11-String Acoustic Tour De Force: John Butler, “Ocean”

Tidal wave
Music • Views: 19,945

YouTube

Here’s an epic live performance of “Ocean,” by American-born Australian musician John Butler. And yes, his guitar only has eleven strings — the G string is not paired as it usually is on a 12-string guitar.

This special re-recording was captured in ‘The Compound’, John Butler’s studio in his hometown of Fremantle Western Australia in February 2012. Having performed the track to a worldwide audience over the past 12 years, ‘Ocean’ is today available FREE as an MP3, grab your copy here: johnbutlertrio.com

Jump to bottom

36 comments
1 Rightwingconspirator  Jul 15, 2014 4:07:43pm

Interesting technique. Perfect background as I dig way into WordPress widgets to get this web redesign finished.

So what’s up with using 11 strings? Instead of 12?

2 dog philosopher  Jul 15, 2014 4:12:41pm

An Unseemly Eagerness To Hate

Republican congressional candidate and state legislator Adam Kwasman had just raced up to Phoenix Tuesday morning from the protest in Oracle over the expected arrival of dozens of migrant children at a shelter.

He had tweeted from the scene, “Bus coming in. This is not compassion. This is the abrogation of the rule of law.” He included a photo of the back of a yellow school bus

Kwasman later told me he saw the migrant children. “I was actually able to see some of the children in the buses. The fear on their faces…. This is not compassion,” he said.

But there was a problem with Kwasman’s story: There was no fear on their faces. Those weren’t the migrant children in the school bus. Those were children from the Marana school district. They were heading to the YMCA’s Triangle Y Camp, not far from the Rite of Passage shelter for the migrants, at the base of Mt. Lemmon.

azcentral.com

3 darthstar  Jul 15, 2014 4:23:37pm

Love the John Butler Trio - He used to play an 8 string guitar he designed, would play the bass line and lead at the same time. First time I saw him live I kept asking everyone around me, “Where’s the bass player?” Finally, I walked up to the stage and saw that he had three bass strings and five standard strings on his guitar with two pick-ups.

He dropped the 8th string a few years later, saying he didn’t use it enough, if I recall.

4 wrenchwench  Jul 15, 2014 4:31:45pm

re: #2 dog philosopher

Oh holy fuck. That is a must-see video.

5 wrenchwench  Jul 15, 2014 4:37:36pm

‘Thank God’? WTF? I believe he’s referring to a deleted tweet.

6 GeneJockey  Jul 15, 2014 4:44:17pm

re: #2 dog philosopher

An Unseemly Eagerness To Hate

Republican congressional candidate and state legislator Adam Kwasman had just raced up to Phoenix Tuesday morning from the protest in Oracle over the expected arrival of dozens of migrant children at a shelter.

He had tweeted from the scene, “Bus coming in. This is not compassion. This is the abrogation of the rule of law.” He included a photo of the back of a yellow school bus

Kwasman later told me he saw the migrant children. “I was actually able to see some of the children in the buses. The fear on their faces…. This is not compassion,” he said.

But there was a problem with Kwasman’s story: There was no fear on their faces. Those weren’t the migrant children in the school bus. Those were children from the Marana school district. They were heading to the YMCA’s Triangle Y Camp, not far from the Rite of Passage shelter for the migrants, at the base of Mt. Lemmon.

azcentral.com

What an entirely predictable, and thoroughly reprehensible response to seeing a busload of not-quite-white children. Every bit as disgusting as the leap to conclude a busload of farm workers must be illegal immigrants bused there by Obama.

What in the wide, wide world of sports is WRONG with these people? They worry about their precious stuff being taken away be being anything better than shitty to poor people, while rich people are rifling through their pockets and taking everything.

7 wrenchwench  Jul 15, 2014 4:45:20pm

He’s endorsed by Arpaio, of course.

8 Targetpractice  Jul 15, 2014 4:47:57pm

re: #6 GeneJockey

What an entirely predictable, and thoroughly reprehensible response to seeing a busload of not-quite-white children. Every bit as disgusting as the leap to conclude a busload of farm workers must be illegal immigrants bused there by Obama.

What in the wide, wide world of sports is WRONG with these people? They worry about their precious stuff being taken away be being anything better than shitty to poor people, while rich people are rifling through their pockets and taking everything.

