Post by blackcrowheart on Jun 12, 2006 10:49:02 GMT -5
Music awards sway to diverse soundsThe Native American
Music Awards were handed out at the Hard Rock Live.
By EVELYN McDONNELL
www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/14774489.htm
<http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/14774489.htm>
There were flutes and feathers at the Hard Rock Live
near Hollywood on Thursday night, as one might expect
at the eighth annual Native American Music Awards. But
there were also synthesizers and slide guitars.
The Nammys, as they're known, honor the traditional
and the modern, the sacred and the profane. The night
was dominated not by pow-wow drums but by the equally
tribal rhythms of -- as the title of the Led Zeppelin
song covered by ex-Shalamar guitarist Micki Free
crowed -- Rock and Roll.
''People need to know we're not just beating on drums
all the time,'' Miccosukee musician Lee Tiger said as
he walked the red carpet. Tiger and his brother
Stephen were presented a Lifetime Achievement Award
for their four decades of work as Tiger Tiger. ``We're
trying to reach out and go beyond the limits of Native
American music.''
In many ways it was a traditional awards show, with
windy speeches and flat jokes. But then there were
unique twists: thank yous to ``the breath-maker.''
The drummer who was absent because his tribal elder
had passed. Several among the hundreds in attendance
showed off their ceremonial finery, while others just
wore leather pants.
The show divvied up its trophies among a diverse array
of artists.
The top winner was Keith Secola, honored as artist of
the year and for best folk/country recording. In an
acceptance speech, he encouraged artists to sing ''in
our languages.'' On his album Native Americana: A Coup
Stick, Secola sings Woody Guthrie's This Land in
Ojibwe.
'It's interesting, because the translation, `This land
is our land' is 'This earth, we belong to her,' '' he
said in an interview before the show. ``That sums up
the whole difference between European thought and
Native American.''
Jana won for record of the year and Bill Miller for
song. Gil Silverbird was named best new artist,
although as part of the Silverbirds, he was in one of
the first Native American groups signed to a major
label in the '70s.
Many of the artists who performed and presented are
not known outside of Native circles. There were a few
famous faces: '70s singer/songwriter Rita Coolidge and
Little Steven Van Zandt, guitarist for Bruce
Springsteen's E Street Band and star of The Sopranos.
Van Zandt was there to induct Link Wray, a
part-Shawnee seminal rock guitarist who died last
year, into the Native American Music Hall of Fame.
''It's a chant in a way,'' Van Zandt said of Wray's
signature tune The Rumble. ``It's just a little bit
louder.''
Part of the aim of the awards is to showcase the
diversity of Native American music.
''I do think Americans have a lack of education in
Native American culture and this is part of changing
that,'' Coolidge told The Miami Herald.
Performances ranged from Pura Fé's jazz-blues singing
and finger-picking slide guitar to Eagle & Hawk's
hard, alternative sound, featuring two Eddie
Vedder-worthy vocalists. Pearl Jam's drummer, in fact,
performed with Free in an all-star band that also
featured Cheap Trick's John Brant. There was also
comedy from hosts James & Ernie, the Native American
Cheech and Chong, and skilled ventriloquist Buddy Big
Mountain.
And of course, there was a flute player, Douglas Blue
Feather, accompanied by dancers in magnificent
headdresses made out of feathers and beads. None of
this was cutting edge, but it was generally
well-played and full of feeling.
The Nammys were established in 1998. They traveled to
various locales before coming to the Hard Rock near
Hollywood last year.
Music Awards were handed out at the Hard Rock Live.
By EVELYN McDONNELL
www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/14774489.htm
<http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/14774489.htm>
There were flutes and feathers at the Hard Rock Live
near Hollywood on Thursday night, as one might expect
at the eighth annual Native American Music Awards. But
there were also synthesizers and slide guitars.
The Nammys, as they're known, honor the traditional
and the modern, the sacred and the profane. The night
was dominated not by pow-wow drums but by the equally
tribal rhythms of -- as the title of the Led Zeppelin
song covered by ex-Shalamar guitarist Micki Free
crowed -- Rock and Roll.
''People need to know we're not just beating on drums
all the time,'' Miccosukee musician Lee Tiger said as
he walked the red carpet. Tiger and his brother
Stephen were presented a Lifetime Achievement Award
for their four decades of work as Tiger Tiger. ``We're
trying to reach out and go beyond the limits of Native
American music.''
In many ways it was a traditional awards show, with
windy speeches and flat jokes. But then there were
unique twists: thank yous to ``the breath-maker.''
The drummer who was absent because his tribal elder
had passed. Several among the hundreds in attendance
showed off their ceremonial finery, while others just
wore leather pants.
The show divvied up its trophies among a diverse array
of artists.
The top winner was Keith Secola, honored as artist of
the year and for best folk/country recording. In an
acceptance speech, he encouraged artists to sing ''in
our languages.'' On his album Native Americana: A Coup
Stick, Secola sings Woody Guthrie's This Land in
Ojibwe.
'It's interesting, because the translation, `This land
is our land' is 'This earth, we belong to her,' '' he
said in an interview before the show. ``That sums up
the whole difference between European thought and
Native American.''
Jana won for record of the year and Bill Miller for
song. Gil Silverbird was named best new artist,
although as part of the Silverbirds, he was in one of
the first Native American groups signed to a major
label in the '70s.
Many of the artists who performed and presented are
not known outside of Native circles. There were a few
famous faces: '70s singer/songwriter Rita Coolidge and
Little Steven Van Zandt, guitarist for Bruce
Springsteen's E Street Band and star of The Sopranos.
Van Zandt was there to induct Link Wray, a
part-Shawnee seminal rock guitarist who died last
year, into the Native American Music Hall of Fame.
''It's a chant in a way,'' Van Zandt said of Wray's
signature tune The Rumble. ``It's just a little bit
louder.''
Part of the aim of the awards is to showcase the
diversity of Native American music.
''I do think Americans have a lack of education in
Native American culture and this is part of changing
that,'' Coolidge told The Miami Herald.
Performances ranged from Pura Fé's jazz-blues singing
and finger-picking slide guitar to Eagle & Hawk's
hard, alternative sound, featuring two Eddie
Vedder-worthy vocalists. Pearl Jam's drummer, in fact,
performed with Free in an all-star band that also
featured Cheap Trick's John Brant. There was also
comedy from hosts James & Ernie, the Native American
Cheech and Chong, and skilled ventriloquist Buddy Big
Mountain.
And of course, there was a flute player, Douglas Blue
Feather, accompanied by dancers in magnificent
headdresses made out of feathers and beads. None of
this was cutting edge, but it was generally
well-played and full of feeling.
The Nammys were established in 1998. They traveled to
various locales before coming to the Hard Rock near
Hollywood last year.