A PRI presentation of "The Mississippi River: A River of Song" by Smithsonian Productions. This program in series is titled “Land of Lakes and Immigrant Songs.”
The mighty Mississippi starts as a trickle in Northern Minnesota, then winds by 300 miles of Minnesota fields, forests and skyscrapers. Nowhere on its run to the Gulf is the terrain so varied. Same with the music. We'll hear the songs of Minnesota's first people, the Ojibwe Indians, then those of the immigrants to this wintry state: Scandinavian fiddlers, a Laotian flutist, and heat things up with the power house gospel of Sounds of Blackness, and alternative rockers Soul Asylum.
Segments include:
- Chippewa Nation: Minnesota Ojibwe drummers perform at a powwow in Inger
- Skal Club Spelmanslag: Scandinavian fiddlers in Brainerd gather for a livingroom session
- Hmong Cultural Center: St. Paul children learn to play and dance with traditional instruments
- Spider John Koerner: a Minneapolis folk legend is joined at a local bar by an all-star line-up
- Babes in Toyland: the all-woman Minneapolis band performs their bone-jarring punk for fans
- Soul Asylum: the hit-making Twin Cities rock band rehearses in their warehouse loft
- Sounds of Blackness: a Minneapolis studio rehearsal ranges from spirituals to soul dance numbers
Transcripts
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[MUSIC PLAYING] MELANIE SOMMER: This is Midday here on Minnesota Public Radio. I'm Melanie Sommer, sitting in today for Gary Eichten. During this hour of Midday, we have a special program for the holiday weekend. We have a sample of some Minnesota music, which is part of a broader series tracing music along the Mississippi. It's called the "Mississippi, River of Song," and we hope you enjoy it.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
SPEAKER 1: PRI, Public Radio International.
From Smithsonian Productions, the "Mississippi, River of Song." Major funding for this program was provided by Hitachi, supplying systems and products for the global information infrastructure. Hitachi, expanding the power of information.
Further funding was provided by the National Endowment for the Arts and by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.
[WATER BURBLING]
ANI DIFRANCO: At the top, you can walk across it in six steps. Six fast steps because the water is almost always just a few degrees short of ice. 2,300 miles later, down south, the river's warm, become the color of mud and spread itself out wider than a mile.
In between, creeks and rivers from 31 states have drained into it, nearly half the country. It's no wonder that the Ojibwe Indians named it Great River.
[POWWOW MUSIC]
[FIDDLE PLAYING]
SPEAKER 2: Well, you know, the real true music of the river is just about any kind of music that you can think of because at one time, probably every race and kind of person in the world has traveled up and down the Mississippi River.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
ANI DIFRANCO: I'm Ani DiFranco, and you're listening to the "Mississippi, River of Song," a series tracing the Mississippi River from a little stream out of Lake Itasca in Northern Minnesota all the way down to the Gulf of Mexico, an area of enormous riches and not just the obvious ones of agriculture and industry but of music, all kinds of music.
(SINGING) River get down won't you get down river
Oh river get down
We start where the river starts, in Minnesota. This program is called Land of Lakes and Immigrant Songs.
(SINGING) River get down
At every bend in the river, the music and the musicians will surprise you. Welcome along for the ride down the River of Song.
(SINGING) Come on over later tonight I need some company
Come on over and we'll have cookies and milk
All music began with the drum. And near the Mississippi's own beginnings, where it spills out of Lake Itasca in Northern Minnesota and starts its journey, a group of drummers meets regularly to celebrate their origins.
PETE WHITE: This is the center of our people. And when our people dance around this drum, when they get this heartbeat within themselves, or they sit around, or at this powwow, and they hear the drum, it gives them strength. Brings boldness to their heart and their mind.
And they're having fun, and that's what we're here for, you know. We're not here to cause problems. We're here to have a good time and respect what is given to us because everything on this land is given to the Indian people, the Nishnawbe and Ojibwe.
ANI DIFRANCO: Pete White is a member of Chippewa Nation, a drum from the Leech Lake Reservation, which lies east of the Mississippi's headwaters a few miles. Many think a drum is just the instrument these men play, but to the Ojibwe, the word "drum" refers both to the instrument and to those who play it.
