John Butler (musician)

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John Butler (musician) bigraphy, stories - Australian musician

John Butler (musician) : biography

1 April 1975 –

John Charles Wiltshire-Butler (born 1 April 1975) or John Charles Butler is an Australian American 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, 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.

Discography

With John Butler Trio

Studio albums

  • John Butler (1998)
  • Three (2001)
  • Sunrise Over Sea (2004)
  • Grand National (2007)
  • April Uprising (2010)

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)

Political activism

Butler is an advocate of peace, environmental protection, and global harmony. He has supported The Wilderness Society and the Save Ningaloo Reef campaign.

In 2005, Butler and Caruana co-founded the JB Seed grant program – renamed as The Seed in 2010 – to support artistic expression and encourage the "social, cultural and artistic diversity in Australian society". The couple contributed $80,000 to establish the project. Other supporters include Paul Kelly, Correne Wilkie (Manager, The Cat Empire), Paul and Michelle Gilding (Ecoscorp), Maureen Ritchie, Missy Higgins, John Watson (Eleven Music), John Woodruff (JWM Productions), Sebastian Chase (MGM Distribution), Philip Stevens (Jarrah Records), The Waifs and Blue King Brown.

Butler is one of the largest supporters in the "Save The Kimberley" campaign in Australia and performed at the Save the Kimberley concert in Melbourne, Australia’s Federation Square in October 2012. On 4 October 2012, Butler was joined by 150 people during a protest outside the BHP Billiton headquarters in Melbourne; the protest was in response to the corporation’s involvement with proposed James Price Point gas industrial complex in Western Australia’s Kimberley region.

Butler performed at another concert in support of the Kimberley cause on 24 February 2013, with Missy Higgins also appearing again, with the event held at The Esplanade in Fremantle, Western Australia. Jarrah Records, the record label that Butler co-founded with The Waifs and Phil Stevens, worked in partnership with The Wilderness Society to stage the free event that also featured the band Ball Park Music and Dr Bob Brown, former leader of the Australian Greens Party. A march to protest the proposed gas refinery construction at James Price Point accompanied the free concert and campaign supporters were photographed with banners and placards.

Notes

^ For full name as John Charles Wiltshire-Butler see Australasian Performing Rights Association (APRA) search result for song writer and performer of "Something’s Gotta Give".

  • For full name as John Charles Butler see APRA search result for song writer and performer of "All My Honey".
  • For date and place of birth see Matera.

Early life and education

John Charles Wiltshire-Butler (or John Charles Butler) was born on 1 April 1975 in Redondo Beach, California, United States.[A] His Australian father with Australian, 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.