Xavier Rudd

Maybe more than any of his previous albums, Xavier Rudd's Dark Shades of Blue is a balance of darkness and light. That's what the Australian singer-songwriter/one-man band/didgeridoo virtuoso hears in the disc.
Plenty of each went into making the disc. Dark Shades of Blue is the first Rudd album in several years to be recorded in Australia. As a result, it bears the joy and peace of mind that comes with an often-touring artist that gets a chance to catch his breath.
Recorded in Byron Bay on Australia's eastern coast, it found the 30-year-old Rudd cutting tracks in the evening, before going to sleep under the stars, staring up at the Southern Cross and the Milky Way, his retriever curled up by his side. "Even though it's a darker album," says Rudd. "I think there is a lot of sunshine in the record. There's brightness in the instruments, tonally, and I can hear the humidity in the didgeridoos, and in the guitar. I can hear that humidity, the warmth of the climate in Byron Bay."
Conversely, the disc's lyrics show the wear and tear that seemingly endless touring has had on his head and heart: "What I see is a continuation of the gratitude for what I do, and where I get to come home to-in relation to a lot of the places I see on the road-but there's also some heartache, missing people and missing my alone time, and my home, and things that make me tick. I had a much busier year last year and I was feeling the pressure of it a lot more. Even though the shows were amazing, I was feeling the pressure of touring more."
There are a few different moods that come through it. There were a few different personal bridges I crossed last year, in terms of my family history. There's a well-rounded emotional landscape to the songwriting, and down to the production of the album-I think we pulled it off.
The disc is the first to feature the extensive playing of drummer/percussionist Dave Tolley, a guest on White Moth, and a staple of Rudd's live show for the past year and a half.
A one-man-band/multi-instrumentalist who plays guitars, Yidaki (didgeridoos), Weissenborn slide guitars, stomp box, harmonica, and percussion, Rudd made his U.S. debut in 2004 with Solace. In the years since, his popularity and reputation have begun to mushroom for a string of conscious, heartfelt songs and an impressive stage show that finds him performing those songs' guitar, didgeridoo and various percussion parts simultaneously-using a unique set-up that finds him literally surrounded by his various instruments and singing from behind a stand holding three didgeridoos (of different keys).
The past few years have been a whirlwind for the singer. In between sold-out tours in Europe, Australia and the U.S., he's supported the likes of the Dave Matthews Band, Jack Johnson and Ben Harper, and has been working on the film score for fellow-surfer and Rudd-enthusiast Matthew McConaughey's Surfer Dude, co-starring Woody Harrelson and Willie Nelson. In the meantime, he's earned a reputation as a great Australian activist, advocating for indigenous rights and environmental responsibility.