If you folks haven't already seen it, check out the episode of Independent Lens on PBS titled Rumble - The Indians Who Rocked The World. It's a documentary on Native Americans who performed American rock music. It focuses on several musicians with American Indian blood who performed in popular rock over the last 50-60 years. The sections on Link Wray, Jesse Ed Davis and Randy Castillo alone are worth the watch. It's just super... really well done... fantastic storytelling. Check it out.
A few years ago, I finally got around to researching who played lead on John Lennon's "#9 Dream" (1974), and that turned me on to Jesse Ed Davis. This documentary is one of the best things I've seen on public television recently.
Heard an hour long interview/review of this doc on NPR. It was the show host one on one with the guy who did the film. The music and history blew me away.
I've only seen parts of it so far, but it was more than enough to really make me want to watch the whole thing.
Thanks for the reminder, this has been on my list for a while, haven't gotten to it. Since it is so cold out, we'll fix that this afternoon.
Very moving saga, and a perfect companion to "American Epic", which surveys/explores the multiple DNA threads and complicated nature of American music, both popular and folk('folk' in the broadest sense of the word). Not to mention the technological impact of the development of audio recording and nascent mass media in the early 20th century as well... American Epic | The Official Movie Website My only complaint about "Rumble" is that there are some serious omissions... Indigenous is a contemporary band working in the realms of blues and old school R'n'B... You may not know Jim Pepper's name, but you more than likely at some point have heard his most notable oft-covered composition... Early 70's folkies Brewer and Shipley brought the song to wider recognition. Bill Miller has a huge recorded catalog that stylistically spills over into the singer-songwriter and new age genres, but is only very briefly seen in the film... Joanne Shenandoah, a similar artist, is totally overlooked... Rita Coolidge had quite a bit of success as a pop/rock singer, but was also involved in this vocal trio... And were the hell was Jimmy Carl Black?
Jesse Ed Davis...playing the Explorer with Harrison, Concert For Bangla Desh? Rumble is also on Amazon Prime.
While they ever-so-briefly touched on Rickey Medlocke as a member of Lynyrd Skynyrd, where was Blackfoot? The majority of the members had native ancestory. The band certainly had their moment... This band may not have been well known, but still deserves a mention...