Denver — World-renowned Australian indigenous recording artist Ash Dargan returns to Swallow Hill to transport audiences via didgeridoo to the essence of the natural and spiritual worlds of his culture.

As a member of the Larrakia Nation, the traditional land owners of Darwin in the Northern Territory of Australia, Dargan is an ambassador of his people and culture through his music, storytelling, and live performance. Classically trained in music from the age of eight on trumpet, he returned to his cultural roots at the age of 22. His grandmother and great uncle, both traditional elders of the Larrakia people, were instrumental in his musical adoption of the didgeridoo and its deeper cultural significance. Through them he came to know of the didgeridoo's unlimited potential for the expression of rhythm and its ability to represent the power of the natural and spiritual worlds. The vocal harmonies used in traditional corroborees (ceremonies) and the natural voice of Australia's native song birds have also had a great influence on his musical compositions. His music has been described as "the soul of the Australian Dreamtime landscape with a timeless quality, reflecting a deep connection and reverence for the spiritual wisdom of his ancestry."

His album titled Indigenous Rhythms was nominated for Release of the Year at the Australian National Indigenous Music Awards 2000, and his latest album, Stories of Wind, unleashes tribal beat-driven grooves laced with live vocals and sensuous ethnic flutes, delighting an ever-growing world audience. "Ash is a bridge between the entire world music sound of this century and what is happening here in Indigenous Australia. Ash as a composer has an ear for what we all want to hear," says Gavin Jones, Editor of Deadly Vibe, Australia's national indigenous magazine.

Don't miss this dynamic performer as he takes tribal beat-driven grooves and laces them with sensuous ethnic flutes, vocals and didgeridoo to transport the Swallow Hill audience on a special cross-cultural musical journey.