American roots band The Cadillac Angels will perform at Backstage Pizza tomorrow at noon. The band will not only shine the light on classic Americana style, but also on a much deeper cause — the impoverished Hopi reservation schools in Arizona.
In 2008, Tony Balbinot of the Cadillac Angels had the opportunity to visit the reservation, a privilege that isn’t easy to come by. Upon arriving, Balbinot said he was taken aback by the seclusion, beauty and culture of the reservation.
“It’s a landscape that defies description. No planes, no highways, no train noises, just the sound of the wind,” he said.
The land is vast; taking up the northeast corner of Arizona, the reservation sits in the middle of the Navajo and Coconino counties.
“You connect with the way the earth was before modern civilization took over,” Balbinot said.
During his stay, Balbinot visited the villages, chatting with members of the historical community. One thing that struck him was the poverty and notably, its effect on the education system.
“I saw the schools and realized that they’re pretty much off the beaten path — they’re overlooked,” he said.
While most of American society has shifted into a technology-driven blur of smart phones, plasma screens and high-speed Internet, the Hopi stick to strong traditional and Christian values in their education. However, maintaining these values and connecting to modern-day technology is difficult when the school can only afford to share two VCRs and TVs between seven classes.
“There are young people (on the reservation) who want to be scientists and rock stars. They have the same aspirations as the rest of us,” said Balbinot. “I just thought, ‘Let me do something.’”
So, he did. Teaming up with Myke Destiny of Cracked Piston Records, a small independent company that supplies and distributes CDs for struggling artists who want small CD orders, Balbinot contacted three other bands, the Ballistic Cats, the Trailer Park Tornadoes and Freedom Suite. Together, the bands constructed “Haunt This Guitar,” a compilation album featuring 13 songs the artists wrote exclusively for the CD, with one central theme in common — the musical style of Link Wray, one of the most influential guitar players of all time. And, being half Native-American, he serves as the perfect tie between the Hopi Reservation and classic rock n’ roll.
The CDs are being sold for $10, with 100% of the sales going to the Hopi educational programs. Everything on the album — the artists’ time, money, recording time and artwork — was donated. Destiny was excited to support the cause.
“The money goes a long way for the school children. We don’t have a lot of money, but with our love for music, we do what we can,” he said.
Cal Poly mathematics professor Matthew White of the Bay Area-based Ballistic Cats liked the idea of connecting music with a charitable cause.
“For me to play some songs and give them away doesn’t really seem like that much,” he said. “But the good thing about music is that people listen to it and it raises awareness. It’s a little more effective in the long run.”
As White explains, the connection between Link Wray’s influence and the educational programs is not the ethnicity or culture, but the suffering.
“If you take those old blues players, you take Link Wray, and go back to the source of what made their music, it was really poverty,” said White. “There are people of all kinds of ethnicities that have been poor and suffered. That’s what’s in common — it’s not the race, it’s the poverty. That’s where the connection really is.”
Balbinot said he hopes to raise $7,000 for the reservation. The CDs will be sold at tomorrow’s performance for a special price of $5.00 with all sales directly benefiting the Hopi educational programs.