BLUESFEST LAUNCH 2016 – The Earliest Artist Announcement ever!

Janiva Magness

Proudly presenting: The National, City and Colour, UB40 featuring Ali Campbell, Astro and Mickey Virtue, Joe Bonamassa, Tedeschi Trucks Band and so many more!

Today Bluesfest releases its first round of outstanding artists to perform at the 5 Day Festival, held annually over Easter, just north of Byron Bay. (EVENT DATES: Thu 24th March to Mon 28th March 2016)
Bluesfest, the multi-award winning event, delivers not just its first instalment of a series of up to 8 artist announcements; this is also the earliest announcement in the history of the event!

Bluesfest’s Round 1 brings a perfectly crafted blend of the Contemporary and the Classic, tailored to satisfy an eclectic mix of musical palates.

Headlining are Rock band The National (exclusive), Blues Rock/New Folk Band City and Colour, Reggae legends UB40 featuring Ali Campbell, Astro and Mickey Virtue (exclusive), the incredible Blues Rock maestro Joe Bonamassa (exclusive) and Grammy award winning Blues and Roots Rock group Tedeschi Trucks Band plus so many more.

There are 15 hugely talented artists & musicians gracing this first mighty 2016 Bluesfest announcement, covering a multitude of genres but with a huge focus on the Blues and Contemporary! True to Bluesfest fashion, there will be many more amazing artists joining this first incredible line up in the upcoming weeks.

The first 2016 Bluesfest artist announcement includes:

The National – exclusive
City and Colour
UB40 featuring Ali Campbell, Astro and Mickey Virtue – exclusive
Joe Bonamassa – exclusive
Tedeschi Trucks Band
The Cat Empire
Lukas Nelson & Promise of The Real
The Word • Rhiannon Giddens
Janiva Magness • St. Paul & The Broken Bones
Allen Stone • The Selecter
Shakey Graves • Songhoy Blues

and many more to come!

Bluesfest Festival Director, Peter Noble shares his excitement about the first announcement:

“Well THIS is a surprise – We have hardly packed up from Bluesfest 2015 – and here we go into 2016 with our first announcement already. And yes, this first announcement has something for EVERYONE – there is not one dud in it.

Lovers of Contemporary music WILL be falling over themselves to see THE NATIONAL play exclusively at Bluesfest on their only Aussie show this tour. They are so big in the world right now and their performances are real, raw as well as uniting. People say it’s the best concert they have ever been to. (source – Ticketmaster concert reviews)

City and Colour remain one of Australia’s favourite bands – performing for the first time at Bluesfest. Front man Dallas Green with his band will blow you away. His voice is perfect, his songs are so heartfelt and honest – you are going to love it. A no miss at Bluesfest!

Joe Bonamassa is THE go to guitar slinger in the Blues world right now. He is playing 2 exclusive shows at Bluesfest – the only ones in Australia on this tour. He will exceed all your expectations and is going to own the stage, the music and the audience. He will show you how a guitar can and should be played.

UB40 featuring Ali Campbell, Astro and Mickey Virtue will perform hit after hit on their only show in Australia, featuring the legendary and unmistakable lead voice which brought all of the UB40 hits. UB40 featuring Ali Campbell, Astro and Mickey Virtue are the world’s biggest Reggae band and this will be their first and only performance in Australia since their sell out tour of 2014.

The Tedeschi Trucks Band are laying their claim right now as THE greatest ‘live, musical’ band’ on the road today and Janiva Magness IS the Blues Award winner – female Blues artist of the year.
We also welcome back one of our favourites bands The Cat Empire, a band we have worked with since the beginning of their career, who have since become renowned globally for their world class live show and it will be great to see them return.

Songhoy Blues from Mali is THE African band EVERYONE is talking about right now.

It just doesn’t stop – St. Paul & The Broken Bones and Allen Stone are re-defining White Soul music right now – are as good as it gets in this area and are amazing live bands which send shivers down your spine.

The Word is a supergroup, featuring John Medeski, (Medeski, Martin and Wood), Robert Randolph and all 3 North Mississippi Allstars who only come together once every decade. They are going to blow your mind.

