(The
following article is from
the December 1-31,
2007
issue of People's Voice, Canada's leading communist newspaper. Articles
can be reprinted free if the source is credited. Subscription rates in
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by Kimball
Cariou
November 15 - it's
a celebration of
Louis Riel Day in Vancouver, organized by the Compaigni V'ni Dansi,
dedicated to teaching and performing traditional and contemporary
Métis
dance. Suddenly a familiar voice rings out from backstage, and Don
Freed emerges with his guitar, singing "Daughters of the Country" while
the Louis Riel Métis Dancers perform. This tribute to
Métis women was
one of the highlights of the evening, including songs by Sandy Scofield
and poetry by Joanne Arnott. Altogether, the event was powerful proof
that the Métis Nation continues to grow 122 years after Batoche.
Don Freed
performed several other numbers from his recent CD, The Valley of Green
and Blue,
produced with the help of the Gabriel Dumont Institute.
Readers who
take the time to
order this CD through a local independent music store will be richly
rewarded. Not being a music critic, I'll turn to John Kendle of
Winnipeg's Uptown Magazine for this commentary:
"In just 65
minutes, veteran
Canadian singer/songwriter Don Freed tells the tale of an entire
people, from origin to present day, in a thoroughly researched,
wonderfully humanist history of the Métis and the Red River
Settlement.
The scope and magnitude of this project is almost unfathomable - work
began with a small grant in 1991 - yet Freed manages the journey from
beginning to end in just 15 songs, culminating with a breathtaking
singalong of "When This Valley" (considered
by some to be the
Métis
national anthem) at the old church in Batoche, Saskatchewan. This
musical trek, which encompasses folk, roots, blues, jigs and reels,
begins in the 17th century and touches on the fur-trade wars, the first
settlements at Red River, the massacre at Seven Oaks, the politics of
Manitoba, the tale of Louis Riel and Sir John A. Macdonald, and the
struggle of a people without a home. Along the way we meet many
remarkable characters, from the first man named Sansregret to Gabriel
Dumont and his rifle, Le Petit. Aided and abetted by a star-studded
cast of local roots and bluegrass players, from Dan Frechette to Sierra
Noble to four-fifths of The Duhks, the thin-voiced but always
passionate Freed has created a masterpiece of musical storytelling."
Freed
dedicates the CD with the
following words: "Recently, I have been telling stories and singing
songs to schoolchildren. When I ask the groups gathered before me how
many of them are Métis I am pleased to see hands rise. There was
once a
dark and difficult time when this would not happen. It is to those
generations who could not raise their hands that this recording is
dedicated."
I was deeply
gratified to hear the following lines in "The Ballad of Johnny
Sansregret": "Malcolm
Norris and Jim Brady both deserve a lot of praise / For their vision in
the time they lived and determined work they've done." Norris
and Brady, of course, were the famed "Métis patriots of the 20th
century," whose pioneer organizing campaigns starting in the 1920s
played a critical role in the re-emergence of the Métis Nation.
Jim
Brady was also the most prominent Communist Party activist among the
Métis in Saskatchewan.
The CD also
features extensive
liner notes, including the lyrics, historic photos, and gorgeous
original artwork by Donna Lee Dumont. Check it out at Don Freed's
website, http://www.donfreed.com,
where you can
listen to several songs from The
Valley of Green and Blue.
Found at:
http://www.peoplesvoice.ca/articleprint08/16__THE_VALLEY_OF_GREEN_AND_BLUE__A.html