Today Bluesfest Byron Bay brings you another mighty fine round of artists to perform at its 28th annual Festival at the Tyagarah Tea Tree Farm, just outside of Byron Bay over the Easter long weekend from Thursday 13th to Monday 17th of April and it just keeps getting better.
Next week Bluesfest will bring its final announcement that will include the much loved Boomerang Festival, once again to be held within the precinct of Bluesfest.
Also released today is the much anticipated (almost) full playing schedule, including playing times and stages. You can download it here.
With the Festival only 5 weeks away, certain ticket types are reported to be on the verge of selling out.
On the forefront of this announcement is one of Americas top Hip Hop artist Nas, teaming up with New Orleans renowned Brass band The Soul Rebels for an exclusive Australian performance. You can only catch Nas and guests The Soul Rebels at Bluesfest this Easter and nowhere else in Australia!
The collaboration between Nas and The Soul Rebels is actually so rare that it is hardly seen anywhere in the world, only playing very few Festivals this year, including New Orleans Jazzfest and the 12th Annual Brooklyn Hip Hop Festival.
Before Nas’s 13 Grammy nominations, seven platinum albums and Top 5 rankings on MTV’s 10 Greatest MCs of All Time and The Source’s Top 50 Lyricists of All Time, 17-year-old Nas would take daily trips to Manhattan hoping to secure a major label deal, only to be shot down by nearly every label. This amazing artist has come a long way and his debut album Illmatic is still rated one of the finest EVER.
The Soul Rebels are an eight-piece New Orleans based brass ensemble who incorporates elements of Soul, Jazz, Funk, Hip-Hop, Rock and Pop music within a contemporary brass framework. The Soul Rebels started with an idea – to expand upon the pop music they loved on the radio and the New Orleans brass tradition they grew up on. They took that tradition and blended funk and soul with elements of Hip Hop, Jazz and Rock.
Joining Nas together with guests The Soul Rebels, this outstanding team of talent will bring one striking extravaganza to Bluesfest’s opening night on Thursday.
Kasey Chamber’s recent number one ARIA chart debut of her 11th Studio album Dragonfly proves that one of Australia’s most loved and accomplished performers is unquestionably at the top of her game. This will be Kasey’s 10th performance at Bluesfest, including her first ever solo show in 1999.Kasey has previously topped the ARIA Albums Chart with Barricades & Brickwalls in 2002, Wayward Angel in 2004, Carnival in 2006 and Rattlin’ Bones, her collaboration with Shane Nicholson, in 2008. Don’t miss the chance to see live, what Rolling Stone has described as ‘’Australia’s foremost progenitor of and innovator in, the country-roots fold. Dragonfly is the masterwork of a heart laid bare in the song”. Come on home to Bluesfest Kasey!
Busby Marou – Fresh from having the number one album on the ARIA charts, Bluesfest is excited to welcome Busby Marou back in 2017! There’s a potent chemistry that drives Busby Marou, a bond struck between two mates years ago in the corner of Rockhampton’s Oxford Hotel, when they happily knocked out tunes for hours on end to anyone who would listen. From humble beginnings, on the banks of the Fitzroy River in Rockhampton, folk inspired pop outfit, Busby Marou has made a serious impact on the Australian stage!
It’s been a long time coming, but Bluesfest is welcoming South African Globe-trotting flautist and composer Wouter Kellerman to the stage in 2017 with his all African band! Wouter Kellerman is an Australian based artist who has won a Grammy award in 2015 for best New Age Album Winds of Samasara and was nominated for a Grammy in 2016 for Best Pop Instrumental Album Love Language.
Little Georgia are a Folk-Grunge duo from Australia. Amongst a sea of rhythmic and raw guitar tones collaborators Ashleigh Mannix and Justin Carter deliver both beautiful harmonies and compelling lyrics which reveal the honesty in their music.
Lucy Gallant will play her third Glastonbury this year. This Byron local has written over 1,000 songs and is currently on tour in the US. Festival Director Peter Noble says: “Gallant is a star, the Glastonbury festival knows it…. that’s why they continue to book her, and I am also convinced. It is only a matter of time before she is a household name in Australia on a major record label and headlining festivals here and around the world.
Over the 2017 Easter long weekend (Thursday 13th to Monday 17th of April) Bluesfest will present one of its biggest festivals to date at the Tyagarah Tea Tree Farm just outside Byron Bay. With back to back performances for 12 hours a day on multiple stages, a gourmet variety of food stalls, markets, on site camping and parking, it will be a haven for music lovers of all ages this April.
Peter Noble OAM, Festival Director, comments on the entire Bluesfest line-up:
“Here it is – the (almost) final announcement for Bluesfest 2017 plus the (almost) full playing schedule with all the times and stages and yes, we will be doing a Boomerang festival announcement next week, so we are not quite done yet!
This announcement features two Australian artists who have BOTH had No 1 albums on the Australian ARIA CHARTS in the past month, Busby Marou and one of our very favourite artists, who did her first EVER solo show at Bluesfest, the incomparable Kasey Chambers.
Add Nas doing an exclusive performance in Australia – with special guests The Soul Rebels from New Orleans, who will ONLY play a handful of shows anywhere, including headlining The Hip Hop Festival, Brooklyn New York, as well as Jazzfest in New Orleans, and you have a very, very strong announcement.
