BIOGRAPHICAL DETAILS
Description: Vocalist , Composer, Guitarist, USA
Instruments: Vocals, Guitar, Harmonica, Didgeridoo, Banjo, Lapsteel, Stomp Box, Ukulele, Baritone Saxophone
Music Styles: Bluegrass, Alternative, Jam band
Location: CA, United States of America
Date Born: 1st April 1975
Location Born: Torrance, California, United States of America
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CONTACT DETAILS
Web Site: Official website
Other Links: See below:
YOUTUBE VIDEO
BIOGRAPHICAL PROFILE
John Butler
John Charles Wiltshire-Butler (born 1 April 1975) or John Charles Butler is an American-born Australian APRA and Aria-award winning singer, multi-instrumentalist musician, songwriter, record label owner and producer. He is the front man for the John Butler Trio, a roots and jam band, which formed in Fremantle, Perth, Western Australia in 1998.
The John Butler Trio has recorded five studio albums including three which have reached number one on the Australian charts: Sunrise Over Sea, Grand National and April Uprising. His recordings and live performances have met with critical praise and have garnered awards from the Australian Performing Right Association and Australian Recording Industry Association.
Butler was born in the United States and moved to Australia at an early age. He began playing the guitar at the age of sixteen. In 2002 Butler, along with several partners, formed their own record label. He is also the co-founder of a grant program that seeks to improve artistic diversity in his home country of Australia where he resides with his wife and children.
John Charles Wiltshire-Butler (or John Charles Butler) was born on 1 April 1975 in Torrance, California, United States. His Australian father with British, Greek and Bulgarian ancestry, Darryl Wiltshire-Butler, and American mother, Barbara (née Butler – unrelated), divorced and Butler migrated to Western Australia with his father, brother and sister in January 1986. He was named after his paternal grandfather, John Wiltshire-Butler, a forestry worker who died fighting a bushfire in Nannup. He moved to the small town of Pinjarra when he was eleven, and he attended the local primary and secondary schools.
Butler’s genealogy was investigated on an episode of SBS Television’s series, Who Do You Think You Are?, which aired on 1 November 2009. The show traced his family history from his deceased grandfather – reading war diaries – through to ancestors in Bulgaria and the events of the 1876 April Uprising.
Butler began playing guitar at the age of sixteen after his grandmother gave him a 1930s dobro belonging to his deceased grandfather. In 1996, Butler attended Curtin University in Perth and enrolled in an art teaching course but abandoned his studies to pursue a career in music.
Butler was a participant in the Western Australian skateboarding scene and is recognised for his involvement with the internationally renowned “Woolstores” street spot.
Solo
On 29 June, Butler gave a live solo performance at Twist and Shout Records in Denver, Colorado, which was released in January 2008 as an eight-track EP, One Small Step, with A$1 from each record sold being donated to Oxfam’s “Close the Gap” campaign. One Small Step was Butler’s first official solo release.[24] At the ARIA Music Awards of 2007, Butler performed “Funky Tonight” in a collaboration with fellow Australian musician Keith Urban. Radio station, Triple J’s listeners voted Grand National their favourite album for 2007.[25]
“Ocean” garnered John Butler newfound success when recordings of live performances of the song went viral on the internet. Butler made a cameo appearance in 2009 Australian film, In Her Skin, as a busker. The film’s soundtrack featured three songs by the John Butler Trio, “Ocean”, “Caroline” and “What You Want”.
In July 2009, Butler undertook a solo overseas tour commencing in North America, where he played at the Montreal Jazz Festival, the Rothbury Music Festival in Michigan and The Mile High Music Festival in Denver. In North America he sold out headline shows in Toronto and Los Angeles. In Europe, Butler played at the Folies Bergère in Paris and London’s Union Chapel. He also performed at Cannes, Amsterdam and Antwerp.
Upon his return in August, he took part in the Cannot Buy My Soul concert at the Queensland Music Festival. Butler performed alongside other local musicians (including Paul Kelly, Missy Higgins, Troy Cassar-Daley, Clare Bowditch, Tex Perkins and Bernard Fanning) reinterpreting the catalogue of indigenous Australian musician Kev Carmody. Butler’s interpretation of the song, “Thou Shalt Not Steal”, was included on the compilation album, and later was featured on the iTunes Deluxe album of Grand National. Butler participated at the Garma Festival of Traditional Cultures located in Northeast Arnhem Land in the Northern Territory.
Personal life
Butler is married to Danielle Caruana, an Australian musician and vocalist who performs under the name of Mama Kin. They have two children, a daughter Banjo and a son Jahli.
After wearing dreadlocks for 13 years, Butler cut them off in early 2008. In an interview with the Herald Sun newspaper in 2008, Butler acknowledged that he had been referred to as the “million dollar hippie” in various articles and around his hometown in Australia. The nickname refers to his inclusion on the Business Review Weekly list of the 50 richest entertainers in 2004, with reported earnings of A$2.4 million.
Prior to the release of the John Butler Trio’s sixth album, Flesh and Blood, Butler explained:
I still care about everything I care about. But I don’t know how to write another song about a greedy arsehole ruining the planet. I have done it. I started writing about the damage of war and the environment, but as you drill down deeper, move closer to the core of the heart, there are so many great stories to be had which aren’t literally talking about a problem.
Butler also admitted to substance use: “I’ve never had any big addictions. I feel like I might smoke pot a bit too much, and I’ve done cigarettes.” He affirmed to his audience that he is “normal” and is “going through all the same things” they are, and he asked that he not be placed on a “pedestal”.
Studio albums
John Butler (1998)
Three (2001)
Sunrise Over Sea (2004)
Grand National (2007)
April Uprising (2010)
Flesh & Blood (2014)
Solo
Searching for Heritage (1996)
Live At Twist & Shout (2007)
One Small Step (2007) Australian release of Live at Twist & Shout
“Tin Shed Tales” (2012)
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