The
Cherokee Nation has released For Our Future, the latest
CD from the award-winning Cherokee National Youth Choir. For
Our Future is the choirs seventh album release since
their formation in 2002.
For
Our Future highlights the strengths of the Cherokee National
Youth Choir, by focusing on acappella songs for the first half of
the album and featuring selections with instrumental accompaniment
on the remainder. The choirs ability to move confidently between
the more traditional vocal approach on the older songs, to the contemporary
sounds of pop and rock on the newer songs, shows the versatility
of the group, and demonstrates why they have taken the reins as
Americas top Native American youth choir.
We
recorded these songs to honor our heritage and celebrate our future,
states Chad Smith, Principal Chief of the Cherokee Nation. Programs
today, like the Cherokee National Youth Choir program, are implemented
for the future of our children, so that they learn and use their
language and pass on this part of their Cherokee heritage.
The
sweet harmonies of the choirs young voices rise in unison
to breathe new life into North Wind, a traditional song
set to the tune of the plaintive Wayfaring Stranger.
O Happy Day highlights the delicacy and depth of the
choirs voices as they lift them in praise to the Maker. Sanctuary,
co-written by Randy Scruggs, places emphasis on the call-and-response
of the choirs male and female voices to wonderful effect.
The full gospel sound of the youth choir is fully crystallized in
the evergreen, When the Roll Is Called up Yonder which
resonates in the soul-stirring, rich beauty of the Cherokee language.
The choir re-awakens the classic I Would Not Be Denied,
exposing the strong determination of the individual, when given
voice by the many.
The
sweet harmonies of the choirs young voices rise in unison
to breathe new life into North Wind, a traditional song
set to the tune of the plaintive Wayfaring Stranger.
O Happy Day highlights the delicacy and depth of the
choirs voices as they lift them in praise to the Maker. Sanctuary,
co-written by Randy Scruggs, places emphasis on the call-and-response
of the choirs male and female voices to wonderful effect.
The full gospel sound of the youth choir is fully crystallized in
the evergreen, When the Roll Is Called up Yonder which
resonates in the soul-stirring, rich beauty of the Cherokee language.
The choir re-awakens the classic I Would Not Be Denied,
exposing the strong determination of the individual, when given
voice by the many.
Opening
with countrified fiddle and alternating bass lines, City of
Gold marks the turning point in the production of the CD,
moving away from strictly vocal, somber and traditional renderings,
to more joyous and celebratory sounds with the addition of instruments
to back the voices. Oklahoma-born Vince Gills starkly beautiful
ballad, Go Rest High is revisited here with good effect,
featuring strong male lead vocal and supporting female harmony,
buoyed by piano and full band accompaniment. Victory in Jesus
bounces along with a 2/4 groove that proves infectious in a happy
celebration of worship and praise. Delicate mandolin licks and piano
underpin the strong melodic structure of You Are My All In
All, which builds to the intensity of a true anthem. You
Are Good closes the CD in full pop-rock splendor, recalling
some of the great gospel musicals which found their voice in the
1960s and 70s; but presented here with a fully modern
sound.
For
Our Future proves to be a watershed moment for the choir,
as they warmly engage their past - and passionately embrace their
future by opening new territory and announcing to the world, We
are Cherokee and we are proud!
Audio
production and engineering of For Our Future was provided
by Jeffrey Parker, and was mixed and mastered at Cimarron Sound
Lab, in Tahlequah, Oklahoma.
The
Cherokee National Youth Choir act as ambassadors for the Cherokee
Nation, their beautiful voices showing the strength of the Cherokee
Nation and its culture more than 160 years after the Cherokees
forced removal from its eastern homelands. The goal of the Cherokee
National Youth Choir is to increase awareness of Cherokee culture
both within the Cherokee Nation as well as among the dominant culture.
Through the success of the Cherokee National Youth Choir, interest
in the Cherokee language has been rekindled among young people throughout
the Cherokee Nation. Several area schools now use the CDs as a learning
tool and other schools are interested in developing curriculum to
teach Cherokee language and music.
The
Cherokee National Youth Choir is made up of 50 Cherokee young people
from northeastern Oklahoma communities. The Choir members are middle
and high school youth between 6th and 12th grades. The students
compete in rigorous auditions every year for inclusion in the Cherokee
National Youth Choir. The Cherokee National Youth Choir is funded
solely by the Cherokee Nation, and administered through the Cherokee
Nation Education Group.
For
Our Future is available at CDBaby.com, Apple iTunes and Amazon.com.
To
learn more about the Cherokee National Youth Choir, visit them online:
http://choir.cherokee.org/
or contact Mary Kay Henderson, Director, at (918) 931-1360 or Kathy
Sierra, Coordinator at (918) 453-5638 or via e-mail: youthchoir@cherokee.org
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