RPM's Best Indigenous Music of 2014

The Indigenous Music Renaissance is here to stay and Native artists are leading the way. Here are our picks for the best Indigenous music of 2014.

In another incredible year for Indigenous art and creativity, Native artists continued to break down walls, claim new spaces and make their presence felt...everywhere. As a renewed wave of uprisings for freedom and justice swept the globe, Indigenous musicians played a central role in soundtracking the struggle and making rebel music for the movement.

From the rez to the streets, from pipeline protests to massive music festivals, Native music made an indelible intervention into the cultural and political landscape of 2014.

The RPM extended fam weighed in with their picks and favourite sounds of the year. Some songs and sounds that found their way into our headphones and hearts included:

Iskwé's “Will I See” Sister Says' Heart Placement Kait Angus' "The Mason's Heart" Moe Clark's Within Sean Conway's The Blue Acre Logan Staats' "What You Love" Kinnie Starr's "Save Our Waters" Tall Paul's "I Don't Need Glove" Quese IMC's "The Comanche" Sacramento Knoxx's "The Trees Will Grow Again" Frank Waln, Naát'áaníí Means, Mike Cliff & Inez Jasper's "The Revolution" Boogey the Beat's "DJ Set for MMIW" A Tribe Called Red's "Burn Your Village to the Ground"

And that's not even counting our Top 10 Albums of the year. Let's go.

The Best Indigenous Music of 2014: Impossible Nothing Remixtape

This year we're excited to present not only some of our favourite songs, mixes, EPs and albums by Indigenous artists, but also a very special Best of 2014 REMIXTAPE assembled by the prolific beatsmith Impossible Nothing of the Skookum Sound System crew. We compiled our selections and IMPLNTHG fed the sounds through his rapid-fire maximalist machine. The results are an incredible blast of rhythmic sample chops and skillful sonic wizardry.

Grab the remixtape below and head to Impossible Nothing's Bandcamp for the individual remixed tracks.

Download: The Best Indigenous Music of 2014 - Impossible Nothing REMIXTAPE

RPM's 10 Best Indigenous Albums of 2014

Stream our Best of 2014 Playlist

10. City Natives - Red City

Claiming their rightful spot in our Top 10 for the second year in a row, City Natives returned this year with their sophomore album, Red City, a confident declaration of the group's equal skills on the mic and behind the boards. From front to back, what elevated Red City from many other Native hip-hop releases this year was consistency. On a record with no weak links, Red City's tightly woven ten tracks of heartfelt boom bap beats showcase Beaatz, IllFundz, Gearl and BnE proving to the world why they're a force to be reckoned with. Game elevated. Now who's next?

9. Digging Roots - For the Light 

After four years of heavy touring and much anticipation from their fans the world over, husband and wife lead Digging Roots released the For the Light, this summer.  Life on the road and innate wanderlust inhabits the sonic kaleidoscope of roots and blues infused songs that travel, lyrically, from inner cities to back roads and everything in between. Raven Kanatakta and ShoShona Kish wrote and produced the collection of 12 love songs - and while the stories touch on desperation, resiliance, troublemakers, lovers and freedom fighters, Kish will emphasize they each stem from love - that pulsate with passion and focus. The title track, sung in Anishinabemowin and English, chants "push, push, reach, reach" with bluesy intensity, exemplary of why Kish's smokey wailing vocals and Kantakta's bombastic guitar pushed For the Light into our top 10.

8. V/A - The Invasion Day Mixtape 2014

Kickstarting the year with a blast of hip-hop firepower, The Invasion Day Mixtape contests the colonial occupation of "Australia" with lyrical finesse, banging beats and a rockstar list of Indigenous hip-hop artists. With standout tracks from La Teila, MC Triks and bAbe SUN, and Provocalz, this compilation boldly declares its ancestral connections while giving urgent voice to blackfellas' resistance. Why celebrate the settler invasion when we could be celebrating ourselves? Shout out to Brisbane Blacks, it's time to "raise ya fist for revolution!".

