Bluesfest has unveiled its’ second announcement for the 2023 festival, this time tantalizing festival-lovers with another 6 international acts sure to tempt those still vacillating about whether to go or not.
Nathaniel Rateliff & The Night Sweats, St. Paul & The Broken Bones, Counting Crows, The Doobie Brothers (with Michael McDonald), Vintage Trouble and Allison Russell have all been named alongside the 41 artists previously named in the first artist announcement.
With its’ first full international lineup since 2019, Bluesfest is pulling out all stops to give its’ audience the best experience possible, with old and new acts alike sure to amaze. The ability for Bluesfest to unveil new artists to their audience has been a hallmark of its’
Here’s a little about each of the newly announced artists.
ALLISON RUSSELL
Poet, singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, activist – Allison Russell unpacks her
youth in searing detail on her tour de force debut Outside Child. She sings about deliverance and redemption, about the places, the people and realisations that helped her survive and claim her freedom.
“It’s an album of strength and affirmation, not victimization,” said The New York Times in their profile on Russell, and has named Outside Child the #2 Best Album of 2021.
Outside Child has received three Grammy award nominations in the Best Americana Album category, Best American Roots Performance and Best American Roots Song. In addition to her three Grammy nominations, Russell has been awarded Album of the Year at the 2022 Americana Music Association Awards, four Canadian Folk Music Awards, the Polaris Music Prize and two Juno Awards. Russell is the first-ever Black artist to win a Contemporary Roots Album of the Year in Juno history.
Counting Crows have enchanted listeners worldwide for more than two decades with their intensely soulful and intricate take on timeless rock & roll. Exploding onto the music scene in 1993 with their multi-platinum breakout album, August and Everything After, the band has gone on to release seven studio albums, selling more than 20 million records worldwide, and is revered as one of the world’s most pre-eminent live touring rock bands.
In 2004, Counting Crows recorded the chart-topping “Accidently in Love” for the animated motion picture Shrek 2. The instant success of the track earned them an Academy Award nomination for Best Original Song at the 2005 Academy Awards, a Golden Globe nomination for Best Original Song, and a GRAMMY Award nomination for Best Song Written for a Motion Picture, Television or Other Visual Media.
Over the last 30 years, the masterful songwriting from front man Adam Duritz put the band at No.8 on Billboard Magazine’s 2021 “Greatest Of All Time: Adult Alternative 25th Anniversary Chart.” The band released their newest record, Butter Miracle, featuring hit single “Elevator Boots” in April of 2021.
For over five decades, The Doobie Brothers have been known for delivering mind-blowing, roots based, harmony-laden, guitar-driven rock and roll – all of which recently culminated in an induction into the 2020 Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. Boasting one of the most loyal fan bases in music, selling more than 48 million albums, and winning four Grammy Awards, The Doobie Brothers continue to write and record new material and tour the world.
In all, the Doobies have tallied up five top 10 singles and 16 top 40 hits. Beginning with their multi-million-selling sophomore collection Toulouse Street, the Doobies have 3 multi-platinum, 7 platinum, and 14 Gold albums. Best of the Doobies has sold more than 12 million copies – a rare “diamond record.” In 2021, the band kicked off their 50th anniversary tour which reunited Tom Johnston, Michael McDonald, Pat Simmons, and John McFee back on the road together for the first time in over 25 years. Catch them at Bluesfest 2023 on Easter Monday.
NATHANIEL RATELIFF & THE NIGHT SWEATS
It took Nathaniel Rateliff & the Night Sweats less than five years to become one of the most recognisable new forces in contemporary Rock ’n’ Roll. Since 2015, Rateliff has led his denim-clad, horn-flanked Night Sweats, supplying the zeal of a whiskey-chugging Pentecostal preacher to songs about this world’s shared woes. They’ve had hits, sure, but their combustible mix of soul and rock quickly cemented them as the rare generational band who balanced ecstatic live shows with engrossing and rich records.
To wit, is there any other modern act capable of revving up stadium crowds for The Rolling Stones while also appearing on Saturday Night Live and CMT Crossroads and at NPR’s Tiny Desk in short order?
When Rateliff returned from his pandemic-truncated solo tour in March 2020, he struggled with the same question that vexed so many of us then—what now? Fortunately, he returned to his Colorado homestead and penned a set of songs that synthesized his introspection with his anthemic inclinations. The result is The Future, the third Night Sweats album but the first to capture this octet’s true depth and breadth. An instant classic of 11 songs, the album presents something more sustainable, interesting, and indeed open—a songwriter and band growing into bigger questions and sounds, into a future that allows them to remain recognisable but be so much more compelling than some denim-clad caricature.
A fever dream in sonic form, St. Paul & The Broken Bones’ new album The Alien Coast represents the most adventurous and original output yet from an ever-evolving musical powerhouse. In a profound shift for the Alabama-bred eight-piece—Paul Janeway (vocals), Jesse Phillips (bass), Browan Lollar (guitar), Kevin Leon (drums), Al Gamble (keyboards), Allen Branstetter (trumpet), Chad Fisher (trombone), and Amari Ansari (saxophone)—the band’s fourth full-length and first for ATO Records strays far from the time-bending soul of past work like their 2014 debut, arriving at a convergence of soul and psychedelia, stoner metal and funk. At turns explosive, elegant, and unhinged, that sound makes for a majestic backdrop to St. Paul & The Broken Bones’ visceral exploration of the strangest dimensions of the human psyche.
“This album has some of the more strange musical ideas I’ve ever come up with, and I’m proud that we were all excited to swing for the fences and not really worry about getting too weird.”
With the release of The Alien Coast, one of St. Paul & The Broken Bones’ greatest ambitions is to provide their audience with the same sense of unbridled possibility and purposeful abandon they felt in making the album. “I hope the record takes people on a journey and tests their boundaries a bit,” says Janeway. “I’d love for it to be almost like a gateway drug, where it opens a door that people weren’t willing to open—or maybe weren’t even aware of—and through that they get to experience all these beautiful moments they never would’ve expected.”
VINTAGE TROUBLE
Since forming in 2010, Vintage Trouble have become Rock ‘n’ Roll’s best kept secret. Distilling swaggering rock, soulful blues, R&B grooves, and pop ambition into a bold and brash brew, the quartet—Ty Taylor (vocals), Nalle Colt (guitar), Rick Barrio Dill (bass), and Richard Danielson (drums) — have logged 3,000 shows across 30 countries on tour with divinities such as The Who, The Rolling Stones, AC/DC, Lenny Kravitz, and Bon Jovi, to name a few.
Along the way, Vintage Trouble performed on Later… with Jools Holland, Jimmy Kimmel LIVE!, David Letterman, Conan, The View, and The Tonight Showin addition to receiving acclaim from New York Times, NPR, The Wall Street Journal, Billboard, Rolling Stone, and more.
They return to the Bluesfest stage in 2023 after their unforgettable performance in 2019! Catch them on Good Friday & Easter Saturday!
Tickets for Bluesfest are available here.
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