AKA GRAFITTI MAN

We've got a Lou Reed feel to this with the predominately spoken lyrics, but they are integrated into the music so that they have the feel of songs rather than poems set to music... Not for everyone, but certainly worth a listen.

Tune: Wildfires

Tune: Baby Boom Che

Tune: Tina Smiled

From Amazon:

John Trudell is a Native American songwriter/poet, and an outspoken activist for human rights and environmental issues. AKA GRAFITTI MAN showcases his remarkable spoken-word brand of rock & roll, praised by musicians such as Peter Garrett, Bob Dylan, Kris Kristofferson, and Jackson Browne.

In the mid-80's, Trudell came together with legendary Kiowa Indian guitarist Jesse Ed Davis and formed Grafitti Man; their first cassette, AKA GRAFITTI MAN, was produced in 1985. While the tape was sold only by mail order, a copy reached Bob Dylan, who called it "album of the year" and played it over the PA before concerts. Following Davis' death, Trudell enlisted guitarist Mark Shark as the musical backbone of Grafitti Man; the band spent part of 1988 touring the US with Midnight Oil.

AKA GRAFITTI MAN includes material dating back to Trudell's work with Jesse Ed Davis and the cassette of the same name; as well as more recent material, much of which was co-produced by Jackson Browne, who also serves as the album's Executive Producer.

The album features Trudell's powerful personal and political statements, as well as his method of incorporating indigenous themes and musical traditions into a rock context.

From Wiki:

Trudell was born in Omaha, Nebraska. He is the son of a Santee Sioux father and a Mexican mother. He grew up around the Santee reservation near Omaha. He joined the Navy in 1963 and served in the Vietnam war. After getting out of the military he became involved in Indian activism and became the spokesperson for the Indians of All Tribes occupation of Alcatraz Island. He joined the American Indian Movement and, although not officially voted in, was its national Chairman from 1972 until 1979 after Carter Camp went to jail. In 1979, his mother-in-law, pregnant wife (Tina Manning), and three children were killed in a tragic fire, an event that led him to his "hanging on lines", his spoken word. It is famously believed that his family was murdered by the government.[1] A meeting with Jackson Browne in 1979 introduced him to the musical world. His first album, originally made with brilliant (according to Bob Dylan[citation needed]) Kiowa guitarist Jesse Ed Davis [[1]] and originally available only on cassette tape, was A.K.A Graffiti Man. In 1992 he remade A.K.A Graffiti Man; more recent endeavors include Blue Indians (1999) and Bone Days.

Rolling Stone Review:

Aka Grafitti Man,' by Native American poet John Trudell, is a protest record, but not of the usual variety. Trudell employs basic rock, blues, traditional indigenous music, street shuffles and folk songs to craft a compelling hybrid that encompasses many viewpoints and visions of reality. His politics call for expansiveness and evolution rather than revolution. The result is a moving, shape-shifting, rock & roll treatise on the state of the world.

Listing Jackson Browne as executive producer, AKA Grafitti Man is a compilation of Trudell's previously released cassette-only collaborations with the late guitarist Jesse Ed Davis and Mark Shark (a mean guitarslinger himself), first issued on Trudell's own label during the Eighties. The opening track, "Rockin the Res," begins with a native chant; it sets the tone as Trudell invites us to "listen to the skies/Listen to the sound/Something on the land/Something going down/Down dressers/Speeding by life/Fever's heart/Burning rivers to cross." The band establishes a skeletal, rocking theme, and Davis carefully fills the space with blues. The title cut follows, a funky strut in which Trudell delineates a materialist culture in moral ruin. Again, Davis cuts through the band's steady groove, shaking his jagged guitar lines through the mix. From there the "songs" juxtapose current affairs with myths ("Baby Boom ChÈ," about Elvis; "Wildfires"; "What He'd Done") and politics with spiritual awareness ("Bombs Over Baghdad," "Somebody's Kid," "Rich Man's War").

While it's true that backing poetry with music has been previously ñ and often miserably ñ attempted by others, Trudell, with his Lou Reed-style delivery, pulls it off in spades. The difference? His musicians ñ Gary Ray and Chad Cromwell on drums; Quiltman providing chants and percussion; Bob Glaub and Rick Eckstein on bass; Browne, Steven Soles and Kris Kristofferson on backing vocals; and many others ñ are experienced in the art of understatement, and Trudell tells the truth simply, without artifice or undue drama. In doing so, he provides a powerful and transformative listening experience ñ you can hear the pain and joy in his voice. AKA Grafitti Man will shake you up and make you dance; it challenges your commitment to justice, and above all else, it rocks. (RS 631) THOM JUREK (Posted: May 28, 1992)

Personnel: Kris Kristofferson (Vocals), Jackson Browne (Vocals (Background)), Jesse Ed Davis (Synthesizer), Jesse Ed Davis (Guitar), Renee Geyer (Vocals), Doug Legacy (Organ), John Trudell (Bass), Steven Soles (Vocals (Background)), Jennett Acosta (Synthesizer), Sherry Blakey (Vocals), Billy Block (Percussion) (Piano), Chad Cromwell (Drums), Carol Eckstein (Vocals), Rick Eckstein (Bass), (Drums), Adrian Garcia (Vocals), Bob Glaub (Bass), Wally Ingram (Percussion), Jerry Jumonville (Saxophone), Bill Payne (Piano), Quiltman (Drums), Gary Ray (Drums), Mark Shark (Guitar), Scott Thurston (Organ (Hammond)), Mike Utley (Organ), John "Juke" Logan (Harmonica), Luke Logan (Harmonica)