www.wadefernandez.com

8/26-27/05


photo by Deseroka

We had a prime slot. 7:30pm on a Saturday night at a two day outdoor music festival--The Wolf River Protection Fund Concert on the Mole Lake Reservation in Wisconsin.
A concert for a cause with an audience of 20,000 I was told.


"Church Vibe"

I arrived on Friday night b4 my Saturday gig and was able to check out a little of the Jerry Garcia Band. Melvin Seals was cool on the keys. A nice feel. Melvin calls it the "church vibe." It's that organic soul of blues, funk and gospel meshed together.

I played at a black church in Milwaukee for about 3-4 months and that vibe was there. The keyboardist sang kind of like Luther Vandross but with a little more edge to his voice and played a pretty mean B3 organ with keyboard bass. His son was only 11 but played just as good as anybody but also had that "church vibe." I played electric guitar through an old late 50s accordian tube amp. We had some of the coolest jams. A lot of improv that I wish I would have caught on tape. It was also a lot of fun playing call and response with the preacher as his sermons rose in intensity. I wasn't a member of their church but that didn't matter they were happy to have me jamming and used to come up and say man you sure you ain't part black. As time went on I became to busy to do the gig every Sunday and gave it up. But I still remember it as one of the coolest gigs I've had.

Burnt Toast and Jam

Saturday I woke up a bit tired after hunting down my band from the hotel phone all night. I had found out when I arrived on Friday night that I had been misled with thinking there was a backline and had to tell my band to bring their amps, my amp, and the drumset.
I soon remembered I was going to set in with Burnt Toast and Jam at 1:15pm before my band went on in the evening. I was excited because BT & J are made up of some great friends with a unique style of cool original music (Dewgrass) that always keeps me on my toes and smiling every time I set in. They have a pretty cool new CD called "Lost In the Woods" that I was honored to play on.

John (percussion) and Todd (bass) held down the groove while Tim (acoustic gtr), Kirby (banjo), Pat (dobro & acstc gtr), and I floated over the top and plugged in some choice holes. They do the harmony vocal thing like a bluegrass group but also can rock out a little. The site of the concert used to be the location of a large bluegrass festival, so BT &J performed songs that made reference to it. Tim broke two strings on his acoustic during the set but the energy kept flowing. At one point in the show I looked out and saw my good friend Clint Miller the reknowned native musician smiling and giving a thumbs up. It is always good to see him. He's like a little brother and best friend combined. When we finished our set everyone wanted to keep going.

WADE FERNANDEZ GROUP

My usual Black Wolf Band were contracted for a gig in Chicago way before this Mole Lake Concert was booked. So I had to pull a band together quick. My uncle Mario Fernandez was this great bass player from the 70s-80s and then kind of quit. I called him up and asked him if he'd like to play in front of 20,000 people (earlier I was told that 20,000 tickets had been sold for the festival) and he said it was the opportunity he was looking for to get started playing again. So he was in. My friend "Buzzy" Brian Agustine played one gig with me in Cleveland over the summer and he was in as well. My bass player, Bryan Mir said he was available and is a killer guitarist so I asked him to play guitar. We rehearsed Monday and Friday before the gig and then took it to the stage Saturday night.

We started with Rain Woman
I began to improvise with my A minor cedar double flute and then the band began to add atmosphere with cymbals, bass pedaling the key note and guitar layers. The audience grew quiet and just stared. Then we went into the song and it sounded pretty good. Way better than our rehearsal. I closed my eyes and really felt the melody sing out of my flute. When I started to play the guitar solo. I noticed the guitar mix in the monitors was way too loud. I used my best Indian hand signals (smile) to tell the man on the monitor mix to turn it down. He didn't speak Menominee so he came over after the song and asked me what I wanted. I soloed on the guitar more lyrical than anything else. I felt like throwing in some flourishes a few times but the music said no thanks and I listened this time. When we finished the tune. I heard comments from the audience that it was beautiful. It was a nice moment. Kind of like when I play in Europe and the audience is quiet throughout the song until the last note.

Next was an honoring for the organizers of the benefit concert. They really deserved it since it was for such a great cause (preserving the beauty, pristineness, and sacredness of the Wolf River). I performed an honor song on the hand drum for them.

After that it was time to rock and we did with A Fool's Gold. Bryan and I traded solos during the last solo section. It's nice to have another guitar player in the band that can kick your butt every once in awhile and make you play better.

We also did Discovering America which is a ton of fun to jam on because it's melodic but yet you can cut loose on it, a different version of Red House, Play That Guitar Man (Deadly Jam), Commodity Cheese Blues (watch the award winning music video)(watch the award winning music video) , One Way Out, Funky 49, A Guitar Chants For the People (my friend Darren Thompson set in and played some good flute), and Reservation Line which gathered a lot of applause with its fast blues shuffle tempo. It would have been a good finale had it ended right there but we wanted to take them somewhere else first.
So we finished the set with Mosquito
It begins kind of mysteriously over a V#5 chord with a 6/8 jazz rock feel. Then it eases gently into the i minor chord with the vocals. It builds and builds to quite an intense ending. I let myself go with this one, took my hands off the wheel and let the music drive as my body flowed with the notes coming through my guitar. Buzzy and Mario really laid down a fat groove on this one. The audience came along for the ride and let us know it when we ended.

When we finished our set, the audience was screaming for more. The radio MCs were announcing INDIGENOUS was coming out next and someone shouted out in reference to us, "That's going to be a hard act to follow." But I knew Indigenous would have no problem following us so I just smiled at the compliment and kind of shook my head a little.

INDIGENOUS

When I walked off the stage my friend Wandbi, the drummer from Indigenous said, "You guys were great!" We gave a hug of greeting and she introduced me to her mom who was on tour with them and helping to sell the CDs. She seemed to be a real nice lady with a warm smile and I was honored to meet her. Pte and Mato also gave nice compliments. They are nice people that I've known since sharing a bill in Minneapolis at First Act (where Prince filmed part of Purple Rain). I was then backing up my big brother Mitch Walking Elk. The thing that is really special about them is not only their musical skills but they are also a native family band. The only other group like that I know of are my friends, Blackfire.
Indigenous rocked with a blistering set as usual. Wandbi and Pte laid down the heavy grooves while Mato let his guitar scream over the top.
Afterwards I gave them a copy of my new video "Commodity Cheese Blues" (click on the videos link) and we said our see ya laterz.

THE CAUSE

The concert was about much more than the music. It was about the preservation of one of our greatest gifts--our natural resources. The Wolf River runs through the heart of my reservation, (Menominee). It has been a source of sustenance for our people and for all of the animals and plants. It is also one of the most pristine rivers in the U.S. and was one of the most threatened in the USA when the mining companies held the title to the mine site. There were many efforts to stop the mine for many years. My wife and I helped to organize and partake in a walk/run called NEPEW (means water in Menominee but see the links below for the acronym and more about the walk) in support of this issue several years ago before we were married. A lot of people have come together to fight for the river and to make a long story short, the people won and the multinational mining corporation lost. Well almost, the Mole Lake tribe is trying hard to foot the bill for purchasing the mine site. If they don't come through then the mining companies can have another crack at it.
NEPEW
walk
Please go to Wolf River Protection Fund to read more about and if you can please make a donation.


Waewaenen for your interest and I will keep posting as I can!


Wade Fernandez/Wiciwen Apis-Mahwaew

www.wadefernandez.com