The wind blows strong though Xavier Rudd’s tenth album. It’s a recurring image that speaks of wide-open space and the awesome natural elements that shape it: a force far greater than us, but ours to harness if we take the time to learn, reflect and respect its ways.

“It hit me last year when I started to write Stoney Creek,” the Australian roots journeyman says of the album’s first, exhilarating single: a rolling acoustic balm of a song that finds refuge in the simple blessings of rest, companionship and belonging in a world gone crazy.

Today, Xavier’s relentless upward arc is among the most astounding success stories of our time. Countless more celebrated acts have come and gone like fireworks as his campfire steadily grows: a beacon to the kind of music fan that seeks sustenance in a fast-food world.

“I value the simple things in life,” he shrugs. “I value community, culture, our connection to the earth as human beings. I don’t care too much for the other stuff. I think the roots of who we are, and what our ancestral lines are and how those stories have shaped us are the most important things. And I guess I always celebrate those things in my music.”