Ed Peekeekoot
in the key of cree
© 2006 Ed Peekeekoot (776098184624)
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A wildly varied musical journey through one Cree man's worldview expressed in Native Flute, guitar instrumentals, songs, and spoken word in styles ranging from country to jazz. Surrey, BC Kidsfest May 29-30.
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Ed Peekeekoot
in the key of cree
© 2006 Ed Peekeekoot (776098184624)
IN THE KEY OF CREE is a wildly varied musical journey through one Cree
man’s worldview expressed in native flute, guitar instrumentals, songs and spoken word, in styles ranging from country to folk to jazz
Thanks to CBC's "On the Island" for playing Ed's "Dance of the Northern Lights" w/e May 3, 2008
ED PEEKEEKOOT, Ahtahkakoop Cree First Nation,
Living on Vancouver Island, BC, Canada
Short Biography: Known as an accomplished instrumentalist and popular entertainer, Ed offers hope and strength with original music from his First Nations perspective.
Biography: Growing up in a musical and supportive family helped Ed become a highly skilled finger-style guitarist with a great ability to entertain audiences. A singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist, Ed also plays fiddle, banjo, and traditional Native flute and drums. Ed has been nominated twice for BC Country Music Association’s instrumentalist of the year. Ed plays for dances, concerts, festivals, conferences and retreat gatherings throughout North America (see attached partial listing). Many people who have seen him as a musician don’t know Ed is an artist with carvings, paintings, and illustrations in collections around the world. He is also a workshop speaker and facilitator who talks about the “Circle of Courage” and the importance in his life of art and music. Ed also shares his art, music, and Cree culture in schools and with children’s groups. Website: www.peekeekoot.ca
Reviews:
• “The music of Ed Peekeekoot goes from foot-stomping fiddle to virtuoso classical guitar, sprinkled throughout with his Cree humour and philosophy”.
• His songs “touch our souls with their blend of traditional folk and aboriginal chants”. His voice is “rich, deep and flows over you like a soft blanket”.
• “You definitely captured and expressed the sounds of nature such as the wild animals and the howling wind through your musical interpretations. I find it difficult to illustrate the relationship of music to nature. I have studied music in Europe and Japan, but never have I experienced such music as your performance.” Ilsa Greenwold, Instructor, Julliard School of Music
Discography:
• In the Key of Cree (2006) (to be nominated for the 2008 Aboriginal People’s Choice Awards Winnipeg).
Genre: World/Aboriginal. www.cdbaby.com.cd.peekeekoot2
• Front Porch (2005) Genre: Instrumental/ Folk/Acoustic. Link: www.cdbaby.com/cd/peekeekoot1
• Two Worlds (1988) BCCMA’s EP of the Year 1988
• Also appeared on Mộcikan – Songs for Learning Cree (2007) by Art Napolean.
Film and Radio:
• Ed’s guitar instrumental Land of the Raven was the theme music for the film series, North American Indian Portraits. He was featured in that series in a film called Gentleman Cowboy of Honkytonk.
• The APTN (TV) series Beyond Words profiled Ed as artist & musician in 2006.
• Airplay on CBC and on campus & community radio in Canada and the U.S.
• The National Campus and Community Radio Association chose Wild Lilies to Wheat Fields from In the Key of Cree for a track on their “Dig Your Roots – Aboriginal” compilation CD, in 2006. Five national concerts followed, each broadcast live nationally on campus and community radio stations.
Music Manager of Ed Peekeekoot: Annie Palovcik, TK Media anniep@saltspring.com
250-537-9571
Performances at Festivals, Concerts, Conferences throughout North America
Performances of 2007/ 2008 include:
• North American Indigenous Games, BC
• Atlin Art & Music Festival, BC
• John Arcand Fiddle Festival, SK
• Saskatoon Fringe Festival, SK
• Salt Spring Island Folk Club, BC
• Native History Month at the Native American Art Gallery, Dallas TX (with support from Canadian Foreign Affairs)
• 100 Mile House Cowboy Concert, BC
• Kamloops Cowboy Festival, BC
• Concerts Under the Stars, Salt Spring Island, BC
• Elders Conference Gathering, Quadra Island, BC
• Islands Folk Festival, Duncan. BC
• Surrey Children’s Festival, BC
• Walking in Balance Conference, Fort St. John, BC
• Envision Twilight Concert Series, Mission, BC
2009 (several pending concerts in Alberta and British Columbia)
As well, Ed Peekeekoot plays at a host of other dances/concert events at Legions, Senior's Centres, Cafes and Restaurants and private bookings: annie palovcik anniep@saltspring.com
SCHEDULE
Performances at Festivals, Concerts, Conferences throughout North America
Elders Conference Gathering, Quadra Island, BC Apr 28-29
Spirit of Cowichan Festival, Cowichan Bay, BC May 3
Surrey, BC Childrens’ Festival with Winston Wuttenee May 29-31
Concerts Under the Stars, Tree House Cafe,
Salt Spring Island, BC, with Alan Moberg Jun 20
Art Workshop, Penticton, BC Jun 23-27
Art Show, Opening Reception, Victoria Art Gallery Jul 19
Tree House Cafe, SSI, with Alan Moberg Jul 20
Islands Folk Festival, Duncan, BC Jul 25-27
COWICHAN 2008:
North American Indigenous Games, Duncan, BC Aug 3-10
Tree House Cafe Aug 17
Walking in Balance Conference, Fort St. John, BC
As well, Ed Peekeekoot plays at a host of other dances/concert events at Legions, Senior's Centres, Cafes and Restaurants and private bookings.