7. Angel Haze - Dirty Gold 

Bold, defiant and with a straight up give no fucks attitude, Angel Haze took her album into her own hands and surreptitiously leaked it free to the world in the last days of 2013. Mired in a fight with her major label Island/Republic, Haze pushed the album directly into the spotlight of public attention and the label scrambled to move up its release date. On the eve of 2014, as the new year swirled into motion, Dirty Gold got its "official release"—and Angel Haze's rapid-fire lyrical acrobatics paired with A Tribe Called Red's beats, and her acoustic reworkings of crossover pop anthems like "Battle Cry", have been stuck in our heads and on rotation all year long. Angel Haze is a confident lyricist, a dope MC, and a compelling singer who seems most in her element when spitting pure fire over rap anthems, but she could easily direct her talent wherever she damn well chooses. We can't wait to see where she's going next.

6. Blue King Brown - Born Free

The first time we heard Born Free we knew it was a contender for album of the year. Displaying an assuredness and power in both songwriting and production, the album expands and deepens Blue King Brown's foundation in roots and reggae music while giving more shine to lead singer Nattali Rize's hypnotic vocals. Every track on this record is filled with equal parts fire and love. BKB is on the move and headed for big things in the days to come. This is music for the movement, for life, for the people. Songs to uplift and inspire us to keep seeking freedom in the midst of our chaotic world. Calling all nations to RIZE UP.

5. V/A - Native North America (Vol. 1): Aboriginal Folk, Rock, and Country 1966–1985

Much good ink has been spilled about Native North America in recent weeks (when was the last time Native music was reviewed simultaneously in the Guardian, Pitchfork and Rolling Stone?), and we're encouraged to know that many others, like us, are discovering—or in some cases re-discovering—this legendary generation of Indigenous musicians. NNA Vol. 1 highlights the incredible work of underrepresented artists from across Canada and up to Alaska, whose music both inspired and provided the foundation for what many Native artists are doing today. More than 12 years in the making, Kevin "DJ Sipreano" Howes, has compiled an awe-inspiring array of Indigenous music that, over its 34 tracks, is at once groundbreaking, revolutionary, and wonderfully familiar. We can hear ourselves in these sounds and, in looking and listening back, we can draw strength from those artists that have gone before us: artists whose time has finally come to be heard. And this is just Volume 1. Brilliant.

4. Princess Nokia - Metallic Butterfly

What is it about this record? Is it the quirky Game of Thrones-inspired D&B breakbeat ballads? The anime-flavoured, retro-futurist cyber-rap bounce? The Northern Cree-sampling, Björk-like swirl and swoon of haunted electronics? Somewhere in the flow and flux of Princess Nokia's exquisitely defined 90s sci-fi bricolage aesthetics, Metallic Butterfly takes flight into an uncharted space-time reality suffused with effortless eclecticism. One of the most innovative and inspiring albums of the year. The recombinant future has arrived.

3. Silver Jackson - Starry Skies Opened Eyes 

Meanwhile, in the outer reaches of the multiverse, Silver Jackson lights up the Sitka coordinates of the Black Constellation with a beautiful album of delicate sonics and folk-art electronic experiments. Expanding the future-now to its natural state of awakened presence, Starry Skies Opened Eyes does exactly what it sets out to do: it wraps you up in haunting melodies and carries you out to sea, drifting and reflecting a journey toward the morning horizon. By the time you arrive, you want to return immediately and dive deep into the sky all over again. That's what we did. Over and over and over again.

