CDs worth a listen
DECEMBER WIND
"Sacred Voices"
December Wind’s first CD release (1999), Sacred Voices was highly acclaimed and received a NAMMY Award nomination for best new artists, and also for their inclusion in a Canyon Records compilation CD.
The guitar playing on Sacred Voices is amazing, as are the lyrics. Combined, these elements make for a blues/folk rock combination that is unmistakably punctuated with a Native vibe.
Hailing from the Akwesasne Mohawk Nation located on the border of New York and Canada, December Wind has developed a truly original Native American alternative folk rock sound. Leader singer/songwriter Atsiaktonkie’s {pronounced Ah-jack-doon-gay) inspired lyrics and guitar, Randy Furnia’s haunting lead guitar, Donnie Sharrow’s quicksilver lead guitar, Terry Terrance’s thundering six string bass, Dan White’s Native percussion, and Darman Terrance’s lightning sharp heartbeat drum, all combine perfectly in a seamless blend of ancient and modern sounds.
Their songs are filled with stories of love, hope, the struggles of Native peoples, and the beauty of their heritage.
December Wind’s music is heard over the airways across the United States and Canada, and they have a large following in the Dakotas and South-western States, as well as California, New York State, Alaska and Pennsylvania. A listener from the Southwest wrote, “I listened to December Wind for the first time yesterday and it was breathtaking.”
Their July 2005 release Second Wind is also worth a listen. It has been nominated for the 2006 Indian Summer Music Awards in the categories of Alternative Rock and Classic Rock
The Indian Summer Music Awards seek to honor the best American Indian music that has been commercially released between the period of March 2, 2005 and March 1, 2006.
The ISMA Awards will be presented during the Indian Summer Festival held September 8-10 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, with the awards ceremony on Saturday, September 9, 2006. Best of luck to them!
DEREK MILLER
"The Dirty Looks"
Most readers will have already heard of Derek Miller, but for those rock and roll enthusiasts who haven’t – here’s your wake-up call.
Derek Miller is the real deal. Armed with his rich Jeff Healey-like voice, skill on the guitar, and his energy, his new release Dirty Looks is akin to the likes of the legendary band Rush. Really, it’s that good.
Miller says, “Recording Dirty Looks was the hardest thing I have ever done! I had to pull the songs out of me, rip them from somewhere, man. I wasn’t sure of anything I was doin’ in the studio, but when people heard the tracks they were all, like, ‘Wow’ and that made me feel like the fight was worth it… that I was headed somewhere good.”
The CD is full of changes and experience that can be heard on songs like Stormy Eyes.
“I was standing on a dark Iqaluit shore at the end of a sunset and I looked out across the ocean and it was like the majesty of everything all going down at once.”
As well, a particularly personal message can be heard on Devil Came Down Sunday a great song written as a testament to life after you get through the hard living. Miller wrote this one in ten minutes directly following a near death car experience in the Ontario bush that almost took his life in the same way it took his father’s.
Dirty Looks is Miller’s story, a story of experience, troubles, good times and bad, and at the end of the day you get from this CD exactly what you get from Derek Miller… music worth rockin’ to.