Poor Butterfly   Music-Raymond Hubbell / Lyrics-John L. Golden       A Prairie Home Companion
Arranged by: Chet Atkins & Johnny Gimble
Transcribed by: Paul Doty
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 @    A 7 (9)     A m 7            A m 7            
Cm 9             
Bm7 9         i Am7              	Chet played this on the Prairie Home Companion radio show November 23, 1985.  There is a (not high quality) Real Audio clip of the performance in the PHC archives from which this transcription is taken.  It's a great example of my favorite type of Chet tune; a near spontaneous arrangement, played with lots of bounce and total confidence; about as near  "back porch" picking as we get with Mr A.

The hardest part is the reach to the 7th and 8th fret from the D9; I'm confident that this is correct though.  Remember that Chet had big hands and 50 years of practice at this point :-)  It's pretty typical that he would want to hear that third in the bass; he often used exceptional chords to get that effect.

This tab is just the first time through.  After this, Johnny sang while Chet played open chord rhythm behind him, then Johnny soloed with Chet accompanying in like manner.  When Johnny sang the last verse, Chet repeated the opening section quietly under Johnny's voice, then reverted to open chord backup to the end.

Mike Joyce thinks that Chet's playing on this tune is more like a young Merle Travis than almost any other Chet tune and I guess the case can be made for that.  Chet would have been about 61 when this was done, and to me it represents Chet really comfortable in his skin so to speak.   I think playing live on the radio brought him full circle and was something he enjoyed immensely.  It seemed to bring out some of the youthful exuberance in his playing.  One thing that points to this (for me) is the use of a couple stepping bass notes (bar 5 & 13) that many of us use in our own versions of tunes but Chet seemed to avoid more often than not.  I suppose he wanted to make sure it didn't become a too oft repeated crutch (while you and I don't worry about that LOL).  While I think this is a pretty accurate transcription, you have to hear it to get the idea of 'thump' and extra brush strokes he used; he was really "wide open" on it.

I recall hearing Chet closing the PHC with "I Only Have Eyes For You" sometime in the late Eighties or early Nineties; I presume it was an early version of the one that is on the Solo Sessions CD.  Chet announced it was for Leona; it was either their anniversary or would be in a day or two.  Unfortunately, I only caught a bit of it in the car and can't find it in the PHC archives.  I'd love to have a copy if anyone recorded it back then and has an mp3.    c          0x   %).38      Mr. Atkins          c   n      0 ") 8      Johnny Gimble r   