2. Tanya Tagaq - Animism

 

After, and almost in spite of, the deserving accolades this album has already received, it's still hard to find words that do Animism justice. Tanya Tagaq's latest album is a pulse-pounding, haunting record of her incredible power to call forth an often dormant spirit of potent creativity from herself and from her audience. It is this restless mix of sonic fury and impassioned expression that puts Tagaq in a nearly singular category among her Indigenous art and music contemporaries. Animism, the album, is in some ways, incidental to her larger project—that of unleashing her creative spirit to the world in every available form. The album is incredible and devastatingly primal, but that's a given. What is unique about Tagaq's music, from her riveting live shows (including an absolutely spellbinding performance at this year's Polaris Music Awards, which she won) to every recorded soundwave captured by Animism, is Tagaq's transcendent capacity to demand that we, as listeners, become co-creators of her music. This is her gift to us, both an exhilarating and, at times, exhausting, call to creative action. Unbowed and undaunted by haters, naysayers, or the otherwise perplexed, Tanya Tagaq keeps expanding her artistic universe and power, orbiting around us, radiating light and sound. A force of nature indeed.

1. Thelma Plum - Monsters (EP) 

All it took was four songs to put Thelma Plum at the top of our list. Four songs. Where other artists on this year's list explored decidedly otherworldly realms and sonic terrain, Plum's Monsters EP arrived fully formed, locked into a precise space of dark pop perfection. From the first notes of "Monsters" through the aching "Young in Love" and the anthemic "How Much Does Your Love Cost?" to the final haunting bars of "Candle", Plum does more in the brief span of this EP than many artists do in entire albums. There are no misplaced notes here. Every song is wound tight, expertly produced, beautifully sung and absolutely mesmerizing. Monsters is poised to send Thelma Plum's career into the stratosphere. All this before she's even released her debut album. That's coming next year. Did we mention she's 19? Exactly.

Also check out our 15 Best Indigenous Music Videos of 2014  and The Most Slept-On Indigenous Album of 2014

--- Chi Miigwetch to Tara Williamson, Leanne Simpson, Susan Blight, and Melody McKiver for their expertise & impeccable selections. Image credit: Sonny Assu, "Home Coming" (2014). Digital intervention on Paul Kane painting. More info at: sonnyassu.com

STREAM: Pura Fé - "Sacred Seed"

Legendary Taino/Tuscarora singer Pura Fé, returns with "Sacred Seed" the title track and lead single from her forthcoming solo album on Nueva Onda Records.

Pura Fé is perhaps most well known as the founding member of the Indigenous women's a cappela group Ulali, but she is an accomplished singer and an acclaimed songwriter in her own right.

Having recently been discovered by the Nueva Onda label in France, she has gained a whole new audience for her work—and a new group of creative collaborators.

"Sacred Seed", the lead single and title track from her new album, is a beautiful slice of Indigenous blues — a celebration of ancestral memory, sacred stories, and cycles of renewal. Pura Fé's vocals powerfully carry the stripped down tune into a piano and electric guitar-soaked haze of harmony. A soulful taste of things to come.

Sacred Seed will be released on January 27th and Pura Fé will be touring through France in 2015. Tour dates below.

Listen to Pura Fé's "Sacred Seed"

PURA FE TOUR DATES 2014/2015

20 Dec – Old San Ysidro Church, Corrales, New Mexico

4 Feb – Le Sonograf – Le Thor

5 Feb – Au fil des Voix – Paris

6 Feb- Théatre Denis – Hyères

7 Feb –  Centre Culturel l’Ellipse – Moëlan sur Mer

10 April - Scène Croisées – Chanac

11 April – Le Sonambule – Gignac

16 April – Café de la Danse – Paris

17 April – Centre Culturel – Bondy

24 April – Beautiful Swamp Blues Festival - Calais

Watch Sharif and Sacramento Knoxx's "From Stolen Land to Stolen Land"

Sacramento Knoxx and Sharif join forces and bring light to the intersections of our common struggles in their new video, "From Stolen Land to Stolen Land".

Resistance is everywhere. From Ferguson to Palestine to Ayotzinapa to Burnaby Mountain, and in many other struggles unseen, the theft of land and the dispossession and colonization of its peoples is coming to the forefront of people's consciousness.

