According to Busker Stories’ interview on Youtube (link below), Tash Sultana drew crowds as a street performer in Melvin. It was plan to see as people began to fill the sidewalks and stairs to H&M to watch her play. She is a solo-act, multi-instrumentalist. She has been playing since the age of 3 and has taught herself to play up to 10 instruments! It is no wonder she draws a crowd. Sultana has gone from playing to 4 to 400 people! She describes her sound as “alternative root reggae oak”, mixing live on the spot as she plays for her audience.
What moved me most (other than her obviously crazy skills) to write about Tash was her story. On TEDx Talk, she shares her struggle (link available below) with developing “drug induced psychosis” — not being able to tell what was and wasn’t real — after “running with the wrong people”.
She shares, “How do yo live when you’re too scared to live, and you’re too scared to die?”
Music became her therapy and, through her passion, she found clarity again.
“I played and played, until I played the pain away.” — Sultana
Now, you can see 1.6M views on a given YouTube video (Dufftata YoutTube Channel as seen below) and packing out shows wherever she goes with her experimental, live-mix performance.
Below she gives an electrifying guitar solo at Mount Isa. You can see a full house and hear the crowd sing a hook in unison — “Welcome to the Jungle”.
You can find Tash Sultana at https://www.tashsultana.com/
— L.M. Jones
TEDx Talk and performance https://youtu.be/nOHVw_qktoM