Keith Secola - Biography
By J Poet
Keith Secola has been one of Native America’s leading musical artists since 1987 when “NDN Karz” (“Indian Cars”), the title track from his first self-produced cassette, became an underground hit in Native America. Since that auspicious beginning, Secola has produced three cassettes (all out of print, but selected tracks are available on Circle [1992 Akina Records]) and four albums mixing Native American rhythms with blues, folk, hip hop, Latin music and rock. He played the opening ceremonies of the 2002 Salt Lake City Olympics and on his Native Americana: A Coup Stick (2005, Akina) John Densmore of The Doors sits in on drums.
Secola is from the Ojibwa tribe and grew up in Minnesota. He graduated from the University of Minnesota at Minneapolis, and worked as a language instructor, teaching Ojibwa in federal programs, before moving to Arizona to be closer to his wife’s family.
In Arizona, he worked as an Indian education specialist, using music to win over the kids he was teaching. Before he dedicated himself to music full time, he recorded a three song cassette featuring his song “NDN Kars” which became his signature song. The first run of cassettes sold out at the first pow wow he played, and he decided to become a full time musician.
Since then, Secola has been on the road constantly and has released ?? albums of on his Akina Records imprint, often backed by his Wild Band of Indians, a group put together in 1994. He had some major label interest in the ‘90s, but they didn’t think they could market Native American rock ‘ n’ roll. With his own label, Secola is able to follow the music wherever it leads him, producing an eclectic mix of sounds that mirrors the music favored by Indians, on and off the reservation.
After collecting his early work on Circle (1992 Akina Records) Secola released Wild Band of Indians (1996 Akina Records) and Fingermonkey (2000 Akina Records) which got impressive college radio airplay. Songs from Fingermonkey were featured in Kate Montgomery’s Christmas in the Clouds (2005 Majestic Films) a romantic comedy about the Indians who run a ski resort on their reservation. Native Americana: A Coup Stick (2005, Akina) is an acoustic guitar driven folk rock album. It’s punny title refers to the coup stick warriors one carried into battle, by touching an enemy with a coup stick instead of killing him, the warrior did himself and his enemy an honor. The songs were built around Secola’s acoustic guitar, symbolically touching America to symbolize the ambivalent relationship Native people have with America. Secola also wrote the instrumental score for Jilann Spitzmiller and Hank Rogerson’s Homeland (2000 Akina) which also includes The Indigo Girls singing Pura Fe’s “Grandma’s Easter Lullaby” and “Passion” by Carlos Reynosa.