[DRUM PLAYING, CHANTING]
The Northern Minnesota of the Ojibwe is changing these days. This land of punishing winters and short summers is rich with fish and game. For hundreds of years, the Ojibwe have also survived by harvesting wild rice in the fall.
The process is slow and labor intensive. Two men in a canoe, the one in the rear, nudging the boat forward with a long pole, while the other in front bends the tall rice grasses over into the boat, beating them till the ripe grains fall into baskets.
But that's a tough way to survive. And more and more, the reservations are dotted with the bright lights of casinos in an area of chronic unemployment, the casinos bring jobs and hard cash, helping to fund new schools and civic centers on the reservation.
The new world clashes with the old. The drum helps the Ojibwe make sense of it all. At their open-air powwows, the tribe will trade stories and offer tobacco to honor the spirits. Young people in ornate, traditional Ojibwe clothing dance in a circle around the drum.
Randy Kingbird, leader and main songwriter for Chippewa Nation.
RANDY KINGBIRD: When I first started out, I got taught by an old man named Chester Merle from Round Lake, Wisconsin, and he was in his 70s. And he would take a bunch of us kids and then said, come on, boys, I'm going to teach you some songs.
And he do it on his own time. He said that's the way he wanted to pass it down, so people can have that kind of music. I'm pretty glad he did. I've been singing now for-- be 25 years this year.
[POWWOW MUSIC]
RANDY KINGBIRD: I got some songs, but they're meant for my use. And I don't sing them out at the powwows. I don't know what they mean yet. They come to me in a dream. And one of these days, I'll find out what they mean, what they're for. So right now, I'm still learning.
[POWWOW MUSIC]
ANI DIFRANCO: The Ojibwe's music has continued to survive, even though they were forced off their lands by the 19th century European settlers.
Again, Pete White.
PETE WHITE: What it really is to me is that we're actually the first people that were on this land, but we're all the last people to be recognized for who we are. Look at the history books. I mean, we weren't able to practice our own religion. We had a religion that was here for years and years.
Finally, they're allowing us to do this, but it's always been here. If it wasn't, we probably wouldn't be sitting here today. We wouldn't probably be at a powwow today if it wasn't. So it never really died out, it just wasn't exposed. It's been passed on and passed on.
ANI DIFRANCO: Pete White of Chippewa Nation.
The Mississippi leaves Lake Itasca and does a curious thing. It flows north for a while, then turns east, making a big 40-mile-wide question mark before finally settling down and heading south for the gulf.
It passes by dozens of lakes. The Minnesota license plate proclaims that the state is home to 10,000 of them. And the river wanders in and out of white pine and oak forests, now, a clear, free-flowing stream, That is the river would be clear and free flowing if it weren't 7 degrees below zero. It's mostly ice now.
In the woods in the center of the state, the snow is 2-feet deep. And outside the town of Brainerd, at a newly built log home, a group of string players are gathering to practice and have what they call a little lunch, even though it's past supper time.
In the dead of winter, fashion is functional, and everybody wears heavy boots and parkas, trudging from car to cabin. Once inside, the coats and boots come off, and there's the warmth of the wood stove full of red oak. The smell of strong black coffee is in the air, what some of the regulars call "Swedish plasma."
PAUL WILSON: It's going to be 12 below zero tonight, Hilda.
SPEAKER 3: It's supposed to get up to 40 by Wednesday.
ANI DIFRANCO: About a dozen musicians, red cheeked from the cold, greet each other. Most of them are Swedish and Norwegian Americans with names like Nelson, Olsen, and Johnson. And their blue eyes light up at the sight of the immense smorgasbord of meats and baked goods spread out on the table, food that will have to wait until their practice is done.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
Paul Wilson gathers the group and starts the first tune.
[FIDDLES PLAYING]
PAUL WILSON: All of us live in the countryside, so it's a little bit of a task to get everybody together. Because of the community feeling of this group, people will make the extra effort and drive to different people's homes.
In a way, I think it's an older tradition when communities used to be small enough that people could actually get together. People, I think, in general, are kind of hungry for some kind of a community feeling. And a lot of people, of course, go to church. That's one way for a community, but music also, is another way.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
ANI DIFRANCO: Wilson's organization is called "Spelmanslag," a Norwegian word for "fiddlers group." But most everybody calls it Skal Club. It's made up mostly of second and third-generation Scandinavians, and they play the fiddle tunes their great grandparents played when they cleared some of the woods around Brainerd.
