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well the persecution of America’s First People. Gary says his music isn’t intended to preach but simply to paint a picture, as he does so eloquently in “Reservation Town” and “Indian Cars, Indian Bars.” Far from preachy, “Choke Cherry Wine and Indian Fry Bread” speaks to what the performer calls “our Indian tendency to be gregarious and to live for the moment.” “I don’t speak for all Indian people. And I certainly don’t say ‘I’ll tell the world what Indian people think.’ It’s just me, and it’s just what I observe, and what my Indian brothers and sisters have so profoundly said to me over the years.” Those observations, musically expressed on the Hostiles & Renegades album, have garnered Gary Small and the Coyoté Bros. another Nammy award, this time for Best World Music album. Having set the bar fairly high, this chameleon of a musician plans stretching even further. After logging thousands of miles and playing gigs all over the country, including the World Beat Festival in Salem, Oregon, the band came back to Wyoming and won the Wyoming Blues and Jazz Society’s International Blues Challenge. They will go to Nashville for the worldwide blues competition in January of 2014. “Winning was an honor,” says Small with typical modesty, “and it also motivated
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me to record a new blues album, which we’ve already begun.” Never one to rest on his laurels, Gary Small has already been contracted to create the score for an international documentary about Buffalo Bill and the Show Indians in Europe that will be translated into five languages. “I’ll be doing some interpretations of classical pieces and I also get to work from some of the old sheet music used by Buffalo Bill’s Cowboy Band,” Small says with a chuckle. “This is new territory for me, and I’m excited to get to work on it.” Some people fear change; luckily, especially for music fans, Gary Small does not. W L M
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