Grammy Award winning Rhiannon Giddens, who possesses an astonishing voice – is the former lead singer of the Carolina Chocolate Drops and has recently gone solo. She is a supremely talented, in demand artist, destined for stardom and a real coup for Bluesfest to secure.

Ska Legends The Selecter just dropped their best new album release in a decade – which went top 40 on the BBC Album charts. Their live shows are legendary.

Shakey Graves is going to blow your minds, his recent Australian tour with Shovels & Rope showed he is destined for big things. Bluesfest just had to get him locked in and coming back to Australia as soon as possible. He really is that good.

By no means last or least is Lukas Nelson & Promise of the Real – this guy has it – he’s Willie Nelson’s son, and he leads the band on Neil Young’s new album – check him out – you can say you saw him when – as he is going to be a superstar.

As for Bluesfest 2016 overall – we do get to around 8 artist announcements leading into the Festival and rest assured, they will ALL include more wonderful artists.

I am not going to let the cat out of the bag just yet; however, I WILL say that this is shaping up to be an extraordinary year for us here at Bluesfest.

I am negotiating currently with many of the world’s greatest artists to come and perform for you.

There will be many more to be announced, both Classic and Contemporary, and if this first announcement does not ring your bell – and I would be surprised if it doesn’t, at the very least, give you a little tingle – then I’m totally convinced there will be something for you in the coming ones.

I can feel it in my bones – this is going to be one of our greatest years.

Thank you for so many years supporting Bluesfest – it is NEVER taken for granted. We strive every year to bring the very best artists available we can source – with no expense spared. THAT is why Bluesfest stands out!

We will NEVER compromise on our commitment to you on this – because we started this Festival as music fans – and had to learn the business side to keep going and succeed.

We are STILL music fans – first and foremost – and love great music with all our heart and soul- that is it in a nutshell basically – and it really should not be a secret of our success.

GREAT MUSIC heard live will always be the second best experience – at my age – maybe the best!

Thank you for your support!”
Peter Noble – Festival Director

ARTIST BIOS

The National – EXCLUSIVE BLUESFEST ONLY PERFORMANCE!
“ornate and rich melancholy…tuneful and elegant” – Pitchfork
“If they continue on this trajectory, the world’s stadiums await” – The Guardian
AUSTRALIAN EXCLUSIVE: One of the most loved Rock bands in the world The National are coming to Bluesfest!
The Grammy-nominated music veterans have been touring the world for over a decade mastering their paradoxical, beautifully bruised sonic adventures, capturing the hearts and imaginations of a generation.
Trouble Will Find Me, their latest release draws inspiration from Cat Stevens, Neil Young, Bob Dylan and David Bowie.
They’ve topped the charts around the world with several releases, appeared on The Late Show with David Letterman and Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, had their music synced on the blockbuster The Hunger Games, and sold out shows globally, including The Sydney Opera House forecourt in 2013.

City and Colour
“the kind of artist who maintains a standard far greater than many of his contemporaries” – Faster Louder
Alexisonfire frontman, Dallas Green, otherwise known as City and Colour, is an Australian favourite. He makes music described “as peace, in wild things”; melodies crafted to provide restlessness amidst a sonically complex journey that both soothes & rustles.
The Canadian singer/songwriter has achieved platinum status in Canada, & gold in Australia. He has topped the charts in Canada, Australia & the UK, sold out countless shows, including the famed Royal Albert Hall, and won three Juno awards including Songwriter of the Year.

UB40 featuring Ali Campbell, Astro and Mickey Virtue – EXCLUSIVE BLUESFEST ONLY PERFORMANCE!

