BLUESFEST TOURING PRESENTS

Ukulele virtuoso known for his complex finger work. His music combines elements of jazz and rock.

JAKE SHIMABUKURO

“Jake is taking the instrument to a place that I can't see anybody else catching up with him."
- Eddie Vedder (Pearl Jam) after releasing his own album of ukulele songs
“Forget everything you know about the ukulele…and go do a Google search. The first video that pops up won’t be some grainy clip of Tiny Tim or George Formby but a performance by a hair-gelled 34-year old Hawaiian named Jake Shimabukuro.”
– Time Magazine
When Jake last played Bluesfest in 2008 the word went out and the buzz filtered through the festival about the young Hawaiian guy shredding it on the uke that resulted in a swell of excitement for his second set last time. It’s rare for a young musician to earn comparisons to the likes of Jimi Hendrix and Miles Davis. It’s even harder to find an artist who has entirely redefined an instrument by his early thirties. But Jake Shimabukuro (she-ma-boo-koo-row) has already accomplished these feats, and more, in a little over a decade of playing and recording music…on the ukulele.

On his most recent album ‘Peace Love Ukulele’ (which debuted at #1 on the Billboard World Album Chart), Jake and his “uke” effortlessly (it seems) mix jazz, rock, classical, traditional Hawaiian music, and folk, creating a sound that’s both technically masterful and emotionally powerful…and utterly unique in the music world.

For Jake, his life has always centered on the ukulele. He started playing the instrument at the age of 4, at the urging of his mother (who also played). “Everyone plays in Hawaii,” he says. “But I became obsessed with it.” Although a few well-received album releases helped the musician earn some fame in Hawaii, his career really skyrocketed when a YouTube clip of him performing “While My Guitar Gently Weeps” in Central Park went viral – with over 10.5million views and counting.

Celebrity fans and collaborations include Bela Fleck and Flecktones, Bette Midler, Yo-Yo Ma, Cyndi Lauper, Ziggy Marley, Levon Helm, Marcus Miller, Stanley Clarke, Les Paul, Dave Koz, Chris Botti, and Jimmy Buffett. He’s played on shows like “Jimmy Kimmel Live!,” “The Late Show with Conan O'Brien,” “The Today Show” and “Last Call with Carson Daly,” was a featured artist on NPR’s “Weekend Edition,” and more recently was a featured artist on Rolling Stone Live. He’s landed slots on the Monterrey and Playboy Jazz Festivals, performed at Google and the influential TED conference, and performed in front of the Queen of England in Blackpool (alongside Bette Midler). Jake also received a cameo in the Adam Sandler movie “Just Go with It,” where he also recorded a few songs for the soundtrack.

Forget everything you think you know about the limitations of this traditional Hawaiian instrument and let this young uke axeman show you a thing or two. Be warned - he’ll make you want to pick one up and have a go

“If everyone played the ukulele, the world would be a better place,” says Shimabukuro. Get your masterclass when Jake Shimabukuro shreds his uke in your town".

Website http://jakeshimabukuro.com/welcome/ Youtube Channel http://www.youtube.com/jakeshimabukuro

BLUESFEST TOURING PRESENTS

ROYAL SOUTHERN BROTHERHOOD

The Soul of the South featuring DEVON ALLMAN, MIKE ZITO and CYRIL NEVILLE

This Is Rock Royalty!!

In the US South, where music is religion, two rock ‘n’ roll bloodlines tower above all others and mere mention of the Allman and Neville Brothers casts a magic spell. These aren’t just bands, they’re gods, and with a lineup comprising both the iconic CYRIL NEVILLE and DEVON ALLMAN, Royal Southern Brotherhood come pre-loaded with expectations. Don’t worry: they can match them. The family tree might be auspicious, but this new band trades on talent, not genealogy. It’s not about rock history: it’s about the here-and-now.

This lineup has talent to burn. CYRIL NEVILLE: poet, philosopher, percussion master and perhaps the South’s last great soul singer. At 63, this is the latest chapter in a career that began with 1970’s debut solo single, Gossip. Then followed his work with the family siblings in The Meters and the Neville Brothers, and mixing it up with the likes of The Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan, Bono, Willie Nelson and Galactic.

