(scott)- Madame Angela is sensitive to a number of issues, a lot of human rights issues often finding an especially soft spot for issues regarding the plights of Native Americans, in particular those on the Reservations. This is where Robert Mirabel comes in, a Native American vocalist/flute player/poet/etc. Honestly I have never heard of the guy, but I did listen to a good bit of this carpet-bomb style today, and I will say it is more than a bit enjoyable, mixing what is obviously traditional Native music with more modern musical stylings and lyrics involving the issues with which the tribes deal in their lives.This dude has released MANY albums, and I assume is quite well known in Native American circles, hell, he should be, I guess, this album (a 2001 live release, "Music from a Painted Cave"). I really had no idea what to expect, but (and I WOULD be honest to Angie as I would to anyone else, If ya like something that I think sucks, I'm gonna tell you I think it sucks......ask Angie about my feelings toward the Grateful Dead!) I really do like this album and intend to seek out a bit more of the upper-tier stuff if I can. Strangely "rocking", lyrical, and incorporating a lot of various instrumentation and sound effects, I'm glad that my love Madame Angela hipped me to this one, when it comes to the wide world of music and what it means to each of us, we can ALL stand to do a little bit of learning from the other guy.
Unlesss the Grateful Dead is involved, then one gets a pass.
Really nice effort here though, solid and enjoyable as can be. I really liked the songs "Hope" (excellent lyrically and musiscally), the fairly frantiac "Drum Battle", the slowly building/churning "Navajo Fires" and Angie's favorite track "Skinwalker's Moon".
Myself I always love it when introduced to a new brand of music, much more so when it takes me so much by surprise as this one did. I'll be seeing what other material Angie has and checking it out as well, if it's on this level, we'll be getting to some more of it fairly shortly. But this hits on all targets, musically great, conceptually, a fine, activist standpoint, really liked the album. Really. A LOT. sorry to go on so much, but at this point in the old ball game it is really hard to musically catch me totally off guard. This one did it.
MUSIC FROM A PAINTED CAVE-01 The Dance/02 Little Indians/03 Ee-You-Oo/04 Courtship Song/05 Medicine Man/06 Skinwalker's Moon/07 Shield Dance/08 Runner's Dreamtime/09 Hope/10 Painted Cave/11 1000 Miles/12 Drum Battle/13 Navajo Fires/14 An Kah Na/15 Sisters/16 Stiltwalker