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Buffy‘s life story is amazing & I also loved peeking into the alchemy that underpins her musical artistry. Her lyrics come from her heart and address social injustices with such power that her music was blacklisted by the US government (Lyndon Johnson & Nixon eras). The #audiobook is narrated by the author, full of passion for her topic, with short interludes read by Buffy herself. Intro by Joni Mitchell. #Indigenous

Buffy Sainte Marie was on the cast of Sesame Street from 1975-1981. In her biography, she says it was her idea to breastfeed her son on camera (briefly) and to answer Big Bird‘s questions about it; Big Bird representing the natural curiosity of kids.

At one point in this biography I began a sentence with the words “Tearing down,” & in the editing process Buffy crossed them out & provided this alternative: “Creating, in spite of and beyond.” That simple reframing blew my mind. I actually felt a seismic shift in my brain. My own language has a tendency to be rooted in destruction. […] while her language is rooted in possibility, a desire to grow, explore & persuade.
-from the Afterword

I have two main prayers: one is “thanks!” and the other is “wow!”

#audiopuzzling

The song wasn‘t a hit for the songwriter herself, but it was for Bobby Darin, the Four Pennies, Neil Diamond, Andy Williams and, most significantly, Elvis Presley. Cher, Barbara Streisand, Roberta Flack, Françoise Hardy, Bette Davis & many others also put their spin on it.

#CrushTheRush #Recommendsday

5⭐️

Gonna leave this here in case anyone is interested.😁

https://youtu.be/DYB1qz4_hgw

I‘m listening to Buffy Sainte-Marie while I draft longhand in my adorable little Spider-Man notebook. Turns out, I DO like her music as much as I like her! Hurray!

Pen update: I still haven‘t drummed up the courage to see how much it‘ll cost to repair my beloved Waterman Carene. In the meantime, I‘ve got a $3 Zebra fountain pen. It writes pretty well, but it‘s totally disposable so I don‘t think I‘d buy another.

This isn‘t just a biography—it‘s also a Sainte-Marie-focused history of 20th century folk music and Indigenous activism in North America. I gulped it down quick as I could and now feel a lot of love for Sainte-Marie, who I‘m ashamed to admit is one of the weird gaps in my musical knowledge. (I got the book because I like Andrea Warner‘s writing.) You can bet I aim to correct that good and soon. I hope I like the music as much as the woman herself.

This was such a fantastic concert! I must get around to reading her biography sometime soon. #Canadian #Indigenous #icon

…waiting to hear Buffy Sainte-Marie. 🎶🎵❤️

Buffy is so inspiring--her songs were so powerful she was blacklisted by two American presidents, and was ahead of her time, time and again. The journalistic prose is just a little stiff and I only wish Warner had taken the personal tone of the last chapter into the whole book. She describes a negotiation between her deconstructive tendency and Buffy's eye for possibility--that frame between indigenous women could have provided a revealing lens.

Buffy Sainte-Marie, onstage with Andrea Warner at #VWF2018: “Songs like Universal Soldier, I treat them like I‘m writing for a college professor who doesn‘t like me and I want to get an A++.”
(Buffy also mentioned her fake tiger fur jacket has been in her closet since the 70s.) #IndigenousIcon