Xavier Rudd's single released today

Xavier Rudd – the acclaimed Australian singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist – will release the digital single, “Better People” on Tuesday, May 15th. In advance of
Rudd’s second Anti- disc, White Moth, which drops June 19th, and Rudd calls his “proudest work.”

“I am so stoked with it,” Xavier insists. “It’s a refection of my journey during the last year. Actually, it extends to seven years. Recording-wise, I got to do things I’d always wanted to do but never had the time or the budget.”

The disc finds Rudd speaking out against his country’s Aboriginal land right policies which have led to the wholesale displacement and mistreatment of its indigenous people. Xavier and co-producer Dave Ogilvie (David Bowie, Marilyn Manson and N.E.R.D.) recorded the bulk of White Moth in the woods of British Columbia’s Sunshine Coast at Gggarth Richardson’s studio, The Farm.

Rudd will launch an extensive North American tour on June 16th with a performance at the 2007 Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival in Manchester, Tennessee. The following day, a six-week headlining trek in support of White Moth gets underway at the Madison Theatre in Covington, Kentucky. In partnership with CLIF Bar’s Green Notes program the tour will embrace a greening initiative to, as Xavier explains, “reduce our carbon footprint on the environment.”

When his own headlining trek wraps on July 31st in Northampton, Mass, Rudd will again join The Dave Matthews Band as a special guest on select East Coast dates of its North American summer tour. Rudd just finished a great run Down Under supporting DMB, which found him being invited up to play Didgeridoo before an ecstatic homeland crowd on “Don’t Drink The Water” and Weissenborn guitar on the Neil Young classic “Down By The River.”

Featuring the voices of Aboriginal people captured in Arnhem Land – to the northeast of Australia’s Northern Territory – White Moth boasts members of the esteemed Aboriginal musical group Yothu Yindi on a number of tracks. Joined by percussionist Dave Tolley – a guest on Food In The Belly turned new addition to Rudd’s line up – the album also finds guest player Panos Grames (who previously lent his wares to “Mother Earth” from his Anti- debut Food In The Belly) and is the right hand man to esteemed Canadian environmental scientist and activist David Suzuki) in tow. First Nations Cree elder Kennitch also traveled from Saskatoon, Saskatchewan to the White Moth sessions and can be heard lending traditional healing prayers and drum to “Foot Print” and “Message Stick.”

Here are Xavier Rudd’s upcoming, confirmed headlining U.S. Tour Dates with support act Serena Ryder:

6/14, Antone’s, Austin, TX
6/17, Madison Theater, Covington, KY
6/19, Park West, Chicago, IL
6/20, First Avenue, Minneapolis, MN
6/22, Gothic Theatre, Englewood, CO6/23 Belly Up, Aspen, CO
6/25, El Rey, Los Angeles, CA
6/26, House of Blues, San Diego, CA
6/29, Roseland Theatre, Portland, OR
6/30, The Showbox, Seattle, WA
7/6, Grandstand Stage, High Sierra Music Festival, Plumas County Fairgrounds, Quincy, CA
7/7, Big Meadow Stage, High Sierra Music Festival, Plumas County Fairgrounds, Quincy, CA
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

Here are Xavier Rudd’s opening dates with The Dave Matthews Band:

8/1 Tweeter Center for the Performing Arts Mansfield, MA
8/2 Tweeter Center for the Performing Arts Mansfield, MA
8/4 New England Dodge Music Center Hartford, CT
8/5 New England Dodge Music Center Hartford, CT
8/7 Tweeter Center at the Waterfront Camden, NJ