Review: Buffy Sainte-Marie | Running for the Drum

Appleseed (2009)
By GUSTAVO TURNER  |  August 10, 2009
3.0 3.0 Stars

090831_buff_main

Recent live appearances by Buffy Sainte-Marie show her, once again, setting herself apart from early colleagues like Joan Baez and Judy Collins. The Native American composer/singer/activist has always reveled in defying expectations of what a female folkie of a certain age should sound or behave like — her stage presence, all unrestrained twirling and wallop packing, places her closer to the tradition of a performance artist like Yoko Ono (or even Karen O.).

Her latest recordings (available for a while now in her native Canada) are finally being released in the US, with an extra DVD documenting her journey from exotic coffeehouse darling to hit songwriter to her current incarnation as a harbinger of Native-consciousness songs masquerading as avant-garde dance tracks. The first part of Running for the Drum greets you with this strange fusion of ancient campfire chants and what might described as a ravy beat.

Anti-greed anthem "No No Kashegesh" and "Working for the Government" sandwich standout should-be-single "Cho Cho Fire," a powerhouse vocal performance that screams for a bona fide techno remix for clubbers' consumption. Later, this long album meanders through a series of genre experiments and evocations (neo-'50s, Top 40 ballad, etc.). But even if Sainte-Marie tries to cram too much into her joyous return to the limelight, Running for the Drum is proof that a path that began with the powerful "Universal Soldier" back in the early 1960s won't be fading gracefully into the usual sunset of folk retirement.

Related: Review: Hugh Hefner: Playboy, Activist and Rebel, Photos: George Wein's Folk Festival 2009, Stars aligned, More more >
  Topics: CD Reviews , Entertainment, Music, Yoko Ono,  More more >
| More


Most Popular
ARTICLES BY GUSTAVO TURNER
Share this entry with Delicious
  •   IAN KING | PANIC GRASS AND FEVER FEW  |  March 16, 2010
    Just a few weeks after we reviewed the belated release of African Head Charge's latest, another, more recent gem from the always rewarding sonic laboratory of Adrian Sherwood arrives.
  •   JOE CUBA | EL ALCALDE DEL BARRIO  |  March 09, 2010
    Fania kicks off 2010 with what is sure to end up being one of the year's most important archival releases of Latin music.
  •   ALEJANDRO FRANOV | DIGITARIA  |  March 03, 2010
    Alejandro Franov is an Argentine multi-instrumentalist who's been involved in the more serious, and often experimental, side of the Buenos Aires music scene since he was a teen in the late 1980s.
  •   THE SOULJAZZ ORCHESTRA | RISING SUN  |  February 23, 2010
    We're living in the middle of a veritable renaissance of "Spiritual Jazz."
  •   AFRICAN HEAD CHARGE | VISION OF PSYCHEDELIC AFRICA  |  February 09, 2010
    UK dub guru Adrian Sherwood and adventurous percussionist Bonjo I have been releasing their sonic experiments as African Head Charge since the early 1980s.

 See all articles by: GUSTAVO TURNER