It's a loosely knit ensemble, as much a coffee klatsch is a band. But they're famous around Northern Minnesota, and they make regular tours across the midwest and to Scandinavia.
Paul Wilson.
PAUL WILSON: This traditional Scandinavian music, to me, it means tracing my heritage. And it helps me to understand my place, bringing pleasure to other people with it too. There's way too little music, in general, going on now that people are making. And they're just turning on switches and buttons and listening to it, and they're not doing it.
So when we work with kids in schools, I usually hit on that pretty hard about making their own music and making things happen rather than being passive and having everything happen to them.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
SPEAKER 4: It's just getting good.
[LAUGHTER]
PAUL WILSON: This is how Hilda met the redheaded Swede, you know.
[PAUL WILSON, "READHEADED SWEDE"]
(SINGING) Hilda would dance with that redheaded Swede at the smorgasbord
And the others would plead
But she paid them no heed at the smorgasbord
Now Hilda was daring she ate pickled herring
And drank all the beer that was poured
His heart did melt
When she sliced him some schmelt at the smorgasbord
Hilda got herself a man
He said he was a pickled herring fisherman at the smorgasbord
She wouldn't dance with no one else
After he had told her that his name was Nils at a smorgasbord
They danced and danced until wee hours of the morning
Danced until they almost have entry to the flooring
Never stopped until the manager said he was bored
Hilda got herself a herring fisher
Even though he had an ugly looking kisser at the smorgasbord
(SPEAKING) Instrumental. There we go.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
Da da da
(SINGING) Hilda got her self a man
He said he was a pickled herring fisherman at the smorgasbord
She wouldn't dance with no one else
After he had told her that his name was Nils at the smorgasbord
They danced and danced until wee hours of the morning
Danced until they almost have entry to the flooring
Never stopped until the manager said he was bored
Hilda got herself a herring fisher
Even though he had an ugly looking kisser at the smorgasbord
Hilda soon married that redheaded Swede from the smorgasbord
Is this song ever going to be over?
They had 18 kids
Now they all flipped their lids at the smorgasbord
But I am not kicking though
I took quite a licking
But now I feel fully restored
Or I am that Swede yo
That redheaded Swede from the smorgasbord
And if you want to stay free
Take this advice from me
Don't go near that smorgasbord
[LAUGHTER]
[APPLAUSE]
ANI DIFRANCO: Paul and thousands of his fellow Minnesotans heat their homes with wood they chop themselves. In the last days of winter, many of them also head outside with tin buckets and small hollow spigots. They head for any stand of maple trees they can find, tap the spigots into the bark, and hang the buckets underneath.
When the days begin to warm, the sap starts to rise. Maple sugaring is a practice learned from the Ojibwe Indians, and the syrup is one of the sweet rewards of surviving a Minnesota winter.
PAUL WILSON: You know, we're in Minnesota here, so we're fairly well known for having some pretty nasty weather. We actually like winter because we live on a lake here. And the lake gets all of people with their toys go away. It's nice and quiet, so.
I'm sure that the weather does influence people's behavior. And I think if we had summer all year round, we probably wouldn't have a Spelmanslag because people are too busy in the summer. Of course, that's influenced because summer is so short here, and so you need to get a lot done in the summer.
And then the winter, you have time to do things. And making music is just a great thing to do in the wintertime. Warms you up.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
ANI DIFRANCO: Paul Wilson of Spelmanslag.
You're listening to "River of Song," a musical journey down the Mississippi River. I'm Ani DiFranco.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
Minnesota is a tall state. It takes a whole day to drive from the cornfields of Iowa up to the Canadian border. But most of the state's population is clustered in just two cities, Minneapolis and Saint Paul, that lie cheek to cheek in a big S-curve of the Mississippi River in the southeastern part of the state.
The Twin Cities filled up early in the century with Irish and Italians, who went mostly to Saint Paul, and Scandinavians and Germans, who settled in Minneapolis and worked the big grain mills along the river. European immigration tapered off around World War I, began again shortly after World War II. After which, the area was fairly stable.
