Making Music Indigenous by Joshua Tucker

I was blessed with that ability and I’m thankful I can share with others.” It got to the point where people were listening to me more than what was on the jukebox! There’s a certain gift I found I could share, whether I was in front of five people or 20,000 people. And I realized it early on, back when I was a little kid and my mom and dad encouraged me to get up there and sing whatever song came on the jukebox. “I’ve been in tune with how music can make you feel, right from when I was first in the crib,” explains lead vocalist and bandleader Doug Gray, who’s been fronting the MTB since the very beginning.

The Marshall Tucker Band is one such group that continues to have a profound level of impact on successive generations of listeners who’ve been “Searchin’ for a Rainbow” and found it perfectly represented by this tried-and-true Southern institution over the decades. Tucker argues that by following the musicians that have championed chimaycha music in its many forms, we can trace shifting meanings of indigeneity-and indeed, uncover the ways it is constructed, transformed, and ultimately recreated through music.When you wake up and want to put a smile on your face, you think of the songs that always manage to reach down and touch your soul the moment you hear the first note. This musical representation of indigeneity not only helps shape contemporary culture, it also provides a lens through which to reflect on the country's past. In Making Music Indigenous, Joshua Tucker traces the history of this music and its key performers over fifty years to show that there is no single way to 'sound indigenous.' The musicians Tucker follows make indigenous culture and identity visible in contemporary society by establishing a cultural and political presence for Peru's indigenous peoples through activism, artisanship, and performance. But, in contemporary Peru, indigenous chimaycha music has become a wildly popular genre that is even heard in the nightclubs of Lima. When thinking of indigenous music, many people may imagine acoustic instruments and pastoral settings far removed from the whirl of modern life.

Making Music Indigenous by Joshua Tucker