Who the hell is?

Xavier Rudd

Wizard of Oz: Crocodile hunter Steve Irwin may no longer be with us, but Australia still has a rugged hero from another era, a fearless throwback who thinks nothing of surfing a killer wave on his local beach in Southern Victoria, wrestling with giant didgeridoos on stage, or just disappearing into the outback and getting down and dirty with Mother Earth. Xavier Rudd doesn't have the catchiest name, and thus far he lacks a catchphrase to match "Crikey! Look at the size of that!" but he does have the ability to draw from Aboriginal, Hawaiian, Native American and other world cultures, and the talent to write songs redolent of Paul Simon, Ben Harper, Leo Kottke and David Lindley. He can also play a dozen different instruments - at the same time.

Didge you ever: Growing up in Bell's Beach, Xavier Rudd knew he was different from the other kids. Sure, he liked to surf, but while his friends coveted such modern gewgaws as digital watches and Sony Walkmen, young Xavier found himself drawn to something that's been around for 50,000 years: the didgeridoo. Only he calls it by its Aboriginal name, the yirdaki. One of Xavier's earliest childhood memories was of fashioning a primitive yirdaki out of a piece of vacuum cleaner pipe. When Paul Simon's Graceland tour rolled into town, Xavier's dad took him, and the youngster knew that a career in music was for him. He took up playing slide guitar, banjo, djembe, harmonica and various percussion instruments, and started playing solo gigs. Not for him being part of a traditional band line-up - Rudd was strictly a one-man show, and he quickly learnt to multi-task onstage, playing guitar, didge and percussion simultaneously, and dazzling audiences with his ambidextrous ability. "I guess I have a natural rhythm about me," he muses. "I can separate my limbs so they can hold their own rhythm."

Hands on: Soon, Rudd was selling out out shows in Melbourne and in his wife's home country of Canada. He released his debut album, To Let, in 2002, and toured with such established artists as Jack Johnson and Ani di Franco. As his popularity and collection of instruments grew, Rudd's stage set-up became ever more complex, with multiple didgeridoos on their own stands, and various other accoutrements surrounding the lone performer.

Bush telegraph: While touring the US, Rudd experienced the climate of fear, and his new album, Solace, is an attempt to tackle that fear head-on and show listeners a different way to deal with modern life. "I started thinking that some things are out of our control, and we're really lucky to be living where we are - in the western world - and have the opportunities we have." Rudd will bring his message of peace, love and didgeridoos to Dublin's Ambassador on October 15th.