Crow Johnson Evans

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Interview: Mike Williams

About THAT song ..., Auntie Crow's Corner, Crow Johnson Evans Interviews, Life on the Road as an Artist, Musicians, Uncategorized / by

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Part 1. The story of meeting and “Catch Another Butterfly”.

Mike Williams back when

Crow: It’s going to take a long long time to ask all my friends the questions I think you– the readers– will enjoy learning about. Rather than explaining how I met Mike Williams, I’ll let you hear it from him. Mike, how did we meet?

Mike: Crow, you and I met in autumn 1966, under a tree near the UT student union in Austin, Texas.  No, I must have the timing wrong – you’re only 29 now.  (LOL flatterer)

I was sitting under that tree with a busted leg, playing my busted 12-string guitar with a busted arm and broken finger and writing my first two songs, “Balloon Song” about a kid who let go of his balloon string on Gentle Thursday (Austin’s first love-in), and “Catch Another Butterfly” about nostalgia at age 22. 

You came along and stopped to hear, and I played those songs for you.  I was really busted up but immediately started healing at the notion of a pretty girl liking my music.  Then I found out you and your husband Paul Johnson were a musical duet.  Then I found out Paul knew enough about guitar repair to fix where the motorcycle wreck (see next story) crushed one edge of my guitar.  Then I found out you had a pre-war cassette recorder (which REALLY made me think you were cool) and you recorded me singing “Catch Another Butterfly.”  

After three months in Austin, I motorcycled home to North Carolina.  Soon after I left Austin, Paul’s brother Michael Johnson came to town, heard your tape, learned “Catch Another Butterfly,” and went up to Minnesota or one of those other can’t-decide-if-it’s-mid-or-west states and he formed a trio with David Boyce and John Denver, and Michael taught them the song, and when the trio broke up, John went solo and recorded “Catch Another Butterfly” on his first album.  I found out about John’s recording by receiving a phone call from his New York manager Milt Okun on a payphone at a Denver club where Steve Fromholz and I (the original Frummox) were doing an audition set that convinced the owner to fire the house act and hire us. 

Over the next half-century, royalty checks for “Catch Another Butterfly,” which John also recorded with The Muppets, supported my music habit.  John performed “Catch Another Butterfly” for three decades.  Someone sent me a tape of him, shortly before his plane crashed, sitting alone in the kitchen of a fish camp may be in Alaska, playing “Catch Another Butterfly” just because he liked it. 

The journey of that song from your house to John’s recording . . . I thank Michael Johnson (RIP) for that.  Michael also was the guy who told me that if you wait long enough, you can co-write with yourself.

Well, Crow, you can see that it all ties together, and it all started with you finding me under a tree in Austin and inviting me home.  And if you hadn’t had that cool pre-war cassette recorder, we’d have just traded a few tunes and I’d have gone on to a career mass-producing widgets because there’s nothing I’m actually qualified to do except pick and sing.

Crow: I’m laughing. Every little thing is really connected. Great story and I know the history of that song will be a surprise to lots of John Denver fans. Thank you… let’s do this again. I’ll think up a next question.

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Comments

      • It’s absolutely true, Crow.
        When life was unfolding for Boomers we experienced so much wonderful music and had thoughtful chemistry driven heart felt conversations while learning about life. I’m happy you’re doing this and sharing because it has awakened so many memories for me. Like the time I was in DC. My friend and I were in a bar talking and drinking if course. Suddenly a pitcher of Beer showed up for us. We asked who sent the pitcher (a real extravagant gift. It was Stokely Carmichael! Those were the days!

  2. I never heard this heartwarming story before!!! ??? Serendipity happens!

  3. Well this is one of the best stories I’ve heard in forever.
    Thanks for posting it.

    • I well remember the song but didn’t remember the motorcycle wreck that led up to it. That must have been shortly before you totaled that VW bug, Mike. You were sort of a folk hero to me in those days. So glad you survived those adventures to please us with many more decades of memorable songs. Thanks for this story! From your actual Sis.

  4. Ah! The magic of musical friendship. You just never know who will enjoy your songs and music. Thanks for sharing. I remember my first few years at Kerrville, Mike was bigger than life, his hair too, and the Crow ‘s nest. Please share more…

  6. I also met Mike at a Gentle Thursday on the UT campus and heard him sing “Is There A Heaven For Balloons?”…..don’t know if it was the same day you met him??
    Shortly afterward, he and I each got gigs singing at The Red Lion Club on W. 6th St in Austin…so long ago…we’ve been friends a LONG time!
    Crow, you and I met around the same time…maybe ’66? You and Paul and Dianne Ranft and I had bookings at The Eleventh Door , at 11th and Red River in Austin…so many good times over the decades!! I love you dearly!!

      • Too long, no see. Let me know if you ever come back to Houston. Otherwise, I guess I’ll have to make it up to Arkansas one of these days — so many music friends have moved there (or lived there initially.) Glad to read your stories on this — I enjoyed learning more about Mike. Although I started singing in Austin at the Chequered Flag in 1968 (courtesy of Alan Damron), I didn’t meet Mike until I opened for him at the old Saxon Pub on I35 sometime in the early ’70s. I had no idea how deep your connection was. Be well!

  10. You never know who you’ll meet under. A tree—or an old-time restaurant.

Me & Miss Henrietta Signed