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About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (Dec. 7, 1993)
Canadian-Cree singer overcomes adversity AMERICAN AND CANADIAN INDIAN SDmUSICaA By Jill O’Brien Staff Reporter_ Canadian-Cree singer Buffy Sainte-Marie refuses to let adversity slow her down, especially when it comes to her music. Sainte-Marie survived the 1960s coffee house scene, censorship in the ’70s and a hurricane that devastated her residence and studio last year. Her music, which combines pow wow singing with mainstream rock, has impacted the recording industry for the past three decades/4 Pow wow rock,” she calls it. Sainte-Marie, 52, was born on a reservation in Canada, but raised in Maine and Massachusetts by her adop tive parents. In her late teens, she returned to her Cree family, where she learned about Indian life sitting around the powwow drum with her uncles. “I got lucky the summer I graduat ed from the University of Massachu setts,” she said. “I had never been to New York, and I had only played music in my dorm and around a few coffee houses. I just went to give it a whirl.” Originally she planned to spend a week checking out New York, then pursue her education in India on a scholarship. “Instead I got lucky singing, so I just kept traveling around.... I couldn’t believe somebody was paying me to travel and sing and have such a good time. My whole life has been a sort of extension of that post-college sum mer,” she said. Sainte-Marie, an advocate of Indi an rights, played her powwow rock for two types of audiences — the general mainstream public and Amer ican and Canadian Indians in urban areas. “In my off time, I’d go the nearest reservation, doing benefits with the National Indian Youth Council, the Native American Committee or later with American Indian Movement, ducking bullets from time to time, but mostly trying to make things better, like everybody else,” she said. When her music career was just taking off with the hit singles “Uni versal Soldier” and “Now That the BufTalo’sGone,” her record sales suf fered mysterious setbacks, she said. Although Sainte-Marie could pack a concert-house, her records weren’t selling. Her albums weren’t even reaching the record stores. Sainte-Marie said she attributed the lack of sales and radio air play to her high heels, protest songs, elec tronic music and powwow rock. “The mainstream public just wasn’t ready for me,” she said. Sainte-Maries said she was sur prised a decade later when disc jock eys came forward and apologized for not playing her music. She said they confessed to having gone along with a letter from Lyndon B. Johnson that commended broadcasters who sup pressed her music and that of other musicians who “deserved to be sup pressed.” “I wasjust a humble singer writing about Indian people and having a wonderful life. I just didn’t think I was that important,” she said. “I don’t think it would have hap pened if I had not written ‘Universal Soldier,’ and if I wasn’t getting very wealthy and well-known among main stream singers for love songs. “If I had just remained kind of a quirk in American music, I don’t think I would have had a problem.” Sainte-Marie said she knows she isn’t a quirk. “I put togetner oovious things that occur to me because I’m in a position of traveling back and forth in and out of the Indian community on a classy level of international show business.” Sainte-Marie said her travel al lowed her to see problems that the media and reservation teachers might fail to notice, such as uranium mining on Indian reservations — an issue covered in the lyrics of her song, “The Priests of the Golden Bull.” “Reservations are the nuclear front Courtesy of Buffy Sainte Marie Buffy Sainte-Marie, a Canadian-Cree singer, has been a part of the music industry for three decades. line/Uranium poisoning kills/We’re starving in a handful of gluttonsAVe’re drowning in their gravy spills.” Another song graphically depicts the 1973 incident at Wounded Knee. “Some people who hear ‘Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee’ will actually get a reality of that serious situation,” she said. “It impacts on people as such a shriek because they haven’t dealt with the information before.” While her lyrics can be frightfully direct, songs like “Starwalker,” and See BUFFY on 10 Pumpkins top tally of KRNU directors 1993 favorites Opinions — everyone has them. So what makes the opinions of the KRNU music direc tors so special? Absolutely nothing. We don’t profess to be experts on alternative music, but we’ve heard a lot of albums throughout the year, and these are the ones we voted as the best. 1. Smashing Pumpkins — “Siamese Dream” The Smashing Pumpkins are one of those bands that have a truly unique sound. Billy Corgin has one of the spookiest voices around, and his guitar-playing ability is excellent. “Siamese Dream” is a masterpiece. Their debut album “Gish” was hard to top, but somehow they did it with impressive style. The sound is still fresh, no matter how many times you hear it. From the beautiful “Today” to the epic “Hummer,” this will go down in alternative music history as one of the greatest albums of all time. 2. Breeders — “Last Splash” Talk about spooky voices. Kim Deal, guitar ist-vocalist and former bassist for the now disbanded Pixies, has the coolest and spookiest voice ever. What could be better than having Kim Deal on an album than to have her twin sister Kelly Deal playing lead guitar? This is a rockin’ album from a rockin’ band that almost cases the pain fans of the Pixies endured when the group broke up. 3. Bash & Pop—“Friday Night Is Killing Me” While everyone eagerly wailed for Paul Westerberg’s solo album, Tommy Stinson caught some Replacements fans by surprise with the release of Bash & Pop’s first album. Stinson had been playing bass for the ‘Mats since he was 12. Now in his 20s, he’s opted to sing and play guitar. This album is energetic and filled with great songs in the tradition of the Replacements. Stinson even sounds like Westerberg. From start to finish, this is a stunning debut. 4. Paul Westerberg — “14 Songs* Okay. Everyone had their expectations on how this album was going to sound and for the most part, they were fulfilled. This is Westerberg at his finest with an album that is more of a collection than an album full of tunes. The man just knows how to write classic songs. It’s in his blood. 5. Antenna — “Hideout” In the latter part of the 1980s, there was an indie band called Blake Babies featuring Julianna Hatfield on vocals. After they dis banded, the two remaining members formed Antenna. “Hideout” is an album full of soul — some thing Hatfield seems to lack. From the heart-drenching “Wallpaper” to the semi-anthemic “Rust,” this album was def See KRNU on 10 James Mehsling/DN Marijuana permeates retro world i Dazed and Confused Richard LlnkJater, Denise Mont gomery, et al. St. Martin's Press We have entered the age of in stant nostalgia. This is how things happen: First,out of nowhere, something becomes cool. It can be anything —a haircut, a way of wearing clothes, a drug. Then it becomes popular. Auto matically, it loses its place on the cutting edge. It’s been “sold out.” Still, there will be a window of opportunity in which a great deal of money can be made. Just watch out; somewhere in Brooklyn there’s a whole ware house full of hula hoops left over from the ’50s that will never sell— no, not to anyone. Then the thing goes out of style. Only geeks in the Midwest will still be into it, and even that won’t last long. That used to end the life cycle of the fad. Not any more. Today, in the ultimate of per versity, it seems like only things that arc out of style arc in. It’s called “retro,” and it’s ev erywhere. Pick some old, wretched, poly ester jacket out of the trash, and who knows, maybe you’ll be the next trendsetter of the ’90s. The still-unavailable-in-Lincoln film “Dazed and Confused” is a perfect example. Set in 1976 on the last day of school, the movie is thick w ih funky ’70s clothing, music and what passed for art. It’s also thick with marijuana smoke. Maybe a movie like that can’t help but be even thicker with irony, See BOOK on 10