December 2005 | Volume 2 | Number 5

Bee Speed CD Review by Jess Marich Bee Speed is unlike any other group out there. This interesting trio features electric banjo as lead instrument alongside a solid as stone rhythm section of Christian Grizzard on bass and Justin Amaral on drums. Charles Butler is moving the banjo into new territory not even traversed by the like of Bela Fleck. He plays electric guitar riffs and finds a multitude of different tonal approaches on banjo to an extent where the listener forgets what instrumentation is making this fine music. The name comes from Butler's beekeeper brother, "When you handle bees, you´ll get stung a lot less often once you learn to move at bee speed". The groups influences are bluegrass, latin, rock and world music, but as they travel those roads they wind into their own new paths. Butler´s approach is light on twang and more about the tones and articulation usually exercised by electric guitarists. Their music is a blend of jazz, pyschedelia and bluegrass. Besides their engaging originals it includes Chick Corea´s "Spain", Billy Cobham´s "Red Baron" and the Grateful Dead´s "Black Muddy River". Charles writes most of the bands material though Grizzard and Amaral each chime in with one. Butler states, "The banjo is an amazing instrument that has tons of unrealized potential." Charles´ banjo was originally a Nechville Aurora Borealis, but has been modified by Tom Stadler, a Nashville Luthier. The primary pickup is an EMG magnetic which is blended with a piezzo under the bridge. He recorded through two different amps simultaneously and panned them. One, a Roland VGA-5, was for a warm midrange palette, the other, a Crate acoustic guitar amp, was for bass. Bee Speed´s music has been called a "psychedelic electric banjo show". That's not a bad moniker except for the fact that it might be overlooking just how strong the other two musicians are. Whatever you call it, it´s different and pushes the envelope. In today´s music world that´s definitely a good thing.

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