John Butler Trio - Grand National (2007)

BIOGRAPHY
by Marisa Brown
Though he was born and spent the first 11 years of his life in California, it was in Australia, his father's native land, that John Butler picked up the instrument that would later be vital to his career. After having shown interest in the guitar, the young Butler was given his late grandfather's Dobro, and he quickly began learning to play different styles of music, including Indian, Celtic, bluegrass, and folk. His self-released cassette tape brought him interest in the city of Perth, where he was living, and soon after, in 1998, his first album, John Butler, with drummer Jason McGann and bassist Gavin Shoesmith, was released, followed in 2000 by the JBT EP and Three — the first of his albums to also eventually came out in the U.S. — in 2001 (Showsmith, at this point, had decided to leave the John Butler Trio, but he was replaced by Rory Quirk and then later by Andrew Fry, who joined the band for its 2002 American tour). By now a bona fide star in Australia, in 2003, shortly after the birth of his daughter Banjo, the guitarist issued the double-disc live set Living 2001-2002 and the EP Zebra, with Sunrise Over Sea (for the latter, the John Butler Trio had become Butler with bassist Shannon Birchall and drummer Michael Barker) in 2004. This album sold well in Australia, debuting at number one on the ARIA charts, and led Butler to an opening spot on Dave Matthews' tour that year. Still with Jarrah, the company that he and fellow Aussies the Waifs had founded in order to distribute their music overseas, and the same band, Butler released Grand National worldwide in March of 2007.

REVIEW
by Marisa Brown
It's been a few years now since John Butler and his trio first cracked the American market, but he's never had quite the same success in the U.S. as he has had in Australia, his father's homeland, and his own residence for the past 20-odd years. Butler, however, should feel confident that he can hold his own against any of the Dave Matthewses, Ben Harpers, or John Mayers (all three of whom he can be easily compared to) out there. He's playing pop music, with all the sentimental, occasionally trite lyrics and clean major chord phrasing that accompany that style, but it's pop music done well, with impressive musicianship from Butler (on banjo, lapsteel, and acoustic and electric guitar), percussionist Michael Barker, and bassist Shannon Birchall. Nearly every song on Grand National features at least one instrumental solo, the kind that rolls and sings and grooves and would make Robert Randolph proud, moving close to jam band territory without immersing itself fully in it (only one song, "Gov Did Nothin'," reaches far past the four- or five-minute mark, much in part thanks to a great New Orleans-styled brass band that plays the piece out to a close, and is worth every second). His willingness to explore other genres besides bluesy folk pop — reggae in "Groovin' Slowly," hip-hop in "Daniella," and modern rock in "Devil Running" — certainly adds a nice diversity to the album, but unfortunately this talent is double-edged, as it also becomes the album's greatest flaw. Butler often tries to encompass too much, to do too much, and because of this, comes off sounding a little corny (in the aforementioned "Daniella," for example, which is more embarrassing than anything else), truncating words in a weird Dave Matthews-meets-Adam Sandler kind of way that's too forced and unnatural to sit well. And though it's nice to hear, in "Funky Tonight," for example, that he doesn't take himself too seriously, his simple rhymes and delivery are a bit too silly when they're about love and dancing. When he uses them in his socially and politically oriented pieces, however ("And with God on both sides/If death is justified/Whatever the name/Then we're all to blame," he sings on "Fire in the Sky"), they ring more truly, or at least more originally. But what Butler does best — writing and performing well-crafted pop songs, and sounding like he's having fun all the while — is good, and though Grand National still may not be his entry up the Billboard charts, it's a welcome entry nonetheless.

CREDITS
Charlotte Armstrong - Violin
Eugene Ball - Trumpet
Michael Barker - Bongos, Conga, Drums, Glockenspiel, Marimba, Tambourine, Timbales, Vocals (bckgr), Kalimba, Claves, Producer, Tympani [Timpani], Vibraslap, Vibraphone, Shaker, Cowbell, Beat Box, Tubular Bells, Tongue Drum, Crotale, Cabasa
Aaron Barndon - Violin
Shannon Birchall - Violin, Guitar (Bass), Vocals (bckgr), Double Bass, String Arrangements
Nicky Bomba - Vocals, Chant, Clapping
Linda Bull - Vocals (bckgr)
Vika Bull - Vocals, Vocals (bckgr), Soloist
John Butler - Guitar (Acoustic), Banjo, Guitar, Harmonica, Guitar (Electric), Ukulele, Vocals, Yidaki, Lap Steel Guitar, Guitar (Nylon String), Guitar (Resonator), Weissenborn, Guitar (11 String)
Danielle Caruana - Vocals, Vocals (bckgr), Chant, Clapping
Michael Caruana - Piano, Organ (Hammond), Wurlitzer
Jessie Goninon - Vocals, Chant, Clapping
Stacia Goninon - Vocals, Chant, Clapping
Andrea Keeble - Violin
Janette Mason - Violin
Money Mark - Clavicembalo
Helen Mountford - Cello
Ray Pereira Talking - Drum
Jex Saarelaht - Piano, Organ (Hammond)
Sue Simpson - Violin
Bobby Singh - Tabla
Stephanie Thom - Violin
Erikki Veltheim - Viola

TRACKS
1 Better Than 3:29
2 Daniella 4:17
3 Funky Tonight 5:28
4 Caroline 3:48
5 Good Excuse 3:26
6 Used to Get High 4:29
7 Gov Did Nothin' 8:05
8 Groovin' Slowly 4:33
9 Devil Running 4:51
10 Losing You 3:47
11 Nowhere Man 3:22
12 Fire in the Sky [Not Final Mix] 5:36
13 Gonna Take It 4:43
all music by Buttler

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