9 makeitstop  Jul 15, 2014 4:48:04pm

re: #1 Rightwingconspirator

Interesting technique. Perfect background as I dig way into WordPress widgets to get this web redesign finished.

So what’s up with using 11 strings? Instead of 12?

It probably makes the solo bits on the top strings easier to play - the octave course on the G string becomes a pain in the butt if you want to do a bend or apply vibrato.

That was the perfect accompaniment to a rainy night on LI as the storms roll south to north.

I especially like his judicious use of a volume pedal (his left foot) to add the dramatic swells at points. He didn’t over-use it, which makes the instances where he did use it even more dramatic.

10 jaunte  Jul 15, 2014 4:50:21pm

Murrieta’s “crisis management adviser” threatens cartoonist:

MURRIETA: City hires a crisis management adviser
blog.pe.com

11 jaunte  Jul 15, 2014 4:51:37pm
Long said he has been dismayed by the negative portrayal of Murrieta in the national media.
“The unfortunate part is, the side of the community no one’s seeing is what we’re really known for. We’re a compassionate, giving city,” Long said.

Agree, or we’ll sue!

12 wrenchwench  Jul 15, 2014 4:52:39pm

re: #11 jaunte

Agree, or we’ll sue!

Floggings will continue until your opinion of us improves.

13 GeneJockey  Jul 15, 2014 4:53:27pm

re: #10 jaunte

Murrieta’s “crisis management adviser” threatens cartoonist:

[Embedded content]

MURRIETA: City hires a crisis management adviser
blog.pe.com

Well, he managed to make the crisis of Murrieta’s reputation even deeper.

14 wrenchwench  Jul 15, 2014 4:54:45pm

re: #10 jaunte

Murrieta’s “crisis management adviser” threatens cartoonist:

[Embedded content]

MURRIETA: City hires a crisis management adviser
blog.pe.com

Worth every penny. Both of ‘em.

Assistant City Manager Kim Summers said in an email that Hermosillo contacted the city to offer help reaching out to the Spanish-speaking media, offering his services at a “deeply discounted rate.”
“He has much more experience in that arena than we do,” Summers wrote. “It was important that we get the message out to the Spanish-speaking public that our job is to keep the peace and that the vast majority of protesters are not our citizens but activists from all over.”

15 GeneJockey  Jul 15, 2014 4:55:05pm

Jesus, though - threatening a political cartoonist with a lawsuit for not being nice enough to you? How dumb is that?

16 jaunte  Jul 15, 2014 4:55:30pm

re: #14 wrenchwench

Beware the deeply discounted crisis manager.

17 GeneJockey  Jul 15, 2014 4:56:19pm

re: #14 wrenchwench

Worth every penny. Both of ‘em.

Now that’s funny.

18 wrenchwench  Jul 15, 2014 4:57:45pm

re: #16 jaunte

Beware the deeply discounted crisis manager.

He should go tell Lupillo Rivera what’s going to happen to him if he comes back.

19 wrenchwench  Jul 15, 2014 5:00:18pm

Oh, the deleted tweet is in the original article dog philosopher posted. There was a photo that didn’t get screen-grabbed, but I guess it was the back of a school bus. Don’t know whether the ‘sad faces’ were visible.

20 wrenchwench  Jul 15, 2014 5:04:07pm

It was ‘Sheriff Underpants’ who stirred up the rubes to go frighten the immigrants.

How does frightening children advance the immigration debate? How does a sheriff who lets people know where they can go to frighten children live with himself?

What does all this tell us about ourselves?

First, Sheriff Underpants should be ashamed of himself.

Then again, if Pinal County Sheriff Paul Babeu had any shame he would not have taken photos of himself in his skivvies for everyone on the Internet to see.

The sheriff was riding high for a brief moment a few years back, traveling the state with U.S. Sen. John McCain in 2010 when McCain was fighting off a primary challenge from J.D. Hayworth and using Babeu as a shill in the senator’s “build the dang fence” commercial.

Babeu wanted to use that exposure to get into Congress, but the underpants photos and some public issues with a boyfriend kind of slowed down his plans.

Now, Babeu is back, hoping to ride the recent wave of anti-immigrant lust back to some position of relevance.

