J.B. Kingsley

I have a theory that I've discussed many times over the years with a variety of musicians: A good song is a good song -- it can stand on its own, regardless of how it is presented. It may be a presented as a pop or R&B song, but if it is solid, it can be stripped down to an acoustic guitar or piano and vocal and still exist as a solid song, then be rebuilt in a new style to create something different, yet still remain strong.

Perhaps those who understand and exercise this best are the basic singer/songwriters who compose their songs around simple arrangements. Tulsa has always been home to great songwriters, but over the past few years, we have seen a fresh wave of young songwriters in the likes of Zeke Duhon, Chase Stites (who relocated to Florida over the past year), Oscar Charles and Apollo (who have been away at school), and now J.B. Kingsley.

J.B. Kingsley is presented as a band project, but at its core, it is the songwriting outlet for Jake Butts, a 20-year-old Tulsa native and Tulsa Memorial H.S. graduate who is preparing to start his junior year at T.U. as an energy management major with a minor in music.

Although you may not be familiar with the name, Butts has been active within the local music scene for the past four years. When delving into his musical history, Butts doesn't want to go too far.

"I was in a band in high school, but we'll just leave it unnamed," he admitted. "It was fun, but we weren't very good."

That band ended as Butts graduated from Union in 2011, and he has spent the past two years keeping active by playing guitar for Zeke Duhon and filling in, usually as bassist, for bands like After Midnight and Big City Pilgrim.

Amidst playing with others, however, Butts has continued to write and develop his own material. After beginning to record in 2011, he had finished ten songs when he decided he didn't like the direction it was going. Of those tracks, he took five away from those sessions and decided in 2012 to rerecord them. It was in early 2013, however, that he got focused and decided it was time to record and release a CD.

Whereas Butts admitted that he wasn't happy with the original recordings because the songs didn't all fit together stylistically, with his debut, EP, he has packaged five tightly knit tunes that all tie together as a semi-acoustic disc that allows his lyrics and songwriting to stand front and center, and therein lies the disc's strength.

When discussing influences, Butts openly shares that he grew up on a healthy diet of '90s rock: Alice in Chains, Audioslave, Nirvana, and even Mudhoney were constantly in the background, but he most naturally gravitated to the melodic rock and hooks of artists like Tonic, Dishwalla, Oasis, and Third Eye Blind while developing a love for acts like Airborne Toxic Event, Bright Eyes, Dave Matthews Band and Brand New. Granted, that's a broad cross-section of artists, but it's also a broad resource to draw from and Butts has drawn from each without mimicking any of them to create his own voice.

That voice finally gets a chance to stand out with five tracks that Butts has groomed into a fitting introduction to his vision as a songwriter. "Her Smile" stands out mid-disc as an uplifting, mid-tempo acoustic pop tune and centerpiece of the disc. The piano-driven ballad "Our Place" closes the disc, a song that Butts originally wrote when he was 16. As such, the disc collects songs written over the span of a few years, with Butts admitting that "Sunlight in June" took three years to finish, as he started it going into a relationship and finished it as the relationship ended. Even so, his patience in developing the songs has resulted in an incredibly solid debut.

J.B. Kingsley's CD release party will be held this Friday evening, August 16 at Foolish Things (1001 S. Main Street) at 7:30pm. It's a free show with doors at 7pm and music beginning at 7:30pm with The Lonelys opening and Zeke Duhon as the featured guest. J.B. Kingsley will headline the night with Butts accompanied by Olivia McGraw on violin, Paul Humphrey on piano and guitar, Nicholas Foster on drums, and Craig Delammermore on bass. Don't miss out on an opportunity to see what kind of talent Tulsa is developing with its next generation of musicians and pick up a copy of J.B. Kingsley's debut disc. - Urban Tulsa

I have a theory that I've discussed many times over the years with a variety of musicians: A good song is a good song -- it can stand on its own, regardless of how it is presented. It may be a presented as a pop or R&B song, but if it is solid, it can be stripped down to an acoustic guitar or piano and vocal and still exist as a solid song, then be rebuilt in a new style to create something different, yet still remain strong.

Perhaps those who understand and exercise this best are the basic singer/songwriters who compose their songs around simple arrangements. Tulsa has always been home to great songwriters, but over the past few years, we have seen a fresh wave of young songwriters in the likes of Zeke Duhon, Chase Stites (who relocated to Florida over the past year), Oscar Charles and Apollo (who have been away at school), and now J.B. Kingsley.

J.B. Kingsley is presented as a band project, but at its core, it is the songwriting outlet for Jake Butts, a 20-year-old Tulsa native and Tulsa Memorial H.S. graduate who is preparing to start his junior year at T.U. as an energy management major with a minor in music.

Although you may not be familiar with the name, Butts has been active within the local music scene for the past four years. When delving into his musical history, Butts doesn't want to go too far.

"I was in a band in high school, but we'll just leave it unnamed," he admitted. "It was fun, but we weren't very good."

That band ended as Butts graduated from Union in 2011, and he has spent the past two years keeping active by playing guitar for Zeke Duhon and filling in, usually as bassist, for bands like After Midnight and Big City Pilgrim.

Amidst playing with others, however, Butts has continued to write and develop his own material. After beginning to record in 2011, he had finished ten songs when he decided he didn't like the direction it was going. Of those tracks, he took five away from those sessions and decided in 2012 to rerecord them. It was in early 2013, however, that he got focused and decided it was time to record and release a CD.

Whereas Butts admitted that he wasn't happy with the original recordings because the songs didn't all fit together stylistically, with his debut, EP, he has packaged five tightly knit tunes that all tie together as a semi-acoustic disc that allows his lyrics and songwriting to stand front and center, and therein lies the disc's strength.

When discussing influences, Butts openly shares that he grew up on a healthy diet of '90s rock: Alice in Chains, Audioslave, Nirvana, and even Mudhoney were constantly in the background, but he most naturally gravitated to the melodic rock and hooks of artists like Tonic, Dishwalla, Oasis, and Third Eye Blind while developing a love for acts like Airborne Toxic Event, Bright Eyes, Dave Matthews Band and Brand New. Granted, that's a broad cross-section of artists, but it's also a broad resource to draw from and Butts has drawn from each without mimicking any of them to create his own voice.

That voice finally gets a chance to stand out with five tracks that Butts has groomed into a fitting introduction to his vision as a songwriter. "Her Smile" stands out mid-disc as an uplifting, mid-tempo acoustic pop tune and centerpiece of the disc. The piano-driven ballad "Our Place" closes the disc, a song that Butts originally wrote when he was 16. As such, the disc collects songs written over the span of a few years, with Butts admitting that "Sunlight in June" took three years to finish, as he started it going into a relationship and finished it as the relationship ended. Even so, his patience in developing the songs has resulted in an incredibly solid debut.

J.B. Kingsley's CD release party will be held this Friday evening, August 16 at Foolish Things (1001 S. Main Street) at 7:30pm. It's a free show with doors at 7pm and music beginning at 7:30pm with The Lonelys opening and Zeke Duhon as the featured guest. J.B. Kingsley will headline the night with Butts accompanied by Olivia McGraw on violin, Paul Humphrey on piano and guitar, Nicholas Foster on drums, and Craig Delammermore on bass. Don't miss out on an opportunity to see what kind of talent Tulsa is developing with its next generation of musicians and pick up a copy of J.B. Kingsley's debut disc. - Urban Tulsa