John Butler was born in California and raised in Western Australia. At a very young age John Butler has jumped to the front row of musical scene becoming the inspiration of many guitar players. He has very much contributed to the lap steel guitars revival as well as reigniting the interest on open tunings for regular fretted guitars and slide playing. The John Butler Trio has also included banjos into his music, helping on this instruments re-introduction in other styles rather than traditional folk music.
The Weissenborn copy John Butler plays is a Carson Crickmore (Victoria, Australia), and also resonator guitars (starring a 1930s Dobro). Fretted guitars are often 12 strings in open C or dropped D. Normally amplifies guitars (all of them) using two pick-ups; a magnetic and a mic pick-up near bridge
No doubt the best "Ocean" version we have found from John Butler, performed on a 12 string Maton in open tuning (CGCGCE) capoed on fourth string. Sound is not as good as some other videos we have seen, but version is so superior and passionate that deserves to be seen. It´s not even a lap steel video!
John Butler uses his music and profile to promote an array of social causes. Political and environmental overtones feature prominently in his lyrics, and he has created The JB Seed, a grants program for young activists and musicians in Australia.
Ben Harper