Dan Sultan back at work: tour, doco score, more recordings

After his public meltdown in early June, singer-songwriter Dan Sultan is back at work with various projects – including a national run of dates at the end of the year.

“He’s healthy, he’s fine, and he just wants to throw himself into his work,” manager Michael Parisi told TMN.

Sultan has spent the last few weeks in the studio recording a number of tracks.

One is a duet with Irish singer-songwriter Damien Dempsey who’s touring here in early November.

The two have worked together before, and a few years ago, Sultan joined Dempsey and his band at Bluesfest Byron Bay, first for a stirring rendition of Luke Kelly’s Schooldays Over and later during their encore with The Pogues’ Rainy Night In Soho.

Sultan has done the soundtrack for an October-due documentary for The Thin Green Line, a local charity centred around the protection of native wildlife in Africa and Australia.

The musician earlier accompanied nine indigenous Australian wildlife rangers and filmmaker Rhys Graham of Daybreak Films to Kenya in Africa, to share knowledge, culture and music with a group of Maasai community rangers.

He’s also cut a still-unidentified cover for the Deadly Hearts compilation through ABC Music which celebrates the songs that have helped shape indigenous identity and culture in this country.

It is due out in late spring.

According to Parisi, there’ll be more announcements in coming weeks.

In the meantime, Sultan has released the dates and venues for upcoming live shows:

November 30: Esplanade Hotel, Melbourne

December 1: Esplanade Hotel, Melbourne

December 7: Old Museum Concert Hall, Brisbane

December 13: Rosemount Hotel, Perth

December 14: The Gov, Adelaide