Joanne Shenandoah - Biography
By J Poet
Joanne Shenandoah has a restless creative spirit, one that has driven her to become one of most prolific and successful Native American musicians. She has been nominated for three Grammys and took one home for her contribution to Sacred Ground: Songs of the Spirit (2005 Silver Wave) a celebration of Native and American music featuring other stars like Robert Mirabal and R. Carlos Nakai. Matriarch (1996 Silver Wave), traditional Iroquois women’s songs set to music by Shenandoah and Tom Wassinger, won the Record of the Year from the Association For Independent Music in 1996 and she also has 11 Native American Music Awards for projects that include folk, traditional Native American music, children’s songs, pop and orchestral compositions. Shenandoah performed at both Clinton inaugurals, contributed music to the soundtrack of Northern Exposure [More Music from Northern Exposure (1994 MCA), How the West Was Lost (1993 Silver Wave), and Indian in the Cupboard (1995 Columbia,) has been nominated for a Pulitzer Prize in music for her composition Ganondagan, written books, performed at pow wows, clubs and music festivals in France, Canada and The United Stares, and recorded 14 albums of original music. She’s also an educator and actor.
Shenandoah, a member of the Wolf Clan of the Oneida Nation, was born in Iroquois territory, and given the name Tekaiawahway - She Sings. Ted Silverhand, an elder in the Tuscarora clan, one of the six nations that make up the Iroquois, had a vision of Shenandoah’s successful musical career when she was a baby and she’s more lived up to his prediction.
Shenandoah has been performing since childhood. Her father, Clifford Shenandoah, played jazz guitar with Duke Ellington and all the women in the family sang traditional and popular songs. Shenandoah took piano lessons as a child, and went on to guitar, clarinet, cello, flute and more. In college Shenandoah discovered computers and considered a career in systems management, but music always was a big part of her life. She started singing professionally doing commercials and background vocals, and finally decided to start performing her own music."
Shenandoah signed with Canyon Records and put out Joanne Shenandoah, which included some country style tunes, in 1989. Since then she’s followed her heart and produced a body of work that combines all her interests - pop, symphonic, folk and her own Native roots. Once in a Red Moon (1994 Canyon Records) combined singer/songwriter, pop and native elements. Live Blood (1995 Silver Wave) collaboration with New Age instrumentalist/ producer Peter Kater and Matriarch (1996 Silver Wave) took traditional Iroquois material and orchestrated them to bring out the beauty of the Native melodies and the power of Shenandoah’s voice. All Spirits Sing (1997, Rhino) is a vision quest for young girls written and sung by Shenandoah using folk, blues, country, pop, Disney-esque songs for kids and Native music tell its tale. Shenandoah guides the girl on her quest, introducing her to singing moonbeams, singing squash blossoms and singing wolves. Warrior in Two Worlds (2000 Red Feather) is Shenandoah’s orchestral score for a PBS film about Eli Parker, a Seneca chief who fought with Ulysses S. Grant and wrote the Treaty of Confederate Surrender that was signed By Robert E. Lee at Appomattox Courthouse. The Billboard review for Eagle Cries (2001 Red Feather) hailed Shenandoah as the native Enya for her subtle, soulful singing and the album’s rich, atmospheric orchestrations. Peacemaker’s Journey (2000 Silver Wave) is a song cycle based on the legend of the Peacemaker, the mystical figure who was born of a virgin and united the tribes of the northeast into the Iroquois Nation. On Skywoman (2002 Silver Wave) Shenandoah sings with the Syracuse Symphony; some of these orchestrations later appeared on the Grammy winning Sacred Ground: Songs of the Spirit (2005 Silver Wave.) Peace and Power: The Best of Joanne Shenandoah (2002 Silver Wave) is a good introduction to Shenandoah with selections from four of her best known New Age/traditional albums.
