For the past five years, ROCKWIRED.COM has boasted a one-of-a-kind, online musical reportage. Not only has the independently published venture gained international notoriety, but it has also given LUSH some of the best conversation of his life. “I guess that is why anyone would really want to do something like this. No one really thinks about how hard a good conversation is to come by and with ROCKWIRED I feel blessed.”
MARCH 8, 2010
SiNG iT AND PRAY iT AND LiVE iT
THE LEGENDARY BUFFY SAiNTE-MARiE TALKS TO ROCKWiREDABOUT HER LATEST CD RUNNiNG FOR THE DRUM
BEiNG BLACKLiSTED BY PRESiDENTS JOHNSON AND NiXON
AND THE BOUNDLESS CREATiViTY THAT COMES NATURALLY
iNTERViEWED BY BRiAN LUSH
In a career spanning nearly fifty years, the music of BUFFY SAINTE-MARIE is marked by its unparalleled range of styles and the artist’s unwillingness to compromise. While the plight of the Indigenous peoples of the North Americas is the issue most familiar in her music with songs such as ‘MY COUNTRY TIS OF THY PEOPLE YOU’RE DYING’ and ‘BURY MY HEART AT WOUNDED KNEE’, SAINTE-MARIE has also given voice to the plight of the human condition with songs like ‘UNIVERSAL SOLDIER’ whose anti-war message is frightfully as relevant today as it was back in 1965. The Cree songwriter’s innate ability to articulate matters of the heart into words and music is one that has endeared her to millions and has inspired countless interpretations of her work from a varied and legendary group of artists such as ELVIS PRESLEY, BARBARA STREISAND, NEIL DIAMOND, JANIS JOPLIN, CHET ATKINS and JOE COCKER. Now with the release of ‘RUNNING FOR THE DRUM’ – her first album in many, many moons – the first lady of “Pow Wow Rock” proves to be every bit as spirited and committed to the art of making music as ever. Co-produced by CHRIS BIRKETT, ‘RUNNING…’ puts the listener on a musical journey that kicks off with the opening track ‘NO NO KESHAGESH’ – an indictment against greed and corruption set to an irresistible driving beat. On the track ‘I BET MY HEART ON YOU’, SAINTE-MARIE gets a little help from TAJ MAHAL on the ivory and a haunting sample of THE BLACK LODGE SINGERS echoes in the chorus of the rambunctious rocker ‘CHO CHO FIRE’. Coupled with the CD is a DVD documentary entitled ‘BUFFY SAINTE-MARIE : A MULTIMEDIA LIFE’ which features interviews with JONI MITCHELL, ROBBIE ROBERTSON and BILL COSBY and shines a light on SAINTE-MARIE as a singer-songwriter, digital media artist, activist and educator. (READ MORE)