Likewise DEVON ALLMAN. As the son of Gregg Allman, the 36-year-old has rock ‘n’ roll in his DNA, but he’s always walked his own path. Refusing to trade on his celebrity surname, Devon’s formative influences took in everyone from The Beatles to KISS, and In 1999, he hit the radar as leader of Honeytribe, There’s been a Top 10 hit in Spain with Javier Vargas, albums alongside Jack Bruce and jam sessions with heavyweights like Les Paul and Billy Gibbons: but it’s in ROYAL SOUTHERN BROTHERHOOD that you’ll hear this modern master playing at full-throttle.

Not many guitarists could stand toe-to-toe with him. Step up MIKE ZITO: the blues ace whose ear for melody provides the counterpoint to his wingman’s rocking tendencies. Nominated in 2011 for the Blues Music Foundation’s ‘Best Blues Rock’ award, and winner of 2010’s Blues Music Award for ‘Song Of The Year’ with the title track of Pearl River (a co-write with Cyril Neville), few stars are rising faster.

But like Cyril says, it’s all about making “a good gumbo”, and that’s where God’s own rhythm section comes in. Giving Royal Southern Brotherhood its hip-shaking groove are bassist CHARLIE WOOTON and drummer YONRICO SCOTT: both heavyweight names in their own right, with Charlie’s bass chops celebrated on the Southern jam scene for his sets with Oliver Wood of the Woods Brothers, and Yonrico hitting the skins for luminaries including the Derek Trucks Band, Gregg Allman and the Allman Brothers themselves.

When these five stellar musicians come together as ROYAL SOUTHERN BROTHERHOOD, the planets align. Bear witness as ROYAL SOUTHERN BROTHERHOOD drag their thrilling new brand of blues-rock and white-hot musicianship from the Southern States onto the world stage. The South is rising again. Get along for the ride.

JD McPHERSON
Joining ROYAL SOUTHERN BROTHERHOOD at The Corner Hotel, Melbourne for one special night will be JD McPHERSON. A Broken Arrow, Oklahoma native, his dad introduced him to the Delta blues and jazz as a kid, and after getting into Hendrix, Led Zeppelin and punk rock during high school, he picked up a Buddy Holly box set. “Something about that scratched an itch,” he says. “Then I started getting into the black side of rock ’n’ roll !”

And that itch is clearly to be heard on Signs & Signifiers, his seductively kickass debut album. This renaissance man/hepcat seamlessly meshes the old and the new, the primal and the sophisticated, on a work that will satisfy traditional American rock ’n’ roll and R&B purists while also exhibiting JD MCPHERSON’s rarefied gift for mixing and matching disparate stylistic shapes and textures.

With such diverse influences ranging from T-Rex, The Clash, The Pixies and Little Richard and together with his musical partner Jimmy Sutton, JD MCPHERSON belts out his classy hybrid roots and rockabilly, honed with a modern hardcore rock n rhythm & blues edge.

They said that rock ‘n’ roll was dead, but they were wrong. Right now, in 2012, there’s something special in the air at The Corner tonight.

Two artists breaking ground in Australia for the very first time … ROYAL SOUTHERN BROTHERHOOD and special guest JD MCPHERSON - both with a point to prove.

Time to step up to the plate and give it a good whack – let it Rock !!!

American singer-songwriter and guitarist

JD McPHERSON - TOURING FOR THE FIRST TIME IN AUSTRALIA

A Broken Arrow, Oklahoma native, his dad introduced him to the Delta blues and jazz as a kid, and after getting into Hendrix, Led Zeppelin and punk rock during high school, he picked up a Buddy Holly box set. “Something about that scratched an itch,” he says. “Then I started getting into the black side of rock ’n’ roll: Larry Williams, Little Richard, Art Neville’s stuff on Specialty, then soul and Jamaican rocksteady.”

And that itch is clearly to be heard on Signs & Signifiers, his seductively kickass debut album. This renaissance man/hepcat seamlessly meshes the old and the new, the primal and the sophisticated, on a work that will satisfy traditional American rock ’n’ roll and R&B purists while also exhibiting JD MCPHERSON’s rarefied gift for mixing and matching disparate stylistic shapes and textures.

With such diverse influences ranging from T-Rex, The Clash, The Pixies and Little Richard and together with his musical partner Jimmy Sutton, JD MCPHERSON belts out his classy hybrid roots and rockabilly, honed with a modern hardcore rock n rhythm & blues edge.

Touring Australia for the first time and breaking new ground and finding new fans....it’s time to step up to the plate and give it a good whack – let it Rock !!!