It’s just TWO DAYS until we’re all at Bluesfest, soaking up what we hope to be the sun (and not rain) and enjoying some of the best music in the world. Running all the way through Easter Weekend (for FIVE DAYS!), the festival has such an unbelievable amount of artists playing, it’s hard to even know where to begin. Well, we bring you now 10 of the artists who we think you can’t miss at the festival. We haven’t included any of the big bands here though – they go without saying, surely!
SETH LAKEMAN
Virtuoso fiddler & multi-instrumentalist, Seth Lakeman will be returning to our shores in 2014. His undeniably compelling and energetic performances have captured audiences around Australia on his return visits in the last two years, debuting at Bluesfest in 2012. Even if you caught him then, don’t miss him on this trip down. He’s also playing the following sideshows:
Tuesday 15th April – Powerhouse, Brisbane, QLD – with Suzanne Vega
Saturday 19th April – Thornbury Theatre, Melbourne, Vic – Seth Lakeman only
Sunday 20th April – The Factory, Sydney, NSW – with Suzanne Vega
CLAIRY BROWNE & THE BANGING RACKETTES
Clairy Browne and the Banging Rackettes are a nine-piece R’n’B band from Melbourne who will blow your mind at Bluesfest. Live, the band are a choreographed machine driven by the engines of drums, brass, smoky, soulful vocals, shimmering harmonies and handclaps… not to mention big-hair and incredible costumes. The band will take you back to the 60’s in no time at all.
JAMES COTTON
Grammy Award Winner James Cotton is bringing us his pure, raw soul-wrenching blues harp to Bluesfest for the very first time. You haven’t heard harp-playing until you have heard James “Superharp” Cotton play.
SEUN KUTI & EGYPT 80
Seun Anikulapo Kuti (born in 1982) is the youngest son of legendary Afrobeat founder Fela Kuti, and he’ll be a much anticipated performer at Bluesfest 2014, playing both the music of his father and his own material.
His band, Egypt 80, is the former group of his fathers, with Seun’s Wikipedia page claiming: “About three quarters of the current Egypt 80 line-up consists of musicians that not only played with Fela Kuti, but often were arrested and harassed alongside the founder of the Afrobeat movement.”
With an ensemble like that, and the son of the great man himself at the front of it all, you’ve got a group with Afrobeat in their blood and an experience that will no doubt be a highlight of the 2014 Bluesfest.
SAIDAH BABA TALIBAH
Saidah Baba Talibah is a fierce artist that isn’t afraid to combine Rock, Funk, Blues and raunchy Soul in all of her performances. Last in Australia in September for a few shows around the time of the BIGSOUND conference in Brisbane, her preternatural punk attitude, striking good looks and sartorial splendour will have you gobsmacked in no time at all. Her debut record (S)cream.
BETH HART
Beth Hart is an acclaimed American singer-songwriter from Los Angeles, California. First there’s THE VOICE – when she sings, clocks stop, hearts dance, and neck-hair tingles, it’s that compelling!! Then there’s the A-list collaborations with the likes of Jeff Beck, Slash, Buddy Guy and Joe Bonamassa.
And then there’s the hits ‘LA Song (Out Of This Town)’ (#1 in New Zealand), ‘Sister Heroine’, ‘Am I The One’, ‘Good As It Gets’ . Her new album Bang Bang Boom Boom (out March 14) has been earning this superb singer critical acclaim around the world, showcasing her amazing range across Blues, R&B, Swing and more. When she ramps up in performance jaws drop and realization dawns: this is someone very special.
TRIXIE WHITLEY
Trixie Whitley is a Belgian American multi-instrumentalist based in Brooklyn, New York. Whitley burst into public consciousness in 2011 as the lead singer of Black Dub, super-producer Daniel Lanois’ (U2, Bob Dylan) project, blowing people away with a voice and presence beyond her now-25 years.
