{"id":45,"date":"2009-02-15T07:26:59","date_gmt":"2009-02-15T15:26:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/gerrytaylor.thedrawlyn.com\/?p=45"},"modified":"2009-02-15T07:26:59","modified_gmt":"2009-02-15T15:26:59","slug":"buffy-saint-marie","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/rockshoreidyll.ca\/gerrytaylor\/2009\/02\/15\/buffy-saint-marie\/","title":{"rendered":"Buffy Sainte-Marie to Open 51st Miramichi Folksong Festival"},"content":{"rendered":"

All the lights of Broadway don’t amount to an acre of green,
\nAnd I’m gonna be a country girl again.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"gtbuffy08sm\"Entrancing, wild, jubilant … like no voice I had ever heard before! So beautifully controlled yet so primitive in its passion, evoking visions of native village fires of long ago!<\/p>\n

That is how I felt on hearing Buffy Sainte-Marie on radio in 1964 for the first time. It was a voice I required daily doses of for the next dozen years, as she released 12 vinyl LP records and two ‘best of” doubles, which I quickly acquired. Each had its treasures, the plaintive lamenting of Now That The<\/em> Buffalo’s Gone<\/em>, the wild exuberance of Cripple Creek<\/em>, the beautiful soaring intonations of Gonna Be A<\/em> Country Girl Again<\/em> and the eerie haunting falsetto of Vampire…<\/em>so many creations of her pen that no voice but her own will ever imbue with the same magic!<\/p>\n

Then she released number 13, Sweet America,<\/em> in 1976 and, as unheralded as she appeared on charts internationally, she vanished from the recording scene. It left me grieving I had not seen her live in concert, that, although born in Saskatchewan, she had never appeared this far east.<\/p>\n

But that is soon to change! A bulletin from Susan Butler lists Buffy Sainte-Marie as headlining the Official Opening Concert of the 51st<\/sup> Miramichi Folk Song Festival, August 4, 7 p.m. at that city’s Civic Centre.<\/p>\n

Born on a Cree reservation in Qu’Appelle Valley, Saskatchewan, Buffy, orphaned in infancy, was adopted by relatives, Albert and Winifred Sainte-Marie, and raised in Maine and Massachusetts.\u00a0 Musically gifted she taught herself piano and guitar at an early age and on graduating university with a PHD in Fine Art and Oriental philosophy and teaching degrees, she quickly became known as a writer of protest songs. In 1962 Buffy hit the concert trail, booking her own venues and traveling alone, playing universities, First Nation community centers and concert halls.\u00a0 In 1963 appalled by Vietnam campaign wounded returning, she wrote Universal<\/em> Soldier, <\/em>which included<\/em> on her debut Vanguard album, It’s My Way<\/em>, quickly climbed singles charts, leading to her being voted Billboard magazine’s Best New Artist in1964.<\/p>\n

As well as her own phenomenal chart successes that followed, numerous songs she penned,like Until It’s Time For You To Go and Piney Wood Hills<\/em>, became block buster hits for Barbra Streisand, Elvis Presley, Janis Joplin, Bobby Bare and Donovan among others.<\/p>\n

By age 24, Buffy had toured Europe, Asia, Australia, the US and Canada, was showered with awards, medals, and many honours. And, although, opting to quit recording in 1976 she embraced children’s TV, joining the Sesame Street cast for five years.<\/p>\n

Involvement with writing, Aboriginal teaching, computers and art followed.<\/p>\n

In 1992 <\/em>she recorded Coincidence & Likely Stories <\/em>and in 1996. <\/em>France named her Best International Artist in 1993 and the United Nations selected her to proclaim 1993 International Indigenous Peoples Year. Induction into the Juno Hall of Fame came in 1995.<\/em> In 1997 she won a Gemini Award Up Where We Belong,<\/em> released in 1996, and was made an Officer Of The Order of Canada. A resident of Hawaii for many years, she limits herself to 20 concerts a year so the Miramichi is greatly honoured. It’s her only NB concert…so don’t miss it!<\/p>\n

Tickets are now available at Books Inn and Bill’s Kwikway, Miramichi Stitching Post, Bathurst, by calling Susan Butler at 506-662-1780, or emailing bb2@nb.sympatico.ca<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Entrancing, wild, jubilant … like no voice I had ever heard before! So beautifully controlled yet so primitive in its passion, evoking visions of native village fires of long ago!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14,20,5,21],"tags":[33,56],"class_list":["post-45","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-2008-performers","category-country","category-festival","category-folk","tag-buffy-sainte-marie","tag-miramichi-folksong-festival"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/rockshoreidyll.ca\/gerrytaylor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/rockshoreidyll.ca\/gerrytaylor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/rockshoreidyll.ca\/gerrytaylor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rockshoreidyll.ca\/gerrytaylor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rockshoreidyll.ca\/gerrytaylor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=45"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/rockshoreidyll.ca\/gerrytaylor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/rockshoreidyll.ca\/gerrytaylor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=45"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rockshoreidyll.ca\/gerrytaylor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=45"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rockshoreidyll.ca\/gerrytaylor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=45"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}