New York-based musician and traveling storyteller Matt Butler recently unveiled Reckless Son—a one man show of words and music inspired by his experiences performing in prisons across the country, which he debuted at New York’s Rockwood Music Hall a few weeks ago and will continue to perform.
Butler will release an EP of music from the show, Reckless Son, on January 27. The first track, “Time To Be A Man,” is out now.
Watch a trailer for Reckless Son HERE, listen/share the song HERE and watch/share the lyric video HERE.
““Time To Be A Man’ is about taking responsibility for your own life,” Butler explains. “It’s taking an idea that’s been turned into a punchline and reclaiming it as something affirming and meaningful. It isn’t a statement about manhood or masculinity, it’s about saying this is who I am and this is what I’m going to be; I want my life and I won’t throw it away.” Watch the monologue from “Time To Be A Man” HERE.
Reckless Son draws from Butler’s real-life experiences performing inside prisons across the country, including Ohio’s Chillicothe Correctional Institution, Utah’s Gunnison Prison and the New York City Department of Correction’s facilities on Rikers Island. The show is a collection of music and monologues, organized into nine chapters each painting a vivid picture of people he met and lessons they taught him. More than just a show, Reckless Son acts as a calling, service, and pledge to “bring healing through the arts to those behind the walls,” Butler says.
“I've never been the kind of writer who just sits down and writes a love song,” Butler says. “I’ve always been drawn to deeper, darker, more intense subject matter.”
“Reckless Son wasn’t written for the incarcerated. It was written for those who haven’t had the privilege of meeting these people and hearing their stories for themselves,” he explains. “The show is as faithful a rendering of the truth of my experience as I can offer. The people in jail know their own story already. Reckless Son is more about getting that story heard.”
