Musical ground well-covered by Sunshine Records

Page 10

Hailing from Fort Vermilion is 15-year old country/pop singer and guitarist Charlie Goertzen. Handful of Hope is his second album and fist original tunes. Goertzen's 1994 self-titled debut was a collection of covers (mostly Elvis, with some Roy Orbison and Buddy Holly) which peaked at number two on the Canadian Aboriginal Top 40 chart.

This 10-song album covers a lot of musical ground. Basically it's country/pop, but thankfully, not of the current Nashville style. There's

a Holly-esque rockabilly in That's What John Said, a doff of the Stetson to Dwight Yoakum, Buck Owens and the Bakersfield sound in Indian Cowboy, and a couple of songs are reminiscent of Ritchie Valens-via Lou Diamond Phillips and Los Lobos. Actually, Goertzen's sound and publicity stills both scream Valens a bit too much to be a blind coincidence. However, these are not bad things considering Valens' contributions to music and attitudes towards young musicians.

Valens was a teen pop idol when he died in the 1959 plane crash which also killed Holly (just 22 himself) and the Big Bopper. If you're going to be a bit derivative, then it's always a safe bet to pick someone good.

All in all, a pretty good road record. Great album? Groundbreaking? No, that might be asking a little much, but Goertzen's sophomore album will sound pretty good as you bomb on down those prairie highways.

However, Santa can have back the piece of coal that is Peacemaker's latest disc, Reservation Dog. Do any of us really need to lose 46 minutes and 24 seconds of our lives to another band which defies Black Sabbath and others of that genre?

Vocalist Mark Nabess does not sing like Ozzy (who can sing this style!), so that's a saving grace and they don't play every song like Sabbath is another. But if they want to take a stab at being Guns and Roses, they could have at least listened to Appetite For Destruction a couple of more times.

Nabess is also the only credited lyrics, so he's going to have to shoulder the blame for writing some truly bad lyrics. Pamela Jean is probably the most glaringly bad bit of writing on the album. Rocking tunes about wild chicks are nothing new in music. Bizet's Carmen was pretty wild to name but one, although that's opera and not rock. Bizet at least had some style. Even though this field has been mined before, there are probably a few more nuggets to be dug up. This ain't one of them.

The best thing about Reservation Dog is the production. Even though the songs are cliche with a capital C, they sound right. The screeching vocals come in at the right time; the MTV guitar solos fit the tunes; the rhythm section is heavy. But if the songs are bad, there's only so much that the best producer and the best session musicians in the world can do.

There are some really interesting and innovative bands working the metal and hard rock scene these days. Peacemaker is just a tired act.

Jody T. Gaskin jumps into this fray with his colourful and diverse album Part of Being Anishinabe. Although, not a sophisticated lyricist, Gaskin does the job with strength and vocal conviction.

Songs like the title track and It Is What It Is reflect strong spirituality, but avoid the pious self-righteousness in which many folkie types wallow. Gaskin brings a sense of humour to the album which helps to balance off the more serious numbers.

Pow-Wow Blues, a 12-bar blues rehash is an ode to his clunker of an Oldsmobile which always gets him where he needs to go, even though it won't be pretty. Beat of the Drum is an odd-ball cross-cultural mix of calypso and lyrics about dancing at a pow-wow. A difficult trick to pull of convincingly, but Gaskin manages the job.

Self-reliance, pride in one's heritage, family and humor all come together to make this a pretty good album. The Miami vice style saxophone work is a bit much to handle, but that could be quibbling.

The more traditional style of flute and pow-wow music are represented here by Terry Widrick and the Eyabay Singers respectively. Widrick's Instrumental album By Sacred Waters is a very spiritual and serene one. Among other thing, he is a minister so the overall tone of prayer, peace and tradition ties things together very nicely.

The album opens with Zuni Sunrise Song and closes with Red Willow Lullabye. A very warm and kind-hearted soundtrack. With the sound effects of rushing rivers and birds and so forth, By Sacred Waters, sounds a bit like something from the Solitudes series of new age tapes. The difference is that Widrick's spirituality is much more upfront.

Eyabay's album Volume Two is a different sort of bird altogether. If one doesn't have direct knowledge of pow-wow culture and intentions, it winds up being an interesting soundtrack to 45 minutes of watching the snowfall. Sure sounds like they were enjoying themselves as they sang, though.