Xavier Rudd - connecting with Earth

If I were to award a "Green Album of the Year" award, most likely it would go to Xavier Rudd's fourth release, White Moth. Besides having a beautiful image of a moth on its cover, the album picks up where Australian band Midnight Oil left off in the 80's and 90's.

The album has an incredibly organic feel to it, one might even go so far as to say Earthy crunchy. Besides expressing Rudd's personal relationship with the planet, the album also addresses the treatment of the Indigenous Australians and perpetual land rights issue which has plagued Australia since the first prisoners were sent there in the late 1700's. In fact, just recently, Prime Minister John Howard announced a new campaign to curtail aboriginal rights without consulting the Aborigines what-so-ever (read about it here).

Xavier's music is a reggae tinged Australian folk with Xavier playing most of the instrumentation himself, including the native Australian instrument the didgeridoo (the 50,000-year-old wooden trumpet of the Aborigines). Also present are guest vocals by Australia's aboriginal musical group Yothu Yindi. The combination produces a laid back sound that just sort of grooves through its numbers with no urgency, just enjoyment.


Xavier Rudd - Better People : White Moth

Xavier Rudd - Land Rights : White Moth

Xavier Rudd - No Woman No Cry (Bob Marley Cover) : Solace

Visit his website, his label Anti-Records, and become his friend on MySpace.

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Midnight Oil - Progress : Scream In Blue (Live)

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Catch Xavier Rudd Live

7/19, The Eagles Club, Milwaukee, Wisconsin
7/20, St. Andrews Hall, Detroit, Michigan
7/21, Lifestyle Communities Pavillion, Columbus, Ohio
7/23, Vogue Theater, Indianapolis, IN
7/24, House of Blues, Cleveland, OH
7/26, Highline Ballroom, New York, NY
7/27, Highline Ballroom, New York, NY
7/28, 9:30 Club, Washington, DC
7/29, 8 X 10, Baltimore, MD
7/31, Pearl Street Ballroom, Northampton, MA

8/1 Tweeter Center for the Performing Arts Mansfield, MA (with The Dave Matthews Band)
8/2 Tweeter Center for the Performing Arts Mansfield, MA (with The Dave Matthews Band)
8/4 New England Dodge Music Center Hartford, CT (with The Dave Matthews Band)
8/5 New England Dodge Music Center Hartford, CT (with The Dave Matthews Band)
8/7 Tweeter Center at the Waterfront Camden, NJ (with The Dave Matthews Band)