BLUE BLOODS ED
DISCOVER THE UNDISCOVER
BLUE MOUNTAIN TRIBE bluemountaintribe.com
Every time I heard the Blues I got so excited. The music resonated through my soul. My friends thought I was crazy or smoked too much pot. When I was 16, my mother was in hospital dying of cancer. I never had a father. My papa was a rolling stone, where he laid his hat was his home. My mother’s last words to me before dying were, “Robin, you’re going to be a great musician someday. Don’t knock on doors, kick the SOB’s i!” At the age of 18, I joined the Marine Corps. A friend of mine played harmonica. I loved the sound of it and started learning it. After a while, everyone told me I sucked.
friend, Pat Mata, was a great drummer and Native American and joined us. Jeff Cooper, also known as “Cooper Hawk”, was a local bass player who was also Native American, who also joined. Blue Mountain Tribe is an all-original Blues/rock band who sing about Indigenous people, war veterans, people with disabilities, love, desire, rage, pain, and hope. Blue Mountain Tribe’s mission is for the greater good to support charitable Native American events, with emphasis on Indigenous Youth, people with disabilities, our veterans, and stopping suicide amongst Native American youth. We are twotime winners of the Native American Music Awards. Our song, Pray For Our Planet, has been played all over the country including Australia and Ireland. We have been in six newspapers. We’ve been on five radio interviews.
But I kept remembering what my mother had told me. Years later I became a very good harpist playing in a lot of blues bands. As my son Caleb grew up, he had a great talent for guitar, so we started a band together. Starting off as a Blues and classic rock cover band. Though we didn’t have a vision, we jammed where we could. One day my wife Paris and I were watching TV, and Native American rock band named Xit came on. Man, they rocked! I told my wife and Caleb that I wanted our band to become all Native American and all original Blues. A work
We’ve performed at numerous Las Vegas concerts. Winners at the Latino/Native American film festival. We’ve been rated by Spinditty as one of the top Native American bands of all time. This is a great honor since there have been thousands of Native American bands since the sixties. Our members are Robin Hairston (vocals and harmonica); Caleb Hairston (lead guitar); Pat Mata (drums); and Jeff Booper (bass. It’s a long way to the top if you want to play the Blues. We made it. We’re in The Blue Matters! Magazine.
Our band is Blue Mountain Tribe. I’m Robin Hairston. I was brought up in the sixties when everyone was listening to Jimi Hendrix and Janis Joplin.
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ISSUE 124
BLUESMATTERS.COM
