He’s a musician’s musician, and he’s also a producer’s producer. And with all the ways Butch Walker has influenced the music industry, he brought his tour de force show to the 9:30 Club last week.

“I apologize. It’s a weeknight, and I’m going to keep you here a long time,” said Walker at the beginning of his nearly two hour long set. “I got a lot of shit to play!”

Named Rolling Stone’s producer of the year in 2005, you might not realize the spectrum of projects Walker had and continues to have influence on. Whether leading a band, producing for pop stars, or grabbing the hearts of fans through his singer-songwriting skills, we only can start to scratch the surface of his decades of musical accomplishments.

This tour, supported by Texas country-blues artist Jonathan Tyler and the french duo, The Dove & The Wolf, showcases Walker as a showman and an artist. He was candid. He was gracious. He called out a noisy guy talking too loud at the bar. And he also brought the house down with his young son came onstage do a special performance of “Let It Go Where It’s Supposed To.”

His openers were gracious and approachable too, expressing their gratitude for touring with Walker and even nonchalantly wandering into the crowd after their performances. Jonathan Tyler and Paloma Gil with Louise Hayat-Camard (preferring Paloma and Lou), were available to talk to fans and share some drinks.

It was Tyler who expressed how, being a Texas boy, he was relieved to finally be heading south with the tour, as last week he was ready to get the hell out of New York. Can’t we all relate to that? Even if D.C. is only really “southern” in comparison to the Big Apple, hopefully these visitors experienced some 9:30 Club hospitality from their fans.

And when Walker performed one of his most-recognizable tunes, “Mixtape,” he asked the crowd to sing because he doesn’t like to sing the song anymore– not because he doesn’t like the song anymore, but because he’s just heard it so many times already.

Afterwards, he commented, “Not so bad for an old time sing along. It’s like a Dashboard Confessional Concert.”

But it wasn’t all throwbacks. Walker shared songs from his new album “Afraid of Ghosts”  which was produced by friend Ryan Adams and hosts a series of guest musicians, including actor, producer, musician Johnny Depp.

His performance of “Chrissie Hynde,” the first single off his February 2015 album was beautiful. And adding the harmonizing talents of The Dove & The Wolf singing backups was something really special live.

Walker also shared a few secrets of the trade with us, like how to get even more cheering from an audience at the end of a song.

“You like how I baited you for applause? I learned that shit from Taylor Swift. I’m serious man, she’s a force… girl is on fire,” he said, describing how she can command an audience with little more than a look– which he immediately imitated, and the crowd did go wild as he predicted. “Works every fucking time.”

This was a concert that had heart and spirit. At one point, the openers were invited back on stage and in the middle of the performance of “Synthesizers” they all together broke into Dexys Midnight Runners’ “Come on Eileen” before returning to the original tune.

Before long, Walker was taking bourbon shots on stage, following with “I’m just going to make up a guitar solo!” and threw his guitar over his head.

But instead of ending the performance on a simply upbeat note, Walker thanked everyone, and asked that the lights be turned down low so he could do a couple of songs for his dad, who passed away from pancreatic cancer two years ago.

His memory has been a driving force behind Walker’s new Autumn Leaves Project which, in partnership with the non-profit Nikki Mitchell Foundation, is working to raise awareness and find a cure for the disease.

He shared that the whole set list that night was all his dad’s favorite songs, including, “Coming Home.”

You never know where you’re going to find it

Somewhere in the back of your eyelids

The liquid truth can kill you

It’s a courage made a thrill for so long

 “Thanks for letting me live through that,” said a very somber Walker. “For letting me recognize my pops.”

Butch Walker’s show is one that celebrated life, and dared us to face the ghosts we fear– an artist among artists, doing good beyond the musical community.

Blog by Cristina Rayas, Photos by Toby Mues