John Trudell is a Native American songwriter/poet, and an outspoken activist for human rights and environmental issues. AKA GRAFITII MAN showcases his remarkable spoken-word brand of rock & roll, praised by musicians such as Peter Garrett, Bob Dylan, Kris Kristofferson, and Jackson Browne. In the mid-80′s, Trudell came together with legendary Kiowa Indian guitarist Jesse [...]
John Trudell might never make an album as intense and confrontational as AKA Grafitti Mall, but that doesn’t mean he’s run out of things to say. While he’s still very actively involved in Native American causes, as “Crazy Horse” shows, he’s cast his net of words wider, with expressions of love and lust, the sensual [...]
Trudell Lets Words Do The Talking Daemon Artist Combines Poetry With Music On ‘Bone Days’ by Jim Bessman NEW YORK - John Trudell’s unique mix of poetry and Native American traditional music is hard to categorize-especially for Trudell himself. “In practical reality, it’s spoken word with music behind it,” says Trudell, a deeply compelling artist who emerged from [...]
Words and poetry of John Trudell’s latest material is sung, arranged, and played by Trudell’s Bad Dog guitarist mark Shark. While Trudell’s modus opperendai of performance is spoken word, Shark successfully translates that verbalization into lyric and song. There’s a heavy country accent with shades of Tom Petty and Jackson Browne. As the title suggests, [...]
Rockin’ The Res by Martin Keller LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA - Like Public Enemy’s seething contempt for an unjust social order or Midnight Oil’s attacks on institutional usurpers of the human spirit and the environment, John Trudell’s AKA Grafitti Man (Rykodisc) is simultaneously angry and compassionate, disarming in its acute cultural analysis and satisfying at every juncture. Rock may [...]
AKA GRAFITTI MAN, by Native American poet John Trudell, is a protest record, but not of the usual variety. Trudell employs basic rock, blues, traditional indigenous music, street shuffles and folk songs to craft a compelling hybrid that encompasses many viewpoints and visions of reality. His politics call for expansiveness and evolution rather than revolution. [...]
