Buttercup

Author: Jan Raczycki


I love this record! It is the best CD that I have purchased this year. It is a true celebration of the human heart in all of its beauty and ugliness...the fickle heart, the cheating heart, the lonesome heart, the possessive heart, the broken heart, the evil heart, the vengeful heart etc. It effectively plays on honky tonk cliches like the therapeutic benefits and tragic consequences of whisky, the road and a smoking gun and makes them get into your soul like an irresistable pulp fiction novel. This music is hillbilly noir. Pour yourself a Maker's Mark, don your Stetson or fedora (either will do), grab a hold of your sweetheart and spin her across the dance floor. In this world of comparisons, think Patsy Cline collaborating with Tom Waits.
- review Posted on CDBaby

Sep 12, 2006.

The music of the honky-tonk group Buttercup inhabits the world of Hank, Johnny Paycheck and Ray Price and the Cherokee Cowboys. Mixing original tunes with classic country covers, this five-piece band - led by sisters Cassandra (Moondog) and Octavia (T-Bone) - sings about cowboy poets who don't stay, salvation through Cuervo and the hard-luck life of a barfly. Simply put, Buttercup is a Richmond band not to be missed. 9 p.m. With The Dregs, a local rockabilly act.

- Richmond.com

August 13, 2007

With two guitar-playing chicks at its forefront, Buttercup revels in delivering punchy Country-Western licks that pay homage to timeless genre subject matter – like reaching the bottom of a whiskey bottle and honky-tonk heartthrobs. Factor in some rock and roll attitude and a wicked fiddler, and you've got some music that Pulp Fiction's Vincent Vega and Mia Wallace would be happy to cut a rug to. With 3rd Wave. 9:30 p.m. $5.
- Richmond.com

Aug 28, 2006. In a city known for interesting artists, the trio known as Buttercup may be a little more to the strange end, or they could be right smack in the middle of the road with their hauntingly spare Americana covers and originals about love, loss, death and desolation. Whether you find these two guitar-playing sisters and a drummer refreshingly unique or disturbingly morose may have a little to do with how much you’ve had to drink and how much you like to listen to Patsy Cline. Personally, we love them with a shot of Beam Black and a High Life. - Style Weekly

From the Weblog Archive of
RAGING BULLARD
Posted by George Bullard on Tue, Oct 30, 2007 at 12:58 AM

An aside to transplanted Southerners...
If you're into cheatin' honky tonk music, there's a new star on the horizon: Buttercup, a Virginia band featuring two sisters with "iffy" reputations and, apparently, a passing acquaintance with 1800 tequila.

They offer an original sound, citing influences ranging from George Jones to Dean Martin to Mickey Spillane. In their album, "Evil for You," sisters Cassandra Cossitt and Octavia Carpin live up to the billing of honest music. For Metro Detroit's thousands of transplanted Southerners, chalk up Buttercup as a cure for that fake country music flowing out of Nashville.

http://info.detnews.com/redesign/blogs/bullardblog/index.cfm?blogid=7843

- Detroit News, detnews.com

Women and guns. Now there's a cocktail full of trouble. This thought was brought to the Bluesbunny's mind by the glorious cover of Buttercup's new album "Evil for You". Reminiscent of the gaudy covers to old pulp fiction novels, it sets the scene for 14 tracks of country music like they used to do before Nashville overdosed it with saccharine. Just the kind of thing that you might get if Patsy sat down next to Ida Lupino and they did a duet in that classic movie "Road House". This is torch singing country style in good old fashioned black and white.
It was hard to find fault with this album. In fact, we gave up trying. Cassandra Cossit and Octavia Carpin's vocals intertwine to give a spellbinding yet world weary feel. Respectful of their musical heritage, this band take a mix of lesser known covers and their own compositions and transport them into a land thought long forgotten. Like any good "B" movie, the subjects of these songs are a mixed bunch of the unfortunate, the lost, the lonely and those seeking redemption. They drown their sorrows in "A River of Whiskey" and you can just feel the despair coming through in John Hanor's guitar solo. At Bluesbunny Towers, we do like songs that involve the demon drink. "It's The Bottle Talkin'" is a classy slice of melodrama about the times when there really was no such thing as a sensitive man unless he had a drink in him. There is not a bad song here but we have a particular soft spot for the positively jaunty "Cowboy Poets and Honky Tonk Heartthrobs". Oh, and whilst we hate to admit it (Bluesbunny has longstanding issues with fiddles) the star of the show on this album is Mike Tighe's remarkably tasteful and effective fiddle playing.
Buttercup have managed a fine balance with this album. It sounds like a reverential tribute to the glory days of country music but it still manages to be fresh and interesting. In the interests of science (of course!), we poured ourselves a glass of Virginia Gentleman as we listened, closed our eyes and found ourselves in a bar at a truck stop falling for the kind of woman (scarlet lipstick, chain smoking, world weary) that they just don't make anymore. Oh Buttercup, will you sing another song for me?
Available by worldwide mail order from CD Baby.

Standout Tracks:
„X Cowboy Poets and Honky Tonk Heartthrobs ¡V A jaunty journey through the neon lit streets of hillbilly life
„X Walk Away ¡V the ideal song to open a country album
„X River of Whiskey ¡V this took us all the way back to Ida Lupino and "One for My Baby"
- www.bluesbunny.com