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Nez Perce Drummers' Mix Of Old And New Earns Music Award Nod

Lightning Creek are from Lapwai, Idaho.
Lightning Creek
Lightning Creek are from Lapwai, Idaho.

The Native American Music Awards recognize indigenous musicians from the U.S., Canada and Latin America. It is considered to be the Grammys of Native American music.

Lightning Creek are from Lapwai, Idaho.
Credit Lightning Creek
Lightning Creek are from Lapwai, Idaho.

And this year the debut album by a group from Idaho has been nominated for an award.

The members of Lightning Creek have been playing traditional drum music at tribal ceremonies and powwows for years -- mostly at home on the Nez Perce Reservation in Idaho and elsewhere around the Northwest.

Then last year the group released their first studio album, aptly named “Long Time Coming.”

The album includes traditional songs as well as their own, more modern compositions.“P.K. Serenade” is in English and jokes about meeting women at favorite reservation hang-out called “P.K.'s Place.”

The album earned Lightning Creek a Native American Music Award nomination for debut group of the year.

“It is a big deal,” said Tom Williamson, one of the lead singers. “There's a lot of talent that's nominated and we're humbled to go and be among them.”

The group will perform at the award ceremony in Salamanca, New York, on Friday. Other nominees in their category include a rockabilly band, a female singing trio, and a hip-hop group classified as “electric powwow.”

Copyright 2014 Northwest News Network

Jessica Robinson
Jessica Robinson reported for four years from the Northwest News Network's bureau in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho as the network's Inland Northwest Correspondent. From the politics of wolves to mining regulation to small town gay rights movements, Jessica covered the economic, demographic and environmental trends that have shaped places east of the Cascades. Jessica left the Northwest News Network in 2015 for a move to Norway.