Joe Rainey

Rainey grew up a Red Lake Ojibwe in Minneapolis, a city with one of the largest, proudest Native populations in the country. He was raised on the South side near Franklin Avenue, the post-Reorganization Act urban nexus of local Native American life. Rainey came of age in the heart of this community (also the birthplace of AIM), but always felt like he was living in a liminal space with the Reservation five hours North. At an early age Rainey started recording groups and practiced dancing and singing. As a teenager he started his first drum group, and soon his voice grew strong enough to sing in Midnite Express, a new drum group featuring members of the legendary group The Boyz. They were professionals, city Indians travelling all over, repping their reservations and their neighborhoods—competing for cash and cred, always striving to capture that “Pow Wow feeling” of togetherness. Rainey was just as much of a fan as he was a participant, recording others then studying the tapes, cataloging the different styles.

Not only former collaborators from Bon Iver appreciate the exceptional nature of what Joe Rainey has brought to tape and to the stage for years. The powwow singer transforms the songs and drumming rituals of the Red Lake Ojibwe into highly original soundscapes, where digital renditions and distortions from industrial and techno music create ties and breaks between tradition and the present. Steering clear of routine fusion logic and free from any folkloric gestures, he achieves an astonishing recontextualization of spiritual forms of expression as a tribute to lived urban indigeneity.