But in the 1980s, a new wave of immigrants came to Minnesota, refugees from the last years of the Vietnam War and the wars it spawned in Laos and Cambodia.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
The Hmong are a tribal people from Laos who fought alongside American soldiers in the Vietnam War. After the war, the Hmong had to flee their homes, and many of them wound up in refugee camps in Thailand.
In the 1980s, churches throughout the US, particularly in the Midwest, sponsored hundreds of these families. And that's how the Hmong came to Minnesota.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
WANG CHONG LOR: [SPEAKING HMONG]
INTERPRETER: The nature of this instrument is used for courtship. When you blow this instrument, the village knows you are not a complete stranger. You are there for courtship. You are a friendly guy, an intelligent guy. You are not a trouble maker. They say the young man is making his approach.
ANI DIFRANCO: This is Wang Chong Lor who came to Minnesota in 1985.
Just like the Ojibwe and the Scandinavians, the modern day Hmong have their own songs and instruments to remind them of their homeland and keep their sense of cultural identity vibrant in their new home.
The Hmong have encountered probably the greatest culture shock of any American immigrants in the last century. Theirs is a tribal culture rooted in mountainous villages. The climate is governed by annual monsoons, a huge contrast from a big city on the flat, frigid prairie of Minnesota.
WANG CHONG LOR: [SPEAKING HMONG]
INTERPRETER: The sun is shining, and I came over to this country to look for you. And now, I am lonely. I came to look for you to see if you can take my loneliness away. I'm so lonely in this country. What about you?
ANI DIFRANCO: The Hmong language is tonal, made up of distinct notes. The instrumental notes Mr. Lor plays on his flute are also words.
[FLUTE PLAYING]
[SINGING IN HMONG]
WANG CHONG LOR: [SPEAKING HMONG]
INTERPRETER: Since arriving in this country, I am worried that our culture and traditions will be lost. But I hope that they are stabilizing. People are now teaching the younger generation.
WANG CHONG LOR: [SPEAKING HMONG]
INTERPRETER: We have to let go of the unproductive things from our country and adjust. For example, we have the funeral in the home and keep the body out for people to see. But in this country, we put the body in a coffin and take it to the cemetery, in a hearse.
We have to adapt, and we believe that it's good. To survive further down the road, we have to adapt.
[FLUTE PLAYING]
ANI DIFRANCO: As the Hmong, like Wang Chong Lor, adapt to life in the US, they also make sure the young people know where they came from. Mr. Lor teaches the intricacies of Hmong music each week to young people.
WANG CHONG LOR: [SPEAKING HMONG]
[FLUTES BLASTING]
INTERPRETER: Every ethnic group in the world has its own music and culture. If we set aside, then young people will not know that we do have our own culture. They won't have an identity. But if you continue performing, they will realize, they have their own instruments and music and that these are our roots.
Those who are interested can come and learn. We are finding that children who play traditional instruments learn faster and are more creative than we used to be.
[FLUTE PLAYING]
[CHATTER]
ANI DIFRANCO: One of the liveliest spots in the Twin Cities' music community is an area called the West Bank. It's snugged up to the Mississippi right across from the University of Minnesota.
In a city that prides itself on clean streets and even cleaner government, the West Bank is a town all its own. It's a funky island of coffee houses, ethnic restaurants, Birkenstocks, and beat-up bicycles.
[SPIDER JOHN KOERNER, "SAIL AWAY LADIES"]
SPIDER JOHN KOERNER: (SINGING) Ain't no use to sitting there crying
Sail away ladies sail away
You'll be an angel by and by
Sail away ladies sail away
Hey don't you rock 'em daddy-o
Don't you. rock 'em daddy-o
Don't you rock 'em oh no
Sail away ladies sail away
Hey I got home in Tennessee
Sail away ladies sail away
ANI DIFRANCO: Bob Dylan got his start in the early 60s, playing on the West Bank. Blues and folk legends Koerner, Ray, and Glover made their mark around the same time. And once in a while, Spider John Koerner himself holds forth at Palmer's Bar.
[SPIDER JOHN KOERNER, "SAIL AWAY LADIES"]
SPIDER JOHN KOERNER: (SINGING) Yeah come along boys and go with me all right
I will call down the Tennessee
Sail away ladies sail away
Ah don't you yeah don't you rock 'em
Don't you rock 'em mono
Sail away ladies sail away
Ever I get my new house done
I'll give my old one to my son
Sail away ladies sail away
Don't you rock 'em daddy-o
Don't you rock 'em daddy-o
[APPLAUSE, CHEERING]
(SPEAKING) Thank you, ladies and gents.
