Following a lifetime in the spotlight – across film, TV, and the main stage of the Sydney Paralympics – Aussie rock icon Nathan Cavaleri is performing an intimate blues setlist at Brunswick Ballroom.
His upcoming show New Blues with a Story launches off the back of his recent album release, Live at The Wheaty, presenting a series of songs that hold significant personal meaning to the celebrated singer-songwriter.
This affinity for blues, he tells me over the phone from Sydney, is a continuation of his introduction to the genre from a young age. Even though he was exposed to a variety of musical styles during this time, it was this genre in particular that arrested his attention.
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“Now I understand as an adult,” he reveals, “why certain music resonates with us, so there was obviously something inside me that blues allowed me to express. The emotions just seemed to align, especially when I was sick as a kid, when I had leukaemia, there was obviously a lot of heartache and pain and sadness and fear… Blues music just seemed to be the right fit for me to digest a lot of those emotions through music.”
Heralded as a child prodigy, by the age of 12, Nathan was the hot property of record labels representing Prince and Madonna. By his mid-teens, Nathan had shared the stage with Etta James to perform at the Kennedy Center in front of the Clintons, and barely into adulthood took to the stage of the opening ceremony of the Sydney 2000 Paralympics.
However, it was an early diagnosis of leukaemia at a young age that set Nathan’s life on an unexpected course and placed music as a lifeline for the young, bring talent. It has been an incredible life journey for the Aussie musician, which was later the subject of a profile by ABC’s Australian Story in 2020.
As he reflects today on where it all started, “My dad was the one with the guitar in the house, until I picked it up. He taught me how to play, right up until my teenage years.”
He credits musical styles outside of the blues genre as important stylistic influences as well, namely UK rock group Dire Straits. “They played a huge part,” he admits today. “If you listen to a lot of Dire Straits, it’s rooted in some sort of country blues, if you trace it back.”
The upcoming show at Brunswick Ballroom is the latest in a series of more recent performances that incorporate both stories and songs, sharing key moments of Nathan’s life through spoken anecdote or careful curation of tracks highlighting important moments of his life.
As much as he is known and revered as a guitarist, there is so much of his life and his connection to music conveyed through the lyrics and melodies of the songs that shaped him both as a person and a performer.
“Sometimes we’re playing the blues, other times we’re banging real hard,” he says of the tonal shifts conducted onstage between himself and his supporting players. “Then, you know, we have some pretty melancholic moments. I suppose it’s just my main mission to not only take people on a journey, musically, but to do so by using stories as well.”
Nathan reveals the intimacy of these shows adopt something of a confessional nature, whereby the feelings and experiences of his younger years, during that initial ascension to worldwide stardom, wouldn’t previously have been divulged to an audience.
Perhaps now, in the later stages of his craft after a blistering starting pair of decades on the global stage, Nathan is adopting a more reflective, slower-paced outlook on his accomplishments and notable celebrity status.
“I’ll talk a fair bit about the stuff that people might not realised happened in my life during the time they might have followed me as a kid… to then just everyday, relatable challenges or celebrations that are happening now. So it’s one of my favourite shows I’ve ever done, to be honest. I couldn’t feel any closer to the crowd than what I do now.”
Culminating decades of musical prowess, both in the mainstream and in the more private settings of smaller venues such as Brunswick Ballroom, Nathan Cavaleri brings a lifetime of stories to the stage – and shows no signs yet of unplugging the amps.
Nick Cavaleri will be performing New Blues with a Story at Brunswick Ballroom, 314 Sydney Road, on Friday 23 May 2025. Get your tickets here.
