Willy Mitchell

This article is about the Canadian musician. For the American producer, see Willie Mitchell (musician).

Willy Mitchell (born Percy Williams; 1953)[1] is a Canadian First Nations musician. Mitchell recorded and toured mostly in the 1970s with his Desert River Band. He co-organized the 1980 Sweet Grass festival in Val-d'Or, Quebec, which gathered Inuit and First Nations musicians from across Canada.

Biography

Mitchell was born Percy Williams in Malone, New York, in 1953, after his Algonquin and Mohawk parents were turned away from a hospital in Cornwall, Ontario.[1] He was raised in Kitigan-Zibi in southern Quebec by his maternal grandmother. His grandmother gave him the nickname "Willy".[1]

In 1968, he started touring northern Quebec with his first band, called the Northern Lights Group.[2] In January 1969, Mitchell was shot in the head by a police officer during an altercation over stolen Christmas lights.[3] Mitchell was originally reported dead by the media.[4] He used the money from a settlement resulting from the incident to buy a Fender Telecaster Thinline guitar.[3] After recovering, he formed the Desert River Band, and began touring and recording. Mitchell wrote the song "Big Police Man" about the experience.[1]

Mitchell and the Desert River Band performed live for Ottawa's CJOH-TV's program, New Faces, in 1970, and began touring heavily after that. Mitchell spent four years at the all-First Nations Manitou Community College, in La Macaza, Quebec, where he studied traditional botany, photography, and film making.[4] In 1980, with Janine Poirier Macdonald, Mitchell organized a festival featuring his contemporaries in the First Nations and Inuit music industry. Called the Sweet Grass Festival, performers included were Willie Dunn, Roger House, Willie Thrasher, and Morley Loon, whom Mitchell worked with frequently. The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation's Northern Service recorded the performances, and released an LP, Sweet Grass Music, in 1982.[5] Mitchell released several privately printed albums in the 1990s, and currently lives in Dolbeau-Mistassini, Quebec.[1]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e Howes, Kevin (2014). Native North America (Vol. 1): Aboriginal Folk, Rock and Country 1966–1985. Light in the Attic Records. pp. 10–11.
  2. ^ "La ballade de Willy Mitchell, fondateur du festival Sweet Grass de Val-d'Or". CBC-Radio-Canada. November 21, 2014.
  3. ^ a b Lynskey, Dorian (December 4, 2014). "Forgotten Native American musicians: 'We could have been the next Nirvana'". The Guardian. Retrieved December 7, 2014.
  4. ^ a b Walker, Lance Scott (March 9, 2015). "Getting Shot in the Head is the Least Interesting Thing Willy Mitchell Has Done". Noisey. Vice Media. Retrieved August 16, 2015.
  5. ^ Wright-McLeod, Bryan (2005). The encyclopedia of native music : more than a century of recordings from wax cylinder to the Internet. Tucson: University of Arizona Press. p. 26. ISBN 978-0-8165-2447-1.

Content Disclaimer

Informasi ini disarikan dari Wikipedia dan disajikan kembali untuk tujuan edukasi. Konten tersedia di bawah lisensi CC BY-SA 3.0. Kami tidak bertanggung jawab atas ketidakakuratan data yang bersumber dari kontribusi publik tersebut.

  1. The information displayed on this website is sourced in part or in whole from Wikipedia and has been adapted for the purpose of restating it. We strive to provide accurate and relevant information, however:
  2. There is no guarantee of absolute accuracy. Wikipedia is an open, collaborative project that can be edited by anyone, so information is subject to change.
  3. It is not intended to constitute professional advice. The content displayed is for informational and educational purposes only. For important decisions (e.g., medical, legal, or financial), please consult a professional.
  4. Content copyright. Wikipedia is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License (CC BY-SA). This means that content may be reused with appropriate attribution and shared under a similar license.
  5. Responsible use. Any risk arising from the use of information from this website is entirely the responsibility of the user.