 The
Butanes were formed in 1983 shortly after Curtis Obeda returned home
from Chicago. A blues protege, Obeda
began his career playing guitar with the Twin Cities Blues luminaries
of the late 70's and early 80's: Mojo Buford, Baby Doo Caston, Lazy
Bill Lucas, Big Walter Smith and
W.C. Handy Award winner Sonny Rodgers. He moved to Chicago and began
performing around town with Hubert Sumlin,
Sammy Fender (Redmond) as well as occasional
others. Curt's tenure in Chicago honed his guitar playing skills and
cemented friendships with many Windy City Blues men, notably
Albert Collins, Jimmy Dawkins,
Lefty Dizz, Hip
Linkchain and Big Smokey Smothers.
 Curt
returned home to rejoin the Mudsharks, the first band he ever worked
with, only to have the leader of the band abandon music. Left with a
band and some previously booked gigs Curt assumed the leadership, revamped
the setlist and renamed the band the Butanes. A large variety of local
musicians moved in and out of the Butanes' lineup for the next few years.
Things began to really heat up when John Lindberg, Curt's grade-school
friend, joined on bass and Robb Stupka, ex-Luther Allison, arrived on
drums. The band was offered a house gig at the 400 bar and worked every
Thursday as a trio from 1987-91. Around this time they occasionally
added a pair of ex-Willie & the Bees to the show: baritone sax/vocalist
Maurice Jacox and Merlin "Bronco" Brunkow on tenor sax - a
"proto-Soul Revue."
  They
were often seen backing visting luminaries at the Blues Saloon and other
midwestern nightclubs and festivals. Earl King hired the band to play
behind him at the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival from 1991-2002,
a 1993 tour of Europe, a 1999 trip to France, various Black Top Records'
Blues-A-Ramas, the Bayfront Blues Festival, many dates at Buddy Guy's
Legends and the First Annual St. Croix Blues Festival in the U.S. Virgin
Islands. In 1992 local promoter Jim "Corps Solide" Callen
hooked the Butanes up with Grammy-award winning zydeco accordionist
Al Rapone and the band joined him on east coast, west coast, midwest,
carribbean and Alaskan tours disguised as the Zydeco Expressmen. In
1997 Al and the Butanes released Al Rapone Plays Tribute - a tribute
to Clifton Chenier on Atomic Theory records.
 During
the evening of April 11, 1998 the Butanes added Michael B. Nelson on
trombone and Jim Greenwell on tenor saxophone and started another live
recording project at the Cabooze bar in Minneapolis, MN. Originally
planned as a promotional and songwriting demo it proved so popular among
fans and booking agents that they went back Monday afternoon July 10,
2000 to record the additional material needed to complete the CD. Christened
Day & Night the CD was released on Haute records in 2001.
The band
recorded two CDs of sweet soul music with former Goldwax/Checker vocalist
Willie Walker, Right Where I Belong in 2004 and Memphisapolis
in 2006. Both ranked as number 1 "picks to click" on XM Radios'
Bluesville station. The as yet unnamed all-but-completed followup Blues
recording is shelved for the moment but may still see the light of day
with a few alterations.
Willie
and the Butanes traveled to Utrecht, the Netherlands to perform at the
final Blues Estaffette in 2004. They spent 10 days in 2007 playing at
the Lucerne Blues Festival in Switzerland and headlined the first P-vine
Blues Festival in Tokyo in the Fall of 2008.
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