TATANKA will illustrate and benefit from Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, not merely “supporting” worthy causes including Indigenous and LGBTQ rights, but modeling all, by example.
Musically, TATANKA will be an “Americana Orchestra” with two bassists, one primary, and me. I play 8- and 12-string bass, alternately tuned, and Baritone guitar, filling a void below and between other instruments. Tony Levin from King Crimson plays a “Stick,” basically a bass and guitar hybrid, and he takes Tonal Advantage™ (kidding) of those overlooked spaces.
Back in college I experimented with a band I was in by adding a second bass. Traditionally, the bass plays the harmony, following the chord structure of the song. But listen to New Order and you can hear the bass, freed up by the keyboards, playing riffs, melodies. Listen to Chris Squire, the late and great Yes bassist, who too played outside the bass box. I’ve written and recorded a bunch of songs with two, different bass parts, but outside of my school days, never followed through in a live setting.
Until Now.
“Americana” is a YouTube playlist I curated of hundreds of songs that cohesively illustrate the sound I hope to emulate. All crowd-pleasers. I’m mostly looking for a universal, driving, heavy sound: a deeper, wider, sustainable groove. Rock, HARD Rock, Classic Rock, World Music, Folk, Blues, Brit-pop, Western, Punk, Jazz – all Americana staples – TATANKA will be eclectic. The covers show how to properly deconstruct then reconstruct a cover song. Danceable? By definition, which lends itself to Goth and Psychedelia. The songs span the 1920s – 2020s, so if I had toit, I’d say Rock and Roll, speaking of which, many “Girl Bands” and artists are featured as “girls,” traditional and otherwise (⚧), rock just as hard as the “boys.” Obviously, GRRLS are welcome, especially on the mic. One ethos of Rock has always been inclusivity, so nothing new here.
Tatanka will likely begin as a cover band, one hopefully worth seeing, repeatedly, and eventually morph into originals. No delusions of grandeur, rather, just stampeding. Bison in Aural China Shops. (©!!)
P.S. Taŋyáŋ Yahípi is Lakota for “Welcome.” Three years teaching on the Yankton Sioux reservation, and two just south of Pine Ridge, changed and never left me. When I met my birthmother she told me her dad was Mestizo, so it’s in the blood. That said, have you ever been to a Pow Wow? No cymbals or snares in the drum circles. Toms, bass drums, and percussion – skin. Like the mighty Tatanka, it needs to power low, stomping mightily on the Terra Firma, as the good Doctor Hunter S. Thompson once quipped, from the 100th Meridian, where the Great Plains Begin.