I am stoked to have Wouter Kellerman at Bluesfest. Using his classical training as a foundation, Kellerman focused his attention on world music, exploring the versatility of the flute and fusing classical and contemporary sounds, resulting in a potent and thrilling musical encounter. He is taking his crossover world music to a global audience, having gained a solid following in his native South Africa. So happy to welcome him to our shores.
Bluesfest 2017 feels like the event I exactly want it to be as the creative director. There’s more Jazz, more Blues, more emerging artists, more legends, more great contemporary artists, more roots artists AND MORE FEMALE ARTISTS. I’m very satisfied with where we have gotten to, in what was a very challenging time a few months back when two headliners suddenly cancelled.
You only need to look at the Jazz component of Bluesfest to see that it is a whole festival within a festival nowadays. Artists such as Roy Ayers, current Grammy winners Snarky Puppy, the Unmissable Miles Electric Band, featuring such great artists as Darrell Jones, the Bass player from the Rolling Stones, and other brilliant Miles Davis alumni, paying tribute to the great man. Plus the incomparable current Grammy winning vocalist Gregory Porter shows we are really developing this part of the fest. Corinne Bailey Rae, Trombone Shorty, Joan Osborne and Rickie Lee Jones ALL have cred in this area.
The King of the Blues – Buddy Guy will grace us with exclusive performances, and along with Eric Gales, Vasti Jackson, Davy Knowles, Devon Allman, The Record Company, Muddy Waters son – Mud Morganfield, the amazing Jeff Lang PLUS the California Honeydrops, Ray Beadle, Lloyd Spiegel, Blind Boy Paxton, AND the ladies The Suffers, the astonishing Beth Hart and the legend, the incomparable Mavis Staples (exclusive) plus Bonnie Raitt and lastly, one of my favourites Melody Angel – we have got you covered, Blues fans….and don’t you dare miss Ellis Hall….or risk living in eternal regret. And, in saying that, don’t dare miss Booker T and the Stax Revue either.
I could go on and on.
There are wonderful returning artists who were revelations last year. Rhiannon Giddens, St Paul and the Broken Bones, Vintage Trouble, and there will be a whole new group of artists playing for the first time this year who will become your new favourites.
Put the headliners on top, both legends, such as our headliner Patti Smith playing her final ever festival performances in Australia, and contemporary artists, including The Lumineers, who Billboard magazine hailed as the top grossing band in the USA in February, plus returning favourites, and you have what I believe is a very, very special Bluesfest coming. There’s a real vibe on our 2017 edition. The countdown is now truly on.
Peter Noble, Festival Director
NEW 2017 ARTISTS ANNOUNCED:
NAS
WITH GUESTS THE SOUL REBELS
(A ONE OFF EXCLUSIVE PERFORMANCE)
KASEY CHAMBERS
BUSBY MAROU
WOUTER KELLERMAN
LITTLE GEORGIA
JOINING THE 2017 ARTISTS ALREADY ANNOUNCED:
SANTANA
JIMMY BUFFETT EXCLUSIVE
ZAC BROWN BAND
PATTI SMITH AND HER BAND PERFORM HORSES
PATTI SMITH AND HER BAND ACOUSTIC
NEILL FINN
MARY J. BLIGE
THE LUMINEERS
BUDDY GUY EXCLUSIVE
THE DOOBIE BROTHERS
MADNESS
BONNIE RAITT
MAVIS STAPLES EXCLUSIVE
BILLY BRAGG
COURTNEY BARNETT
BILLY BRAGG AND JOE HENRY
SIR ROSEVELT
JETHRO TULL
MILES ELECTRIC BAND
TROMBONE SHORTY AND ORLEANS AVENUE
RICKIE LEE JONES
GREGORY PORTER
SNARKY PUPPY
SLIGHTLY STOOPID
ST. PAUL & THE BROKEN BONES
CORINNE BAILEY RAE
BETH HART EXCLUSIVE
LAURA MVULA
MICHAEL KIWANUKA
ANDREW BIRD
RHIANNON GIDDENS
BOOKER T. PRESENTS THE STAX RECORDS REVIEW
EXPERIENCE JIMI HENDRIX
GALLANT
ROY AYERS
ERIC GALES
MUD MORGANFIELD
DEVON ALLMAN
MAX JURY
NAHKO AND MEDICINE FOR THE PEOPLE
NIC CESTER
TURIN BRAKES
BLIND BOY PAXTON
TREVOR HALL
JAKE SHIMABUKURO
DUMPSTAPHUNK
PLAYING FOR CHANGE
ELLIS HALL
VASTI JACKSON
THE RECORD COMPANY
THE MOUNTAIN GOATS
TONY JOE WHITE
THE SUFFERS EXCLUSIVE
NIKKI HILL
REMI
THE CALIFORNIA HONEYDROPS
JEFF LANG
RAY BEADLE AND THE SILVER DOLLARS
LLOYD SPIEGEL
JOAN OSBORNE
GLENN CARDIER AND THE SIDESHOW
DAVY KNOWLES
MELODY ANGEL
IRISH MYTHEN
THE STRUMBELLAS
THE WILSON PICKERS
ROUND MOUNTAIN GIRLS
AUSTRALIAN UKULELE SHOW
IVY