Fighting back against these violent forces, artists are rising and recognizing each other—giving voice to the commonality of our shared struggles to get free.

Sacramento Knoxx and Sharif collab on this latest joint, echoing the need for actual decolonization and shouting out the BDS movement, while chanting: "Turtle Island to Palestine in self-determination / we'll replant every tree, rebuild every home / and until we see that day / our resistance lives on".

Here's their note on the track and the video: 

The foundation of this land is built on the genocide of indigenous populations and the enslavement of African peoples. Today we are still living under the echoes of displacement through constant state repression. Police are becoming more militarized and are increasingly escalating violence against communities of color. The same type of repression tactics that are tested on Palestinian populations, then sold and trained to our local forces.

​Let's connect different communities seeking social change by intersecting their struggles. We would like you to join San Francisco based MC and community organizer, Sharif, and Detroit based producer, musician and ​motion picture artist,​ Sacramento Knoxx in our premier of “From Stolen Land to Stolen Land”. It is also important to note the importance of our actions. We would also like to encourage all of our viewers to respect the wishes of the Brown family and not participate in Black Friday.

Watch it all the way to the end for a shout out to Fanon and Wretched of the Earth. Decolonize and rise.

Salute!

Watch "From Stolen Land to Stolen Land" by Sharif and Knockzarelli

DOWNLOAD: A Tribe Called Red - "Burn Your Village to the Ground"

No celebration of Thankstaking would be complete without A Tribe Called Red reminding us what's really at stake and what's really going on.

Just listen to the samples of the 'Thanksgiving address' as told by Wednesday Addams. Listen to the menacing synths. The stomp of the drums. The refusal of Indigenous Peoples to disappear, to die.

Here's what A Tribe Called Red had to say about this gift to us on the most colonial of American holidays:

On this fourth Thursday of November, you might ask yourself: do Indians celebrate Thanksgiving? Well… Thanksgiving is a complicated holiday for Native people. In a way, each day is a day of thanksgiving to the Creator for the original people of Turtle Island. This doesn't mean that we don't enjoy turkey, pie and family as much as the next person, but at the same time the Thanksgiving myth largely shared in mainstream culture perpetuates a one sided view of a complicated history surrounding this holiday. Here’s an informed indigenous view on Thanksgiving.

"And for all these reasons, I have decided...to burn your village to the ground."  America, we comin for ya.

DOWNLOAD: A Tribe Called Red - "Burn Your Village to the Ground"

PREMIERE: Stream Sister Says’ New Album “Heart Placement”

Sister Says’ much anticipated second album, Heart Placement, is a soulful, electric mix that sets a new bar for the genre-bending pop duo.

In a departure from the Haida-Tsimshian sibling's jazz-infused first album, Gillian and Robert Thomson, aka Sister Says, along with producer Daivd Meszaros, have crafted twelve fantastic songs. Drawing on soul and an early 70s production sound, they weave electric guitar, keys, organ, and well placed harmonies with an occasional folky acoustic guitar and even a bit of banjo picking. Sonically pared down compared to their last release, the production is tasteful and compelling, bringing the strengths of the melodies and Gillian's voice to the forefront.

For the album, they assembled a crack band of Vancouver musicians including guitarist Lonny Eagleton, drummer Geoff Hicks, pianist Andrew Rasmussen, and, on three of the tracks, pianist Jillian Lebeck.

Recorded over a two year span, Sister Says clearly took the time to create exactly the best album they could, and the result was worth the wait. Lyrically they explore enjoying the present in the positivity-infused title track, they dig into darker depths of loss and hurt in Abel's Underneath and Lost My Soul, and they reflect on change and growth in the closing track Swimming Sharks, which is the sole track to delightfully feature Robert on lead vocals (Gillian's sultry, clear voice delivers all other songs.)

