(calm music) - I'm Carolyn Currie, singer, songwriter, mother, and lover of music.

Join me as I listen to and speak with some of Maine's premier musical artists on "Sound Waves."

(calm music) - [Announcer] Production of "Sound Waves" on Maine Public television is made possible by.

(cheerful music) - [Announcer] Renys, a main shopping adventure for 77 years.

Now in 19 locations.

(cheerful music) - [Announcer] Highland Green, committed to fostering a resident-driven active lifestyle community for those 55 and better, with a goal of providing low maintenance living in custom-built freestanding homes on a 635 acre campus and nature preserve.

- [Announcer] Since 1852, Bangor Savings Bank has been dedicated to keeping New Englanders at the heart of what they do.

That means investing in communities they serve, and supporting families and businesses.

You matter more.

- [Announcer] And by viewers like you.

Thank you.

(calm music) (adventurous music) (people singing in Wabanaki language) Hey....... gwunnu day..... ah nee ya gwunnu day Hey gwunnu day... ah nee ya yokiyo way Yokiyo way ah nee ah nee ah yoki Hey....... gwunnu day..... ah nee ya gwunnu day Hey gwunnu day... ah nee ya yokiyo way Yokiyo way ah nee ah nee ah yoki ah nee ah nee ah yokiyo way ah nee ah nee ah yokiyo way (adventurous music continues) Ah lee ah ha Ah lee a gwunnu da Ah lee ah ha Ah lee a gwunnu da Ah lee ah ha Ah lee a gwunnu da Ah lee ah ha Ah lee a gwunnu da Ah lee ah ha Ah lee a gwunnu da Ah lee ah ha Ah lee a gwunnu da Ah lee ah ha Ah lee a gwunnu da Ah lee a gwunnu da Ah lee ah ha Ah lee a gwunnu da Ah lee a gwunnu da - I am so excited to have join me up here in front of the soundboard, Jason Firefly Brown.

Welcome.

- Oh, thank you for having me.

I appreciate it.

- So you're incredibly awesome and multi-talented.

- Well, aren't we all?

- No.

Not everybody, but many people in their own way.

- Wow, I appreciate that.

Thank you so much.

- All right, so the first question, what is a music keeper?

- A music keeper for me would be a person like in my tribe, Penobscot Nation, it's a person who carries the ancient songs.

It's usually handed down from an elder to a youth.

And that's how, not only did I learn them when I was a child growing up on Indian Island in the community, but about 15 years ago, I apprenticed with a tribal elder.

His name was Wadey Aikens, and he studied our music right back to the wax cylinder field recordings that are in the National Archives.

And so when I started working with him, we were singing some songs that I had learned growing up, just growing up in the culture and in the community.

But he also taught me songs that he was trying to bring back that weren't being sung, but there happened to be these wax recordings of them, which were incredibly staticky sounding.

I mean, for him to listen to that and pull those ancient chants out, you know, and figure out what the people were actually singing and bring it back to life.

So the other part of that would be so, definitely a responsibility to sing the songs and share them, you know, these songs, these traditional songs, and they don't belong to me, they belong to the people.

And so when I get called upon as a song keeper to share in a traditional way, maybe through ceremonies, socials, and a lot of times even sacred fires and funerals and things like that where we would sing those songs, you know, most of us that keep the songs will show up at these gatherings, and that's what we can, I guess, add to it or give to the community.

- So do you usually perform those songs when you're doing the old traditional songs, do you usually do them in more of a, I don't wanna say quarrel, but in a group way, there's lots of you singing together?

- Yes.

That's definitely traditionally how it's done.

It's almost always done in a social setting, whether it's social or ceremonial.

There's multiple people that gather.

And typically what will happen is, you know, there'll be somebody who kind of takes the lead, you know?

And the great thing is, is, you know, all of the wonderful call and response that you hear in like modern music, you know, that comes from indigenous singing, You know, where the lead singer will call something out and then everybody responds.