With the Black Dub shows, countless solo gigs in New York and Europe, and buzz-building performances at festivals like Bonnaroo, SXSW, and Celebrate Brooklyn, Whitley has become one of the most talked about new artists of 2012-13, and how we get to experience her for ourselves at Bluesfest!
NIKKI HILL
She has been hailed “The Southern Fireball”, “the new soul sensation” and even “the new Queen of Rock and Roll”. North Carolina born Nikki Hill’s career is rising fast and she is only in her twenties. Nikki will be playing the Bluesfest stage – and Australia – for the first time with her guitar-playing husband Matt Hill and their band.
She draws on vintage female rhythm and blues influences such as LaVern Baker, Etta James and Ruth Brown, as well as some of her favorite male singers Otis Redding and Solomon Burke, her tough vocal style fits with contemporary sensibilities yet evokes all the great blues shouters of previous decades.
Nikki will be bringing her new album with her, Here’s Nikki Hill! If you haven’t heard of Nikki Hill yet, you soon will, and once you see her perform, you won’t forget her…
JIMMIE VAUGHAN WITH SPECIAL GUEST NIKKI HILL
Metro Theatre, Sydney – 16 April 2014
The Corner Hotel, Melbourne – 17 April 2014
Tickets: http://www.bluesfesttouring.com/
The older brother of legendary “Texas Blues” guitarist Stevie Ray Vaughan, Jimmie Vaughan comes from good stock and, with a genuine love of and finesse with the guitar, plays some of the best God-damn Blues on the planet.
GRACE POTTER AND THE NOCTURNALS
Grace Potter has a voice you rarely stumble across; a smoky, assured voice that spans effortlessly from a whisper to a soaring cappella within a single breath and after captivating the crowd at her Bluesfest debut earlier this year, they have understandably invited Grace Potter & the Nocturnals back for their 25th Anniversary. It won’t take you long to see why the band have established themselves as one of the most exciting and energetic live acts around today.
The release of their most ambitious album to date, The Lion The Beast The Beat (2012) saw Grace and the boys streamline their vintage signature sound, with a bunch of songs that are, just as the title suggests, powerful, pitch perfect stories. The album was produced by Grace as well as Jim Scott (Wilco, Tedeschi Trucks band, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers), and Dan Auerbach (The Black Keys) who also co-wrote three songs, the swampy ‘Loneliest Soul’ and the album’s most melodic sing-along tracks and first single ‘Runaway’ as well as ‘Never Go Back.’
Live, Potter’s sultry vocals, rock chic flying V guitar and keys combine the vintage sound that reminds you of songs you listened to on your parents’ car radio, with electric energy that makes you want to get on the soles of their feet and dance til dawn. Equal parts seductive and dangerous, live this evocative voice and commanding presence translates her inventive, soul-searching poetry to life and is sure to have you transfixed for her entire set and leave you covered in goose bumps.
VALERIE JUNE
Catchy, big melodies that just make you want to dance. This is everything you need to know about Valerie June, but we guarantee you’ll want to know more the minute you hear her vintage wail echoing around the festival.
Tennessee native Valerie June is a self-taught musician, singer and songwriter who came to the fore after a mesmerising debut UK TV performance on Later… With Jools Holland and it has snowballed from there.
Her new album, Pushin’ Against a Stone (which entered the Billboard 200 Charts at 41) saw her collaborating, writing and producing with Dan Auerbach (multi-Grammy winners The Black Keys & Dr. John) and Kevin Augunas (Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros, Sinéad O’Connor, Florence & The Machine) to create a truly unique sound.
The album also features another Grammy award winner, the legendary Booker T. Jones. The debut single, “Workin’ Woman Blues”, is a riot, a brand new bona-fide blues-pop anthem, but it’s only the beginning. Watch her official video from the single “You Can’t Be Told” below.
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Bluesfest kicks off this Thurday in Byron Bay. Details and tickets are available at the official website: http://www.bluesfest.com.au/ – Stay tuned for daily reviews from the event, photo galleries and on site interviews!
