http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VSHhwn6JJPI

Keith Secola and Bonnie Raitt



Pete Sears and Charlie Hill



Honor Song



Keith Secola

We came together to honor and remember, Floyd Red Crow Westerman.  It was November 13, 2008, in San Francisco at the Palace of Fine Arts during the American Indian Film Festival.  The concert was all about Floyd, his music, friends, how he lived his life and how he inspirited others to live theirs.
 
The evening was magical, the Frybread sisters wore flowers in their hair, Javelinas Jammed, Jack Rambled, Bonnie Prayed, John drummed, Jennifer danced, Jeremy Drove, Charlie laughed, Katari cried, Max crooned, Dennis appeared, Michael Spears, Pete Sears, Melanie Stormm, Rosie Spoke, Floyd’s Carla, Quiet Shea, Loud Micki, Mike Smith, rock and rock, the boys in the band: Jimmy V, SevV’s, Chad the Man-dolin, Roberto.  Floyd’s handpicked misfits. In the distance, seals barked, and heels walked to parked cars near the Wharf with graffiti saying, “honor an artist by singing their songs.”  We did that night, 18 songs in a 7 song set on 11/13/08. 

Thanks Floyd.
Keith

Keith Secola .............. Missionary/ Music Director/guitar
Bonnie Ratt ................ Angel from Montgomery
Jack Elliot .................. Don’t think twice/ SF Blues
John Densmore ........... Spoken Word/Riders on the Storm (Band)
Pete Sears ................... Piano/Accordion (Band)
Chad Watson .............. Mandolin/guitar/ Johnny Cash melody
Jennifer Kriesberg ...... They didn’t Listen/BIA Chant
Max Gail ..................... Song to Floyd
Charlie Hill ................. MC/ harmonica/Custer Died for your Sins
Shea Keck ................... Quiet Desperation
Micki Free ................... Guitar/ Quiet Desperation, Band
Melanie Stormm .......... Custer Died for your Sins/NDN Kars
Jimmy Vickers ............. Bass/band organizer
Robert Scott ................. Drums
James Severino ............ Guitar/Vocals/merchandise
Michael Spears ............ Honor Song
Dennis Banks ............... Honor Song
Jeremy Goodfeathers .... 35 Miles

Sorry all for the confusion, must be a MySpace glitch somewhere showing up in December. Thanks for stopping by and leaving best wishes, will remember for the official July date.

Never too early to celebrate a birthday year anyway.

So happy birthday to everyone in 2009 on your birthdays, and especially today's birthday guys/gals. :)

Happy New Year to Everyone!

Enjoy for a short time only the unreleased punk version of NDN Kars now on the playlist, from a raw studio recording. You've heard Keith play this version many times over the years in his Live performances, always a rock out. Check back soon for information on its future release date. We know many of you collect every recorded version.

Thanks for writing, leaving comments, and for coming out to all the shows in 2008, from San Francisco to Zagreb, Croatia. Of special note, the concerts honoring Floyd Red Crow Westerman, and the benefits supporting The Longest Walk II and the many walkers from various tribes and friends from around the world.

Keith has been busy throughout 2008 in the studio recording his upcoming CD release, his Frybread Opera, a project long in the making and definitely worth the wait. More info to come.

We look forward to seeing and hearing from all of you in 2009.

Keith Secola and Wild Band of Indians

Nammy Night - Oct 6th 2007

For those of you who may have missed the news, Keith and Karen Drift took home the Nammy for Best Linguistic Recording for the release Anishinabemoin -- congratulations to Keith, Karen and the Anishinabe people.

The evening of the awards ceremonies found our fearless leader, Keith, dressed in a black velvet jacket and Bono-esque sunglasses, sipping coffee backstage and entertaining other native artists and old friends, and periodically darting onstage to co-host the event. Occasionally, a very sparkly and always effervescent Joanne Shenandoah accompanied him onstage. Filling the vast auditorium was the veritable who's-who of the Native Music industry, a beautiful frybread family dressed in evening gowns and expensive hairdos, a palpable reflection not only of the growing economic force of the Native music industry, but of its growing interest and impact on the world. Twenty years ago, things didn't look like this.

But of course, a black shiny, shelf-able object and a lot of flash photography has never been the motivation for any of Keith's work. Everything comes down to the heart. The heart of that night was found as friends gathered together in Keith's corner suite on the twenty-fourth floor. Ain't no party like a frybread party. Spirit magazine was there and the Digging Roots family, too, singing songs and plucking guitars. Excited and cheerful sounds went up as dark clouds emptied down and enveloped the panoramic ceiling-high windows with mist. The lights of the city flashed red and blue and green within the fogginess, as a not-to-be-missed jam between Keith and Digging Roots' Raven Kanatakta ensued.

A lot has changed in the industry; the jam and high spirits were a reminder of how much more harmonious progress is still yet to come. The future does look brighter and the sold-out crowd this night was a knowing testament.

Congratulations to the winners and nominees, with special mention to Pipestone. Of course, lots of love to the beautiful and inciting breakfast bunch: Neddie, Tara and Nadine.

Revolutionize the Future,
- Us. You. We.

