CD celebrates 10 years

Page 15

Artist-Various

Album-Mitataht askiy: Sweet Grass Records

10 Years

Label-Sweet Grass Records

Producer-Ted Whitecalf

How do you celebrate a decade of bringing some of the best in traditional and contemporary Aboriginal music to audiences around the world? Well, if you're Ted Whitecalf of Sweet Grass Records, you mark the anniversary by releasing an album that presents a sampling of the work put forward by the company over the past 10 years.

Mitataht askiy: Sweet Grass Records 10 Years is a two CD set featuring 34 songs selected from among the 200 recordings by more than 80 groups that make up the Sweet Grass Records catalogue. The CDs offer listeners more than two hours of non-stop music featuring a list of groups that reads like a who's who of powwow and round dance performers.

The CD features songs from three styles of Aboriginal music-Northern, Southern Style and Round Dance-and includes selections by past Canadian Aboriginal Music Award winners Red Bull, Stoney Park and Young Scouts.

Sweet Grass Records has been a player in the world of Aboriginal music, working to promote and preserve Aboriginal music, both traditional and contemporary. In recognition of those efforts Ted Whitecalf received both the Music Industry Award and the Lifetime Contribution to Aboriginal Music Award at the 2001 Canadian Aboriginal Music Awards, adding to the long list of nominations and awards Sweet Grass Records and its artists have received.

In the liner notes, Whitecalf gives thanks to all that have contributed to the success of Sweet Grass Records, from the Creator to the lead singers and drum groups, from the record company employees to the people who buy and listen to the music. But he saves a special thank you to his late parents, who raised him in the traditional way and taught him to believe in his dreams.