Sister Says has been working and growing steadily since their 2010 debut The Only Way, proving here that they have more ways than one to keep us listening, and loving it. Turn it on and turn it up - the premiere of Heart Placement.

STREAM: Sister Says - "Heart Placement"

Heart Placement is now available for pre-order at sistersays.bandcamp.com.

Watch Rescued by Dragonflyz Perform ‘Breaking Down' on AMP Sessions

This week's AMP Sessions features the newly formed rock outfit Rescued by Dragonflyz and their track "Breaking Down."

Rescued by Dragonflyz is a high energy new wave alternative punk rock band, formed by four friends who've been working and performing individually for twenty years in bands including Bruthers of Different Mothers, Mosquitos and Buffy Ste. Marie - ie, they're killer players who love what they do.

Director Chris Gaudry captured their live performance of "Breaking Down" for this week's AMP Sessions from Manitoba Music.

WATCH: Rescued by Dragonflyz, Breaking Down

DOWNLOAD: The Indigenous Futurisms Mixtape

Welcome to the sounds of the Indigenous future: a hyperpresent now, melding the worlds within and beyond what we can hear, see and imagine. In collaboration with Kimiwan Zine’s new issue, we are proud to bring you the Indigenous Futurisms mixtape.

The creation story is a spaceship. That’s the space ndn motto. The creation story can also be a song; so we can sing our way to the stars. In Amiri Baraka’s Afrofuturist tale “Rhythm Travel,” songs can be used to travel through time.

With an understanding of the power of music, we collect sounds and rhythms here for the futurist ear.

The beats are powerful and transcendent. Whether you are traveling back in time to talk to ancestors or warp speeding forward to herd space sheep in the outer galaxies, this is the mix to take you there. It is the soundtrack for a liberated future drawn deeply from our collective pasts. In creating this playlist and indeed in all our futurist imaginings, we are deeply indebted to the Afrofuturists and the traditions they come from. All systems go; full speed ahead to the future.

The Indigenous Futurisms mixtape is a journey through the intertwined Afro-Indigenist histories of colonized life on our current planet, that reaches for decolonial worlds beyond the beyond. From 2oolman and Flying Lotus to King Britt and John Mohawk, Sun Ra and Savage Family to Princess Nokia and DJ Shub, from Boogey the Beat to Erykah Badu, Shabazz Palaces to Silver Jackson, Autechre to A Tribe Called Red, Darkstar to Ryan Dennison, through many other voices in between—this is a recombinant constellation of ideas and energies, sounds and forces. Dreams of new destinations out.

Where the supposed 'finality' of Star Trek's frontier meets the remixed linguistic flip of Navajo Star Wars, and where the sounds of comet landings and galactic space dust meet the 6th World encoded in Indigenous exploration of night-lit skies and interplanetary, opaque spaces, our people have always been moving. As we move, we discover where we've been, where we're going, and how far we've been travelling. The long continuum of our existence and resistance, our survival and survivance, is the work of expanding the now: where we "acknowledge the truth of history, the urgency of the present moment, the open horizon of the future".

Time to "clear some space out, so we can space out...".

The Indigenous Futurisms mixtape was conceived and compiled by @spacendn and @culturite—who mixed it on the holodeck of RPM's coastal spaceship.

