Music has been recognized as a universal language many times over. From the first moments of a song to the last, a person can go from feeling one emotion to another, regardless of lyrics. Very often the communication is in the notes, not the words.
Joanne Shenandoah recognizes and demonstrates this idea in her new independent album Lifegivers, a record dedicated to her daughter, Leah. The album, which has been endorsed by influential author and lecturer Jean Houston and nationally recognized feminist, journalist and activist Gloria Steinem, aims to capture moments in the life cycle of a woman. “She Was Born,” “She Becomes a Woman,” “She Teaches” and “She Returned Home” are among the tracks meant to exemplify those life events, without necessarily speaking about them in a language most may understand, as she sings in the Oneida language, a dialect of Iroquois.
“For me, this recording goes beyond the language,” Shenandoah says in a phone interview, as she winds her way home from a weekend of concerts in New York City. “That’s why it’s kind of fun to sing in the language. While some might get hung up on the language, really what it is for me is a vibration of sound and celebration. You can feel it and hear it in my voice when I’m singing about a specific subject, a memory from someone who touched me deeply. Honoring them with that song.”
Shenandoah, a Grammy Award-winning artist with more Native American Music Awards to her name than any other Nammy winner, has released 15 albums, performed at the White House, Carnegie Hall, three presidential inaugurations, Madison Square Garden and Woodstock 1994, and shared stages with Pete Seeger, Willie Nelson, Waylon Jennings, Richie Havens, Robbie Robertson, Neil Young and Chuck Berry among others. She has also written several books and appeared in movies such as The Last Winter (2006), and television programs including Songs of the Spirit on PBS and Jikonseshay on the Discovery Channel.
Shenandoah, a member of the Wolf Clan, Oneida, Iroquois Confederacy, says that the idea for Lifegivers had rolled around in her mind for a decade until last summer, when she started putting titles to the songs. Not long after pinning down her album concepts, Shenandoah traveled to Colorado to work on a film, where she had the brainstorm to reach out to Tom Wasinger, a Colorado-based producer and friend. Wasinger had some free time, so the album was recorded within a quick two weeks.
“It all came together beautifully,” Shenandoah says. “I wanted to make it more natural sounding, not quite as intensely produced as some of my other projects and productions like Skywoman (Silver Wave, 2005), which is a whole symphony. It took 12 years to get that done.
This is a real natural progression for me and the work that I’ve done.”
Lifegivers also encompasses many of Shenandoah’s personal experiences and beliefs, including her attitude to embrace—rather than fear—life. “I don’t know if we’re taught to be, but we learn to be afraid of birth, afraid of life and afraid of death,” she explains. “In the Iro quois way, we’re supposed to embrace all of those. Life experiences are natural parts of who we are, as opposed to always living in fear of what happens next.”
This idea of being unafraid was faced head-on by Shenandoah in September 2008, when she was stopped at a traffic light, and a driver, who was texting behind her, rammed her at 45 mph. Two of Shenandoah’s vertebrae were shattered, followed by a slow and difficult recovery. A year later, she also lost her mother, Maisie Shenandoah, on Dec. 2, 2009.
Rather than let these obstacles burden her, Shenandoah turned her mother’s passing into a song, “She Returned Home.” The Iroquois believe in a beautiful transition where the departed leave the earth to walk along the Milky Way with their relatives, loved ones and ancestors.
“She {Maisie} always said to me, ‘Don’t mourn my death when I go because I’ll be among my relatives, among my loved ones. And I’ll be there when you get there.’ So it’s a natural process,” Shenandoah says. “That’s something that I love about this particular recording. It hopefully helps to ease the soul.”
This calming theme is apparent in Shenandoah’s music, with her gentle voice floating above soft instrumentals. She also recognizes the impact of Masaru Emoto, a Japanese author and doctor of alternative medicine, who studied the effects of sounds on water. In his studies, Emoto found that if beautiful music was played into water, magnificent crystal patterns would form when it was frozen. If hard, harsh music was played, the crystals would form sharp edges and rough designs.
“It’s the same with our bodies,” she says. “We’re 75 percent water. All the vibration that we put in there is profound. The vibration of music and different notes actually are healing to different chakras of your body. So if this vibration is going through you, it helps align things in a really good way.”
Additionally, her music refers to other ways of alignment in life. In “She Has a Good Mind,” Shenandoah explains that the phrase refers to the idea that as long as people use their creator-given gifts with a good mind, they will fulfill their responsibility on earth, as all living things do in the natural world, from plants to trees to animals. They will leave behind a better world and live a happier life along the way.
Shenandoah is currently working on growing The Institute for Indigenous Knowledge with Syracuse University, which she hopes will provide a place for people to learn of Native knowledge. She was also featured on an album, A Prayer Circle: Path to Zero (Downtown), alongside Sting, Bono, Robert Downey Jr., Sinead O’Connor and a recording of Jim Morrison, which was made to help raise nuclear awareness.
“I feel very blessed to still be able to sing,” she says gratefully, referring to her accident scare. “But I’m still doing what I love and what I’m meant to do.”
Joanne Shenandoah will be appearing at Barnes & Noble, 3454 Erie Blvd. E., DeWitt, on Saturday, Dec. 17, 2 to 4 p.m., to promote Lifegivers and meet fans and sign books and albums, new and old. For information, call 449-2947.
Listen to a track from Lifegivers here:
