Native North America. Vol. 1, Aboriginal folk, rock, and country, 1966-1985.
Material type:
MusicPublisher number: LITA 103 | Light In the Attic RecordsSpoken language: English, Inuktitut, Cree, Algonquian (Other) Publisher: Seattle, WA : Light In the Attic, [2014]Copyright date: â„—2014Description: 2 audio discs ; 4 3/4 in. + 1 book (13 x 14 cm)Content type: - performed music
- text
- audio
- unmediated
- audio disc
- volume
- Aboriginal folk, rock & country, 1966-1985
| Item type | Home library | Collection | Call number | Materials specified | Status | Date due | Barcode | Item holds | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Adult CD
|
Main Library | CD | FOLK Native North America. Vol. 1 | Available | 33111008304863 |
Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:
The 34 tracks on Native North America, Vol. 1: Aboriginal Folk, Rock and Country 1966-1985 were curated and painstakingly annotated by Kevin "Sipreano" Howe. He assembled this set from independent, often privately pressed, 45s and LPs culled from garage sales, flea markets, private collections, and broadcast sources from the CBC archives. Its focus is solely on music from the Canadian side of the North American border, while its purpose is to document the sonic wellspring that emerged as aboriginal peoples used media and cultural surfaces in Canada and across the continent to express individual and collective identities. Packaged in a hardback, cloth-bound book full of artist biographies and interviews, this is a document that turns Eurocentric culture back on itself, using it to serve different ends. Many of these artists employ popular musical forms and readily reflect the influences of Woody Guthrie, Neil Young, Bob Dylan, CCR, Phil Ochs, Buffalo Springfield, Hank Williams, and Hank Snow, but they stand apart in doing so. The music's central themes are almost uniquely Native American in the manner of reportage, history, and storytelling. Topically, they can range from community-based reflections to nature and socio-political commentary as well as less weighty insights. Taken as a whole they leave a record of everyday life from the perspective of a historical, often ancient identity. There is a poignance in virtually every song (even the deliberately humorous ones), because they are rooted in cultures that have been marginalized to the edge of extinction by Anglo colonization and the long reach of capitalism. Sometimes they are offered in the code of tribal languages. There are many highlights, but more importantly, there is virtually no filler. Willie Dunn (who passed in 2013 while this was being assembled and bookends the collection) has three tracks here, as do songwriters Willie Thrasher and Willy Mitchell -- they all come from various roots and branches in the folk-rock tree of aboriginal consciousness and activism. Their collected nine songs would have made a fantastic comp by themselves. But there is real stylistic diversity here. There's the grooving pop in the Sikumiut Band's self-titled song, the haunted country-rock of Ernest Monias' "Tormented Soul," the Canadian folk-country frames of Alexis Utatnaq's "Maqaivvigivalauqtavut" (sung in Inuktitut) and Morley Loon's traditional Cree chant set in psychedelic effects on "N'Doheeno." Disc two includes the surf instrumental "Modern Rock" by the Saddle Lake Drifting Cowboys; the Chieftones' multi-harmony vocal group pop "I Shouldn't Have Did What I Done," and William Tagoona's baroque country rock "Anaanaga." The last ten minutes include two chants: Groupe Folklorique Montagnais's Inuit "Tshekuan Mak Tshetutamak" and Dunn's "Peruvian Dream 2" with Jerry Saddleback, which deliberately attempts a rockist pow wow. This is killer music from another present era, a reality that has co-existed with the "official "one that ignores it. Due to Howe's exhaustive efforts, that story -- an essential part of the continent's cultural narrative -- begins to emerge. It's not only fantastic, it's necessary. ~ Thom Jurek
Previously released material.
Program notes by Kevin "Sipreano" Howes, and lyrics with English and, in part, French translations (120 pages : illustrations) bound in container.
Title from disc label.
Disc 1. I pity the country (Willie Dunn) -- I'll rock you to the rhythm of the ocean (John Angaiak) -- Fall away (Sugluk) -- Sikumiut (Sikumiut) -- Spirit child (Willie Thrasher) -- Call of the moose (Willy Mitchell) -- James Bay (Lloyd Cheechoo) -- Maqaivvigivalauqtavut (Alexis Utatnaq) -- Dreams of ways (Brian Davey) -- N'doheeno (Morley Loon) -- Little feather (Peter Frank) -- Tormented soul (Ernest Monias) -- Out of the blue (Eric Landry) -- Sky-man and the moon (David Campbell) -- Son of the sun (Willie Dunn) -- Silver river (Shingoose, poetry by Duke Redbird) -- Kill'n your mind (Willy Mitchell and Desert River Band) -- Disc 2. Mistashipu (Philippe McKenzie) -- Old man carver (Willie Thrasher) -- Winds of change (Lloyd Cheechoo) -- I shouldn't have did what I done (the Chieftones (Canada's All Indian Band)) -- I didn't know (Sugluk) -- I got my music (Lawrence Martin) -- Siwash Rock (Gordon Dick) -- Birchbark letter (Willy Mitchell and Desert River Band) -- Anaanaga (William Tagoona) -- Messenger (Leland Bell) -- Modern rock (Saddle Lake Drifting Cowboys) -- We got to take you higher (Willie Thrasher) -- Utirumavunga (Sikumiut) -- Ajuinnarasuarsunga (Sugluk) -- Hey, hey, hey, brother (John Angaiak) -- Tshekuan mak tshetutamak (Groupe Folklorique Montagnais) -- Peruvian dream (part 2) (Willie Dunn (featuring Jerry Saddleback)).
Various performers.
"Largely unheard, criminally undocumented, but at their core, utterly revolutionary, the recordings of the diverse North American Aboriginal community will finally take their rightful place in our collective history in the form of Native North America (Vol. 1): Aboriginal Folk, Rock, and Country 1966-1985. An anthology of music that was once near-extinct and off-the-grid is now available for all to hear, in what is, without a doubt, Light In The Attic's most ambitious and historically significant project in the label's 12-year journey."--lightintheattic.net.
Sung in English, Inuktitut, Cree, and Innu-aimun.