First Nations band, Lone Cloud will be appearing in concert at 7:00 pm on Friday November 23 at the Museum of Natural History, 1747 Summer Street in Halifax.  This will be followed by a CD Release Party to launch their new album We Are Medicine Men which will be on sale at the concert.  The concert and CD release party are also intended to promote the Jerry Lonecloud Exhibit, a show of artifacts donated to the Museum by the celebrated Mi’kmaq Medicine Man during the 1920’s.

 

Lone Cloud, an aboriginal band from Millbrook First Nation, performs in both English and Mi’kmaw. Their line-up is an eclectic mix of jazz, folk-rock and aboriginal drumming. The centerpiece of the band is a large traditional drum played by artist and musician Alan Syliboy.

 

Alan Syliboy has long been inspired by the music of Don Mclean, Simon and Garfunkel and The Band, who were the backdrop against which he practiced his art in the 1970s but it was a Beatles concert that he attended in Boston that gave real impetus to the creation of his own band years later.

 

The identity of the band and its music are shaped by Syliboy’s own fascination with the life of Mi’kmaq showman and medicine man, Jerry Lonecloud who was a member of Buffalo Bill Cody’s Wild West Show in New York in the 1880’s. Other band members include vocalist Rachael Henderson, bass guitarist Danny Sutherland and Evan Syliboy on lead guitar. Rachael Henderson is a classically trained singer with a wide operatic range that enables her to sing in both high soprano and low bass registers. Danny Sutherland teaches music at Saint Francis Xavier University and Evan Syliboy, a founding member of the band, is a graduate of Saint Francis Xavier’s jazz program.

 

Alan Syliboy’s art, music and activism are intrinsically intertwined. His political activism in support of Annie Mae Aquash’s family in their search for justice for the murder of Annie Mae, led him to a collaboration with CBC producer and songwriter Alex Mason that resulted in an award-winning radio documentary as well as two songs written by Mason for the Lone Cloud Band, Trail of Broken... andBad Blood, both of which are featured on the new CD.

 

Appearing as a special guest with Lone Cloud during the concert will be PEI guitarist

George Antoniak. The East Coast Music Awards winner has played with Matt Minglewood, Raylene Rankin, Gene MacLellan and Laura Smith.  He is also featured on Lone Cloud’s new CD.

 

Tickets for the concert and party will go on sale on November 1 at Taz Records, 1593

Market Street, Obsolete Records, 2454 Agricola and the Museum of Natural History’s gift shop priced at $10 and $12 at the door.

 

The band’s new video “Lone Cloud”, can be viewed at