Joss Stone, Black Sorrows, Chain Lead Latest Bluesfest Announcement

The first Bluesfest announcement of 2014 is here now, and a diverse range of acts are on there that bring elements of blues, African music, comedy, folk and soul to the line up for this year's event, which kicks off in just three months' time.

Here's the next announcement.

Joss Stone, Joe Camilleri & The Black Sorrows, Chain, Terrance Simien & The Zydeco Experience, Dyson, Stringer & Cloher, The Beards, Glenn Cardier and the Sideshow, Nahko & Medicine For The People, Public Opinion Afro Orchestra, Cambodian Space Project, Matthew Curry

Joss Stone

Joss Stone was just a teenager the first time she appeared at Bluesfest, but now she's sold millions of records and regularly rubs shoulders with the finest names in contemporary music. She's still only 26 but has had an amazing career, releasing six albums, becoming a part of the Mick Jagger led incredible supergroup SuperHeavy, winning awards, appearing in films and TV shows and, most importantly, performing shows that bring the house down all around the world.

Joe Camilleri & The Black Sorrows

Australian blues legends The Black Sorrows have been going forever (well, over 30 years) and Joe Camilleri is still going hard at it with a great band after all these years. Over the years he has enlisted some of the best musicians in the country to perform alongside him and they have come up with some really memorable performances both on record and the live stage; there's little doubt the 25th Bluesfest will be another one of them.

Chain

They are Australian blues royalty, one of the most important rock'n'roll acts to have ever existed in Australia and a band with a string of classic tunes that still sound great after all these years. The band have been together over 45 years now, be sure to join Phil Manning and Matt Taylor as they run through some of their most iconic tracks at Bluesfest 2014.

Terrance Simien & The Zydeco Experience

It has been years since Terrence Simien was last at Bluesfest, which means there might be a few out there who are yet to have the chance to dance to the brilliant zydeco sounds of him and his band The Zydeco Experience. Well count your lucky stars, the opportunity has now presented itself and it's one that ought to be relished. The Louisianan master will have you up and moving in no time as he and his band take you on a journey through one of the great styles of American music.

Dyson, Stringer & Cloher

Mia Dyson, Liz Stringer and Jen Cloher together singing songs and sharing their musical journey with people in one special show; what more do you need to know? They are three of our finest singer-songwriters and the shows that they played together in 2013 were nothing short of sublime; we can't wait to do it all over again at Bluesfest. Trust us, we love them, we just couldn't find a YouTube video that was suitable and we'd hate to feel like we were playing favourites.

The Beards

They were the hit of the 2013 Bluesfest and there will be plenty of people very excited about getting to see The Beards doing what they do again. What is it they do? Well, they sing songs about beards. Funny songs. Don't get what's so great about that? Well, you might have to see them for yourself to see why people all around the world have fallen for the band's beardy charms, but we're sure that – whether you like it or not – it'll make a whole lot more sense when you do.

Glenn Cardier and the Sideshow

He's never played Bluesfest before, despite being a well-loved Aussie singer-songwriter for decades now, but this all changes in 2014 when Glenn Cardier and the Sideshow play a whole range of songs from throughout Cardier's life and career at Tyagarah over Easter. He's played all around the world since the 1970s and has been described as sitting somewhere between John Prine and John Lee Hooker. It could well be time to discover, or get reacquainted with, the work of Glenn Cardier.

Nahko & Medicine For The People

Apparently booked on the spot after their show at Michael Franti's recent Soulshine Festival, we're hearing incredible things about the live show from Nahko & Medicine For The People. The Portland group have been putting together some seriously crazy live shows all around the world and we're sure they'll have something very special planned for their trip to Bluesfest in 2014.

Public Opinion Afro Orchestra

Another act who have been given serious props for their live show over the past few years, this Melbourne based afrobeat 16-piece behemoth have ignited dancefloors all across the country of late and they will have the Bluesfest absolutely cooking when it comes around. The band are one of the most raved about new acts in the country and they add yet another great African component to this year's event. If you saw them last time, you won't miss them. If you didn't, you won't want to miss them again.

Cambodian Space Project

A wild musical group hailing from Cambodia and featuring Australian, French and Cambodian musicians, these guys have been playing their incredibly unique brand of music – which covers everything from space rock to reggae to blues to surf rock to dub and plenty more – all around the world for a very long time. They are gritty and often mind blowing and they will be another very different band you can put on your schedule for 2014.

Matthew Curry

Another of the young, super fresh talents being brought to Bluesfest for Australian audiences to fall in love with for the first time, Matthew Curry is just 17 years of age and he is blowing minds all over the world with his brilliance as a blues guitarist and vocalist that sounds well beyond his years. He will no doubt be a superstar in the future, so we feel very privileged to have the chance to see him at such an early stage of his career at Bluesfest 2014.

All the dates and details are below. As always, we'll give you the days each act will be playing as soon as we know.