DOWNLOAD: The Indigenous Futurisms Mixtape

Indigenous Futurisms Mixtape - Track List

NASA x John Mohawk - “War, Peace, Natives” x 2oolman - “Lost in America” Flying Lotus - “Coronus, the Terminator” The AfroFuturist Affair - “#BQF NonLocality Zine Soundtape” Xquisite Ghost - “Firefall” King Britt - “My Tribe Exudes Love” x Elizabeth LaPensée x Sun Ra Legends & Lyrics - “Speak to Me of Justice” Teeqwa - “Wooden Teeth” NASA x Peter Morin “Time Traveller” Moor Mother Goddess - “Parable” Princess Nokia “Young Girls” Impossible Nothing - “Destroy” DJ Shub - “If You Want the Raw” 2oolman X TINC - “T.I.Kay” Erykah Badu - “The Healer” Joy KMT - “Origins” King Britt - “Moonbathing” Ryan Dennison - “Iina Baa Chanah Hasin” Boogey the Beat - “Above Me” x Leanne Simpson “Airplanemode” Darkstar - “Timeaway (Nguzunguzu Remix)” Kelela - “Do It Again” Silver Jackson - “From Another World (feat. Cat of THEESatisfaction)” Shabazz Palaces - “Forerunner Foray” Princess Nokia - “Biohazard Butterfly” Shane Keepness - “Resurgence” Notuv - “Ame” x Navajo Star Wars Autechre - “Overand” x Jason Edward Lewis - “The Future Imaginary” A Tribe Called Red - “PBC (Feat. Sheldon Sundon)” Sun Ra - “Journey to Saturn”

KIMIWAN ZINE: INDIGENOUS FUTURISMS

Kimiwan's latest Issue 8, Indigenous Futurisms, launches on November 22nd. Guest edited by Elizabeth LaPensée, with cover art by Wendy Red Star, the issue features an interstellar list of contributors:

Amanda Strong Ambelin Kwaymullina Archer Pechawis Barry Ace Bear Witness Bunky Echo-Hawk Chris Morin Dana Claxton Elizabeth LaPensée Fox Anthony Spears Grace L. Dillon Henry Heavy Shield Jason Edward Lewis Leanne Betasamosake Simpson Leonard Getinthecar Lindsey Catherine Cornum Mary Longman Métis in Space peter morin Kevin Ei-Ichi deForest Renee Nejo Skawennati Steven Paul Judd Wendy Red Star

Zines are available via subscription at kimiwan.bigcartel.com. Follow Kimiwan on Twitter and Tumblr and support independent, Indigenous media, music, and artists throughout the galaxy.

Artist Call: Market Builder Residency for Aboriginal Artists and Industry

The deadline is this Thursday for the Aboriginal Music Program's new Market Builder Residency! It's an exciting opportunity for artist development, both creatively and professionally. 

The Market Builder Residency (a partnership between Manitoba Music and the Canada Council for the Arts) will provide export-ready artists and up to five mid-career industry with a week of networking and development opportunities in Toronto, Canada (you must hold a valid Canadian passport and be of First Nation, Métis, or Inuit ancestry to apply.)

The Aboriginal Music Program provides fantastic support for artists through AMP Camp, Native America North showcases, their new AMP Sessions video series, and more. This new residency is geared towards mid-career artists and industry, which can be a challenging territory to navigate.

The residency will run February 9-13, 2015 and each day will consist of round table discussions, self-directed mentor sessions, networking dinners, and meetings with established labels, music media, and managers.

See details below and apply at http://www.manitobamusic.com/mbuilder-artists.

Submission guidelines from aboriginalmusic.ca:

Important Dates November 20: Submission deadline November 24: Invitations sent to successful applicants December 2: Registration deadline (registration fee due in full) December 4: Participants announced

Roundtrip economy fights (if needed), accommodations, ground transportation, and some meals will be provided for participants.

It is free to apply. A registration fee of $150 ($75 for members of music industry associations) will be required from all artists and industry who are invited to participate.

Artists considered for this opportunity must:

• Have a history of at least eight paid performances each year that stretches back a minimum of three years (i.e. October 2011 to October 2014)
• Have a significant regional profile as demonstrated by album reviews and/or artist profiles in print and online media
• Have a professional website that features high resolution promotional photographs, quality video content, booking information, and links to social media page
• Have a minimum of 14 recorded songs available for purchase or free download online
• Be of First Nation, Métis, or Inuit ancestry
• Be a solo artist or the band member responsible for the majority of business operations and networking
• Have attended at least one music industry conference outside of their home city or community in the past three years (i.e. October 2011 to October 2014)
• Be registered with SOCAN
• Have a valid Canadian passport
• Be 18 years of age or older

