Folk and western rarities: (from website) “..music from the Indigenous peoples of Canada and the northern United States, recorded in the turbulent decades between 1966 to 1985. It represents the fusion of shifting global popular culture and a reawakening of Aboriginal spirituality and expression. The majority of this material has been widely unavailable for decades…. You’ll hear Arctic garage rock from the Nunavik region of northern Quebec, melancholy Yup’ik folk from Alaska, and hushed country blues from the Wagmatcook First Nation reserve in Nova Scotia. You’ll hear echoes of Neil Young, Velvet Underground, Leonard Cohen, Creedence Clearwater Revival, Johnny Cash, and more among the songs, but injected with Native consciousness, storytelling, poetry, history, and ceremony.”

This is a beautiful collection of archival music. A lot of it has a genuine simplicity that borders on “Song Poem” quality. Many songs are sung in native language, adding to its exoticness. Its shocking in its beauty, in the manner of all things Langley School Music Project. This contrasts highly with the native American music of the southwest: Waila aka “chicken scratch”. For those interested, use Zookeeper “find it” for those two key words, or pull Southern Scratch from the world section. If you fall asleep while listening to this album you will wake a changed person.

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Disc 1: 1)* (2:55) basic social commentary simple folk timeless in this age of Faux News. 2) (3:12) strange upbeat. 3) (2:48) full band low fi garage folk rock 4)* (2:18) almost a rod Keith song poem feel to this upbeat full band simple pop 5)* (4:04) really strange hippie folk 6) (2:39) coffee shop enviro folk, live 7) (3:26) very pleasant melodic solo stuff. 8)* (2:13) simple sung in a Native American language 9) (3:46) very simple Neil Young'y 10) (3:21) simple guitar again in exotic language w beady percussion 11) (3:24) pleasant folk a child's ballad 12) (1:55) full band, enviro morose lyrics belie the cheery western flare 13)* (3:06) very native spiritual lyrics, "Indian" feel but w a synth in there 14) (3:45) percussive guitar playing, solo dark lush 15) (4:03) soaring w harmonica 16)* (3:57) low fi full band live

Disc 2: 1)* (3:02) sung in native language, native percussion feel, minor guitar 2)* (3:04) big soaring waltz, epic feel 3) (4:04) simple folk rock w some CSN feel 4)* (2:01) starts w cliche "Indian" drum beat then becomes sweet 60's garage psyche pop. 5)* (3:48) just a cool feel full band 6) (3:37) western flare twang fun to this 7) (2:17) little bit of country joe minimalism here 8) (3:56) some pretty allmans feel here 9) (3:38) native tongue, melodic and sweet, cheesy 10) (3:51) mid rock feel ballad goes double time midway and back 11)* (2:19) bigger more modern twangy surf western sound, instrumental 12)* (2:46) head nodding mid rock about taking you higher during this native song 13)* (3:09) lovely sweet beats and melodies in native tongue 14) (2:34) singalong feel simple chords and melody 15) (2:43) very simple basic singsongwriter folk 16)* (4:11) native tongue has an "Indian" feel in the rhythm 17)* (5:34) very Native American trad feel, super cool