Native American Music Award 2009

In addition to winning, with Michael Bucher, a Native American Music Award (Nammy) on Oct. 3, for Best Compilation, she has seen another Grammy nomination for their CD Bitter Tears (Hondo Mesa) in the Best Folk category. She won a Grammy in 2006 for Sacred Ground in the Folk category. 

Actually, she hasn’t entirely cleared
the nomination process. “It’s in the first round of nominations,” she
corrects. “So we’ll see if it makes it to the next round. The record
company makes the nomination, and they put it in the Folk category, not
the Native American. It’s very competitive. The last time I was in the
Folk category, it was with Bob Dylan.”

Not that awards mean that much to
Shenandoah, the celebrated Iroquois singer-songwriter who lives in
Oneida Castle; her Native American name is, fittingly, Tekaliwah-Kwa, She Sings.
“I’ve always said awards don’t really define who I am,” she admits.
“It’s a really nice honor and it gives me a chance to thank all the
people who have contributed to my love of music.”

If attending an awards show is a little
lofty for the average Central New Yorker, Shenandoah is making two
local appearances this week. You will be impressed with how
approachable she is. First up is a CD signing and reception Wednesday,
Nov. 4, in Room 432 of Newhouse 3 on the Syracuse University campus. It
takes place from 5 to 7 p.m., and CDs will be available for purchase
for $20. For information, call 443-2785.

Then on Thursday, Nov. 5, she will
present a lecture at 4 p.m. and performance at 7 p.m. at Onondaga
Community College’s Storer Auditorium. “I will be speaking on the
importance of using our creator-given gifts to make the world a better
place.” For information on the OCC event, call 498-2787.

But wait, there’s more! Shenandoah will be traveling at the end of this month to Melbourne, Australia, for the Parliament of the World’s Religions,
which was “created to cultivate harmony among the world’s religious and
spiritual communities and foster their engagement with the world and
its guiding institutions in order to achieve a just, peaceful and
sustainable world,” according to its Web site. “My sister Diane and I
will be performing,” she says of the Dec. 3 to 9 event which the Dalai
Lama, among other spiritual leaders, will attend.

She recently released a mediation CD with Sheila Applegate, Enchanted Garden,
that she says “was a lot of fun to work on. It’s a 30-minute meditation
with Sheila speaking. I have heard it many times, and every time it has
the same effect on me: It relaxes you and gives you a sense of
well-being and inner peace. It will help you release your anxiety and
angst of general living.”

Shenandoah, a member of the Wolf Clan of
the Iroquois, has also traveled to Europe and Korea, performing there
in front of several thousand Buddhists, as well as performing
domestically at Carnegie Hall and on May 3 at Madison Square Garden for
a PBS special celebrating Pete Seeger’s 90th birthday and raising funds
to benefit Clearwater, the Hudson River sloop which strives to preserve
and protect the waterway. “Good heavens,” she says, clearly awed, “Arlo
Guthrie and Bruce Springsteen and Dave Matthews and Bruce Cockburn and
Joan Baez, all these amazing musicians were there.”

Her collaborations continue as well. “I
have a new project coming out with Arlo Guthrie,” she says. “It’s an
anti-nuclear CD and I have a cut on that.” And she is on a CD that will
benefit the Rome (N.Y.) YMCA with Jennifer Warnes. “That’s going to be
a national release.” And for 2010, Shenandoah is working on an album
about love and life. “It’s very folk-oriented. I don’t have a name for
it, but I’ve been writing songs and I’m very thrilled. I feel like some
of my best work is yet to come.”

As for her career trajectory so far,
Shenandoah laughs when asked if it’s what she thought it would be. “I
didn’t realize I’d be recording so many albums. My first is named Joanne Shenandoah,
like that was kind of a test run, you know? Still, it’s been more
fulfilling than I could have imagined, having an opportunity to perform
for world leaders, world spiritual leaders, just about everyone of all
ages, from birth to death. That’s what I call my music, a celebration
of life. My audiences have always been very diverse, no matter what
age, religion or color, they’ve been varied and wide. And I love that.
I feel very blessed.”