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Enjoy Music from Michael Bucher
"Bitter Tears | Sacred Ground" Cd
Enjoy Music from Michael Bucher
"Seven" Cd
Indigenous in the News Featured Artist Review
Michael Bucher - Bitter Tears | Sacred Ground
By:
I mount up and roll down 18th flowin? strong at the start despite no warm up, headed south, thinking Minnehaha Blvd. west. The weather is going down hill and the scene is one of a sludge pile as the previous nights? warm-up has left huge piles of semi-melted snow everywhere with dirt, soot, oil and grime the predominant ingredients. This is the only time of the year that Minneapolis becomes an ugly urban nightmare.
The new Shenandoah/Bucher collaboration CD Bitter Tears Sacred Ground spins me back in a time warp to dreams of road side souvenir stands a two mile ride away from Lake Winnie, soda pop ten cents, puppy love in a polka dot bikini, we never wore shoes all summer long. I remember hearing these songs in those days of skinny dips, beer battered walleye fish fry?s, wild rice and fry bread, cooked outside and the brilliant northern sunsets of true summer madness. Our dad bought us bikes at summer?s start. These are the summers of which dreams are made. Oh summer thou art goddess of my world.
This CD pays tribute to the contributions of three song writers that have had enormous impact on the lives of ordinary working class Native Americans and is steeped in the lives and lifestyles influenced by the Depression, mission boarding schools and the end of WW II. This CD is in honor of Peter Lafarge, Floyd Westerman, and Johnny Cash.
The song As Long as the Grass Shall Grow refers to the treaty signed before a dam covered up the Seneca nation and compelled them to move from their home. This is a beautiful rendition of a Lafarge classic addressing the results of the dam. The song acts as a foundation and background for the spoken word story telling skills of Joanne.
Mike?s baritone vocal does the song Apache Tears justice in examining the cause of the gemstones referred to in the title. Curtis Waterman does an incredible job with the harmonica playing on this trac as well as some of the following material as well.
Apache Tears is followed by another Lafarge classic story song sung beautifully in a duet by Joanne and Mike entitled Drums. I had originally questioned whether there were going to be duets as a result of this collaboration and I?ve not been disappointed. They trade verses and harmonize on the chorus. I remember this song coming out a brown plastic RCA radio as the women made the fry bread dough and we cleaned the fish on the pick nick table outside that reservation tarpaper shack.
This CD includes the Star Spangled Banner sung by Joanne acapella in a uniquely beautiful mission boarding school rendition. Indiancool. The national anthem segues smoothly from a short harmonica TAPS into the song that most people associate with Peter Lafarge; ?The Ballad of Ira Hayes.? The story song about the Pima Indian that was at the top of Mount Suribachi and among the Marines that raised the flag.
The Talking Leaves the sixth trac refers to are the Whiteman?s talking leaves (or paper and writing) and speaks to the Cherokee alphabet created by the great Sequoyah. ?If the Whiteman talks on leaves, why not the Cherokee??
You can only finish a CD of this kind with a song like America. An original song written by Joanne, it is a song with a sentimental attachment to the Bitter Tears Sacred Ground to which the title of the CD refers. Again, the wonderful harp playing puts the mood right.
This CD examines artfully and profoundly some of the music that over the years has provided a sanctuary for Native people across the nation while presenting material that some how remains under the pop music radar. This is an extremely important CD in that regard. It is done with style, passion and intelligence. I like the approach that this material receives from two veteran Native American musicians and the Hondo Mesa Records people are to be commended for the solid production values they bring to the table
My dad bought us bikes so that we might experience the simpler time every body always talks about. Damn if I don?t love that old man for teaching me how to ride a bike. By the time I reach home, I?m riding in whiteout blizzard conditions but I don?t even care because I?m snug in the summer of which dreams are made. |
Michael grew up in a multi-racial neighborhood on the south side of Chicago. In all the diversity, his large family did what they could to ensure that they didn't become an invisible Indian.
His Cherokee ancestors go back to the Trail of Tears and earlier. Prior to the forced removal many Cherokees moved to S.E. Missouri and N.E. Arkansas. Mike and his sisters and brother are only the second generation not to be born in S.E. Missouri. They have been told the stories passed down from generation to generation and encouraged to stay close to their culture.
He is reminded by his mother and great uncle, and by the words of his grandmother and great aunt who have walked on, not to forget the stories and struggles of his people and all Indigneous people.
