Roger Kuhn missed my phone call.  Now, I realize this isn't riveting news, but there’s a reason I mention this.  He missed my phone call because he was doing what he does so well. 

Yep, this alternative-country-folk-rocker-singer-songwriter missed my call because he had his headphones on, jamming and singing and hitting his groove in preparation for an upcoming performance.  In other words, he was creating art.

This is the World of Roger Kuhn. 

Roger is both a paradox and a paradigm.  A North Dakota farm boy of Creek and White heritage, he moved to the mean streets of New York ten years ago; leaving the endless prairies that had no room for a young man who wanted to act and sing and write music for the world to hear.  Not that he ever denies who he was.  It’s more a case of nurturing who he is. 

“Yes, I’m a New Yorker, culturally.  Coming here was a conscious choice I made a long time ago—since childhood really.  Knowing that I wanted to be here, to get out of North Dakota and be an actor,” he says.  “Yet, while I was growing up on a farm, with absolutely nothing around me except beautiful, beautiful nature, I would sing as loud as I wanted to.  It gave me freedom, as a child, to hone in on my quirky talent.” 

And this “quirky” talent, a melodic voice reminiscent of rock legend Roy Orbison, led him beyond acting to develop his songwriting and musical performance skills.  And like a classic Hollywood story, he was “discovered” while working in the most unlikely of places, a bookstore. 

“I would sing while I was at work, and my boss noticed my voice and liked it.  That’s when she offered me my first gig as a singer.  I got booked at Borders,” he laughs.  “It was after that that I thought that maybe there’s something to this music thing.” 

Roger's innate personal and artistic candor is reflected in his music.  The song Two Nations,  which is included on his CD, Proof,  is indicative of a willingness to share his conflicts.  Never blinking; never bitter, he describes this song as one “I can pass on to others going through the struggle of walking that very fine line between two worlds, the Native and non-Native world.” 

I am conflicted I come from two nations/Do I need to choose one in order to feel whole?/I am conflicted my mother is brown/and she lives on a reservation/I am conflicted my father is white/and I know that he’s never coming home/The blood of the men who have died rushes through my body/And the blood of the women who have died courses through my veins/And I stand with the buffalo as I ride in the elevator/I know what I’m not but I don’t know who I am… (Two Nations (Conflicted)  by Roger Kuhn, 2006)

Straddling multiple worlds, a Native and non-Native, a farm boy and gay New Yorker, is what makes Roger both the paradox and paradigm he is.

“Granted, my childhood wasn’t great.  But let’s face it, everybody has a hard life.  My mom did what she could to instill our Native heritage, but other than my sisters who are blonds and look very white, nobody was Native where I grew up.  Sure, as a kid, I was picked on because my skin was darker.  I was called “injun” a lot; even “nigger” a few times.  I was even called “faggot” from a very early age,” he says.  “All of this made me feel like I had to suppress who I was as a human being.  How can you know who you are when you’re eight-years-old?” 

He carried this internal struggle into his adult life until his father, a long-time alcoholic, died in a drunk-driving accident several years ago.  Since that time, he has deepened his connection to his Native roots by learning the traditions and language of his Creek heritage when he visits his mother, who now lives on the Poarch Creek Reservation in Alabama. 

This self-described “young life crisis” led him to comfortably embrace his ethnicity and sexuality.  No more hiding.  A clarity that comes through in his music, whether singing about his sexual self-realization in  Lust from 17  to acoustic ballads like Beautiful U  and holiday love songs, Under the Mistletoe  and Every Year Around Christmas Time. 

“I think that everybody is given an opportunity to do something with their life.  I’m not a gimmick.  This is who I am; just a guy who writes music and sings songs.  You want to focus on the fact that I’m Native?  That’s okay.  Gay?  I have nothing to hide.” 

As for his music?  “People feel what they feel.  I think my music is universal in that way.  I hope it comes out showing the truth of who I am.  I’d like to think that my music in some way reshapes the landscape of what it is to be a Native musician.” 

A landscape that involves working hard, working honestly and working smart.  This is the World of Roger Kuhn.  This is who he is. 

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Roger has agreed to generously share with us several cuts off his album Proof and his 2007 release, Every Year Around Christmas Time~~ Enjoy:)  

Every Year Around Christmas Time    Two Nations    Beautiful U    Proof    What's Your Name?

To purchase CDs or to book Roger for a show, please visit his official website: www.worldofrogerkuhn.com