In 1960, I was coming back from a trip in California, and I had visited a folk club which had just begun that kind of thing out there. And I was surprised to find we had one of our own, which was called the Ten O'clock Scholar.
And Dylan was one of the people hanging out here at that time, and he was definitely visible. He was a good player, and he had a style and an attitude, all his own, of course. And some people liked him. Some people didn't much like him, but few people would have expected what was going to happen to him at the time.
You could see that he had definitely a certain knack with it, and a smoothness, and also a-- and I think this is a key thing with people who become like that is confidence. He had a certain kind of confidence when he was doing. And it didn't make too much difference what other people were worried about with it.
And then finally, of course, he disappeared out to New York, and all the other things happened.
ANI DIFRANCO: While Dylan took off for New York, Koerner and his colleagues stayed put on the West Bank and found a loyal audience right at home.
SPIDER JOHN KOERNER: There's a place called the Triangle Bar where we all used to play and get crazy. And once in a while, they'd drive motorcycles through the place. That scene is still here. There's half a dozen bars in this area, which work with bands. And some of them are blues bands, and some of them are reggae bands, and some of them are rock and roll bands.
This is a little bit of a testing ground for a lot of the groups that play around town. And, of course, there's a wider music scene in Minneapolis. Everybody has heard of Prince, for example, and some of those. There's a huge scene all over the place. It's a good town for music, surprisingly so.
We got Tony back with us now. We're going to play a song that we've been playing together, me and Tony, for seems like ever, called a "Black Dog Blues."
[SPIDER JOHN KOERNER, "BLACK DOG BLUES"]
(SINGING) You call me a dog when I'm gone
Heinous black dog when I'm gone
When I do get back with a hundred-dollar bill
I'd bet you went you've been so long
My papa he learned me to gamble
He told me bet on the old deuce and trey
When I do see my last old deal go down
I would bet on some old deuce and trey
And they call me a dog when I'm gone
Heinous black dog when I'm gone
When I do get back with a hundred-dollar bill
Ah where you been so long
And I rolled my dice in Cuba
Hey and I dealt my card in Spain
When I do see my last go dollar go
I had to get on some old freight train
And you call me a dog when I'm gone
Heinous black dog when I'm gone
When I do get back with a hundred-dollar bill
Oh daddy where you been so long
And I'm born in old Kentucky
And I'm raised in Tennessee
Any old place that I hang my hat
You know that looks like home to me
And you call me a dog when I'm gone
A black dog when I'm gone
When I do get back with a hundred-dollar bill
And they call me a dog when I'm gone
Heinous black dog when I'm gone
When I do get back with a hundred-dollar bill
Daddy when you been so long
[APPLAUSE, CHEERING]
ANI DIFRANCO: Folk singer Spider John Koerner from the West Bank in Minneapolis.
SPIDER JOHN KOERNER: A few years ago, I started traveling up and down the Great River Road, which is a national route now. At that point, I started becoming more aware of the river and the life of it.
I recommend it to anybody to travel on the river, and stop off at small towns now and then, and to see what that's like. And check out the different locks and dams and the river traffic. It starts to come alive for you. It's quite interesting.
ANI DIFRANCO: I'm Ani DiFranco, and this is Minnesota, Land of Lakes and Immigrant Songs. You're listening to the "Mississippi, River of Song" on PRI, Public Radio International.
[WATER BURBLING]
[APPLAUSE, CHEERING]
[BABES IN TOYLAND, "WE ARE FAMILY"]
(SINGING) We are family
I got all my sisters with me
We are family
Get up everybody sing
ANI DIFRANCO: In the 1980s, rock began to really come into its own in Minneapolis. A batch of new bands sprang up, some of them from the West Bank, the Wallets, the Suburbs, Husker Du, and the Replacements. One of the bands who made the biggest splash is Babes in Toyland.
[ROCK MUSIC]
Talk to any of the rockers in Minneapolis, and one point emerges. It's easy to make music here. Get yourself a guitar and some friends who want to play, and who knows where you'll end up? That's the secret of Soul Asylum, the hit group that Dan Murphy and Dave Pirner put together here in the early '80s.
