Native American Folk Music

Subject: Native American Folk Music
From: GUEST,Phillip //
Date: 20 Dec 06 - 04:16 PM

First of all, i'd like to introduce myself! My names Phillip, and i live in Denmark. Im 17 years old by the way. My mom emigrated from Arizona in 1992, and has since lived in denmark. I was brought up using both languages, so dont give me compliments on my "good english" haha.

I've always been into everything american, but lately i fell upon some old native american folk music in a movie. I dont know any artists names or tracks, but i can quite easily describe the tune and sound.

There's a Banjo, a violin (or another form of string instrument) there could be some kind of drum as well.

The tune is fast, fast as hell in fact! im amazed they can play this fast. The songs reminds me of some redneck town with some old men sitting late in the evening playing this, while people dance. Im guessing Alabama, Tennessee, or something similar.

Subject: RE: Native American Folk Music
From: GUEST,An example...
Date: 20 Dec 06 - 04:21 PM

I found two examples of the music im looking for!

"Old Crow Medicine Show - Tear It Down"
And "Alison Krauss"

Im looking for music similar to this! Anyhelp greatly appreciated!

Subject: RE: Native American Folk Music
From: Wesley S
Date: 20 Dec 06 - 04:30 PM

Well to some of us when you say Native American music we might think you're after music of American Indians/First Peoples,ect. Most of the music that I think you are really after could be called bluegrass or old time music.

Subject: RE: Native American Folk Music
From: GUEST,Phill
Date: 20 Dec 06 - 04:35 PM

Damn.. really? sigh.. im really screwing this up!

Are you familiar with any bluegrass music? Or can you refer to some who has? :D

help appreciated

Subject: RE: Native American Folk Music
From: Wesley S
Date: 20 Dec 06 - 04:49 PM

What was the movie you saw?

I'd check out Bill Monroe, Flatt and Scruggs and Doc Watson just to get started. Or you can go up to the filter area at the top of the page and look up the old threads about bluegrass and old time music here at the mudcat.

Subject: RE: Native American Folk Music
From: Azizi
Date: 20 Dec 06 - 05:02 PM

Hello, Phillip.

Welcome to Mudcat.

If you can get YouTube, check out this wonderful video:

Pow Wow

Added May 06, 2006 ; From citizenbfk
Native American Indian Dancing
@ Northe Native American Indian Dancing
@ Northeast Arizona, on White Mountian [sic]
Apache land

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3s9z3IOpH1g&search=native%20american%20indian%20war%20dance%20cherokee%20music%20first%20peoples%


**

I also found it interesting to read the comments posted by folks who watched the video clip.

Subject: RE: Native American Folk Music
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 20 Dec 06 - 05:07 PM

Perhaps a conversation with Skarpi in Iceland would be helpful. He has been navagating American music for a while and might be able to help sort out what you're asking. If you become a Mudcat member (joining is free) then you can send PM (Personal Mail, see the little PM next to each member name).

Good Luck!

Stilly River Sage

Subject: RE: Native American Folk Music
From: jacqui.c
Date: 20 Dec 06 - 05:10 PM

See this thread as well.

Subject: RE: Native American Folk Music
From: GUEST,.gargoyle
Date: 20 Dec 06 - 11:18 PM

Keep refreshing this thread.

A little has been posted before to the mudcat regarding Native American tonations....I have conversed multiple times since with a US military lingiest (long/short "vowel" sounds, cadence, pitch, "tounge clicks," ....much can be posted.

I have seen, experienced, have recordings of Native American music

However, I believe your request has exceeded the spectrum of the currently UK oriented postings onto the MudChat forum.

Sincerely,
Gargoyle

The "American Indian" medium while having biological "roots" into my family background....and playtime as an adolescent...overwhelmes my understanding of tones that are nuances residing somewhere between the 12 tones of my training....

I suggest you harvest the "NewsGroups"

Subject: RE: Native American Folk Music
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 21 Dec 06 - 12:12 AM

Old Crow Medicine Show is the name of a group that is scheduled to perform on Garrison Kieler's Prairie Home Companion, "New Years Special." It will be broadcast on PBS TV and radio stations.

Scroll down to the bottom of the page at the link, and you can listen to an interview with the band at "All Things Considered."

The "Old Crow" in the groups name, judging by the "logo" at the site, is a reference to Old Crow whiskey.

OCMS gives the following description:

"Old Crow Medicine Show is a young five piece rollicking, punkified old-time acoustic band, combining the earliest traditions of jug band and travelling shows, back porches and dance halls, southern Appalachian string music and Memphis blues."

Allison Krauss is a US-born singer and fiddler who has been recognized mostly as a bluegrass performer, although she's branched out into some other styles in a few of her many albums. She's received 18 Grammy awards, so probably her records are fairly widely available.

John

Subject: RE: Native American Folk Music
From: Azizi
Date: 21 Dec 06 - 01:08 AM

Since this is a thread about Native American folk music, it's important to note the importance of the crow or raven to some Native American cultures.

Here's an excerpt from: http://ww2.netnitco.net/users/legend01/raven.htm

"Among the natives of the North American Pacific Coast, Raven is a hero, messenger, creator of the world, thief, and trickster. He taught the first humans how to care for themselves and make clothes, canoes, and houses. His position in Native American folklore is similar to that of the wily coyote. Some say he was born of the primordial darkness; others that he was born in the coffin of his dead mother and nourished on her entrails. He was a provident creator who brought sunlight, vegetation, animals, and the tides into the world for the benefit of humankind. He took the animals two by two onto a raft, after the manner of Noah, in order to save them from a great flood. After all the good he had done for humankind, Raven wished to marry a woman but the men refused to allow this. In revenge, Raven created mosquitoes from crushed leaves to pester them for all time. When Raven brought light to mankind, they were so frightened by it that they scattered to all corners of the world."