From these stories are the basis of his music and songs along with his own life experiences. As part of those experiences, Mike has lived in many places thru his life,but now lives in the great northwoods of northwest Wisconsin. He stays close to his family, friends, to the stories. and to his beliefs. " There are no coincidences, everything is for a reason."
Indigenous in the News Featured Artist Review
Michael Bucher - Seven
By:
Mr. Bucher (Cherokee/French) has a beautiful Baritone voice and accompanies himself with his acoustic guitar and "Seven"; his newly released CD has several guest appearances by competent side people that know what they are doing. The overall sound is something that lives in the space between folk and country with a Native American flavor. He is very strong musically and I particularly enjoy the mix of various instruments; percussion, bass, guitars and the voices are mixed well and there is a nice balance. The sound is spare from many standpoints. There aren?t a lot of synthetic sounds.
The song "Don?t Forget About Me" deals with the desecration of sacred burial sites. Right away you?ll notice Mr. Bucher?s strong Baritone singing voice. There?s some interesting guitar work in the intro to the first track. In this song, he tells us ?if they have no honor, they have no shame.? This particular track is receiving a lot of airplay on several Native American radio stations.
His second track, Cherokee Rose is an actual flower that grows along the Trail Of Tears. In the spring of 1838 Andrew Jackson had the Cherokee of Georgia rounded up, the agency provided them with spoiled rotting food that made them sick and held them in stockades or concentration camps. They prayed for a sign that their journey would never be forgotten and the flower that?s called the Cherokee Rose began blooming along the trail.
In track three he says ?and so for our children?s sake, we do what we must, we do what we must.? This is a profoundly insightful lyric because not only do we do what we must for our children?s sake on a deeper level it?s a call to a collective survival. It?s called a Diaspora.
I, at first, was not completely taken with the song ?The Awakening? but, I had the opportunity to speak with Michael over the phone and he told me that this song was written for a grandmother that died on the Trail of Tears. But then he began to realize that he had indeed learned much from all his grandmothers. He had to put what he?d learned into that context and he feels blessed to have learned from them. It is important to Michael how they influenced his journey home, to the center, back to balance.
I also spoke to Mr. Bucher about the Eagle Song and the nice guitar intro to flute leads into a song that describes an epiphany surrounding the acquisition of an eagle feather. He utilizes his traditional instruments sparingly, which in the contemporary musical idiom is the only appropriate way to do it. In his encounter with the eagle, the narrator claims the eagle didn?t want to know his blood quantum. This single event had changed Michael forever.
In the title track "Seven", the lyrics go ?enjoy the journey you?re on.? This is an Ode to several traditional Indian concepts. Including the seven generations prophecy. But it?s sung so seriously that I?m wondering about the actual basis for the sentiment but just generally speaking it?s a really wonderful sentiment for a song. It might be the grief that exists surrounding the philosophy that makes it seem tragic rather than pathetic and lighter. I can identify with the sentiment that this journey through life including our grief and suffering can be enjoyed and life is the gift that the creator gives freely and the suffering is there so we can rise above it and become worthy of that life.
The final track of this beautifully spare CD starts with an acoustic finger style guitar intro. It is very evident that Michael can sing. This is a beautiful sentiment written in a strong lyrical style. The narrator of the story is intent on letting people know that there is something larger than us that binds us together and that tie that binds includes our collective suffering.
As a published author with several books of poetry to my name, I am particularly impressed with Michael?s facility with a lyric. He has several very strong performances in that regard. In particular, ?Don?t Forget About Me? and the somewhat spiritually cryptic sonnet titled ?You?re Not Alone?.
It?s easy enough to hear the country influence in his music, the result of tastes in music like; Buddy Red Bow, Neil Young, Johnny Cash, Buffy Ste. Marie and Bill Miller.
I always appreciate it when an artist lets me in on the lyrical content of the work. It?s such an important piece of the puzzle and I know enough to expect that if someone bills themselves as a Story Teller they damn well better understand that I listen to lyrics. If a person is a Troubadour the essential part of the music is then the lyrics and Mr. Bucher doesn?t disappoint. He can deliver a lyrical story with a message much to our satisfaction.
There are a lot of Troubadours out there that need to get with Michael Bucher and learn the tricks of the storyteller?s trade. Michael Bucher?s CD Seven lives up to our expectations of a brilliant and talented storyteller. This is one CD that will show you your way when you get lost and we all know that sometimes the trail is covered with snow. |
