Frank Yamma was born to sing and play music. He grew up in Central Australia surrounded by song, with his father Isaac leading bands and helping to establish the Central Australian Aboriginal Media Association (CAAMA), which would eventually release some of Yamma’s own work. Singing in both English and Pitjantjatjara—one of several First Nations languages he speaks—Yamma assembled the backing band Piranpa (whose name means a non-Indigenous person) for this stunning 1999 album. Playing With Fire flexes both his thematic and stylistic range, mingling folk and blues with more unexpected turns and quite affecting subject matter. While Yamma proudly carries on the First Nations storytelling tradition, there are distinctly modern touches at work too. “I Know What’s Good” combines bluesy vocals and call-and-response exchanges with funky reggae licks, while “Reality” flanks its finger-picked melodies and slide guitar with bleary drum machine and keyboard. As Yamma sings about his own personal perspective with a soft, confiding quality on the latter, he embraces the song’s open spaces as you would expect from someone raised in the expanse of the desert. The horn-kissed “Coolibah” then doubles as a cautionary tale about alcohol, a theme that recurs throughout Yamma’s songbook. This is also an album of dramatic contrast. Some of the slowest and most poignant ballads (“Ngura Watjilpa”, the aforementioned “Coolibah”) are paired with bright, upbeat numbers like “Everybody’s Talking” and “Dream Lover”. Especially perky is “Kunga Kutju”, with its fast, scratchy strumming and backing vocals from excitable children. On the opposite end of the spectrum, the closing “One Lonely Night” describes people gathered around a fire for warmth as babies cry into the wee hours because their parents are lost in drink. Divided between English and Pitjantjatjara, it’s one of the most unflinching turns here, right down to the spectral woodwind in the backdrop. Following Playing With Fire, Yamma released another album with Piranpa before striking out on his own for his 2010 breakthrough Countryman and its 2014 follow-up Uncle, accompanied variously by members of No Fixed Address; Not Drowning, Waving; and My Friend The Chocolate Cake. He even dabbled in electronic remixes on 2020’s The Kulila Project—making his enduring storytelling feel even more strikingly of the moment.