UB40 featuring Ali Campbell, Astro and Mickey Virtue are one of the greatest Reggae bands of all time.
Over more than 35 years in the music business they have clocked up more than 70 million record sales worldwide, 13 Top 20 UK albums – 6 of which reached the Top 3 albums, & 2 No. 1 albums in Australia, with songs like ‘Red, Red Wine’, ‘Kingston Town’, ‘Groovin’’, ‘Breakfast in Bed’, ‘One in Ten’, ‘Don’t Break my Heart’, ‘Sing our own Song’, ‘Rat in my Kitchen’, ‘Cherry O Baby’, ‘If it Happens Again’, and have hearts aglow with their infectious feel-good, Jamaican-inspired grooves. The group celebrated more hit singles with ‘I Got You Babe’, recorded with Chrissie Hynde of The Pretenders and ‘Can’t Help Falling In Love’, which topped the U.S. pop chart for seven consecutive weeks. This band has such a long string of hits including in the UK alone 3 UK No 1’s & 17 UK TOP 10’s & 39 Top 40’s.
Founding members Ali Campbell (The Legendary Voice of UB40), Astro and Mickey Virtue, will be coming to Bluesfest for the very first time and playing their greatest hits and new tracks from their latest LIVE album.
This is the bands only performance in Australia since their sell out tour of 2014.

Joe Bonamassa- EXCLUSIVE BLUESFEST ONLY PERFORMANCES!
Grammy nominated, platinum-selling, Billboard chart topper, and one the greatest Blues musicians of his generation, Joe Bonamassa will thrill Bluesfest audiences when he returns to Byron Bay for the first time in six years!
Bonamassa’s career began onstage opening for B.B. King in 1989, when he was only 12 years old. Today, he is hailed worldwide as one of the greatest guitar slingers of all time, and is an ever-evolving singer-songwriter who has released 16 solo albums in the last 14 years, all on his own label, J&R Adventures.
Known as one of the hardest working musicians in the business, he performs approximately 100 shows worldwide each year. His 2014 Top 10 album Different Shades of Blue is the highest-ranking Blues album in almost two years and he has topped the charts not once, but three times with Soul/Rock powerhouse Beth Hart.
On the eve of his return to Bluesfest, Bonamassa has two new releases: A collaboration with Australian singer Mahalia Barnes and her band The Soul Mates on an album of Betty Davis covers called Ooh Yea! – ‘The Betty Davis Songbook’, and Muddy Wolf at Red Rock’s, a tribute to Muddy Waters and Howlin’ Wolf that was filmed last summer to a sold-out 9,000 person crowd at Red Rocks Amphitheater.

Tedeschi Trucks Band
Bluesfest welcomes back Rock/Roots/Blues hybrid Tedeschi Trucks Band.
The supergroup featuring power couple Derek Trucks and Susan Tedeschi has soared to incredible heights since the amalgamation in 2011 with Revelator, which cemented the promise of great things with a Best Blues Album Grammy and a Blues Music Award for Album of the Year.
Regarded as one of the most superb live concert acts on the road today, TTB have risen to what the Santa Barbara Independent has described as “Epic”, further stating, “Epic is an overused word, but if one contemporary rock band were to rightfully wear it, the Tedeschi-Trucks Band might be the ones.” Often referred to as “jaw dropping”, “musical magic” and “a wall of talent on stage”, TTB now sell out multiple theatre runs and many outdoor events – fast becoming the torch bearer for ‘Americana/Blues’ Rock music today.
Susan Tedeschi has been praised for her insightful song writing, galvanizing, emotive vocals and her Blues-informed, gutsy guitar style. Her singing voice is like none other on the scene today, often described as a ‘gritty-growl!’
Formally leading his own The Derek Trucks Band for many years and as a member of The Allman Brothers Band, Derek Trucks was listed by Rolling Stone as number 16 on the 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time list and is often referred to as ‘the greatest guitar player of this generation.’

The Cat Empire
Renowned all around the globe as one of the world’s best festival bands, Australia’s own, The Cat Empire never fail to start a party.
Best described as Jazz/Reggae/Funk/Latin/Gypsy/Cuban/Australian party music, this dynamic, ARIA Award winning, platinum-selling collective are emblazoned in Australia’s musical fabric with an impressive fourteen year history packed with remarkable milestones.
Since bursting through with the infectious ‘Hello’ off their hit self-titled album, then their sophomore success ‘Two Shoes’, they have topped Triple J Hottest 100 lists, sold out tours internationally, performed at the Commonwealth Games Opening Ceremony, headlined a plethora of Australian festivals and appeared at some of the biggest in the world including Glastonbury & Bonaroo, plus, Trumpet player Harry Angus was named in “Australia’s Most Important Musicians Ever” by Australian Musician Magazine in 2012.
Their latest album, Steal the Light debuted in the Top 20 of 6 countries.

