Amidst a new album bursting with hope, joy, romance
and inspiration, including eleven songs penned or
co-penned by the artist, it’s the Johnny Nash cover
“I Can See Clearly Now” that Jonathan Butler elected
to record on the So Strong album, his 15th solo
collection, that speaks volumes about his outlook
after a tumultuous year wrought with immense
personal loss, pain and suffering. Butler’s
tenacious, indomitable spirit and effervescent view
of silver-lined clouds infuses his music like a
heaven-sent harbinger of healing.
Jonathan Butler
Butler grew up in the townships of South Africa, the
youngest of 12 children. He started singing and
playing guitar at age seven. Even before he reached
age ten, he traveled cross-country performing in
villages with a 100-member troupe making money to
help support his family. The audiences would vary
from poverty-ravaged black townships to opulent
halls open only to whites. Traveling accommodations
were dismal and atrocious. In his travels, the young
entertainer could neither comprehend the extreme
destitute nor the harsh treatment he endured and
bared witness to under the reign of Apartheid.
Afrikaans was his native tongue, but he learned
English in his travels.
Jonathan Butler
After signing his first record deal as a teenager
with British record producer Clive Caulder’s Jive
Records, Butler’s premier single became the first by
a black artist to be played on white radio stations
in South Africa. The single won a Sarie Award, which
is the South African equivalent to a Grammy award.
Butler called England home for 17 years. His
self-titled debut album put him on the map
internationally and garnered two Grammy nominations:
one for the R&B-pop vocal statement “Lies” and the
other for a poignant instrumental, “Going Home.”
Jonathan Butler
Butler’s albums and worldwide concert tours have
afforded him fame and a lifestyle far from what he
ever could have imagined as a child performer, but
more importantly, it brought him the freedom to
follow his passion – music – on his own terms.
Residing with his family in the verdant hills of
Southern California for more than a decade, an area
that he says reminds him of his homeland, Butler
remains humble and grateful.
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