Symbolic Americana

I knew i still had some records up in the attic, so today i went up and retrieved them. I don't have a turntable or needle for 78s so i left that stack up there, but i brought down a big fistful of 33s. Some were given to me, some were picked up on random trips to random places, some were obtained in let's call it a dubious manner. I honestly don't know where this one came from, but i have it so let's give it a spin.


You're looking at all the information there is, the jacket has 4 wonderful paintings, and the label gives you some unhelpful information about where it was recorded. It's called Symbolic Americana and it's by Phillip White Hawk playing a hybrid Lute/Guitar and singing. Time to fire up the google machine.

Discogs tells me it's Sunhawk SR-4211, Phillip White Hawk is a Cherokee singer/songwriter, the first half is a reissue of his Returning Of The Medicine Horse LP, it's from 1976. Percival, IA is a bit south of Omaha/Council Bluffs (thank you google maps). That's all i've got.

Or is it? I mean, i'm a guy who makes music for the sheer love of making music, clearly he is too. I'm a champion of ordinary people, and all my album reviews address that in some way. The ones i hate the most are the ones that obscure the actual humanity of their creators.

This thing, though, is amazing. I justified Don Ho because his intentions were obvious: help the people he loved by catering to tourists with money. I don't have to justify this in any way, it's an expression of pure love for life and i can"t believe how amazingly lucky i am to be able to share it with you.

Please enjoy this 1976 recording of Phillip White Hawk that has taken 6+ hours to get online for you. I've split it up into 4 separate sides for a more authentic feel, and to ease the burden on your short modern attention spans. Please be aware that it has an enormous dynamic range and the Lutar is mixed significantly lower than the vocals (i.e. don't crank up the volume just because it sounds quiet until you know how loud it actually is).

Link to side 1:
https://youtu.be/Vv_7T11HHQs

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