted and the palpable sense of enthusiasm and excitement of Songs From The Cane Fields hasn’t dimmed at all.

Having spent part of my formative years in coastal KwaZulu-Natal, cane fields were a vista I was very well acquainted with. Another frequent sight was of a young Guy Buttery weaving his way through the coastal forests that remained entwined with the cane fields. These forests spilled onto the beaches where my friends and I were seeking refuge from the increasingly crowded surf spots along the North Coast. If I know anything about Guy, I know, for sure, that he was deep in search of adventure, birds and a slice or two of ecstatic musical oblivion. What he found in those forests and their connecting cane field roads was something altogether worth the search, a deep well of inspiration, space apart from everyday things, and the impetus to experiment and step outside of conventions and assumptions in his compositions.

The feelings that bubble to the surface, thinking back on the circumstances and events of 2005, are in the realm of what we flippantly call“heady.” I’m not sure that description really does those vibes any justice. That first half of the decade was a very special time and place where South African artists were emerging from the psychological trappings and imagination-crushing effects of Apartheid and its associated consequences. We seemed to be moving into the future with a renewed energy, a grander purpose. There were no boundaries to what could be done and this, coupled with an invigorated sense of the possible and the necessary, drove the output of the time.

Finding words to describe what Guy and his contemporaries (the likes of Derek Gripper, Nibs van der Spuy and Felix Laband) were experiencing and creating at the time is not a simple task. Their work was so totally and categorically foundational to everything I imagined South African could be, that it leads me to believe that we need to invent some more appropriate vocabulary. In summary, these gems of humanity ended up giving us a collective body of work of, frankly, astonishing quality. I’d place “Songs from the Cane Fields” near (if not on) the top of that pile. It is truly a wondrous exploration of acoustic instrumentation; a fusion of styles and facets that were uncommonly represented together at the time and it remains as musically revitalising today as it was 20 years ago. I have no doubt that this majestic record will continue to give and inspire for a while still…

Guy Buttery - acoustic guitar, classical guitar, sitar, piano
Baz Corden - acoustic guitar
Angus Kerr - violin
Nibs van der Spuy - acoustic guitar
Ellis Pearson - double bass

Tracklist:
01 December Poems (remastered)
02 Driving North For The Sun (remastered)
03 I Feel Like I'm Standing in the Rain (remastered)
04 Nectarinia Amethystina (remastered)
05 Spontaneous Combustion (remastered)
06 Foot-Tapper II (The Sequel) (remastered)
07 Renwot (remastered)
08 Mad Scientist Ritual (remastered)
09 Room 23 _ Awkwardosity (remastered)
10 Nail Problems (remastered)
11 Wet Feet (remastered)
12 Kogelsberg (remastered)
13 December Poems (live in Durban)
14 Driving North For The Sun (alternate take)
15 Nectarinia Amyesthinia (alternate take)
16 Spontaneous Combustion (live in Durban)
17 Making Warm (unreleased experiment)
18 Room 29 _ Awkwardosity (031 demo)


Thanks to the Original customer!