Can
music still stir the spirit of dissent, still motivate
us to think more deeply and care more openly? There was
a time when it did and that time may be back with Robby
Romero as one of its best known and respected voices.
Robby and his band RED THUNDER are already superstars
on America's Native American reservations or "Indian
country" as its known. And, now, his music is erupting
in mainstream
America. He's coming to get ya. For most Americans and
that includes the millions who gamble in what are supposed
to be tribal casinos, Indian country is still a nation
a part, a land of America's original people struggling
in some cases to survive and others to be heard. Robby,
with the look talent and attitude representing the best
in rock and roll is not just an ambassador from that world,
but an articulate artist and advocate for the causes and
concerns behind a cultural resistance that is older than
this country. In
the spirit of Woody Guthrie's Tom Joad, Robby Romero
is there wherever Native Americans are fighting for
the rights. He's there with a guitar and songs that
communicate the spirit of those protecting Mother Earth.
He is a musician head a musical movement.
Robby’s
cause dujure is the protection of The Arctic National
Wildlife Refuge in Alaska, an oil rich oasis that the
Bush Administration wants to open up for oil drilling.
The Gwitch'in Nation is holding off the avaricious oilmen
but their ancient culture is not well known in the lower
48.
But
they know Robby and he knows them after traveling by
plane, pickup and dog sled through the stark, beautiful
and desolate region of this last frontier. Working with
and behalf of the local activists he has made a documentary
about the issues and released an album of music to celebrate
"peoples power" to promote unity and "one
voice" to push back the Bush-Cheney oil agenda
and save an environment that nourishes a people and
the animals they live with. Robby's musical crusade
tool him to the Indigenous people's summit in Johannesburg
South Africa last summer, to UN meetings and to rallies
on Capitol Hill. The album is dedicated to the late
Senator Paul David Wellstone "and to all who stand
in solidarity with the Indigenous peoples of the earth."
Because of his status in the rock world, Robby has received
some coverage on MTV News but his campaign has yet to
attract the big media guns it needs to have the impact
it deserves,
The
songs on the album from Eagle Thunder records out of
Taos New Mexico rock and inform at the same time. Visit
thunderstormtour.org for more information. They are
well produced, anthemic and personal, political and
persuasive. There is even a song called "What Exxon
Means." The voice of Senator Joe Lieberman and
the late Senator Paul Wellstone bubbles up on "Sacred
Ground."
Discover
Robby Romero and Red Thunder. They are championing a
cause to get behind and dance to at the same time.
Globalvision's
Danny Schechter edits Mediachannel.org. His latest book
is Embedded; Weapons of Mass Distraction on the media
coverage of the Iraq War. (Prometheus Books)
By Danny Schechter
Mediachannel.org
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