{"id":45621,"date":"2021-07-22T17:00:00","date_gmt":"2021-07-22T23:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/native-american-blues-band-wants-us-to-pray-for-our-planet\/"},"modified":"2021-07-22T23:00:00","modified_gmt":"2021-07-22T23:00:00","slug":"native-american-blues-band-wants-us-to-pray-for-our-planet","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/native-american-blues-band-wants-us-to-pray-for-our-planet\/","title":{"rendered":"Native American blues band wants us to \u2018Pray for our Planet\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Members
Members of Blue Mountain Tribe, from left, Caleb Hairston, Pat Mata, Robin Hairston and Jeff \u201cCooper Hawk\u201d Cooper, are seeing their latest song, \u201cPray for our Planet,\u201d catch on with a worldwide audience \u2013 and picking up awards along the way. (Courtesy of Blue Mountain Tribe)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

Looking back over the last year and a half, it\u2019s safe to say we\u2019ve all been through some dark stuff: A seemingly relentless global pandemic, social unrest and violence, financial upheaval and uncertainty \u2013 a veritible shopping list of doom and gloom.<\/p>\n

But there\u2019s still room for hope \u2013 just ask the members of the blues-rock band Blue Mountain Tribe, whose latest single, \u201cPray for our Planet,\u201d is catching on not only with increasing airplay, but with music awards piling up and with film festival juries for the song and its accompanying music video as well.<\/p>\n

While the band is based in Tehachapi, California, their message for both Indigenous and non-Indigenous people isn\u2019t restricted to geography.<\/p>\n

The band is made up of Robin Hairston on vocals and harmonica (Chiricahua Apache); Caleb Hairston on lead guitar (Chiricahua Apache); Pat Mata on drums (Northern Band Chumash-Yokuts); and Jeff \u201cCooper Hawk\u201d Cooper on bass (Cherokee). Having formed 15 years ago, the band is a two-time winner at the Native American Music Awards, Best Music Video at the 2021 Latino & Native American Film Festival, and is headed to the red carpet July 30 in Las Vegas to pick up an award from the Las Vegas Film Festival.<\/p>\n\n

And it all came about because of a serendipitous meeting with producer Michael Altman (who, among other things, wrote the lyrics to the movie and television show \u201cMASH\u201d\u2019s theme song, \u201cSuicide is Painless.\u201d His father, Robert Altman, was the film\u2019s director).<\/p>\n

Robin said the idea for the band as it is now came one day when he and his son, Caleb, were watching a Native American band on PBS.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe started off as just a regular bar band, just playing the bar scene. About two years after that, we were watching a PBS concert and it was an all-Native American band called XIT, and they just totally put us in awe. They weren\u2019t playing the traditional flute and the drum \u2013 they got up there and just rocked it,\u201d he said. \u201cI was just so amazed \u2026 Caleb and I are Native American, and we\u2019re just thrilled that Native Americans can get up there and do something like that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Robin said it took about a year to find enough musicians with Native American blood to get the band together. Robin and Caleb began writing songs about Native American history, culture, what they experienced, he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe submitted one of our songs to the Native American Music Awards and we won. We won Best Blues Song (for \u201cChildren on the Rez\u201d),\u201d Robin said. \u201cAfter that, then we won again for best live performance of a blues band.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n

For more information<\/h4>\n

For more about Blue Mountain Tribe, visit bluemountaintribe.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

And now \u201cPray for our Planet,\u201d the inspiration for which, Robin said, came from a message from Chief Arvol Looking Horse asking for people to pray for the planet because of all the unrest that\u2019s been happening. \u201cI went out in the backyard and I was really inspired by his words to us and so I started to write a song about what he was talking about,\u201d Robin said.<\/p>\n

What helped put the song on the radar was the chance meeting between Robin and Michael Altman.<\/p>\n

\u201cMe and my friend are cutting the firewood and here comes this guy driving down the mountain on an ATV with a flowing beard wearing John Lennon glasses and a big smile on his face coming down the hill, and I thought, \u2018Who is this guy? I love him!\u2019 I just felt so close to him because he had a big smile on his face \u2013 he and I got to be friends,\u201d Robin said.<\/p>\n

The two got to talking about the band \u2013 Altman had seen them play in town, and when \u201cPray for our Planet\u201d came up, Altman knew he could help get the song \u2013 and a video made, setting the guys up at the famed Cherokee Studios in Hollywood, and including his brother, Robert Reed Altman, who directed the video.<\/p>\n

Altman said that he had heard Blue Mountain Tribe play in town before meeting Robin, and the timing \u2013 this all happened during the pandemic, so all projects were on hold \u2013 was perfect.<\/p>\n

\u201cI said from the beginning this is a spirit-guided project,\u201d Altman said. \u201cI don\u2019t know how it happened; he doesn\u2019t know how it happened. My brother doesn\u2019t know how it happened. We went, \u2018Hey, let\u2019s just do this,\u2019 and boom. I was able to finance the thing, and my brother was able to do the technical work for the most part. And it just happened.\u201d<\/p>\n

Next up: The band is working on its second album, and Robin said this one is going to be more bluesy.<\/p>\n

And for all of us, he offers this advice: \u201cDon\u2019t give up hope. We\u2019re under a lot of pressure with the violence that\u2019s going on, the hatred, these diseases that are popping up. And just to keep on shining. Just keep on shining. Don\u2019t let the dark overwhelm you; keep on shining, keep that light going because there\u2019s hope.<\/p>\n

katie@durangoherald.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Mountain Tribe\u2019s song, video gaining worldwide attention<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":45622,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[1060,28,4632],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-45621","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-arts-entertainment","tag-headlines","tag-rock-and-roll-music"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45621","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=45621"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45621\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/45622"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=45621"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=45621"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=45621"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=45621"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}