With a scraggly beard, matching tattoos around both forearms and long blonde dreads, John Butler looks the part of a hippy musician.

John Butler has taken a seemingly impossible yet suitingly grassroots route to becoming an internationally recognized musician. Born in California to an American mother and an Australian father, Butler moved Down Under at the age of 11 with his family. Five years later he inherited his grandfather’s vintage 1930’s Dobro guitar, now one of his most prized possessions, on which he started practicing open tuning, a common blues technique that allows chords to be easily played underneath a melody. Growing up, Butler practiced all types of music, ranging from Celtic and Indian to reggae and folk, blending and borrowing sounds while slowly building his own tastes. After Butler’s first year at Curtin University in Perth, where he was studying to be an art teacher, he left school at the age of 21 to “busk,”or play in public spaces for tips, in the markets of nearby Fremantle.

In 1996, due to popular demand, Butler recorded an original cassette (which now seems laughably quaint) of instrumentals entitled, “Searching for Heritage,” which sold 3,500 copies. By 1998, John had formed the first iteration of his trio (although multiple band members would later leave to start their own bands) and used the profits of his first humble recording to finance The John Butler Trio’s first CD, “Three,” which went platinum in Australia and landed the group squarely in the Australian independent musical scene. After “Three,” the trio opened for John Mayer and the Dave Matthews Band around the United States. With fellow Aussie band The Waifs, the trio started the independent label Jarrah Records, under which the band released their second album “Living 2001-2002,” and 2003 CD “Sunrise Over the Sea,” which won the Australian Performing Rights Association “Song of the Year,” “Best Independent Release” and “Best Blues and Roots Album.” (Butler also won “Best Male Artist that year.) On March 27, the band released it’s latest album, “Grand National,” with plans to tour in Europe and the United States.

The trio’s music is both popular and exciting for many reasons, but perhaps the greatest source of its allure and intrigue lies in the rather indefinable sound. “Grand National” mixes reggae, folk and bluegrass influences into a jam band-meets-acoustic sound — a folksier Jack Johnson melded with an indier O.A.R. “Groovin’ Slowly” has a definitively reggae beat while “Good Excuse” has strong bluegrass influences. The bold “Gov Did Nothing” reeks of jazz, and the CD’s first single “Better Than” is a relaxed foot-tappin’ jam. Butler seems to relish the band’s conglomerate sound and the confusion it poses for Borders’ poor CD-genre-filing employees. When asked about his influences for the album he replied, “People ask me what direction we are taking on ‘Grand National,’ and I always just say the direction was forward — elaborating on our style rather that reinventing a style, we are actually broadening it.”

Butler’s musical intermingling is coupled with his very real talent. He is an astoundingly gifted guitarist with some of the nimblest hands — and longest nails — in the business. (Check out the YouTube video in which he performs the instrumental song “Ocean.” You have to see and hear his lightening-fast fingers to believe it.) Layered on top of Butler’s musical stylings are his unique lyrics, which range from poetical to political. Butler decries complainers and consumerism in “Good Excuse,” urging us to “Go take a step outside see what’s shaking in the real world.” In “Nowhere Man” he quite poignantly describes his lack of belonging, singing “All my life I’ve lived on the outside/ and now I’m in, but in nowhere.” “Gov Did Nothing” critiques the U.S.’s government’s response to Katrina while “Fire in the Sky” is about living in a post-9/11 world. Butler gets quieter on “Losing You,” which is a touching love song, sharply contrasting the appropriately titled “Funky Tonight” which is both about getting your funk on in the dance sense and the passionate sense.

“Grand National” debuted at #1 in Australia and stands as #110 on Billboards Top 200, and is listed as on Billboard’s “Heatseeker” chart as #1. Starting from John Butler’s humble roots as street performer, the John Butler Trio have lost none of its authenticity and creativity as it becomes one of the few bands to successfully bridge the indie-commercial gap.

Download: “Good Excuse,” “Better Than,” “Funky Tonight,” “Nowhere Man”