The John Butler Trio is an eclectic roots/jam band from Australia led by guitarist and vocalist John Butler. Two of the band's albums, Three (2001) and Living 2001-2002 (2003), have gone platinum in Australia and reached the top ten of the Australian album charts in those years. The 2004 album Sunrise Over Sea debuted at number one on the Australian charts on 15 March 2004 reaching gold record status in its first week on sale. Their next and latest release, entitled Grand National , was released on 27 March 2007. The band's releases are marketed independently by Jarrah Records which John Butler co-owns with West Australian folk band the Waifs. The band won an ARIA award for "Best Independent Release" for Three in 2001 and again for Grand National in 2007 and has been nominated for three others. Three was released in the U.S. in 2002 and the John Butler Trio toured the U.S. in that year supporting the Dave Matthews Band and John Mayer. On 26 March 2009 John Butler announced that the current bass and drum musicians of the John Butler Trio, Shannon Birchall and Michael Barker are separating from the band. For purely artistic reasons, John Feels that it is necessary to change the line up in an attempt by John to discover new inspirations with new members. John stated in his announcement; Michael and Shannon have been by far the best line up I have performed with in The John Butler Trio to date. They have been a pleasure to live, love, learn, record and tour with. Their professionalism, musicianship, and commitment have been unwavering and for that and a whole lot more I am truly thankful. —John Butler, 2009 On 30 June 2009 John Butler announced the new bass and drum musicians of the John Butler Trio to be Byron Luiters as the bassist and Nicky Bomba as the drummer and percussionist. Bomba, Butler's brother-in-law, has previously been a member of the John Butler Trio.

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History

Searching for Heritage - the early years

John Butler was born on April 1 1975 in Torrance, California to an Australian father and American mother. He was named after his paternal grandfather, a forestry worker who died in 1952 while fighting a bushfire in Nannup, Western Australia. He moved to the small Western Australian town of Pinjarra on 26 January 1986 when he was eleven.

At sixteen, he started to learn the guitar and his grandmother gave him his grandfather's 1930s dobro guitar. This guitar was to be presented to the first grandchild to learn the guitar, as none of his grandfather's children took up the guitar. It is still one of Butler's most treasured possessions.

In 1996, Butler attended Curtin University in Perth studying to be an art teacher. At Curtin University, he learned open finger tuning which allowed him to play Celtic and Indian music. He started busking on the streets of Perth where his home grown compositions received a strong response. In mid 1996, he released a self-recorded cassette of his own instrumental compositions called Searching for Heritage which eventually sold 3,000 copies in Perth. By the end of 1996, he had dropped out of Curtin University to pursue a musical career and started playing at open mic nights.

Phil Stevens, a local music promoter who later became Butler's manager, was one of the people who bought Searching for Heritage . He offered Butler his first residency every second Tuesday at the North Fremantle bar, 'Mojos', which he owned in 1998. John Butler further built his fan base at these gigs and by the end of 1998, he was planning his first professionally recorded album.

With Jason McGann on drums and Gavin Shoesmith on bass, the first version of the John Butler trio recorded the John Butler album in December 1998 which was launched at Mojos. The band toured throughout Western Australia in 1999. The Waifs invited John Butler solo to perform on their Australian tour and he also performed his own gigs. The John Butler Trio then launched its own tour where John met his future wife Danielle Caruana in Broome.

The John Butler Trio released the JBT EP in April 2000 as an attempt to put out three to four songs that would be short enough to win radio play. Triple J picked up "Pickapart" and put it on high rotation. The band also developed a reputation on the east coast of Australia with a stunning performance at the East Coast Blues & Roots Music Festival in Byron Bay in 2000. The John Butler Trio has become a fixture at this event.

Three - an evolving band

In April 2001, the band released Three which was the first album recorded as a full band and moved to Melbourne to promote the record on the east coast. Three stayed in the Australian alternative charts for nine months reaching as high as #3 which was an outstanding success for an independent band. The album won an ARIA award for Best Independent Release, and first single Betterman came in at #5 on the Triple J Hottest 100, 2001. It hit number 24 on the ARIA Charts.

Gavin Shoesmith left the band to form his own band The Groovesmiths. The band replaced him with 19-year-old Rory Quirk, who toured with the band on their first tour of the U.S. in 2001. Rory Quirk in turn left the band in 2002 to pursue a career with his band Quirk. Andrew Fry joined the band as the new bass player.

The success of Three led to its release in the U.S. in 2002 and two tours of the U.S. followed. The band supported the Dave Matthews Band and John Mayer as well as playing at the Bonnaroo Music Festival and the South by Southwest Festival. The band also played at the Splendour in the Grass Festival in Australia.

As a result of intensive touring, the band developed a great live reputation in Australia. The band released Living 2001-2002 in February 2003, a double live album which had a top ten debut in the ARIA album charts and went on to achieve platinum sales. John Butler took a brief break after the five years of solid work since 1997 for the birth of his daughter Banjo.

