Minnesota based pianist and clarinetist Butch Thompson passed away on August 14th, he was 78. He was most widely known as the house pianist and musical director of Prairie Home Companion during its first twelve years. He was also a long time member of the Hall Brothers Jazz Band, led his own trio, and frequently appeared with New Orleans style Musicians from the Crescent City to Tokyo.
Thompson began collecting records as a very young child, which exposed him to everything from Gene Autry to one sided 78s of Sousa marches. As he got older he was influenced by his father's 45 RPM anthologies of the Dorsey Brothers and similar artists but also enjoyed the new Rock and Roll hitting the airwaves. He was deeply impacted by concerts he attended locally by Louis Armstrong and Arthur Rubinstein. He began formal piano training at age six, having sat beside his mother while she played until then. In sixth grade he took up clarinet to fill a need in the school band, almost immediately he was recruiting fellow students to form bands of their own.
After some success playing out with high school pals as Shirt Thompson and His Sleeves, and joining a local jam session with more senior musicians, an eighteen year old Butch Thompson borrowed money to get his Musician's Union card and joined the Hall Brothers in April of 1962.
"Immediately after joining the Hall Brothers, I found myself the sub
