Page 76 - Blues Festival Guide Magazine 2019

Robert “Freightrain” Parker. Photo by Aaron Winters Levi Platero. Photo by Nancy Smith, Lightninghorse Photography

(Kiowa) on harmonica, drums and vocals, Cecil Gray (Kiowa) In tribal levels, singers are able to make connections with
on guitar, harmonica and vocals and Patrick Tointigh (Kiowa/ the spiritual realm of this world and sometimes beyond. The
Apache) on bass and vocals. best way I can explain this is from one of the greatest influences
From Buffalo, NY, of the Seneca Nation, The Iroquois – Jimi Hendrix, part African American, part Cherokee – who
Confederacy, there is bassist Robert “Freightrain” Parker, who brought modern blues rock to the forefront in the late ’60s,
– among other recognitions – was the first Indigenous artist when he got on stage with his style of pure raw music. When
inducted into the Buffalo Music Hall of Fame in 2015, won the he played his guitar, his entire performance was a spiritual
2018 Best Blues Album at the Indigenous Music Awards for experience to those who saw and heard him, to some it was a
Freightrain Live and is nominated again this year. His Indigenous life-changing moment.
heritage infuses sensibility and passion into the messages he Although we Native artists are of different tribes, our customs
delivers in his music. and culture differ, we speak different languages and we all know
Then there is a whole section of great blues bands that we are not the same, we have respect for one another. In a wider
have made the blues part of their lives from the First Nations, spectrum, we are One Nation, playing the blues.
north of the border, like Juno Award-winning artist Derek Miller
of the Mohawk Nation, who I met years ago in Hollywood, Murphy Platero is from the Eastern Agency of the Navajo Nation,
FL, at the Seminole Hard Rock concert stage. He joined us on and is Sagebrush Hill clan-born for Edgewater People clan. He is a
stage and we belted out a Stevie Ray Vaughan tune as the singer, songwriter and guitarist who started playing music in 1975.
crowd went wild. He gives credit to his father for his musical education, who was a
Born in Ontario into the Cayuga Nation of The Iroquois Christian minister and guitarist himself. In 2004, Murphy started
Confederacy, there is the amazing Gary Farmer and the playing blues as a bassist in the award-winning family band, The
Troublemakers. Then there’s Murray Porter, a Mohawk piano Plateros. Today, Murphy continues writing and recording his music.
player from Six Nations of the Grand River Territory, with a He lives with his wife and family in To’Hajiilee, NM.
voice that shows a bona fide bluesman who has known about
troubled times and grace.
There is also Pura Fé, who grew up in New York City, moved
to North Carolina and relocated to Northern Saskatchewan,
Canada, a few years ago. She comes from a musical family,
claiming no less than eight generations of Tuscarora women
singers through her maternal line of the Indigenous Tuscarora
Deer Clan. Her slide guitar skill and powerful voice have made
her one of the most talented Native blues artists in Indian country.
I could go on and on about the Native American artists in the
blues scene, all of whom are out there and rising to their calling.
The plain and simple thing about Native blues music is that it
is spiritual – the connection with a song is personal and true. I
love its power; how a song with only three chords can move the
human soul. Mato Nanji of Indigenous. Photo by Ron Adelberg

74 Blues Festival Guide 2019