Sunrise Over Sea

In late 2003, John Butler entered Woodstock Studios in Melbourne owned by Joe Camilleri, the leader of Jo Jo Zep and the Black Sorrows. He had a new band consisting of percussionist Nicky Bomba and upright-bass player Shannon Birchall. After recording the album, Bomba returned to his own reggae band and was replaced by drummer/percussionist Michael Barker.

John Butler told the Australian edition of Rolling Stone released in April 2004 that he wanted greater freedom to pursue his vision. "Essentially what I learnt out of this process was, more so than ever, I'm the keeper of the music. I have the intuition and the foresight to pick the right players to my music. I've learned it's not always about having the same players for five, six or 10 years, it’s having the right chemistry for these songs at this time. Some of my favourite Jimi Hendrix music is off-the-cuff stuff with Band of Gypsies."

The title Sunrise Over Sea is taken from the lyrics to the second track, Peaches and Cream. The album debuted at number one in the national album charts in 15 March 2004 and achieved gold record status in its first week of release.

The Zebra EP was released in December 2003 and made the ARIA singles charts in early 2004. The song was voted #7 in the Triple J Hottest 100, 2004 and also had significant airplay on commercial FM radio across Australia. John Butler would win an Australasian Performing Rights Association award for Song of the Year in March 2004. The track also appeared on the popular US Crime drama 'Numb3rs' as the opening music (Season 3, Episode 6).

Following the Boxing Day Tsunami, the John Butler Trio appeared at the Wave Aid fundraising concert in Sydney, to raise funds for aid organisations working in disaster affected areas.

The John Butler Trio played at all venues for the Big Day Out music festival, starting in Auckland, New Zealand on 19 January 2007, and finishing in Perth Western Australia on February 4.

Grand National

The newest studio album, entitled Grand National , was released on the 24 March 2007 in Australia and New Zealand, and released on March 27 in the United States and France. The first single off the album titled "Funky Tonight" reached a high of #15 on the ARIA charts and #12 on Triple J Hottest 100 for 2006. A second single, "Better Than," was also released. In conjunction with the American release, the trio scheduled a small American Tour consisting of only five cities starting in Los Angeles and ending in New York.

In April 2007 Grand National was the initial album nominated for a J Award by national youth broadcaster Triple J. "Better Than" which was released as the first overseas single from Grand National , reached #1 on the Triple A format charts in United States in June, 2007. It also reached the top ten international songs at Japanese Radio and has been a major radio hit in France where the video made MTV’s video of the week.

On 7 July 2007 they performed at the Australian leg of Live Earth in Sydney. On 31 July 2007 the John Butler Trio performed their song, "Better Than" on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno. On 4 August 2007 they performed at Newport Folk Festival playing a set that included "Used to Get High", "Better Than", "Ocean", "Funky Tonight", and "Good Excuse".

In 2007, the John Butler Trio won Best Independent Release and Best Blues and Roots Album awards at the 2007 Aria Awards.

On 3 August 2008 they performed at Lolapalooza in Chicago. The John Butler Trio concluded the summer of 2008 touring the U.S. with G. Love and Special Sauce.

In July 2009 "Betterman" was voted number 47 by the Australian public in Triple J Hottest 100 of all time. ^[1]

Discography

EPs

Date of release	Title	Label	ARIA
1996	Searching for Heritage	None
31 July 2000	JBT EP	Independent/MGM Distribution
9 August 2004	What You Want	Jarrah Records

Albums

Date of release	Album title	Label	ARIA	Billboard
27 December 1998	John Butler	Independent/MGM Distribution
18 April 2001	Three	Independent/MGM Distribution	24
8 March 2004	Sunrise Over Sea	Jarrah Records	1
24 March 2007	Grand National	Jarrah Records	1	110

Live albums

Date of release	Album Title	Label	ARIA
10 February 2003	Living 2001-2002	Jarrah Records
5 December 2005	Live at St. Gallen	Jarrah Records

Singles

Year	Title	Chart positions	Album
		ARIA
2003	"Zebra"	#22	Sunrise Over Sea
2004	"What You Want"	#29
	"Somethings Gotta Give"	#47	Sunrise Over Sea (not included in original release)
2006	"Funky Tonight"	#15	Grand National
2007	"Good Excuse"		Grand National (promo release only)
	"Better Than"	#16	Grand National
	"Funky Tonight" (Live at 2007 ARIAs with Keith Urban)	#11	(download single only)
	"Used to Get High"		Grand National (promo release only)

DVDs

Date of release	Title	Label	ARIA peak
5 December 2005	Live at St. Gallen	Jarrah Records
3 November 2007	Live at Federation Square	ABC Music/Warner Music Australia