“Rebel Music In The Hour Of Chaos:” Music emanates directly from my indigenous soul. Therefore, it immediately made sense for me to perform my music again this year as a soundtrack to our overlapping struggles – including #NoDAPL. Sounds, including freedom songs past & present, most powerfully link us together & amplify what’s transpiring from the actions in the streets. I was born in the Season of Marvin Gaye’s “What’s Going’ On,” an album that dominated my childhood as the strivings for Total Revolution continued past the 1960s societal upheaval; and the inspiration to become an artist-activist sprang from that era. I remain under the influence of rebel music from many artists and cultures – Please join us on Monday 12 December @ Decolonize This Place. 55 Walker St, TriBeCa NYC (Doors 8pm). when we will perform some songs of protest & be in conversation about our activism with Brotha Rob Fields (Bold As Love / Black Rock Coalition) – A’ho! Cactus Rose ft. Special Guests: Abiodun Oyewole (The Last Poets) & Mahina Movement
This may be our final show of 2016, so we really appreciate you coming through & all of your support during the many Standing Rock resistance actions – Wopila tanka, y’all

( Afro-Native sisterhood from Virginia: Kimberly Robison/KAR & Kandia Crazy Horse of Cactus Rose, Native Americana / cosmic country band, @ Decolonize This Place in TriBeCa this past Sunday for Black Art & Activism Now, curated by Dr. Camara Holloway & Tavia Nyong’o (Yale University) )

( preliminary poster for REBEL MUSIC IN THE HOUR OF CHAOS by artist Kyle Goen (Decolonize This Place/MTO Collective) #KyleDidThis )
( Jeff McLaughlin, lead guitarist / vocals of Cactus Rose )
( Kandia Crazy Horse with Lorena, Vaimoana & Gabby of Mahina Movement @ Decolonize This Place NYC )
( Kandia Crazy Horse & Abiodun Oyewole of The Last Poets – Cactus Rose Instagram: @cactusroselovesyou )
December 7, 2016 | Categories: Live, Red Road, Showout, Tourlife, Uncategorized | Tags: 99MileMarch, AbiodunOyewole, Activism, Activist, AfroChesapeake, Afrohippies, AfroLatino, AfroNative, AfroPunk, AfroTexas, AltCountry, Americana, AmericanHistory, AmericanSlavery, Ameripolitan, AnneMarieForrester, Artists, BlackArtAndActivismNow, BlackArtsMovement, BlackAtlantic, blackcontemporaryart, BlackHillbilly, BlackHistory, BlackLivesMatter, BlackRockCoalition, BlackSnakeKillas, blackwomenartists, BoldAsLove, BrianJackson, CactusRose, CactusRoseBand, Country, Country Music, CountryandWestern, CountryGirls, CountryGirlsDoItBetter, countryrock, countrysinger, DecolonizeThisPlace, Dixie, femaleartists, femalesingersongwriters, folk, Folkie, FolkMusic, FolkRock, Folksingers, Georgia, GeorgiaPeach, GeorgiaRoots, GilScottHeron, grassrootsartists, Icons, IndependentArtists, Indigenous, IStandWithStandingRock, JeffMcLaughlin, Kandia Crazy Horse, KimberlyRobison, KyleGoen, Latina, Latinx, MniWiconi, ModernSoundsInCountryAndWesternMusic, Moon, Music, NativeAmerican, NativeAmericana, News, NoAIM, NoDAPL, NYC, NYC2StandingRock, NYStandsWithStandingRock, OccupyGuitarmy, OccupyMusic, outlaw country, PaulRobeson, PeteSeeger, poetry, PolynesianCulture, Prayer, ProtectTheSacred, ProtestMusic, PublicEnemy, radicals, RadioFreeDixie, rap, RebelMusic, RebelMusicInTheHourOfChaos, RobFields, SingOut, South, SplitRock, spokenword, TheFutureIsFemale, TheLastPoets, Virginia, Water Is Life, Water Is Life Solidarity Concert, WaterNotOil, WaterProtectors, WoodlandsIndians, WoodyGuthrie | Leave a comment
Howdy y’all / Osiyo skidoi, all my relations! I have not been able to report back much nor update this site, due to all the many #StandingRock actions & Native American circle pre-thanksgiving ceremonies & events I had over this past weekend & some. Among other events, I sang some of my Native Americana music @ the opening of Urban Native exhibit Cave To The Stars – Urban Natives Unrecognized @ Bread & Roses Project Gallery in Midtown last Thursday; I did #HonoringOurAncestors with the central Harlem Native circle on Saturday, followed by the Thunderbird American Indian Benefit Auction that night on the Upper East Side. And still working on my #LeonRussell memorial article, even as I rehearse for this Friday’s Benefit For Water Protectors concert in Brooklyn @ Jalopy Theater. Ho wa, will share some pix of all this activity by-and-by, but now am learning new songs & also preparing for tomorrow’s Standing Rock action in Midtown – if you somehow missed the horrible news of the chemical weaponry, water cannons & rubber bullets unleashed on the Standing Rock water protectors Sunday night in sub-freezing temperatures & its fallout, now is the time to become aware & join us in these support actions & by donating to the camps. I am receiving many communications suddenly from friends who have been relatively apathetic pre-election & several fellow country / Americana artists now querying me about the Standing Rock resistance; so it will be interesting to see how this continues to unfold & whether President “Walking Eagle” Obama will finally do something definitive in response to these unconscionable attacks on my prayerful relations out West. Still enjoying #NativeAmericanHeritageMonth somewhat — despite the unceasing musical losses: sadly, #SharonJones has walked on, claimed by the same cancer that took my dear mother. This has cast a further pall on the holiday week. A’ho*