And so we do that a lot in our music.

And it's not about perfection.

It's not about hitting all the right notes.

It's not about even remembering all of the chants sometimes, you know, we sing these songs all the time and we get together and still, like, we'll be asking each other, how does that song, like to start it, you know?

Yeah, like trying to remind each other how to start these songs.

So it's very open and it's really just about, you know, the love and the energy and not worrying about perfection, just being in the moment and adding to the energy and the frequency that's happening in that moment.

- And the community.

- Exactly.

You know, in our communities, like any community, you know, different people are at different things and they offer something to the community.

Now, in ancient times, you had different families that were broken up by clans, and each family had a thing that they were good at.

You know, like one family was really good with the medicine.

Another family might be able to tell the people like, predict the future or dream what's gonna happen, so they can tell people.

Another family might be able to heal you just by putting their hands on you.

And then some people kept songs, you know, and together it makes a whole.

- Okay, makes sense.

- Yeah.

The first songs that I sang were Wabanaki greeting songs.

In our language gwunnu means welcome and so you heard in the song gwunnu day, you heard me saying gwunnu over and over.

And when we gather, you know, for dancing and social, we always start with those songs.

And so when I do my stage show, instead of singing each song individually and stopping and starting, I like to put three or four of them together and make it kind of like one song.

It gives a variety and it shows the different music from the different Wabanaki communities.

(singers vocalizing) (tranquil music) (singers continue vocalizing) (singers continue vocalizing) (singers continue vocalizing) (adventurous music) (person singing in Wabanaki language) (person continues singing in Wabanaki language) (singers vocalizing) (singers continue vocalizing) (person singing in Wabanaki language) (person continues singing in Wabanaki language) (singers vocalizing) - [Carolyn] So, "Wabanavia," tell me about that.

- "Wabanavia" was born from an offer from Portland Museum of Art.

They approached me and asked me if I wanted to join this international exhibit that was starting in at the Portland Museum and was gonna travel to Iceland and Sweden on a multi-year journey.

- Well, that's perfect for you.

- Yeah, and so the exhibit was called Down North.

And so I didn't really know what I was gonna do, but I had created this, I had already created this song that was a combination of traditional Wabanaki welcome song chanting, but it was set into a Scandinavian scale.

- Oh, cool.

- And I put like, you know, futuristic dulcimers and there was some Iron Age sort of sounding things in there, and it was already sort of being born before I even knew what it was all gonna become, you know?

So I have the song first, and then I said, well, what if I make a movie, a short film to go with the soundtrack, you know?

And so I started doing a little bit of research and really interesting thing about Wabanaki and Scandinavian Viking culture is they're very parallel to each other.

You know, we come from the ash tree and the Vikings come from the ash tree.

You know, in Wabanaki culture, we have the gigantic bird that sits up on top of Mount Katahdin and makes the wind and they have the same bird, you know, and it's just one thing after another that it's parallel.

So what that tells me is, what I choose to believe is that our people were interacting with each other, you know, long before any historian or, you know, anthropologists might be willing to admit, you know?

And so I envisioned a world where, what if, you know, these two cultures came together and made a hybrid culture, that's like me.

And it just went into this offshoot, like a parallel dimension or universe, what would that look like?

And so without any storyboarding or any idea of what I was gonna do, I just really let the music lead me.

And I let what I saw in my mind's eye lead me.

And I built the first set in my home studio, a miniature forest.

And by the time, you know, all the opening scenes were shot, I already knew in my mind, like I started seeing the pictures of where it was gonna go.

So then I would just tear the set down and then build a new one and shoot that.

And this went on for like three months over the winter.

And finally ended up with a five minute short film.

It started at Portland Museum, traveled around.

While it was on travel I was contacted by the Farnsworth Art Museum and never imagined in my life that they would want to collect it and put it in their permanent collection, so.

- Congratulations.