2008/2009 A number of pending concerts in Alberta and British Columbia.
Performances of 2007/ 2008 have included:
2007:
• Atlin Art & Music Festival, BC
• John Arcand Fiddle Festival, SK
• Sooke River Folk Festival, BC
• Saskatoon Fringe Festival, SK
2008:
• Salt Spring Island Folk Club, BC
• Native History Month at the Native American Art
Gallery, Dallas TX (with support from Canadian
Foreign Affairs)
• 100 Mile House Cowboy Concert, BC
• Kamloops Cowboy Festival, BC
The first round of voting for the Aboriginal People’s Choice Music Awards begins
July 8-August 15. Registration is free to anyone wishing to cast a ballot. Peekeekoot’s CD of originals IN THE KEY OF CREE CD, featuring his Land of the Raven*, will be available for voting on in several categories. *on iTunes
For more information:
www.cdbaby.com/cd/peekeekoot1
www.peekeekoot.ca
www.aboriginalpeopleschoice.com/signup
ARTIST’S STATEMENT
ED PEEKEEKOOT, Ahtahkakoop Cree First Nation
British Columbia Singer-songwriter/ Instrumentalist / Artist
I relate in many ways to the man I describe in one of my songs (Wild Lilies to Wheat Fields – © 2006) as being “a farmer, provider, a warrior and survivor, a daydream catcher, a seeker of visions and truth. He’s a hunter, sundancer, and he’s a rain cloud watcher. . .” I’m a musician and an artist but the farmer in my song and I are both blending our cultural ways with the mainstream world, holding our truth, and working to provide for our families when it seems like a long time between those vital “rain clouds” that nurture growth in the things we’ve been steadily and quietly looking after.
Music, art, and a supportive and loving family have helped me travel on a good path throughout my life. I can’t call myself self-taught but my education in art and music has been both intentional and informal, learning on my own as well as going to workshops and classes and spending time with friends who are artists and musicians. I give deep thanks for the creative and generous people in my life who have shared their gifts with me.
I would have had to work hard not to become a musician in my family, where my mother was my first guitar teacher when I was about four. Art was the one thing I excelled at and got positive recognition for in school. Life was not always easy but art and music fed my soul and do so to this day.
I was sixteen when my grandfather decided to move us away from life on the reserve and we came out to BC. He wanted us to have opportunities he didn’t see in Saskatchewan. I have lived in BC most of my life, both in the Interior and now on the Coast.
For many years, I worked as a solo musician in the mainstream country music scene – mostly in BC but also across the Prairies. Even though my Cree heritage and growing up in a musical family shaped me, I avoided being labeled as a “Native musician”. I wanted to be known as a great musician who just happened to be “Native” as I paid my mainstream dues. This all changed a few years ago after a visit to my home community, Ahtahkakoop, in Saskatchewan.
On this trip, I saw signs that the people in my community were starting to practice their cultural ways once again. There were sweat lodges and the sun dance grounds had been reclaimed. This and other important experiences opened me to a deepening interest in exploring my First Nations heritage through music and, in 2006, I released “In the Key of Cree”, a CD of original pieces from my cultural perspective.
For decades before this, I had been using prairie First Nations themes in my paintings and carvings, which are now in collections around the world. With the release of that CD, I am now working with both my music and art as contemporary expressions of my life in BC blended with my Cree heritage.
With guitar, Native flute, fiddle, drum and voice I create what I call “sound paintings”. These are the sounds and melodies heard in our dreams that take us on spirit journeys. In songs and instrumentals, I move from evoking nature, myth, and traditional ways of knowing to offering encouragement to First Nation people facing the sometimes stark realities of urban life. Raven and Coyote, tricksters and transformers, make their way into my music, stories, performances, and art.
Just as my music evokes nature and myth, these are also the themes of my paintings and carvings. While I am careful to honor BC First Nations artists by not working in their traditional style, I have been deeply influenced and inspired by them and by living close to the ocean and forest on this beautiful Island. My mystical cottonwood bark carvings of animals, birds, plants, family groupings, and spirits are like totem poles. Each image relates to the others and has spiritual significance. My carvings and wildlife paintings speak of the interconnectedness of All Life.
I love the way my music and art uplift people and give them happiness and hope. There is a spirit of renewal that new generations of children and youth are bringing to the Earth; and music and art walk hand in hand with that spirit.
I would like people to hear and see a lifetime’s work by a contemporary British Columbia artist and musician whose Cree roots have been nurtured and have taken hold in this soil.
*from Wild Lilies to Wheat Fields
©2006EdPeekeekoot