Art for tomorrow’s #StandingRock action, by my brotha-in-struggle Kyle Goen #kyledidthis

& a lil’ lighthearted #ThrowbackTuesday snap by #NedSublette of me & my brothas Teddy K aka DJ Soul Punk & Cap’n #KirkDouglas of #TheRoots (the last time I got to see Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings live was @ The Roots Picnic in Philly) @ my live #BlackHillbilly #countryandwestern music series #TheHarlemHonkytonk #SaddleUp!

The Guardian UK on 300 WATER PROTECTORS INJURED AT STANDING ROCK report
November 22, 2016 | Categories: Showout, Tourlife, Uncategorized | Tags: Activism, Activist, AfroNative, AltCountry, Americana, AmericanHistory, Ancestors, artist, Benefit, BoldAsLove, Brooklyn, BrooklynAmericanaFestival, BrooklynCountry, Cancer, Country, Country Music, CountryandWestern, CountryGirlsDoItBetter, countryrock, countrysinger, DapKings, DJSoulPunk, grassrootsartists, Honor The Treaties, HonorTheEarth, IndependentArtists, Indigenous, InMemoriam, JalopyTheater, Kandia Crazy Horse, KirkDouglas, Legends, LeonRussell, mountainmusic, Muses, Music, NationalDayofAction, native, NativeAmerican, NativeAmericana, NativeAmericanHeritageMonth, NativeLivesMatter, NedSublette, News, NoAIM, NoDAPL, NorthDakota, NYC, NYC2StandingRock, NYStandsWithStandingRock, OldTimey, RezpectOurWater, RootsMusic, SharonJones, Standing Rock Sioux Reservation, StandingRockSiouxReservation, StopSpectra, TheBanjoAmericasAfricanInstrument, TheRoots, Water Is Life, Water Is Life Solidarity Concert, WaterNotOil, WaterProtectors | Leave a comment
Osiyo skidoi; Tohitsu to all my relations & followers. Yes, it has been a spell since I updated this site, but I have been focused on my Red Road journey all of this year, experiences along the mighty powwow highway (including Drums Along The Hudson, Thunderbird, & the Bronx Native American Festival this past weekend), learning Tsalagi due to much time spent with my family of friends from the Cherokee Language & Cultural Circle NYC, and — above all — my engagement with the #NoDAPL resistance between DC & NYC. Still, I have also managed to write some new songs, including one in early August for our precious water protectors @ Standing Rock: “Mni Wiconi (Water Is Life).” Stay tuned for some press digital smoke signals about my upcoming Standing Rock benefit concert in NYC – the Sacred Water Medicine Show!
September 28, 2016 | Categories: Red Road, Tourlife, Uncategorized | Tags: Americana, Black Snake Killas, Country Music, Dakota Access Pipeline, Honor The Treaties, Kandia Crazy Horse, MniWiconi, News, NoDAPL, NYC, Protect The Sacred, Sacred Water Medicine Show, Standing Rock Lakota Reservation, Standing Rock Sioux Reservation, Water Is Life, Water Is Life Solidarity Concert | Leave a comment