My gosh.

You're just like burning up the world and it's so exciting.

- First piece of digital art in their collection and, yeah.

And I believe one of the first, if not the first Native American art that they've ever collected.

- So you're gonna perform again, and you're gonna be performing a song with Flash Allen.

Tell me about what you have decided to do.

- The first song we're gonna sing is called "The Longest Walk."

It's an honor song.

It's not a Wabanaki song originally, but we've adopted it into our communities and as well as I'm sure every other indigenous community in North America, we all sing this song.

And this was a song that was written in honor of the Trail of Tears.

And then back in the '70s there was a large gathering of indigenous people that marched on to Washington DC and that was called The Longest Walk.

And it was to bring attention to conditions and sovereignty and indigenous rights and all those things that we've, you know, been dealing with.

And my grandfather, who was the chief of our tribe, he was actually in that walk.

And I have a picture of him while he's on that walk.

My mom said when he got home, his feet were so swollen and he didn't have like proper foot, he had like business shoes, you know.

- No Nikes for him.

- He was not wearing sneakers.

No.

Yeah.

So not only is it a beautiful, powerful song, you know, sonically, there's so much behind it too that I think gives it that extra power and that energy.

And I get asked to sing that particular song all the time.

I sang it in the six story rotunda at the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian.

We just walked in with a friend who lives there, she was taking us on a tour.

And I said, "Oh my God, I'd love to sing in here."

She goes, "You really wanna sing in here?"

I said, "Yeah."

She goes, "I'll be right back."

She left and she came back in five minutes and she goes, "I hauled somebody down from administration.

They said, they never do this, but they gave you special permission to just go out there and sing."

And so I sang that song, you know, so that was something I'll never forget, you know?

- Oh, no kidding.

- Yeah.

You know, if you stay ready, you don't have to get ready.

- Right.

Good job.

- So I was ready for that one.

- [Carolyn] All right, so go play it for us so we can just envision what was going on.

All right.

(gentle music) You way yah yah way oh hey yah hey yo You way yah yah way oh hey yah hey yo You way yah yah way oh hey yah hey yo You way yah yah way oh way oh hey yah hey yo (Gentle piano and drumming) You way yah yah way oh hey yah hey yo You way yah yah way oh hey yah hey yo You way yah yah way oh hey yah hey yo You way yah yah way oh way oh hey yah hey yo You way yah yah way oh hey yah hey yo You way yah yah way oh hey yah hey yo You way yah yah way oh hey yah hey yo You way yah yah way oh way oh hey yah hey yo You way yah yah way oh hey yah hey yo You way yah yah way oh hey yah hey yo You way yah yah way oh hey yah hey yo You way yah yah way oh way oh hey yah hey yo You way yah hey yah You way oh hey ah hey yo You way oh hey ah hey yo hey ah hey yo You way ah hey ah oh hey yo hey ah hey yo You way ah hey ah oh way oh Way oh way ah hey oh Thank you The second song that I'm going to do with Flash, it's another honor song and it's called "The Strong Woman Song."

So it's a song that is sung to honor and is dedicated to the strength of women.

- I like that.

- Yes, another song that I love to do and a song that I perform with my wife, Donna, when we are together on stage and, yeah.

(upbeat music) Way yah way hi yo way ya Way yah way hi yo way ya Way ah hi yo oh way hi ya Way ah hi yo oh way hi ya Way ah hi yo oh way hi ya Way ah hi yo oh way hi ya (upbeat piano music continues) Way yah way hi yo way ya Way yah way hi yo way ya Way ah hi yo oh way hi ya Way ah hi yo oh way hi ya Way ah hi yo oh way hi ya Way ah hi yo oh way hi ya Way yah way hi yo way ya Way yah way hi yo way ya Way ah hi yo oh way hi ya Way ah hi yo oh way hi ya Way ah hi yo oh way hi ya Way ah hi yo oh way hi ya