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Enjoy Music from Joanne Shenandoah "Bitter Tears | Sacred Ground" Cd
A GRAMMY Award and 11 Time Native American Music award winning artist; and Wolf Clan member of the Iroquois Confederacy, Joanne Shenandoah has fulfilled the promise of her Native American name, Tekaliwah-kwa, (She Sings) . " She's become one of the most acclaimed Native American recording artists of her time." Associated Press.
Since emerging as an artist in 1990, she has performed at such high-profile gigs at Carnegie Hall, the White House, Kennedy Center, Earth Day on the Mall, Woodstock '94, and the Parliament of the Worlds Religions in South Africa and the famous Sagrada Familia, in Barcelona Spain, Instanbull, Hwa Eom Temple, S. Korea and thousands of venues in the US.
"She weaves you into a trance with her beautiful Iroquois chants and wraps her voice around you like a warm blanket on a cool winter's night," said Robbie Robertson, formerly of the Band, who used her voice on his solo album Contact From the Underworld of Redboy. Shenandoah has also collaborated and or performed with Bruce Cockburn, Neil Young, Brian Kirkpatrick, Willie Nelson, Rita Coolidge and scores of others.
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Joanne Shenandoah as "Dawn Russell" in "The Last Winter" 2006
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Indigenous in the News Featured Artist Review
Joanne Shenandoah - Bitter Tears | Sacred Ground
By:
I mount up and roll down 18th flowin? strong at the start despite no warm up, headed south, thinking Minnehaha Blvd. west. The weather is going down hill and the scene is one of a sludge pile as the previous nights? warm-up has left huge piles of semi-melted snow everywhere with dirt, soot, oil and grime the predominant ingredients. This is the only time of the year that Minneapolis becomes an ugly urban nightmare.
The new Shenandoah/Bucher collaboration CD Bitter Tears Sacred Ground spins me back in a time warp to dreams of road side souvenir stands a two mile ride away from Lake Winnie, soda pop ten cents, puppy love in a polka dot bikini, we never wore shoes all summer long. I remember hearing these songs in those days of skinny dips, beer battered walleye fish fry?s, wild rice and fry bread, cooked outside and the brilliant northern sunsets of true summer madness. Our dad bought us bikes at summer?s start. These are the summers of which dreams are made. Oh summer thou art goddess of my world.
This CD pays tribute to the contributions of three song writers that have had enormous impact on the lives of ordinary working class Native Americans and is steeped in the lives and lifestyles influenced by the Depression, mission boarding schools and the end of WW II. This CD is in honor of Peter Lafarge, Floyd Westerman, and Johnny Cash.
The song As Long as the Grass Shall Grow refers to the treaty signed before a dam covered up the Seneca nation and compelled them to move from their home. This is a beautiful rendition of a Lafarge classic addressing the results of the dam. The song acts as a foundation and background for the spoken word story telling skills of Joanne.
Mike?s baritone vocal does the song Apache Tears justice in examining the cause of the gemstones referred to in the title. Curtis Waterman does an incredible job with the harmonica playing on this trac as well as some of the following material as well.
Apache Tears is followed by another Lafarge classic story song sung beautifully in a duet by Joanne and Mike entitled Drums. I had originally questioned whether there were going to be duets as a result of this collaboration and I?ve not been disappointed. They trade verses and harmonize on the chorus. I remember this song coming out a brown plastic RCA radio as the women made the fry bread dough and we cleaned the fish on the pick nick table outside that reservation tarpaper shack.
This CD includes the Star Spangled Banner sung by Joanne acapella in a uniquely beautiful mission boarding school rendition. Indiancool. The national anthem segues smoothly from a short harmonica TAPS into the song that most people associate with Peter Lafarge; ?The Ballad of Ira Hayes.? The story song about the Pima Indian that was at the top of Mount Suribachi and among the Marines that raised the flag.
The Talking Leaves the sixth trac refers to are the Whiteman?s talking leaves (or paper and writing) and speaks to the Cherokee alphabet created by the great Sequoyah. ?If the Whiteman talks on leaves, why not the Cherokee??
You can only finish a CD of this kind with a song like America. An original song written by Joanne, it is a song with a sentimental attachment to the Bitter Tears Sacred Ground to which the title of the CD refers. Again, the wonderful harp playing puts the mood right.
This CD examines artfully and profoundly some of the music that over the years has provided a sanctuary for Native people across the nation while presenting material that some how remains under the pop music radar. This is an extremely important CD in that regard. It is done with style, passion and intelligence. I like the approach that this material receives from two veteran Native American musicians and the Hondo Mesa Records people are to be commended for the solid production values they bring to the table
My dad bought us bikes so that we might experience the simpler time every body always talks about. Damn if I don?t love that old man for teaching me how to ride a bike. By the time I reach home, I?m riding in whiteout blizzard conditions but I don?t even care because I?m snug in the summer of which dreams are made. |
