On July 4th, in Munich, Germany, I had a chance to hear the live music of, hang out with, and sip on cappucino with the very cool Wade Fernandez. Our relaxed bohemian-like interview took place in a coffee shop, where all around us it rains cats and three-legged rez dogs. Wade sips at his tea, and I ask him to tell me about his music.

Wade Fernandez has made it to the voting process of the Grammy awards, is a Nammy award winner and is also a Menominee, from the Menominee Indian Reservation in Wisconsin, USA.

“Music,” he says, “is about honesty.”

How old were you when you began playing guitar?
I was five, and I remember later, as a little kid, my grampa pulling out the Fiddle, and handing me a guitar and saying, “let’s jam.”

I tell Wade, “I like the song, Discovering America.”

Wade nods, “the lyrics happened quickly, because I’d been tired of the Colombus Day celebration and the inaccurate history of Native peoples for a long time, and those lyrics seemed to write themselves.”

Wade Fernandez opens his third Album For The People with a calming evocation: A Native American Flute played by Wade, which runs along with a jazzy intuition, and then segues into the “Cry of the Wolf,” I notice a Doors-like organ.

His first gig was when he was 11 years old, it included, “Take It Easy”, “Proud Mary” and “Wipe Out”. “But I was always too shy,” Wade says, “I could never really look at the audience, which helped me to get lost in the jam.”

“I was always the last man standing, it was easy for me he says to play on the rez, in the trailer courts.” He laughs. “Eventually people would slowly wake and start cooking breakfast commodities.”

What kind of music do you like?
I’m a big fan of all kinds, but blues always seems to find it’s way in. When people listen to my music, they find country, jazz, soul, R n’ B, and classical. Growing up on the Rez, I checked out music that you normally don’t hear on the Rez, like Beethoven, Joni Mitchell.

In 1999, after touring Europe with Mitch Walking Elk, Wade received a call to open for Bill Miller. “But,” Wade says, “I had no original music, no band and so three months before the gig, I started to write songs.”

But you had some songs already?
Not really, but I was able to stop saying: I’m not good enough. Before, I never really took myself seriously as a musician. I had a chance now to let the goofing around jams become songs.

“Cool things happened,” Wade says. “Songwriting was a heavy spiritual experience, letting the music flow and getting myself out of the picture.” Wade completes his thought with one word: EGO. “Once I got that out of the way, the CD was done in a week.”

Can you tell me something about Art, as an Indian Artist.
Well, I think we all went through this history of assimilation, and we all have this feeling of not being good enough, not worthy. But we as Indian Artists, should still look for honors, like the Indians of the old days.

Wade finishes his tea, looks up at the Cafe’s tea selection. “Music, art and education,” he says, “should break your mold, allow you to evolve, to help you find your freedom, and your way of expression.”

Wade recalls his first experience with the crowds of Europe as being appreciative of original music: “they listened, paid attention until your were done, then gave a HUGE applause. Through the whole concert, I wondered if they liked my music, I thought they hated me, but then they bought me out of all my cd’s.”

Wade Fernandez’s music has an atmospheric rev — which is a combination of Wade’s rippling blues/jazz guitar leads along with the rumbling, winding, busy, inventive rythmic beats from bassist, drummer and keyboardist of The Black Wolf Band. The atmosphere is a welcome one, as Wade is also a talented vocalist and poet.

In the songs, “What You Didn’t Say”, “When it’s Time” and “Mosquito”, relationships, time, and heroin-use strain for significance amid an R n’ B/Soul/Deadly Jam feel:

Wade, like the rest of NATIVE AMERICA, doesn’t need too much excuse to eloquently speak about the injustices of the dominant society, instead Wade sings “Love Remains” and “Our Blues Have Just Begun”.

How do you write your songs today, after three Albums?
Same as ever. The music is not really mine, you have to let it flow. The songs are more than just songs, they are performances, they need to connect. Connection: to the audience, the listeners, to myself, my family. The music should be relate-able and personable.

Wade has plenty of song writing hooks, it`s an elevated music experience, with funky Native American flute punctuations, and as I write this I am listening to track 8 (live) from Black Wolf’s Blues CD.

What is it like playing?
Sometimes I feel like I am on the edge, like I could go over into some oblivion or step back and play safe.

After selecting his next tea, Wade says: “Art is like a river, if you don’t work with it - it can wipe you out.”

What is it like playing on the edge?
It should be exciting, like when I was jamming a deadly improv, being the last man standing at a trailer court party when I was a teen, on the Rez. I suddenly found myself alone, everyone ran off, ’cause the cops just arrived. The cops didn’t do anything, they stood and heard the jam, until I noticed them and stopped myself and looked around.

Wade grins. “I wrote a song for my wife, it’s called Rain Woman. It starts out all esoteric, and as the song happened I could just hear the non-Indian people saying, ‘I love Indians and their music’, but then suddenly the song slides into a rock and crashes like thunder, lightning, and rain. Like my wife, powerful, beautiful, gentle and honest.”

Any words of advice to other Indian musicians?
When you allow music to nurture you, you can better communicate. It can cross the Reservation Line (a song from his first CD).

Wade is Mr. Grace: he pays for my Cappucino, and we continue to chat; about other deadly jams and tunes; how he’s never touched a drop of alcohol, or even smoked. We show each other pictures of our kids, talk about new music video ideas, and about what it means to be a Native… on this fine “Independence Day”.

Check out Wade:

WWW.WADEFERNANDEZ.COM