Since his arrival to Chapel Hill, in 1982, Ed Butler has been a shining light in an already vibrant music scene in North Carolina. Comfortable in all styles and genres, Ed is known to add just the right touch to any musical project. In 1984 and 1986, Ed toured with "The Bo Lozzoff Rock & Blues Traveling Road Show", which performed at prison facilities throughout the state of North Carolina. 1985-87, he performed with the modern improvisational band, Good Neighbors (a.k.a. Anubis Leisure Society Orchestra.) February 1986, Ed performed in an experimental music concert call "EXP" by Rich Robeson, Chris Turner, and Danny Moses. From March-April 1986, he had his first stint with the theatre. He was the pit percussionist for "Purlie", a production at Theatre in the Park, Raleigh, NC. And in 1986-89, Ed performed and toured with The Thelonious Society, a middle-eastern influenced jazz quartet, which included a one-month concert tour of Morocco. In 1989, Ed Butler began his long musical association with the Tony Award winning Red Clay Ramblers, who Actor & Playwright Sam Shepard called "A great American band" and the Nashville Tennessean called "Acoustic Music Greats." Ed traveled and performed with the Ramblers all over including The Piccolo Spoleto Festival in Charleston, SC, the Winnipeg Folk Festival in Winnipeg, Canada; both in 1989, the Lorient Festival Interceltique, Lorient, France in 1990, two live radio broadcast of "A Mountain Stage" in 1992 and 2002 for West Virginia Public Radio at the WVA Cultural Arts Building, Charleston, West Virginia, and "A Prairie Home Companion" broadcast live from Carmichael Auditorium on the campus of The University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill on May 25th,1996. In 2005, Ed and the Ramblers collaborated with The Carolina Ballet to perform "A Carolina Jamboree", a ballet choreographed by Lynne Taylor-Corbett. It was also broadcast statewide for the UNC Center for Public Television on January 25th and February 2nd, 2006. And on January 12th, 2006 Ed and the Ramblers performed with Ralph Stanley and The Clinch Mountain Boys at Memorial Hall, UNC Chapel Hill, NC. During this period with The Red Clay Ramblers, Ed also enjoyed playing and traveling with a variety of artist and acts. From April-June of 1992, he toured the United Kingdom and Europe with Mercury/PolyGram recording artist Michelle Shocked. This also included a performance nationally televised on April 24th on "The Dennis Miller Show" with both Michelle & "Pop" Staples. From January 1993-1997, Ed was the drummer for "The Nancy Middleton Band", an "alt-country" combo that released two CD's; "Homeland", released in 1994 and "The Way I Do", released in 1996. They were voted as one of the "Best Unsigned Bands of 1996" by Musician Magazine. The band also opened for Pam Tillis and her band at The Carolina Theatre in Durham, NC on February 16th, 1996. In 1998-99 Ed participated in a variety of performances with The Micro-East Collective, including a festival for new music curated by Eugene Chadbourne, John Zorn, and Vernon Reid at The Tonic in NYC. And on December 31st, 1999 with the jazz trio, Blue Combo started the festivities for The BeeGees at The National Car Rental Center in Ft. Lauderdale, Fl. Ed has also scored the music, performed, and even acted in a variety of theatre projects. Oct-Nov 1989 he composed & performed the music for Virginia Polytechnic Institute's production of "Electra", directed by Bob Leonard. From April of 1996 through June of 1998, Ed played the characters Purvis and Masayuki Kabuki in "Kudzu-A Southern Musical" written by Pulitzer Prize winner Doug Marlette and The Red Clay Ramblers. The show was performed at The Center for the Study of The American South, Chapel Hill NC, the National Alliance of Musical Theatres Festival of New Musicals in NYC, The Norma Terris Theatre, Goodspeed at Chester, Connecticut, The Reynolds Theatre at Duke University, and at Fords Theatre in Washington, DC. In April of 1999 he performed in the Raleigh Little Theatre's production of "Always Patsy Cline." From August 1996 to March 2000, composed and performed the music for Jelly Educational Theatre, a Chapel Hill children's theatre company, winners of the 2000 Indie Award for Excellence. Ed also composed and performed the music for Playmakers Repertory Company's 2002/2003-season finale adaptation of Oscar Wilde's "Salome" directed by Trezana Beverly and choreographed by Sandra Burton. Currently Ed is the drummer and percussionist for Ira David Wood's production of "A Christmas Carol" at Memorial Auditorium, BTI Center, in Raleigh, NC. Other current projects featuring Ed are: Children of the Horn, a 6 piece horn based funk combo, Stringfellows, an all acoustic 5 piece string band that blurs the line between jazz, country, old time, and pop, The PCB Trio, a blistering innovative organ trio featuring Jim Crew on Organ, and The Bernie Petteway Trio, a modern jazz group featuring Bernie Petteway on Guitar and, Robbie Link on Bass. His most recent project is ELM Collective (Ecco La Musica), a fusion of jazz and world timbres and rhythms with Arabic and Mediterranean overtones. This is a collective of composers and musicians from all over the world dedicated to the performance of new and original music. He is also working on a dance project with L.D. Burris and Keval Kaur of "2 Near the Edge" and Gaelic scholar and author Michael Newton on the collaboration of two traditions: The Jonkonnu, an African/Caribbean celebration, and The Oiche Challun, a Gaelic or Scottish Highland celebration.