Maurice Hope – June 6, 2016 at 01:00PM
Tags:_AMERICANA
Buffy Sainte-Marie was one of Vanguard Records biggest acts back in the 1960s, alongside folk queen Joan Baez and fellow Canadians Ian & Sylvia who too enjoyed a prolific period, and there were others too.
Born on the Pipot Cree First Nations Reserve in Saskatchewan, Buffy Sainte-Marie started performing just as Bob Dylan was emerging in 1961 and traditional blues acts were re-emerging. She was at the hub of the 1960s folk boom. Complementing traditional songs, and those of fellow folk / blues acts with her own Buffy Sainte-Marie went on the make an indelible mark in the music scene, and in standing up for her Native American heritage.
Buffy debut in 1964 as a recording act with It’s My Way and capitalised on it with Many A Mile the following year. Sainte-Marie took to writing, recording and performing in double quick time as she balanced love songs and those of a politic nature in a big way. She is still performing; and her voice is just as clear and forthright when it comes to environmental and political issues as it’s ever been.
Apart from learning her craft as a singer-songwriter she learned and shared what she discovered of her Native North American roots, and misgivings that went with it. The cruelty, hardship and how their heritage was all but lost due to the white man’s greed.
On occasions she can come across stern, impassioned (of course) but she tempered this with songs (she penned) rich in beauty as she would share her own emotions in song. Her songs have appeared on film soundtracks (Soldier Blue etc), and recorded by a diverse set of recording artists ranging from Elvis Presley to Janis Joplin by way of Glen Campbell, Barbra Streisand, Willie Nelson, Cher, Neil Diamond, Andy Williams and countless others. Buffy with her guitar and traditional mouth bow and the likes of songs “Ground Hog” and stark folk ballad “Come All Ye Fair And Tender Ladies”, the latter has only the rhythm of the mouth-bow support her through the mountain folk standard has music run through her bones.
On showing her sensitive side Buffy provides the listener with a beautiful version of “On The Banks Of Red Roses” and with wondrous free and easy feel Patrick Sky’s “Many A Mile” has Sainte Marie show off a more fluent side to her vocals. While arguably the strongest songs on the record come in her own compositions “Until It’s Time For You To Go” and “The Piney Wood Hills”, closely followed in the pecking order by Bukka White’s “Fixin’ To Die” and with a surge of energy she flies through spirited social conscious composition “Welcome Welcome Emigrante”.
Maurice Hope
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