Frank Sultana returns for Blues at Bridgetown after 2023 Memphis win

Modern day bluesman Frank Sultana will return for the second time to perform at the Blues at Bridgetown this year after a “roller coaster” journey since his career took off. The Sydney-based singer-guitarist told the Times he started his music career later in life — and it’s “snowballed” ever since, landed him back at the festival for a second time. Sultana released a debut album in 2011 at 41-years-old, and last year won the 2023 Memphis International Blues Challenge. “I’m not one of these people whose worked full-time as a musician all my life or anything like that,” he said. “I always wrote, but music was more of a personal thing for me. “I never really took it very seriously, but it was one of those things that was always in my life.” Sultana said before his career took off, he was flicking through his parent’s music collection, some of which was recorded in Memphis, helping him rediscover his love for rhythm and blues. He wouldn’t know it at the time, but one day he would stand in the same room as the greats of the 50s rhythm and blues scene. Sultana told the Times after reigniting his love for blues his writing changed from a first-person focus to more like storytelling. “It was kind of interesting for me to make up these fictitious places and stories and people, but then bringing in all these things that have actually happened in my life, and combining it all,” he said. “Writing songs is my way of getting that out by making little mini-stories. Once I found that, I realised that was my strength, and it kept going from there.” From 2011, Sultana said it was a “hard slog” building his music career while keeping his day job. Touring up to 160 shows a year on the East Coast, Sultana told the Times by 2018 he decided to focus on music full time. Venturing to Memphis last year — a city renowned for famous rhythm and blues legends — for the 2023 Blues Challenge, he also recorded at Sun Studio where Elvis Presley, Chuck Berry and other famous artists recorded. “I remember walking into the main studio and they had a couple of markings on the floor of where Elvis and his band had stood, and so I stood where he stood and recorded.’’ Surrounded by photographs of Presley, Johnny Cash and Jerry Lee Lewis, Sultana said he felt the spirit of the greats. “It was pretty hard to avoid the sense of history that was there,” he told the Times. “It was one of the most enjoyable things I think I’ve ever done.” Sultana named the album The Ghosts of Sun 2023 as a homage to the experience. At the Blues at Bridgetown festival this year, the crowd can expect to hear 12 of Sultana’s favourites, and a collection of the songs recorded in Memphis. Before the Blues at Bridgetown festival, Sultana will perform at the Duke of George in East Fremantle on November 6 and the Prince of Wales at Hotel Bunbury on November 7.