It’s been almost 40 years since members of the Kanip family first came together under the moniker Red Spirit Singers to make spirited music rooted in their Indigenous Ute heritage. Land of the Sun is their first release, to my knowledge, and features second- and third-generation Kanip kin singing and drumming in tight synchrony. It’s an entirely acoustic group; producer Ian Brennan nonetheless describes the collective (13 singers, ten drummers) as the loudest he’s ever recorded. It’s easy to imagine. In its instrumental simplicity, Land of the Sun is indeed exceptionally vibrant, an album in which the Red Spirit Singers remind us that tradition is not only alive but part of today.
There are indeed pieces here that have a timeless feeling. The record opens with “Whispering Canyon”, a free-floating collection of wordless, airy sounds. As these simulated winds move back and forth, they evoke the wide-open places of the Uintah and Ouray Reservation that Red Spirit Singers call home, a sparse and poignant tribute to the land. The closing bonus track, “Left Awaiting”, is similarly vast, built on drumbeats instead of breaths, with ostinati offering a gentle pattern that leads us out of the reverie this album builds so organically.
If the Singers summon up and pay tribute to space in both the start and end pieces, they put that space to good use all the way in between, always varying the sonic structures. Densely woven pieces like “Veterans Song”, “Echoes”, and “Bear Dance” bring all the group’s members together, melodic chants sung through joyfully tense throats over driving percussion.
Slower pieces bring lyrics into the forefront. “Life Must Go On” is a soothing choral anthem during which the Singers generously offer us an English-language verse: “Now I see why / You would say / You must be strong / You must carry on,” they sing, passing down truth and wisdom. The a cappella piece “Southern Rock” has a gripping blues energy to it, while “Shook” keeps us at a low-down simmer.
Two other tracks stand out for the album’s immediate presence. “Bubblegum” embraces standard pop song themes (“Take my hand and hold it tight / Under this beautiful moonlight”) without compromising the collaborative feeling or traditional textures that mark the Red Spirit Singers’ general aesthetic. “Meet Me at the Ute Petroleum” does much the same with the additional distinction of pinpointing a singular contemporary landmark (“Darling / Meet me at the Ute Petroleum in Fort Duchesne / There I’ll be waiting for you”).
In his liner notes, producer Brennan writes that Land of the Sun sounds “ancient, but also as if it’s traveled from the future at the same time”. Respectfully, I beg to differ: it sounds to me like the present, a particular time that is inextricable from anything we might perceive as before or after. This is a powerful, multigenerational ensemble in which each member takes this exact moment to honor those who have already passed through the world and the world itself. It is an appreciation of the sturdy foundations that time-honored tradition offers, but it is just as much a performance of the now.