'black Elvis' Could Have Been A Boy Named Johnny

Sydney Morning Herald

Wednesday January 23, 2008

Emily Dunn Entertainment Writer

HIS rock'n'roll swagger earned him the nickname "Black Elvis" from the likes of Clare Bowditch, Paul Kelly and Missy Higgins, but Dan Sultan could have just easily been called Johnny Cash, Jeff Buckley or James Brown.

Although he prefers love songs, it doesn't mean the singer-songwriter isn't political.

"People always ask if I am going to get political, but the fact is I am a 24-year-old indigenous man and I don't mistreat women and I don't mistreat kids, and that is a political statement in itself," Sultan said yesterday.

Sultan is the youngest member of the Black Arm Band, a 28-piece ensemble of indigenous artists performing in the Sydney Festival production of Murundak at the Opera House tonight.

Earlier this month Sultan performed alongside Kelly, Bowditch and Higgins at the festival's Kev Carmody tribute, Cannot Buy My Soul.

"It was great. No one had their manager running around with a clipboard ... I was hanging out with the drummer from the Drones and Clare Bowditch is stepping over us to get a mirror and Missy Higgins is asking to borrow her mascara."

Murundak - meaning "alive" in the Woiwurrung language - is a tribute to the canon of indigenous singer-songwriters, dancers and artists with performances from Archie Roach, Ruby Hunter and Steve Pigram, among others. The Welcome to Country to open the show will be given by Lily Ingram the brother of Lachlan Ingram, an Aboriginal activist, who died in 2006 and is pictured in the festival brochure.

"It is something that is really humbling," Sultan said of playing with the Black Arm Band. "These are the musicians I grew up with ... It represents the struggle these people have gone through just to be able to perform as singers, dancers and actors. They are really only now getting recognition."

For Sultan, the show is also about looking forward to the next generation of musicians and artists. "I sing love songs, that is what I do, but people still refer to me as an Aboriginal singer," he said. "I am Aboriginal but it is not something I do or put on ... I am very proud of who I am and where I come from.

Sultan, from Melbourne, recently released his debut album Homemade Biscuits and will play at the East Coast Blues and Roots Festival in Byron Bay in March.

© 2008 Sydney Morning Herald

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