Santana, Iggy & The Stooges, Steve Miller Band, Chris Isaak are among the many musicians who will play their first-ever Bluesfest gigs at Tyagarah Tea Tree farm next Easter.
They will be joined by return favourites Wilco, Bonnie Raitt, Glen Hansard (this time with The Frames) and Ben Harper and Tedeschi Trucks Band
Other performers named in the Bluesfest first announcement, released this morning, include Dropkick Murphys, Newton Faulkner, William Elliott Whitmore, Frank Turner and The Sleeping Souls, Grace Potter, Playing For Change and Ben Caplan.
‘This is our year,’ said festival director Peter Noble, in the first of four announcements for the 24th annual festival. ‘We are delivering one of our absolute best artist line-ups ever, and the first announcement is only the beginning.’
He then launched into some high praise of probably the single performer most often associated with the festival.
‘There is something about Ben [Harper] and Bluesfest that cannot be put into words. To hear him perform at the festival that discovered him is almost an experience approaching mysticism… it is transcendental.’
Santana will be playing their first-ever Bluesfest gig on Good Friday. The group has sold more than 100 million records, reached more than 100 million fans at concerts worldwide, received 10 Grammy awards and been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. They have had at least one Top Ten album in the Billboard charts in each decade from the 1960s on.
Henry Rollins once said Iggy Pop ‘is a solid reminder of what happens when an artist stays true to himself only and doesn’t give a damn about the rest of it’. Dubbed the legends that legends turn out to watch, Iggy & The Stooges are including a stop at Bluesfest on their last-ever world tour.
Named by Rolling Stone one of the 100 Greatest Singers of All Time, Bonnie Raitt returns to Bluesfest with a new album under her belt – her 19th release and her first in seven years: Slipstream. She has backed up the release with an extensive tour, selling out dates across America with the demand for tickets soaring to a point that multiple additional dates had to be added across the tour. Her live shows have also earned her great praise.
Wilco, one of the most requested bands ever to grace the Bluesfest stages, are coming back. Those who caught them at Bluesfest in 2006, would agree they had the entire crowd – of diverse age groups and musical tastes – transfixed.
Chris Isaak’s latest album Beyond the Sun (2011), recorded at the legendary Memphis Sun Studio, is homage to his obsession with the glory days of the studio and the visionary artists who all got their starts there, including Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, Roy Orbison, Carl Perkins and Jerry Lee Lewis.
The Dropkick Murphys will be bringing their seventh studio album Going out in Style with them. It is a raucous and rollicking romp overflowing with punk rock energy, folk soul and of course Irish spirit.
Glen Hansard, the captivating Oscar-winning Frames front man, is returning to Bluesfest in March 2013. Long-time fans will also be thrilled to know that The Frames will be Hansard’s backing group on stage for this tour.
Grammy award-winning Derek Trucks is the youngest musician to make Rolling Stone’s Top 100 Guitarists of All Time. His wife Susan Tedeschi’s awe-inspiring vocal prowess has resulted in a successful career, a series of award-winning recordings and a devoted following. Their sophomore album Everybody’s Talkin’, a double-disc set released in May, debuted in the top 25 of Billboard’s top albums chart and has maintained a top-3 position on the best-selling blues albums chart since its release.
The 24th Bluesfest will take place between Thursday 28 March and Monday 1 April 2013 at Bluesfest’s permanent home at Tyagarah Tea Tree Farm just outside of Byron Bay.
Tickets are on sale now through www.bluesfest.com.au or by phoning the Bluesfest office on 02 6685 8310.
