BUTCH HANCOCK Lubbock Mafia; Singer/Songwriter Lubbock, Texas; July 12, 1945 - In late January and early February of 1990, Austin singer/ songwriter Butch Hancock put on a show of epic proportions when for six consecutive nights, he took over the Cactus Cafe and with guests including Joe Ely, Jimmie Dale Gilmore, Townes Van Zandt, the Texana Dames, Kimmie Rhodes, Erik Hokkanen, Jesse Taylor and many more performed over 200 of his original compositions. These concerts yielded 14 one hour cassettes that were subsequently made available to the public through Hancock's "No 2 Alike" tape of the month club. All in all, it was a very fitting tribute to the career of one of Texas' best and most prolific songwriters of the 1970s and '80s. Born and raised in West Texas, Hancock was a member of the Flatlanders with Ely and Gilmore in the early 1970s, but while they went on to prominent solo careers, he remained in the shadows, penning many of the songs that helped make them famous ("She Never Spoke Spanish to Me"; "If You Were a Bluebird"; "Boxcars"; "Just a Wave"; "My Mind's Gotta Mind of Its Own"; "West Texas Waltz"; "Nothing of the Kind"). Meanwhile, Hancock performed in Austin (where he relocated in 1976), started his own record company (Rainlight), and recorded a number of very low-tech albums full of clever wordplay and observations on the culture and environment of West Texas. He also developed a second career as a painter and opened Lubbock or Leave It as a combination art gallery and performance space. In 1990, Hancock recorded a memorable live album with old pal Gilmore, Two Roads: Live in Australia. Iin the early '90s, he began to make more commercial albums for Sugar Hill (Own the Way Over Here; Own and Own; Eats Away the Night) mostly drawn from his old Rainlight material, but with some new songs as well. Around the same time, he was also a cast member for the play Chippy, along with Joe Ely, Terry Allen, Jimmie Dale Gilmore, and Jo Carol Pierce. In 1996, Hancock tired of the Austin scene and relocated to the tiny town of Terlingua, Texas. Stretching out in a variety of directions (photographer, river rafting guide in the Southwest and Mexico, space-age architect, painter, experimental physicist), Hancock still found time to write and record You Coulda Walked Around the World, a stripped-down collection of ruminations that harken back to his earlier material. In 1998, The Wind's Dominion was re-released on CD, and Hancock worked with Ely and Gilmore (as the Hill Country Flatlanders) on a song for the soundtrack of The Horse Whisperer. Throughout 1998-99, Butch re-issued his classic early albums on CD including West Texas Waltzes, Firewater Seeks Its Own Level, The Wind's Dominion, Diamond Hill, and Yella Rose with Marce Lacouture.