He’s in Oracle, now, where some of the displaced children from Central America were expected to be houses temporarily in a detention center.

He’s trying to play “peacemaker” with the protestors expected to greet the children, according to some news reports, but it turns out that he’s the one who let out word about where the children would be housed.

[…]

21 wrenchwench  Jul 15, 2014 5:05:11pm

But maybe he was trolled.

22 Charles Johnson  Jul 15, 2014 5:05:25pm

Wow, what a horrible story. Really illustrates how disgusting these people are.

Whoever Pages this one will get a front page promotion…

I have to go take care of yet another ant invasion, this time in my office. Argh. They’re really swarming this week.

23 wrenchwench  Jul 15, 2014 5:06:06pm

The music was really beautiful. Thanks Charles. I’m sorry dog engineer derailed the thread.

24 ObserverArt  Jul 15, 2014 5:06:12pm

re: #15 GeneJockey

Jesus, though - threatening a political cartoonist with a lawsuit for not being nice enough to you? How dumb is that?

Well one thing for sure. It is not crisis management. More like dumping gas on a fire.

25 wrenchwench  Jul 15, 2014 5:07:17pm

re: #22 Charles Johnson

Whoever Pages this one will get a front page promotion…

We need a button that will make a Page out of a series of comments by various authors.

/

26 jaunte  Jul 15, 2014 5:07:30pm

“Did you know that was a bus with YMCA kids?”
“They were sad too!”
azcentral.com

Seriously not ready for prime time.

27 dog philosopher  Jul 15, 2014 5:10:15pm

re: #23 wrenchwench

The music was really beautiful. Thanks Charles. I’m sorry dog engineer derailed the thread.

:-(

sorry!

28 wrenchwench  Jul 15, 2014 5:11:38pm

re: #27 dog philosopher

:-(

sorry!

Kidding. I did way more derailing!

29 Charles Johnson  Jul 15, 2014 5:11:57pm

re: #27 dog philosopher

See how you are?

30 wrenchwench  Jul 15, 2014 5:15:19pm

And Pie-onist Overlord comes through!

31 JustMark  Jul 15, 2014 5:16:30pm

Wow, that was amazing, simply amazing. Thanks for sharing, Charles.

32 Pie-onist Overlord  Jul 15, 2014 5:17:10pm

re: #30 wrenchwench

And Pie-onist Overlord comes through!

Can’t get the video to embed, though.

33 wrenchwench  Jul 15, 2014 5:20:44pm

re: #32 Pie-onist Overlord

Can’t get the video to embed, though.

Looks like somebody was able to!

34 Souliren  Jul 15, 2014 5:29:25pm

Wow!
Thanks.
*goes off to listen to more of his stuff*

35 Charles Johnson  Jul 15, 2014 6:55:06pm

re: #34 Souliren

This piece really is amazing. It builds to an awesome, unbelievable climax. A testament to the power of one guy with a guitar.

36 coin operated  Jul 15, 2014 8:39:54pm

Love lurking here for the smart political commentary, but the guitar clips are what really keep me coming back ;-)


This article has been archived.
Comments are closed.

Jump to top

Create a PageThis is the LGF Pages posting bookmarklet. To use it, drag this button to your browser's bookmark bar, and title it 'LGF Pages' (or whatever you like). Then browse to a site you want to post, select some text on the page to use for a quote, click the bookmarklet, and the Pages posting window will appear with the title, text, and any embedded video or audio files already filled in, ready to go.
Or... you can just click this button to open the Pages posting window right away.
Last updated: 2023-04-04 11:11 am PDT LGF User's Guide RSS Feeds

Help support Little Green Footballs!

Subscribe now for ad-free access!Register and sign in to a free LGF account before subscribing, and your ad-free access will be automatically enabled.

Donate with
PayPal Cash.app
Recent PagesClick to refresh
Texas County at Center of Border Fight Is Overwhelmed by Migrant Deaths EAGLE PASS, Tex. - The undertaker lighted a cigarette and held it between his latex-gloved fingers as he stood over the bloated body bag lying in the bed of his battered pickup truck. The woman had been fished out ...
Cheechako
3 days ago
Views: 148 • Comments: 0 • Rating: 1