Midnight Oil

[Powderworks] Re: NMOC On a slight tangent...

ava@sub-rosa.com ava@sub-rosa.com
Mon, 23 Sep 2002 15:37:29 -0400 (EDT)


On Mon, 23 Sep 2002, Cynthia Kalisz wrote:

> I just finished reading Andrew McMillan's "Strict
> Rules" ...  This book made me wonder if there are any
> Native American musicians similar to the Warumpis or
> Yothu Yindi. Only ones I could come up with are Robbie
> Robertson & Bill Miller. Bill Miller occasionally gets
> a little too close to country/western. Any others?

Well, it'd have to depend on what sort of similarity you're
looking for -- lyrics, politics, musical style...? There
are tons of NA musicians working in pretty much any genre
you'd care to name, although with a few exceptions it seems
like it's mostly the more instrumental/ambient/"New Age"
performers who are better known outside of Indian Country.

John Trudell, who's been mentioned, does poetic/spoken word
stuff over rock accompaniment, with occasional traditional
vocals from Quiltman. Very outspoken and political.

Joanne Shenandoah's earlier albums have been compared to Enya,
but her most recent work is pretty solidly in a folk-rock
vein, with most of the material in English.

Indigenous do straight-up blues-rock, in English.

Ulali are a female a cappella trio, mostly singing in
English, with heart-breakingly gorgeous voices.

Kashtin (who've worked with Robbie Robertson) do folk-rock, all
sung in Innu.

Jim Boyd does singer-songwriter folk-rock -- fans of writer
Sherman Alexie might be particularly interested in their
songwriting collaboration on "Reservation Blues". (Some of these
songs were on the soundtrack of the movie "Smoke Signals")

Check out the online catalogs at <http://www.rainbowwalker.net> and
<http://www.soundofamerica.com/>, you'll find lots of other
artists working in a wide range of styles.

-- 
 Ava Callison                <ava@sub-rosa.com>                 Alexandria, VA
    we carry in our hearts the true country and that cannot be stolen
    we follow in the steps of our ancestry and that cannot be broken