Alanis Obomsawin - Bush Lady
| Artist: | Alanis Obomsawin |
| Rating: | |
| Genres: | Avant-Folk, Indigenous North American Music Chamber Music, Chanson, Spoken Word |
| Released: | 1985 |
| Type: | Album |
| Label: | Radio Canada |
| Link: | Bandcamp |
Bush Lady is the only recording ever made by Alanis Obomsawin, a member of the Abenaki First Nations and best known as one of Canada’s most accomplished and decorated documentary filmmakers. Less well known is that Obomsawin began her artistic career as a singer-songwriter in the 1960s, part of a broad movement of Indigenous artists from across North America rallying in new assertions of cultural consciousness, political rights, and reckonings with oppressive colonial history. She was invited by Folkways to perform at Town Hall in New York City in the early 1960s and spent that decade primarily identifying as a singer, channeling traditional songs hand-in-hand with modern composition. Twenty years later, amidst her burgeoning film career, Bush Lady was born of sessions sponsored by CBC Radio in 1984. Unsatisfied with these recordings, Obomsawin reclaimed the master tapes, remade the album, and issued it on her own private press in 1988. This unique, profound, magical record has been out of print and gaining cult status ever since.
Editions:
1985
Original Release
Radio Canada
| SQN 107
| Vinyl, LP
| Side A: | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| A1. | Odana | (3:35) | |
| A2. | Bush Lady | (6:50) | |
| A3. | Gold People | (7:05) | |
| Side B: | |||
| B1. | Mother of Many Children | (0:21) | |
| B2. | Theo | (16:26) | |
| B3. | Nzi Waldam | (1:01) | |
2018
Remastered
Good
Constellation
| CST133
| CD/Digital/Vinyl
| 01. | Odana | (3:39) | |
| 02. | Bush Lady, Part I | (10:04) | |
| 03. | Bush Lady, Part II | (2:44) | |
| 04. | Of the Earth and of the Sea | (0:25) | |
| 05. | Théo, Part I | (7:59) | |
| 06. | Théo, Part II | (8:08) | |
| 07. | Nziwaldam | (1:06) |