Concerts and stuff...

This weekend was a big deal for me. I had the honor of playing with Ira Provost at a fundraiser for the Friendship Society here in Lethbridge on Saturday night. What a rush!! To play with 7 incredibly talented musicians in front of hundreds of people...to sing songs that teach lessons about Canada's history, more specifically about the history of the Blackfoot Nation, it was a mind blowing and totally humbling experience.

When I'm singing songs about Native culture, I start to really feel my "whiteness". I start to feel apologetic on behalf of the white people who treated them so badly and who handled the situation so poorly. I have learned a ton about how their children were taken away to residential schools and told that the purpose of this was to take the Indian out of the Child. It saddens me to think that a nation of people were ripped from their homes and everything they held dear and made to learn a completely different way of life because theirs was considered unacceptable. I start to think of my children and how, as a parent, I would feel in that situation. These are a proud people, and often misunderstood. I have met so many who have touched my soul, people who have been willing to teach me and share their culture, their history and their lives with me. Who knew that music could teach not only the listener, but the musician as well?!
We are doing another concert in March in Calgary and one at the University of Lethbridge in May. Stay tuned for more info as we get closer to those dates!

In the meantime, I have been horribly out of touch on my own music and need to get back into the studio and start moving things along. I'm hoping to get back there this week as another song has been written and needs to be recorded. I think I'm getting pretty close to having all the songs written. Soon it will be time to edit - that's where things get fun...and hard! I already have some ideas for editing some of the songs and I'm hoping that collaborating with my musical friends will add to that fun and give me ideas that I wouldn't have necessarily thought of on my own. Stay tuned!