John Butler Trio

John Butler has become a fantastic defining artist at Bluesfest and has been with us for a long time, moving from our smaller stages to today, where he headlines our main stage. He is Australia's number one independent musician and someone very much at home at Bluesfest. But in 1998 John Butler was busking solo on the streets of Fremantle, WA. Fast forward a decade and he became Australia's most successful independent artist with his own label, Jarrah Records, scoring a staggering 800,000 CD sales. John Butler is also a 3 time ARIA award winner, including two in 1997 for the Grand National album which scooped Best Independent Release and Best Blues and Roots Release, as well as garnering high praise from the Washington Post, which described his music as 'sauntering boogies with affinity for hip-hop beats" and Rolling Stone praising "....Butler at his brand new best, blending his influences into a sound that is all his own". And what influences they are: Bob Marley, Martin Luther King Jr., Jeff Lang, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Black Sabbath, Noam Chomsky, and Buckminster Fuller to name a few. The John Butler Trio was a favourite at iconic festivals like Fuji Rock Festival, Glastonbury, Boonaru, Big Day Out and at Coachehella, where Bruce Fessier of USA Today proclaimed, "John Butler revealed himself to be arguably the finest guitarist at the Festival". In 2009 the new line-up for the Trio was announced as bass player Byron Luiters, who has been a member of Sydney outfit The Ray Man Three, and drummer and percussionist, Nicky Bomba, who was the principal drummer on the band's five time platinum album Sunrise Over Sea. The John Butler Trio's fifth studio album, April Uprising, will be released in 2010.

www.johnbutlertrio.com