Jana Mashonee

At 29 years old, Jana Mashonee of the Lumbee/Tuscarora tribes has already been nominated for a Grammy, established a nonprofit organization, acted in two movies, written a book, performed for two First Families (Laura Bush and the Obamas), started the first Native American-run record label and caused a controversy when she covered Led Zeppelin’s “Stairway to Heaven” in 2002, taking on the song in a decidedly Mashonee fashion.

“I wanted to do a dance version of the song,” she explains in a phone interview from North Carolina. “I did the song in the original key, did it as much to the respect that it was done before, but it was my version. It was just a different way.”

People reacted vehemently, Mashonee recalls. “People were pissed, saying, ‘No girl should be singin’ this song,’ and ‘No one should touch this song,’ but it ended up being a really great launch for me as far as putting my name out there. It put me on the Billboard Dance Charts. And Jimmy Page heard it and loved my version. And it was funny because we had made this whole thing of me doing it in the original key and he was like, ‘There is no other key to sing it in.’”

Before receiving her Page stamp of approval, Mashonee hadn’t necessarily been set on being a performer. Growing up in North Carolina, she sang in her church choir, but had plans to become a doctor, which led to her enrolling at Dickinson College in the early 2000s. “I was working in a band and I realized this is my dream and if I want to do it, I need to do it well; I’m still young,” she says. “So I stayed in college, but I decided that music was my passion and I wanted to try it and I’ve been doing it ever since.”

Mashonee released her first album, Flash of a Firefly (Radical Records) in 2005, and quickly followed with American Indian Christmas (Standing Stone/SOAR Records) the same year. The concept album American Indian Story (Standing Stone/SOAR, 2006) launched her beyond the 2002 Led Zep controversy to recognition as a Grammy-award nominee. The video for the single “The Enlightened Time” also went on to win a Native American Music Award (Nammy) for Best Short Form Music Video, and music from the album has been featured in the Discovery Channel series Flying Wild Alaska.

The well-received concept album chronicles the journey of the heroine, Sha’kona, by telling stories of her life through song. But people wanted more. “People suggested that I expand the story,” Mashonee says. “I’m not an author. I’ve never written a book before, so we originally thought of a ghost writer, but it didn’t reflect what I wanted to say or the main heroine wanted to say. So, we {Mashonee and her manager, Stephan Galfas} ended up writing the entire book.” 

After the book and American Indian Story, which evokes her Native roots, Mashonee was ready to try something else. “I’m not just this Native artist who can only do Native music,” she says. “I don’t want to be stereotyped. People asked, ‘Are you going to do American Indian Story Part 2? And I was like, ‘No! I’m not going to do anything Native.’ There might be a part two later on, but I wasn’t ready for it.”

The result was a change in direction toward a more gospel, rhythm’n’blues sound captured on 2009’s New Moon Born, released on Mashonee’s own label, Miss Molly Records. Today, the label is also home to the big-voiced Beth Hart and the new Colombian act, Marre. 

Still, all of this is not enough for the insatiable Mashonee. In 2002, she began a foundation, Jana’s Kids, that awards annual scholarships to Native American high school students.

Mashonee saw a need years ago when she began visiting Native reservations and noticed that many of the children didn’t recognize a need for education or didn’t think they were smart enough to continue past eighth grade.  

“I was in shock of their laissez-faire attitude with education,” she says. “I’m saying some, not all, but I saw this and felt that I had to make this {education} important for kids.”

Mashonee would often perform at reservations and Native schools, but it expanded into more than that. Gradually, she began delivering motivational speeches along with her performances and nursing relationships with the students that saw her returning to check their progress.

“I’d start talking to the kids and they’d say, ‘Well, how did you get started?’ So it’s a back and forth,” she explains. “They get motivated and it gets me excited that I’m seeing progress. I go back now, two years later, and see these kids are actually in school, doing well. It’s nice to see that I made a little bit of a difference.” 

Still young, Mashonee has already made quite an impact in the Native community and beyond. She is also noticeably excited to bring her energetic performance to Stage of Nations on July 28 at 7:45 p.m. and specifically to see Joanne Shenandoah, who will close the night with a set at 9:15 p.m. 

“Joanne’s fantastic,” Mashonee says. “She’s an amazing artist. We’ve done a few shows together and hopefully we’ll be able to actually do some music together someday.”