August 07, 2009

Keith Secola's rock opera

Native American Musician Keith Secola Chats With Around the MallI understand that you’re working on a rock opera, pieces of which you’ll be debuting at the Kennedy Center this August. Why did you want to write a rock opera?

I have been working on it a while. The title is called Seeds. You could call it a “frybread opera” or “Kokopelli’s blues.”

I was doing some tracks with the drummer from the Doors, John Densmore, and we were working on this track called “Kokopelli’s Blues” and the song explores the idea of Kokopelli coming back to Earth and seeing how his image is exploited. So this opened up a kind of story where Kokopelli has the blues and he goes on a hero’s journey.

I have about 20 songs written for the opera and I’m starting to edit and this winter I’m working to start putting the pieces together so I can bring it to life as a full theater piece.
Comment:  For more on Keith Secola, see Live Version of NDN Kars.

Below:  "Keith Secola (above) will be playing at NMAI on August 8 at 5:00 PM as a part of the 2009 Indian Summer Showcase. Image courtesy of the artist."

1 comment:

dmarks said...

I'd never heard of Native American rock opera before a couple of days ago, when I heard a radio advertisement about Brule and AIRO coming to a nearby casino:

http://www.brulerecords.com/pressreleases.html