Last fall's celebrated Native North America (Vol. 1): Aboriginal Folk, Rock, and Country 1966-1985 compilation featured tracks from a selection of under-appreciated Indigenous musicians. Now, Light in the Attic is giving fans a closer look at one of those artists, as Inuit psych-folk songwriter Willie Thrasher will be celebrated with a reissue of 1981's Spirit Child on October 30.
A few songs from Native North America — "Spirit Child," "Old Man Carver" and "We Got to Take You Higher" — come from this album. An announcement explains that Thrasher was born in the Northwest Territories in 1948 and was taken from his family at the age of five to be put into a residential school. He drummed in the '60s band the Cordells before he took up guitar and became a musical traveller.
He released Spirit Child through the CBC, and "Silent Inuit" became a hit in norther communities, although the album got little commercial support. These days, he busks in Nanaimo, BC.
According to a press release, "On Spirit Child you hear echoes of Neil Young and Creedence Clearwater Revival but injected with Native consciousness, storytelling, poetry, history, and ceremony." Scroll past the tracklist below to hear the wah-flecked folk rock song "We Got to Take You Higher."
Copies are available to pre-order right here on CD, digital download, standard black vinyl, or limited orange vinyl.
UPDATE (9/22, 12:36 p.m.): Willie Thrasher will be undergoing a scheduled surgery today at Vancouver General Hospital. He is planning to play some shows in February of 2016.
Spirit Child:
1. Silent Inuit
2. Forefathers
3. Spirit Child
4. Wolves Don't Live by the Rules
5. Eskimo Named Johnny
6. Old Man Carver
7. Beautiful
8. Old Man Inuit
9. Shingle Point Whale Camp
10. We Got To Take You Higher
11. Inuit Chant
A few songs from Native North America — "Spirit Child," "Old Man Carver" and "We Got to Take You Higher" — come from this album. An announcement explains that Thrasher was born in the Northwest Territories in 1948 and was taken from his family at the age of five to be put into a residential school. He drummed in the '60s band the Cordells before he took up guitar and became a musical traveller.
He released Spirit Child through the CBC, and "Silent Inuit" became a hit in norther communities, although the album got little commercial support. These days, he busks in Nanaimo, BC.
According to a press release, "On Spirit Child you hear echoes of Neil Young and Creedence Clearwater Revival but injected with Native consciousness, storytelling, poetry, history, and ceremony." Scroll past the tracklist below to hear the wah-flecked folk rock song "We Got to Take You Higher."
Copies are available to pre-order right here on CD, digital download, standard black vinyl, or limited orange vinyl.
UPDATE (9/22, 12:36 p.m.): Willie Thrasher will be undergoing a scheduled surgery today at Vancouver General Hospital. He is planning to play some shows in February of 2016.
Spirit Child:
1. Silent Inuit
2. Forefathers
3. Spirit Child
4. Wolves Don't Live by the Rules
5. Eskimo Named Johnny
6. Old Man Carver
7. Beautiful
8. Old Man Inuit
9. Shingle Point Whale Camp
10. We Got To Take You Higher
11. Inuit Chant