[SOUL ASYLUM, "MISERY"]
DAVE PIRNER: (SINGING) Frustrated Incorporated
I know just what you need
I might just have the thing
We will always be busy making misery
We could build a factory and make misery
We'll create the cure
We made the disease
Frustrated Incorporated
Frustrated Incorporated
I know just what you need
Did you satisfy your greed get what you need
Was it only envy so empty
Frustrated Incorporated.
Frustrated Incorporated
ANI DIFRANCO: Soul Asylum with Dan Murphy and Dave Pirner.
DAVE PIRNER: I remember the day that I started discovering that there was all these local bands playing around. And you look at that, and you go, oh, that's how you do it. You don't have to be on the radio. You just go play these little clubs. And it's kind of a revelation when you're 15, you know. You just go down the basement, and set your stuff up, and have fun.
DAN MURPHY: We spent our formative years actually practiced in Karl, our bass player, his mom's garage. I mean, we were there for, I don't know, two or three years. You know, we didn't have any big aspirations or anything. It was just a hell of a lot of fun. And we'd get together and piss off the neighbors. It was perfect.
[CHUCKLES]
The Soul Asylum has been around for 14 years, actually. We used to be called Loud Fast Rules. And the first show we ever did-- Music for Our Youth. We played at this Sons of Norway, this kind of Elks Club. We did our first show. And the police came and busted it up. It was perfect, you know, just what we needed at the time.
[SOUL ASYLUM, "I DID MY BEST"] Holed up in the dressing room without a dress
Kneeling at the confessional with nothing to confess
And I knew all about my surprise party
I was spoiled and depressed
I acted surprised and I told lots of lies
Yes I did my best
Stop the truck at the truck stop
I need something to help me crash
Food stamps checks and credit cards but they only accepted cash
There was sweat beating on my brow my heart is beating out of my chest
So I stole everything they couldn't give away
Yes I did my best
And I did my best that I could do
With all the mess that I've been through
What did you expect me to do
I did my best for you
DAN MURPHY: The winters here suck so bad. What are you going to do? Are you going to-- you're not going to go get a tan like you're going to do in LA. You're going to sit in your room, play guitar, or find a warm practice space.
[SOUL ASYLUM, "I DID MY BEST"]
(SINGING) I was waiting for a chain reaction with the missing link
Waiting for that trickle-down forever circling the sink
I was tired of being tired
I could not get no rest
So I kept sleep-walking and talking in my sleep
Yes, I did my best
And I did my best that I could do
With all the mess that I've been through
What did you expect me to do
I did my best for you
DAVE PIRNER: I was producing this band with this guy from Boston. And he had this lyric in his song about how he was an ocean person, and he needed to feel the ocean around him. And, you know, I realized that I'm kind of a river person, and I need to know that that river is there.
And you grow up, and you read Tom Sawyer at one point or another. And you end up down in New Orleans, and you see how this music is just coming out of this part of the world. And it's very much a part of who I am.
ANI DIFRANCO: Soul Asylum with Dave Pirner.
One of the longest running and most successful groups in the Twin Cities is Sounds of Blackness, 30 singers and 10 instrumentalists who have been bringing the sounds of their experience to the community for over 20 years.
Founder Gary Hines.
GARY HINES: What is the Sounds of Blackness? Is it an R&B group? Is it a pop group? Is it a jazz group? Is it a gospel group? The answer is we are a Black music ensemble that equally does every style of Black music.
ENSEMBLE: (SINGING) Open my mouth to the Lord
And I won't turn back
I will go I shall go
To see what the end is gonna be
Oh who's that yonder dressed in red
To see what the end is gonna be
What it looks like the children that Moses led
To see what the end is gonna be
I open my mouth to the Lord
And I won't turn back
I will go I will go
I shall go
I will go will go
I shall go shall go
I will go will go
I shall go just to see
To see what the end is gonna to be
The morning
To see what the end is gonna be
And the evening
To see what the end is gonna be
To see what the end is gonna be
GARY HINES: OK. All right. Tenors can relax some, and soprano needs to come in some.