Industry professionals considered for this opportunity must:

• Have a signed contract that identifies you as the manager, agent, publicist, publisher, or label for at least one music artist (self-managed artists and radio hosts do not qualify)
• Be dedicated to building a career in the music industry as demonstrated by conference attendance, music industry association membership, and business-related accomplishments
• Have a business registered
• Be of First Nation, Métis, or Inuit ancestry
• Have a valid Canadian passport
• Be 18 years of age or older

To submit, fill out the appropriate submission form online at the link below (artists must also update their websites for the jury):

• www.manitobamusic.com/mbuilder-artists
• www.manitobamusic.com/mbuilder-industry
• Artists must update their websites with the following:
  • Current music (an embedded player from SoundCloud is preferred)
  • A biography that focuses on your music
  • Current high resolution promotional photographs (300 dpi) that presenters and media can download

Artist submissions will be evaluated based on:

• Music
• Creative goals
• Business goals
• Profile ,as demonstrated by album reviews and/or media coverage and online media
• Website quality

Industry professional submission will be evaluated based on:

• Business goals
• Dedication to building a career in the music industry as demonstrated by conference attendance, music industry association membership, and experience
• The success of the applicant’s client(s) as demonstrated by regional profile, performance history, and music-related accomplishments

Submissions will be rejected if incomplete.

For more information, please contact:

Alan Greyeyes, Aboriginal Music Program Manager Manitoba Music P: 204.975.0284 E: alan@manitobamusic.com

Stream Thelma Plum's "Young in Love" (Yosi Horikawa Remix)

Chiba-based producer Yosi Horikawa adds nature sounds and a touch of magic to this deft remix of Thelma Plum's "Young in Love".

Thelma Plum's "Young in Love" was already a great, haunting slice of pop noir with a video to match, but Japanese sound artist Yosi Horikawa's remix elevates the tune in unexpected ways.

Known for his sonic deployment of everyday objects like table tennis balls, kalimbas, shakers, and insects in his electronic compositions, Horikawa leaves Plum's melody intact, but suffuses the track with the warm and welcoming acoustic atmospherics of nature sounds—thunderstorms, falling rain and bird song—mixed with synthesized bubbling beats and electronic currents.

Tasteful, delicate, beautiful, compelling listening.

Stream Thelma Plum's "Young in Love" (Yosi Horikawa Remix)

Native American Music Awards 2014 Winners

The 15th Annual Native American Music Awards were held November 14th at the Seneca Allegany Events Center. Here is the complete list of this year's winners.

The Native American Music Awards celebrate an incredible diversity of Indigenous artists in over 30 categories of music, spoken word and historical recordings.

This year's winners included Mato Nanji (of the group Indigenous) for Artist of the Year, A Tribe Called Red, who took home Best Music Video for the song "Sisters" featuring Northern Voice, The Ollivanders who won Best Rock Recording, Bear Fox for Songwriter of the Year, Sihasin for Debut Group of Year, Leah Shenandoah for Debut Artist of the Year, and many others. Check the complete list of winners below.

Native American Music Awards 2014 Winners 

Artist of the Year: Mato Nanji, Vanishing Americans

Best Blues Recording: Vanishing Americans, Indigenous

Best Compilation Recording: Don’t Let Me Forget, Kelly Montijo Fink

Best Country Recording: Woman Of Red, Tracy Bone

Debut Artist of the Year: Leah Shenandoah, Spektra

Debut Group of the Year: Sihasin, Never Surrender

Best Female Artist: Rita Coolidge, A Rita Coolidge Christmas

Best Folk Recording: Keeper of the Dreams, Red Feather Woman

Flutist of the Year: Rona Yellow Robe, The Gathering

Best Inspirational Recording: Grace & Grit: Chapter I, Dark Water Rising

Group of the Year: Plenty Wolf Singers, Medicine Wolf

Best Historical/Linguistic Recording: Heart of the Buffalo, Richard Stepp & Rick McKee