Lukas Nelson & Promise of the Real
Californian Rock n Roll group Lukas Nelson & Promise of the Real are destined for greatness.
Making their Australian debut this Easter, they will be performing their blend of ‘Cowboy Hippy Surf Rock’ on the Bluesfest stage for the very first time.
In 2015, the band alongside Lukas’s brother Micah Nelson, became Canadian musician Neil Young’s backing band on his thirty-sixth studio album, The Monsanto Years (June 2015), and its accompanying tour. The Monsanto Years debuted in the Billboard Charts at #21 and on the Australian ARIA albums charts at #23.
Lukas Nelson & Promise of the Real have also played with the likes of John Fogerty, Bob Weir, B.B. King, and Bob Dylan. Lukas first picked up the guitar at age 11 to honour a promise he made to his father, legendary Country musician Willie Nelson.

The Word
Bluesfest welcomes improvisational Gospel-Jazz supergroup The Word for their first Bluesfest appearance!
Featuring pedal-steel guitarist Robert Randolph, keyboardist John Medeski and all three North Mississippi Allstars (guitarist Luther Dickinson, drummer Cody Dickinson and bassist Chris Chew), The Word plays the hymnal of the electric improvisational church.
They’ve collaborated with greats including Ruthie Foster, Buddy Guy, Carlos Santana and more.
After a long hiatus, they’ve returned with gusto; their improvisational tenet allowing for such ground-breaking opportunities as embodied on a Soul Food track, ‘Glory Glory,’ which is a new sound unto itself, featuring the debut of the world’s first acoustic pedal steel guitar, a Dobro that’s been outfitted with four pedals.

Rhiannon Giddens
One of the brightest rising stars in music today, Rhiannon Giddens indisputably stole the show at the T Bone Burnett–curated 2013 Another Day, Another Time concert—a celebration of the early ’60s Folk revival at New York City’s Town Hall.
The Grammy Award-winning former lead singer of African-American Folk interpreters Carolina Chocolate Drops, having stepped out on her own, brought the star-studded audience to its feet with her elegant bearing, prodigious voice, and fierce spirit.
On her solo debut Tomorrow Is My Turn, Giddens delivers striking renditions of Dolly Parton’s ‘Don’t Let It Trouble Your Mind’, & Hank Cochran’s ‘She’s Got You’, popularised by Patsy Cline. The album incorporates Gospel, Jazz, Blues, and Country, plus a hint of proto-Rock’n’Roll, and Giddens displays an emotional range to match her dazzling vocal prowess throughout.
Tomorrow Is My Turn is a composite portrait of “Ruby,” of America, and of Giddens herself, whose turn is clearly right now.

Janiva Magness
Along with her world-class road band, Detroit-born Blues powerhouse Janiva Magness will bring her dynamic live show to Bluesfest for the first time in 2016.
With 22 Blues Music Award nominations and six wins over an illustrious career spanning eleven albums, Magness is among the premier Blues and R&B singers in the world today. Her voice possesses an earthy, raw honesty born from her life experience. She is also a charismatic performer known for her electrifying live shows.
She most recently garnered the Contemporary Blues Female Artist of the Year Award (her fourth win in this category), bringing her to six wins, and she also won the coveted Blues Music Award for B.B. King Entertainer Of The Year (she is only the second woman to ever win this Award, Koko Taylor being the first).
Having just released her eleventh studio album Original, a beautifully put-together album spanning Blues, Rock & Soul, Magness delivers the most powerful and intimate album of her career.

St. Paul & The Broken Bones
Bluesfest is excited to present Alabama’s star blue-eyed Soul sextet St. Paul & The Broken Bones for the first time!
Grit, elemental rhythm, tight-as-a-drumhead playing, and a profound depth of feeling: these are the promises of a great Soul band. St. Paul & The Broken Bones deliver on those promises.
They have created a maelstrom of interest with their roof-raising live shows and compelling debut album Half the City (produced by Ben Tanner of Alabama Shakes), which presents the same engaged, high-voltage, in-the-pocket sound that St. Paul & the Broken Bones produce at their live shows, where front man Paul Janeway’s extroverted performing style enraptures his audiences.
They’re building a rapid fervour in audiences around the world, playing for major festivals including Lollapalooza, Coachella, and recently opening for The Rolling Stones.