Our number one goal is to glorify God by uplifting people of all nationalities through all styles of African-American music. You can't understand the glory of hallelujah of the gospel without knowing about the pain of the blues at the heart of our mission as a group, to present all styles of African-American music to all people in its proper context.
ANI DIFRANCO: Starting from a small liberal arts school in town, Macalester College, they got their break in 1990 when Janet Jackson's producers, Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis, signed them to their new perspective records label. Sounds of Blackness struck gold with Jam and Lewis.
Their first album, with hits like "The Pressure" and "Optimistic" won a Grammy. Sounds does it all, rap, hip hop, jazz, blues, gospel, and they pack them in.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
ENSEMBLE: War and hate.
Epidemic of abuse.
Famine and hunger.
Homelessness and hopelessness.
Racism and sexism.
Intolerance and indifference.
Needless suffering and pain.
Depression and despair.
(SINGING) It's time for healing inside of you and me
Healing healing through all
Oh yeah
All the human family
Nation to nation
Nation to nation
Spirit spirit and soul to soul
Open up your open up your heart and let the healing flow
(SPEAKING) Here we go! Twin Cities!
Minneapolis-St. Paul!
Come on. Come on.
We're united!
What to say now huh
(SINGING) Everybody say spirit
Say spirit
Say spirit
Say spirit
Say spirit
Say spirit
Come on
Here we go
Welcome to a brand new day
Twin Cities host of the next millennium
Lending them a helping hand
Fix the mic stand.
Sounds of Blackness
Swing as a band.
I demand what to plan for
We roll through the year 2G
That was G-O-D
So let me see
I mean, it's like you're all trying to be
Say goodbye to the old and let the spine be twisted
He's calling you from down inside
So will you live it too heart open
Singing dancing
I know you feel it
I know you hear it
Why don't you listen
Listen to your spirit
You know it's fine
Yeah stop your stalling
No need to fear it
It's just the spirit
Spirit feel the spirit inside
Yeah the spirit
Spirit feel the spirit inside
Reach us hmm teach us
Everybody let's start reaching
A child is calling you stop the crying
Yeah how will we tell the truth
I'll go on times
My vows found us separation
Why can't we make it
God is calling you to love one another
So let's do his way and love each other
Each other each other
I know you feel it
I know you hear it
Come on
Why don't you listen to your spirit
You know it's calling
It's got your soul
No need to fear it
This is your spirit
Spirit spirit feel the spirit inside
To feel the spirit
I know that you could feel it inside
Spirit feel the spirit inside
Guess who's back huh
It's time to make a rap
Pull away before I cook you like a bug
To dance for anybody
Anybody that don't obey
Comes day to day
I mean listen Souls of Blackness
Where's the spirit at
Remain till you hear him
So when you feel it throw a T-bone
I'm about to crank that up
I know you feel it
I know you hear it
Why don't you listen to your spirit
You know it's calling
Yeah
No need to fear it
It's just your spirit
Spirit spirit oh the spirit inside
Spirit spirit yeah oh the spirit inside
You can hear it hear it
You can feel it
Can't you feel it
There's the spirit yeah spirit inside
Oh you can hear it
Don't you feel it
You got to you got to
Woo
SPEAKER 5: That's OK, yeah.
ANI DIFRANCO: That's Sounds of Blackness from Minneapolis.
After hitting it big in the early '90s, Sounds has been on the road a lot, touring the States, Asia, and Europe.
GARY HINES: We always say, what comes from the heart reaches the heart. At the Denver Summit of Eight, we sang right in the faces of the prime ministers of Japan and Russia and Canada and England and some other nations.
And to see these faces that you normally see on CNN and on the news that are normally staunch and firm and very cold and distant, to see them beam with warmth and humanity toward one another, toward the people around them, and that the music generated inspired that.
That doesn't happen at the conference table. That doesn't happen at the summit. And so we want to take that music to Northern Ireland, to the Middle East, and to Africa, and to the streets of urban America. Not only our music but any music that's positive and uplifting the people.
ANI DIFRANCO: One of the things that makes Sounds so special is the other life each singer has. During the day, you'll find these musicians working as psychologists, professors, engineers.
Coré Cotton is an entertainment lawyer and sing soprano in the group.
