Carl Butler was born in Knoxville, Tennessee on June 2, 1924 (1927?). Like so many country artist of that era, Carl was influenced by listening to the Grand Ole Opry on the radio. He learned to sing and accompany himself on the guitar, and played his first gig in 1939 as a fill-in between sets of the regular square dance band. This fact is why I favor 1924 as Carl’s birth year.

In the 1950’s he was featured on shows in the southeast, as well as radio stations WROL, WNOX in Knoxville (at WNOX, he performed on the “Mid-Day Merry-Go Round” on CBS Radio’s “Tennessee Barn Dance”) and WPTF in Raleigh. He was also featured on the television stations WATE and WBIR in Knoxville.

I was not able to ascertain exactly when Carl met and married Pearl Dee Jones, but it probably was in the late ‘50s. They formed a powerful singing duo, which carried over into the ‘60s. Their biggest hit was in 1962,“Don’t Let Me Cross Over,” which reached number one across the charts. Early in the ‘50s, Carl sang and recorded as a soloist, recording for Capitol Records from 1951 to 1953. In 1953, he switched to Columbia Records, but his first few releases were on Okeh, a subsidiary of Columbia.

On the strength of their “biggest hit,” Carl and Pearl joined the Grand Ole Opry and became a popular duet. This set the standard for male and female duo singing for the next three decades, causing a proliferation of duet teams to appear across the spectrum of country music.

The Butlers toured America and Canada and were regulars on such TV shows as “The Porter Wagoner Show.” They also appeared in the movie “Second Fiddle to a Steel Guitar,” in 1967.

Carl Butler was a great songwriter and wrote many of the songs he and Pearl sang, including “Don’t Let Me Cross Over.” Among his best efforts were “Guilty Conscience” and “If Teardrops Were Pennies, recorded by Carl Smith; “Penny For Your Thoughts,” recorded by Willie Nelson; and “Cryin’ My Heart Out Over You,” recorded by Ricky Skaggs.

Carl Butler died of a massive heart attack in the Nashville suburb of Franklin, Tennessee on September 4, 1992.

Dusty Owens
TCM Radio News

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