In review--Blessings to the Homeland

-
Ramilla Cody with Herman Cody
Shi Kéyah
Songs for the People
Canyon Records

Diné (Navajo) traditional vocalist Radmilla Cody brings us her fifth album, Shi Kéyah Songs for the People on Canyon Records.  Cody sings a cappella with a traditional drum accompanying her. She sings songs about war veterans, lost lovers, bluebirds ushering a new day, and the homeland in the Diné language.  Her uncle Herman Cody composed the songs and he makes a vocal appearance on A Gift to Us.  With a voice similar in timbre and emotional color to another Diné singer, Sharon Burch (especially on Native Food Song), Cody offers her listeners an authentic Native music experience.

I especially enjoy the cadence of Cody’s voice as it travels through the stories she presents here.  Beautiful Mother Earth reminds me of some of Iroquois vocalist Joanne Shenandoah’s chants, thought Cody sings in a more upbeat tempo than Shenandoah.  Similar to Shenandoah and Burch, Cody possesses talent to burn as a singer, a humanitarian, and preserver of traditions.  She sings with love in her heart and you can feel this love as the singer caresses every word, even the humorous ones in the songs, Where are You and Commodity Blues, though a touch of irony presents itself.

After listening to Songs for the People, you might feel tempted to check out Cody’s other four recordings on Canyon Records.  In the meantime, enjoy this offering to Mother Earth, the Navajo homeland and its people.

http://www.canyonrecords.com


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Introduction to Peyote Songs & The Native American Church

-
Image
Father Peyote: Songs of the Native American Church Introduction to the Peyote Church Ceremony This is an archival article written in 2003.  It's not updated.  For more recent recordings, go to Canyon Records website, http://www.canyonrecords.com When some people speak of Native American ceremonies, the peyote ceremony or the ingestion of the hallucinogen peyote (contains mescaline) usually surfaces. However, there is too much false information being passed around in the non-native community surrounding peyote meetings. The first thing people need to know about the Native American connection to peyote is that the plant is sacred medicine ingested as a sacrament during healing ceremonies of the Native American Church. The second thing, people need to know is that the Native American Church is not a set structure like the Christian Church. The peyote meeting could take place in a Navajo hogan or a teepee. And finally, since the peyote meeting does in part derive from Nat
Read more

The Practice--Treasure Hunt from the book Whole Music

-
Image
Excerpt from Whole Music The Practice: Musical Treasure Hunt Similar to treasure hunts from our childhood, I’m going to send you on a music treasure hunt in which the pleasures are many.  Pretend that you are a song catcher visiting other cultures where you collect new sounds. While I mentioned sound healers earlier, another important player with music preservation are ethnomusicologists who combine cultural anthropology with music preservation.  Two famous song catchers are the late Alan Lomax, and the world beat drummer Mickey Hart.  I recommend learning more about these song catchers through books, and documentaries. 1) Step One-- Head over to YouTube, and look up the following music traditions: ·          Aboriginal Didgeridoo ·          Finnish Runo-Songs (Traditional singer) ·          Gregorian chants ·          Griot Music of Mali (Acoustic, not pop music) ·          Sanskrit Chants Sung by Hindu Indians in Context (aka Kirtans)
Read more

Talking about Timbre

-
Image
Wikipedia As I mention in my book Whole Music , when I was a child I fell in love with timbre and the voices of the individual instruments we listened to in music class.  Each instrument conjured a specific emotions or feeling in me.  The French horn caused me to feel majestic and the cello invoked melancholy.  My moods would shift with each instrument that I heard and my moods would shift quickly. Today, I listen to more than timbre, but I have an understanding of how tone, frequencies of the tone and timbre (the color of the tone) affect me on all levels.  And I wonder what listening to an entire symphony does with its many voices, themes, keys, musical passages etc... In the concept of "whole music" I prefer not to separate musical components, but in the case of this post, I will present solo instruments for your listening and feeling pleasure. If you keep a music journal (and I hope that you do by now), write down the emotions that come up with each instrument.  R
Read more