I have a pretty strong interest in music from American Indian cultures…in Canada I picked up what I imagine is a fairly obscure CD by Olivia Tailfeathers called “Ninihkssin”. It’s mostly a cappella singing in Blackfoot by a chorus of women. Really beautiful. I also listen to the online radio station Gathering of Nations sometimes, which I highly recommend to anyone who’s interested for its diversity of music (though not so much for the unending talkativeness of its DJ). Anyway, I’d love to improve my collection of Native music, so if anyone could recommend some, I’d love to hear it. Anything from traditional songs to rap is fine and encouraged. The only thing I don’t care to hear is New Age stuff with “Indian” elements.
Autumn’s Child is a really good band. It’s a blend of Native American flute, and many other instruments. I’d reccomend this CD to start out with, and if you really like it, their latest CD is also quite good.
Another good artist is Rare Tribal Mob which blends Native American tunes with acoustic rock. Here is a pretty good CD to start on.
Happy listening!
I like the Black Lodge Singers, they do pow-wow music, drums with call and response singing. I should caution you that if you are not very familiar with this kind of music (or heck, maybe even if you are), it does have an element of all sounding the same until you get used to listening for the subtle differences in the drumming. They have about a million records, so they would be relatively easy to find. They also have two records for kids, and these are THE BEST. They do a cover, pow-wow style, of The Monster Mash.
I can recommend Robbie Robertson (of The Band fame) and his album “The Native Americans” which features music by several First Nations artists from the PBS program of the same name.
And “Kashtin” (from Maleutenam QC) - two albums - Kashtin and Akua Tuta - great music - sung in Innu.