CORÉ COTTON: My emphasis is not whether it's, quote unquote, "Christian music," or "secular," or "sacred," or however you want to classify it. My focus is what's the message. And whether it's a message with a beat, whether it's a message with somber tone, whether it's message, and you're jumping up and down and waving your hands, the important thing is the message.
And you have to reach people wherever they are, whether they're in the church, whether they're on the street, whether they're in the club. So it's great to have a different medium on various forms of music, but the focus is on the message.
So, no, it doesn't bother me that people say that that's secular as long as they're listening and communicating and talking about it.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
ENSEMBLE: Come on, put your hands together like this!
Oh, yeah. Yeah, yeah.
Bustle.
(VOCALIZING)
(SPEAKING) How y'all feel out here today?
Oh, yeah.
CORÉ COTTON: Just listen to your inner spirit. It's not all that complicated. Your instincts will lead you right.
Our message is really simple. It's not a deep, dark mystery. It's just feel the spirit inside and go with the flow and do what feels good.
ANI DIFRANCO: Coré Cotton from the Sounds of Blackness.
ENSEMBLE: (SINGING) Come on y'all
Now yesterday a man said to me
He said now how can you smile when your world is crumbling down
I said to him my secret
When I want to cry
I take a look around and I see that I'm getting by
And I hold on
Hold on
Change is coming
Change is coming
Hold on
Hold on
Cause I'm worried
Don't worry about a thing
Just hold on
Hold on
You can make it
You can make it
Hold on
Hold on
Everything
Everything will be all right
Some people like to worry
Some people like to hide
Some people like to run away from the pain inside
Now that's your business
Do whatever you want to do
But if it don't work out here's what you want to do
Just hold on
Hold on
A change is coming
Change is coming
Hold on
Hold on
Don't worry
Don't worry about a thing
Hold on
Hold on
You can make it
Don't you worry
Everything, everything, everything's gonna be all right
Hold on
Woo
(SPEAKING) Thank you.
ANI DIFRANCO: You've been listening to the "Mississippi, River of Song," a series tracing the music and the musicians from the river's headwaters down to the gulf. This time, Minnesota, Land of Lakes and Immigrant Songs. I'm Ani DiFranco.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
The "Mississippi, River of Song" was produced by Marge Ostroushko with associate producer and writer Brian Newhouse and production assistant Tasha Rosenfeld. The production manager was John Tyler. Post-production engineer was Todd Houselander with help from recording engineers John Paulson, Matt Sakakeeny, Greg Hartman, Kevin Waite, Tim Medlin, and Mark Griswold.
The executive producer was Wesley Horner. The Mississippi, River of Song project was created and directed by John Junkerman with Elijah Wald, senior music consultant and writer.
SPEAKER 1: To learn more about the artists and music of the "Mississippi, River of Song," check out our website at pbs.org. To order the River of Song PBS television series on videocassette, the River of Song companion book, or a set of two compact disks featuring music and artist stories from the series, call 1-800-PLAY-PBS. That's 1-800-PLAY-PBS.
Major funding for the "Mississippi, River of Song" was provided by Hitachi, supplying systems and products for the global information infrastructure. Hitachi, expanding the power of information.
Further funding was provided by the National Endowment for the Arts and by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, with additional support by the state of Missouri, where the rivers run, by the Southern Humanities Media Fund, the Tennessee Department of Tourism, the Louisiana Office of Tourism, Mississippi River Country, and the Adler Foundation.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
PRI, Public Radio International.
MELANIE SOMMER: And that's it for Midday today here on Minnesota Public Radio. We hope you'll stay tuned for Talk of the Nation after the news. Ray Suarez in the first hour will help you pick out your summer reading list for the summer coming up.
SPEAKER 6: On Mondays, All Things Considered are Minnesota Century Series.
SPEAKER 7: His fall brought to light a piece of iron ore about as big as his two fists.
SPEAKER 6: The story of three brothers who discovered a fortune on the Mesabi Range and then lost it all.
MELANIE SOMMER: It is mostly cloudy and 58 degrees at KNOW FM 91.1, Minneapolis-Saint Paul. Twin Cities weather for today calls for mostly cloudy skies and cooler temperatures than over the weekend with highs in the mid to upper 60s. Cloudy tonight with lows around 50 and tomorrow, about a 40% chance of some showers with high temperatures again in the mid 60s.