Best Instrumental Recording: The Long Journey Home, Ryan Little Eagle Molina

Best Male Artist: Jimmy Wolf, A Tribute To Little Johnny Taylor

Best Native American Church Recording: Apache Peyote Songs, Joe Tohonnie Jr

Best New Age Recording: Bridge, Rushingwind & Mucklow

Best Pop Recording: Day After Day, Jamie Coon

Best Pow Wow Recording: Stoic, Tha Tribe

Best Producer: Kevin Chief, Honoring The Mazinikijik Singers

Best Rap Hip Hop Recording: One Tribe One Nation, The Council

Record of the Year: Romanze Songs of Tosti, Lawrence Harris

Best Rock Recording: Two Sons, The Ollivanders

Song of the Year: Witchi Tai-To – Water Spirits, Shadowyze, Caren Knight Pepper and Jim Pepper

Songwriter of the Year: Theresa "Bear" Fox, Diamond

Best Spoken Word Recording: Grandfather Speaks, Ken Quiet Hawk

Best Traditional Recording: Spirit of Thunderheart, Rising

Best Music Video: Sisters ft Northern Voice, A Tribe Called Red

Best Waila Recording: In Loving Memory of Our Beloved Father & Uncle, Family Pride

Best World Music Recording: Nature Dance, Joanne Shenandoah

Native Heart: Lex Nichols, The Long Road

Lifetime Achievement: Jim Boyd

Rising Star: Gareth Laffely

For more information visit: nativeamericanmusicawards.com

BEST MUSIC VIDEO WINNER: A Tribe Called Red's "Sisters (ft. Northern Voice)"

DOWNLOAD: Inez Jasper's "Fallen Soldiers (feat. Fawn Wood & Marty Ballentyne)"

Hot off her incredible success with Rebel Music: Native America, Stó:lō artist Inez Jasper releases an acoustic version of "Fallen Soldiers". 

As if being featured on MTV World's Rebel Music this week weren't a big enough reason to check out her music, Inez Jasper has released a beautiful acoustic version of "Fallen Soldiers" as a preview of her upcoming acoustic album version of the 2013 release, Burn Me Down.

Where the original rocked Inez's R&B-inflected pop swagger with Indigenous ease, this acoustic arrangement—featuring Marty Ballentyne on guitar and the haunting vocals of Fawn Wood in the chorus—leaves plenty of room for Inez's voice to shine.

If you don't know about Indigenous music, now's the time.

Listen to Inez Jasper - "Fallen Soldiers (feat. Fawn Wood and Marty Ballentyne)"

"Fallen Soldiers" is available for free download at www.inezjasper.com

Watch Leonard Sumner Perform 'Best of Me' on AMP Sessions

Manitoba Music kicked off a fantastic new video series this week, AMP Sessions, with a spotlight on Anishinaabe artist Leonard Sumner. 

Leonard Sumner has been working hard the past few years, steadily spreading his rezpoetry and song to and more inspired ears and hearts. This year he won an Aboriginal Peoples Choice Music Award for Best New Artist and the Winnipeg Arts Council's On the Rise Award, and recently opened for A Tribe Called Red at The Danforth Music Hall in Toronto.

Meanwhile, Manitoba Music's Aboriginal Music Program has launched a month long weekly feature of live performance videos by four acclaimed acts, the first being Mr. Sumner himself.

I've seen Leonard perform this song a number of times over the past few years - it is definitely one of my faves - and I think it's perfectly captured here by director Chris Gaudry at Winnipeg's Bedside Studios.

AMP Sessions will rollout on Wednesdays for three more weeks and "Best of Me" is from Sumner's 2013 album Rezpoetry. Get it on iTunes and watch it now.

Leonard Sumner - "Best of Me"