Allen Stone
With 3 albums under his belt, singer/songwriter Allen Stone proves himself deeply devoted to making uncompromisingly soulful music that transcends all Pop convention, and is one of the most breathtaking Soul artists in the world today.
Drawing inspiration from musical heroes including Stevie Wonder, Stone gracefully blends everything from edgy Soul-Pop and earthy Folk-Rock to throwback R&B and Parliament-inspired Funk.
He has performed on the likes of The Late Show with David Letterman, graced the pages of the New York Times, performed with Macklemore, and even landed a gig as the opening act for Soul legend Al Green.
Made in collaboration with Swedish Soul singer/songwriter/phenom Magnus Tingsek, and producer Benny Cassette (Kanye West, Frank Ocean), Stone’s latest album, his Capitol Records debut, Radius captures the warm energy of that creative connection and transports the listener to a higher and more exalted plane.
The Chewelah, Washington-bred 28-year-old’s 2011 album climbed to the top 10 on Billboard’s Heatseekers chart, along with entering the top five on iTunes’ R&B/Soul chart and gained acclaim from renowned Rock critic Ann Powers.

The Selecter
One of the biggest names in Ska 2-Tone, The Selecter, are coming to Bluesfest for the first time.
The original front pair of Pauline Black & Gaps Hendrickson re-launched the 9 piece band, The Selecter in 2011 and have been blazing new paths since, including playing at major festivals like Coachella and Glastonbury, headlined UK tours and recorded three studio albums, the latest of which, Subculture, is mixed by UK Dub-master Prince Fatty, which went to No. 38 on the UK BBC album charts – June 2015.
You can’t take your eyes off them when they’re on stage. They deliver the same anarchic passion that fuelled Selecter gigs during the 2-Tone era, when they toured with The Specials and Madness at the peak of their early fame. As well as performing enduring popular hits like ‘Three Minute Hero’, ‘Missing Words’ & ‘On My Radio’, and others from the Too Much Pressure album they’re writing incredible new material.
Rooted in Ska, Punk and Reggae & they’ve even added a horn section, which fills out their sound magnificently.

Shakey Graves
Alejandro Rose-Garcia, known as Shakey Graves, is making his Bluesfest debut in 2016, on the back of his new album And the War Came.
With a voice likened to early Kings of Leon, the Texan one-man-band delivers powerful, absorbing performances accompanying himself on guitar and a handmade kick drum built out of an old suitcase.
‘Shakey’ has made national acclaim in the USA and ranks near the top of Bandcamp’s digital best-seller charts; NPR Music named him one of 10 artists music fans “should’ve known in 2012,” describing him as “astonishing…unclassifiably original, and frighteningly good”.

Songhoy Blues
Bluesfest presents THE World Music band on everyone’s lips: Songhoy Blues – for the first time ever in Australia.
Hailing from Gao, the trio formed when growing unrest in the north of Mali forced the young men and their families to take refuge in the southern town of Bamako, they decided to turn crisis into opportunity by forming a band.
Their sound is Rock, RnB, & Blues layered on Malian grooves –It’s infectious, mesmerizing, and textured.
Their debut release ‘Soubour’ with acclaimed producer Nick Zinner (Yeah Yeah Yeahs), was a highlight of 2013’s critically applauded “AFRICA EXPRESS PRESENTS…MAISON DES JEUNES.”
They continue to gain momentum and fans worldwide – their eclectic sound speaking to a plethora of listeners.
All 5 & 3 day festival and camping tickets are on sale through www.bluesfest.com.au or phone the office on 02 6685 8310 right now. Single day tickets will go on sale soon when further artists have been announced.

Tickets will also become available very soon through Moshtix www.moshtix.com.au and Ticketmaster www.ticketmaster.com.au.
Gaynor Crawford Bluesfest publicist