by Henry Mason
(this is the text of the eulogy delivered by Henry at Butch's funeral service)

Here is the story about how Butch Bourg came to be associated with Sentimental Journey. In the early 70's I was working to get the Callanwolde Concert Band's numbers up. There were about 24 players in the band and it was sinking fast. I had just joined after a protracted battle with college. I was really enjoying playing again even in such a primitive setting and so we were in recruiting mode. Keeping personnel was an uphill battle as we were rehearsing in the courtroom of the old courthouse in Decatur. The echo of that place makes the Egyptian Ballroom and the Academy of Medicine sound like acoustical heaven. The echo of our last rehearsal is likely still reverberating in that marble courtroom. I was particularly desperate for help in the trombone section. The entire section being ME!

As luck would have it, I just happened to wander over to a small print shop across from the courthouse before rehearsal one evening. At the time I was running a printing operation for the state and always liked to "talk shop" with other printers. The printer asked about the band and remarked that he had a friend and customer who used to play trombone. I immediately talked him out of that customer's name (you guessed it, it was Butch) and started calling him to recruit him for the band. Butch had not played his horn for about 17 years at the time and had no thought of ever playing again. I called about once a week until I wore him down. He came to a rehearsal just so I would quit bothering him. Instead he got himself hooked on playing that horn again. Only a few weeks later we read the first of the old "stocks" that became the early SJO book and the rest as they say was history!

I can't say that our early efforts were very good, as a matter of fact we got ourselves tossed out of the unheated and uncooled Callanwolde Carriage House because the noise of our rehearsals was bothering the potters. I guess the time was uneven and they were coming out lopsided. Anyway, we moved the as yet unnamed band down the street to the place where I worked.... anyone? Yes, the Georgia Mental Health Institute. If ever a band was at the right place at the right time it was us at the funny farm.

Somehow we managed to book our first gig at the old English Inn December 13, 1975. As you might guess we worked cheap but at this point it was time to name the baby. I asked Butch what he thought and immediately he said "Sentimental Journey" name and theme song. There was no debate and that is how SJO got its name. In the aftermath of 35 years later I think we can safely say that Butch was the heart and soul of Sentimental Journey. We made a good team when one was pushing the other was pulling. Sometimes as you all know we had monumental arguments but we built a good band.

Butch was indeed a sentimental sort and I guess you could say his entire life was a Sentimental Journey. I think he would have been most happy if the culture had remained unchanged since the end of World War II but he was quick to embrace new ideas too. As talented as he was with the pen and the brush, I watched his graphic arts studio go from an ink on paper shop to a 100 percent computerized shop in one year. He did it his way too, and would not let an Apple computer in his house.

The day Butch left us, one of his favorite movies "White Christmas" was on TV. That movie is about a group of friends deciding to do something nice for their former commanding officer and then charging ahead to put on a show and involve as many people as possible in the effort. That was Butch all over again and I can see why he liked that movie. He had great ideas, involved other people in them and charged ahead. As I mentioned earlier, running the band was a team project. He would come up with inspiration after inspiration far faster than we could put his ideas into being. I would try to get everyone focused on the ones that were possible and within our ability to make happen. Without a doubt it was Butch's creativity that drove the band forward.

When the band got to the point where we were sure we needed help (long after we in fact did) it was Butch who thought of the amazingly talented Rick Bell as the rehearsal conductor who has so generously shown us the way all these years. I think Butch just about twisted Rick's arm right off to get him to rehearse the band in those early days, and I shudder to think what Rick really thought it sounded like, but he hung in there and now SJO is known all over the country as one of the best swing bands around.

Knowing Butch has always been a passport to meeting some very interesting people. His work took him many places and he inevitably met unusual and talented people and truly never met a stranger in his life. Holiday meals were a treat at Butch and Denise's house as he always tried to gather a table of single people, "orphans" who didn't have family to go home to. During my own extended adolescence I was a guest in their home many times and leaving hungry was not an option.

As a young man Butch got to sit on the bandstand with Tommy Dorsey, an experience he never forgot. Dorsey's attention to detail and professionalism made a profound mark on Butch and he brought that lesson to our band in many ways. No new acquaintance missed hearing about SJO and the slightest interest would send that person away with a band card. There is no telling how many gigs that were booked through Butch handing someone a card.

He was an advertising artist for a living but no musician was ever more dedicated to his music than Butch. This extended to singing in the church choir for many years and aside from the band one of his crowning musical moments was getting to sing for the Pope in Rome with Alan's choir. The Rome trips and a later one to Ireland were high points in a musical career that many music professionals would envy. Only a few years after we started SJO, Butch's first wife was stricken with an illness that would claim her life. He had relocated to Memphis to work on a large development there and between taking care of Mary and working on the project most people would have had enough to do. Not Butch. I sent him some charts and when he left Memphis a year later he left a fine band that he credited with keeping him sane during those very trying times.

Upon his return to Atlanta we very quickly found him a place in the bone section once more. Shortly after his return, an evening with friends caused him to meet the woman who lighted his life ever since. During that courtship I heard over and over again how fortunate he was to have found Denise. He never wavered in that belief and repeated that sentiment many times over the years. He was certainly right about that and he and Tad (age 8) married Denise the next year. Now there was one brave lady, marrying a curmudgeonly trombone player and his 8 year old son. They soon added a beautiful daughter to the mix with Miss Erin, and no man was ever happier with his family.

During the Memphis days we talked almost daily as Mary's treatment and decline took a big toll on him. Soon after he returned to Atlanta my mother and my brother passed away within a year of each other. Butch was right there to get me through it and while no one could take the place of my brother, Butch certainly assumed the role as much as any other person could have. During all of this, Butch never wavered one single Monday night. No band has ever had a more faithful member. He kept the library, did the advertising, and polished our image. He Always insisted that the band look good as well as sound good (the lesson from Tommy Dorsey). Truth be told we looked good LONG before we sounded good and I am quite sure Mr. Bell will endorse that sentiment.

If Butch could have gotten a dollar an hour for every hour he put into the band he would have been a far wealthier man, but on that bandstand and with his family, Butch Bourg was one of the richest men I have ever met and I feel privileged to have known him. I will miss talking to him or emailing almost daily, sometimes several times a day if we had a project going. Just recently he designed a business card and website for my new band in North Carolina and bookings have already gone up as a result. All I can say from here is thanks my friend, thank you very much. We could not have done it without you.