(blogged by Melanie)

Award-winning musical artist Keith Secola with language teacher Karen Drift receive two 2007 Native American Music Awards nominations for their first collaborative CD "Anishinabemoin", nominated for Best Historical Recording and Best Linguistic Recording. The groundbreaking CD, recorded primarily in the Ojibwe language by Karen Drift, features the music of Keith Secola who also served as Producer. Ojibwe is the second most widely spoken Native American language, by more than 40,000 Ojibwe, Chippewa and Anishinabe people in the United States, with additional tribes in Canada. When he was in college, Secola fulfilled his language requirement at the University of Minnesota by studying Ojibwe, his tribal tongue. With this recording, Secola and Drift, as well as the Bois Forte Band of Chippewa are preserving and encouraging an integral part of their culture for future generations. Preliminary ballots cast by the National Advisory Board members of the Native American Music Association determined nominations. The winners will be determined by final mail-in ballots from the Advisory Board members and voting by the general public at http://www.votenative.com.

Keith Secola also appears on three other Nammy nominated CDs this year, as producer of Thoz Women language drum CD, musician and co-producer of Eli Secody "Rhythm of a Songmaker" (Best Male Artist nominee) and as a contributing musician on Moontee Sinquah "Soul Force" (Best World Music Recording nominee). NAMMY winners will be announced at the 2007 Native American Music Awards Show on October 6, 2007 in Niagara Falls, New York.

The Purpose of the Pause
(written by Melanie)

In music, some of the most inspiring things happen in the pause. It's not that the pause or the break does all the work of the song, but it gives you a momentary void to appreciate all that has happened, before propelling to a beautiful, anticipated future.

Our pause was in Cleveland where we visited Charming Chris and the Lovely Legal Laura (also known as the Mermaid of Lake Erie). We sailed the waters of Erie and sang songs, and listened to an Official Sevs-the-Tie-Dye-Guy Rant delivered over the rhythm of a Johnny Cash song: "I don't swim in Lake Erie, man, you shouldn't swim in that water. It's toxic, I mean, do you really think the Corporate Giant has built his empire on the edge of Lake Erie for the Beautiful View? I mean, just wait till the sun goes down, what do you think happens? All that garbage sitting gets dumped into the water. That stuff causes cancer, man. But, you know, don't let me spoil your good time, man, I mean, you gotta enjoy life, I will give you that, but we're all f*cked anyway, so...swim!"

Come that evening we sliced the waters by the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and watched the city set on fire with sodium light.

A beautiful moment occurred in the backyard at Chris and Laura's. While playing under the stars, listening to Keith's ideas and to the D-minor of crickets, pieces of the Fry Bread Opera began to unfold further, so much so you could almost reach out and touch it. All this water has filled us with fire and we plan to work on the Opera in depth this fall. This is going to be the best recording yet and one in which we seek to expand the Wild Band sound to Keith's fullest vision, one that will reach from the heart of Anishinabe country to the heart of the world and beyond. We're humbled by this opportunity and our hearts are in it.

Just you wait.

Keith Secola and the Wild Band

Monster Jams and Vermillionaires
(written by Melanie)

By the beautiful gorges of Ithaca we played the Grassroots Festival in T-burg, New York. Grassroots is a natural occurrence of positive human collaboration in joy. Or at least it seems like it – the staff and volunteers have pure hearts and sheer perseverance. We've done Grassroots for about ten years but this year we all agree we had some of our best shows. Moontee Sinquah and his sons joined us for this set. We were blessed with a monster jam on Sunday featuring the wonderful Jeb Puryear, Kathy Zeigler, Richie Stearns, Clayson Benally, Hank Roberts Jr., and our Hoop Extravaganza featuring both the Sinquah and Sampson families. Soaring flutes filled our Sunday set complete with an interpretive dance delivered by Darice Sampson.

There's nothing like closing Grassroots in the company of dearest friends chanting the melody of NDN Karz into the starry sky. At Grassroots, the thousand bobbing faces out in the crowd each day are your nearest and dearest friends, old and new.

Later that week we hosted the Unity Run at Akwesasne. We invaded friendly territory at CKON and the guys toured the river with the Pirates of St. Lawrence and visited a pirate's cove. Thank you to Neddie,  Kevin and the CKON staff. Thank you to the beautiful people at the Freedom School. Thank you to the runners.

We returned to Niagara and played a full on Rock 'n Roll set with Foreigner (two words: Jason Bonham). The sky offered us a royal deluge then, too, but the show went on and a sea of people flowed into the arena, clapping their hands and warming their hearts to Fry Bread.

From Niagara we coasted southerly style to Alleghany to play with Chris Isaak. It was a lean, mean and infectious set that left us with a lot of energy and very little merchandise. The lovely Grace and Eric joined us there and ran our merch booth and brought late night nourishment. Dave Kahr and his family joined us, along with Mitch, the Loaded Lawyer (translate that any way you like) and his two wild and brilliant sisters who could throw down the proverbial party glove with the best of them. We had an after-show jam session where Mitch showed us the wonders of his "freight-train guitar method."

We headed west; we danced and played with fervor in Lake of the Woods with the Anishinabe. Blues prodigy George Leach joined us for our set that night. We swam in Lake Superior and stood on the Canadian Shield. We learned how to piss someone off or pick someone up in Anishinabe. We dropped and forgot our anchor in the sparkling waters of the Vermillion and feasted on wild rice and walleye. We touched the wisdom of the Witch Tree and were touched by the wisdom of the Anishinabe elders at Grand Portage. It seems every show we pour ourselves out more and more and walk away replenished.

Next blog: The Purpose of the Pause