-snip-

Also see this excerpt from that same site:

"In the telling of myths and legends, the crow frequently took the place of the raven. This is the case in most of the Northwest Pacific myths recorded above and in the story of Apollo and Coronis. The Irish war-goddess, Badb, often took on the shape of a crow. In classical mythology, this bird is an attribute of Cronus or Saturn and Athena, the goddess of wisdom, victory, and the arts."

-snip-

The Native American symbol "crow" may not have been the source of the brand name "Old Crow" whisky. But it might have been.

And it seems likely that the Native American symbolism of the crow was [or should have been?} in the minds of a band whose name is
"The Old Crow Medicine Show".

Btw, here's some information on the Crow Indians:

"Crow (trans., through French gens des corbeaux, of their own name, Absároke, crow, sparrow hawk, or bird people). A Siouan tribe forming part of the Hidatsa group, their separation from the Hidatsa having taken place, as Matthews (1894) believed, within the last 200 years.."

http://www.accessgenealogy.com/native/tribes/crow/crowhist.htm

and

The Crow, also called the Absaroka or Apsaalooke, are a tribe of Native Americans who historically lived in the Yellowstone river valley and now live on a reservation south of Billings, Montana, and the current chairman of the tribal council is Carl Venne. Noted writer Joe Medicine Crow is tribal historian...

The Crow language is a member of the Missouri Valley Siouan languages. They split from the Hidatsa tribe in present-day North Dakota either around 1400-1500 CE (according to cultural anthropologists) or 900-1000 CE (according to linguistic anthropologists)."

http://www.crystalinks.com/crow.html

Subject: RE: Native American Folk Music
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 21 Dec 06 - 01:50 AM

The confusion with this thread is that it seems the original poster was asking about music that arose in the framework of a European-American or African-American population, generally non-Indian American in origin but born here, thus being "native" to America without being what many in the New World call "Native American."

Or state it this way, that "native music" is another way to say one finds it in its "original form" when one finds it here in American culture. It may or may not be played by Native American Indians.

What Americans and many others around the world think is American Indian music is all too often the simple drumbeats portrayed in movies, the rythmic patterns of one type of tribal music is used to stand in for all Indian music. Music and stories passed down in the oral/aural tradition are going to be greatly influenced by the surrounding cultures over time, especially if they are a conquering society, but they still exist and they grow and change to meet the times like any other culture's stories and music.

For more information about American Indian music (and other arts) try some of these sites:

Haskel Indian Nations University

National Museum of the American Indian (in association with the Smithonian)

Frances Densmore collection at the Smithsonian

Native American Radio (with podcasts of programs available)

The University of South Dakota American Indian Studies program.

The American Indian Studies Center at UCLA (University of California Los Angeles)

The Colorado College Hulbert Center for Southwest Studies.

Subject: RE: Native American Folk Music
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 21 Dec 06 - 01:52 AM

Haskell was misspelled in that last post.

Subject: RE: Native American Folk Music
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 21 Dec 06 - 02:12 AM

The person who started this thread was asking about

        BLUEGRASS!

or recent corruptions thereof.

John

Subject: RE: Native American Folk Music
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 21 Dec 06 - 02:28 AM

As the originator of the thread has quite intelligently recognized that this thread was being HIJACKED by those who read the title but not the question, and would offer no useful information relating to his inteest, he has started a new thread at Exploring Bluegrass.

It should be permissible to continue this thread as a discussion of Native American music, if that is of interest.

There were apparently no injuries requiring significant medical interventions in this hijacking, so salvaging what remains of the debris is acceptable.

John

Subject: RE: Native American Folk Music
From: leeneia
Date: 21 Dec 06 - 09:44 AM

Thank you, JohninKansas. I always admire people who read the first post in a thread even though it's a long thread.

Subject: RE: Native American Folk Music
From: Scoville
Date: 21 Dec 06 - 10:29 AM

THere's a CD available called "Wood that Sings" that features Native American fiddle music. Not always melodious, but very, very interesting. Some is South American and some is Canadian (slightly different interpretations of UK-roots songs). Smithsonian Folkways, I believe (I got my copy at the Smithsonian this past spring).

Subject: RE: Native American Folk Music
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 21 Dec 06 - 11:20 AM

leenia -

I did have an advantage. I caught the thread when there were only 3 posts.

You can see from the position of my first post how long it took me to look up something to say. (I really need a faster linkup.)

We haven't had a really good general thread on Native American music (that I've seen) in a while, so this would be a great place to build one.

John

Subject: RE: Native American Folk Music
From: Scrump
Date: 21 Dec 06 - 11:54 AM

These spring to mind:

Apache by the Shadows, Bert Weedon and Jorgen Ingman.
Geronimo by the Shadows
Running Bear by Johnny Preston

Subject: RE: Native American Folk Music
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 21 Dec 06 - 12:33 PM

Don't confuse me with someone who didn't read the first thread or who is hijacking it. I posted examples so that 1) the Danish youth whose English isn't quite as good as he thought (those idiomatic expressions will always get you) could compare, if need be, what is Native American music in contrast to a native American music form and 2) because people who come searching for something to do with Native American music might find those resources useful.

SRS

Subject: RE: Native American Folk Music
From: katlaughing
Date: 21 Dec 06 - 01:22 PM

Lots of good links and suggestions in THIS THREAD

REALLY beautiful "Honour" song mp3 on THIS PAGE, from an earlier thread link to First Nation Help

and, from a posting by McGrath: Native American Music Resources Online

and, one of my favourite NDN bands: Keith Secola and his Wild Band of Indians.