Reviewed by Scott McKie B.P.
One Feather staff
Canyon Records is going to have to put out some junky pow wow CD soon or people will start thinking that I’m one of those “happy” reviewers who just likes anything. I’ve got an idea…go to Kentucky or Indiana and make a live CD…that’ll give me some fodder.
War Scout’s latest “Many Tribes One Nation” is as solid a pow wow CD as I’ve heard. The 15-track album delivers strong pow wow songs from start to finish with a few being outstanding. Eleven of the songs are sung in the Cree language with the others being vocable songs.
One of my favorite tracks on this album is entitled “On the Spot” and was composed by lead singer Randall Paskemin in 2004. According to the liner notes, this song has an interesting story, “This song was made minutes before we first sang it. We ran out of fancy songs to sing.”
You can’t tell! I love it!
Another favorite is entitled “Teepee, Teepee Shake” and was composed by Randall’s teenage-age son Jamon. A shake song, the Cree words translate as “Come on and dance here!” The song has a nice flow to it with some stop-on-a-dime endings.
War Scout is one of my favorite drum groups on the pow wow circuit today, and they sure didn’t disappoint me with their latest release – Many Tribes One Nation.
For more information on the group, check out War Scout online at www.myspace.com/warscoutsingers or email canyon@canyonrecords.com.
