The rest of the album, Rudd’s fourth, follows in similar fashion, with earnest, optimistic expressions floating on waves of a folk-reggae beat. On his latest album “White Moth,” released in June, Rudd opens with “Better People,” which addresses the world’s do-gooders: “You people saving whales, giving your thanks to the seas / My respect to the ones in the forest, standing up for our old trees,” he sings, in a tone that sounds like a prayer. (James Looker)ĪSPEN ” There is a gentle, practically innocent, almost naive quality to Xavier Rudd’s music. “I have really, really good people who care about change, care about the greater good, and I find that everywhere I go.Australian singer and multi-instrumentalist Xavier Rudd plays a sold-out, two-night stand on Tuesday and Wednesday at Belly Up Aspen. “I have good people come to my shows all over the world,” he said. I’ve been touring for about a dozen years now, so I’m pretty used to it.”ĭepending on where Rudd is in the world, he sees cultural differences among the people splayed in the audience before him, but some things never change. “It’s a bit of a balance you learn over time. “I do some yoga, and I’m very aware of energy and just sort of filtering good and bad energy,” he said.
Playing music keeps him centered, he said, as do a few other key lifestyle choices. “I’m giving thanks to the universe every day - for my journey, the places I’ve been, the hardships I’ve conquered and for my two beautiful boys,” Rudd said. But that doesn’t seem to wear on the musician, who in an interview with the Vail Daily in 2011 sounded nothing but grateful. Sometimes Rudd travels for weeks and months on end. He’ll be Crested Butte on June 12, in Boulder on June 13, Snowmass Village on June 14 and in Denver on June 15.
After his performance in Vail, he heads to Arkansas for Wakarusa Festival on Saturday, then plays a show in Santa Fe and one in Austin before returning to Colorado for a string of shows. Not surprisingly, Rudd spends a lot of his life on the road, traveling around the world for shows. He’s just socially tuned in his music always has that edge of social consciousness. “He’s naming issues that are going on on this planet that are really important. “The main thing is he’s talking about things no one else is talking about,” Buchanan said. He performs at the GoPro Mountain Games, the same event he performed at in 2011.Īs a cultural and environmental activist, it’s Rudd’s lyrics that really appeal to Buchanan and many of his fans.
The Australian musician returns to Vail for a show at Checkpoint Charlie at 7 p.m. There are songs when he’s doing all three and you’re like, ‘how is he doing that?’ He’s awesome, his eclectic repertoire is awesome, and he’s barefoot all the time, which I also love. “I love how he can go from one instrument to another. “The didgeridoo is his main thing, but the harmonica and the drums he plays are awesome too,” said Keystone resident Jennifer Buchanan who is driving over the pass to attend Thursday night’s show in Vail. Rudd is a one-man-band who sings and plays the guitar, harmonica, banjo, lapsteel, djembe drums and more, but it’s the three wooden instruments sitting on a stand in front of him as he performs on stage that often times draws attention. VAIL - Mention multi-instrumentalist Xavier Rudd and people tend to think of a didgeridoo, a wind instrument invented by indigenous Australians somewhere around 1,500 years ago.