Indigenous featuring Mato Nanji

 

I first heard of the band Indigenous in the summer of 2000 when the promo CD arrived in the shop with Doyle Bramhall credited as producer/arranger.  That was enough to immediately pop it in the store's sound system.  "By gosh, that's pretty good," I thought, enjoying the bluesy rock guitar, the extra percussional element, and the husky vocals.  Took a look at the inner sleeve and the band was thanking BB King, Double Trouble, Chris Duarte, Jackson Browne and the Indigo Girls, among others. Well, now, that was some heavy company.  I had no idea I was holding their second studio album and that they had been a supporting act on tour with these fine musicians.  So I made the effort to catch their stop at HOB shortly thereafter.  A brief disclaimer:  I was fortunate enough due to my line of work to see literally hundreds of shows, public and private, in the last thirty-some-odd years, and I've probably forgotten more of them than some of you have ever seen, but I'll never forget this performance.  There was this young family (yep, siblings and a cousin, I think) of Native Americans on stage, the sister on drums, and big brother Mato out front singing and wailing on guitar.  From his style and mannerisms, it was easy to see that he was a Stevie Ray Vaughan disciple.  The band was also known to cover several Jimi Hendrix songs, just like SRV.  I've read others connecting his style to Carlos Santana, but that eludes my ear.  Allow me to present some evidence...



The family aspect of the band lasted a few more years before it basically became Mato's solo vehicle.  He then committed the biggest musical mistake of his career by adding his new wife to the process.  2008's "Broken Lands" was an absolute turd of a record.  Wifey co-wrote the material and there wasn't a circus elephant's poop bag big enough to catch the dung.  And it had to be her idea to do an acoustic album of early Indigenous songs, including four of the rancid steamers she helped write.  Son, let her sing a few bgv's, you can always bury those in the mix, but keep the pen out of her hand, please! 

Which brings us to the current release.  If you can ignore the lyrics, which any 5th-grader could have written, this is a pretty good album.  Here is an official sampler from the label...



He's been winning new fans while out on the Experience Hendrix Tribute Tour, including Jonny Lang, whom you heard on the first piece of the video.  One of the aspects I always liked about the family band was the added percussion and he's kept it here on this album.  The drums get a nice prominent place in the mix, as well. 

A breakthrough record this isn't, but it damn sure is an improvement over the last two.