A veteran session musician of the highest order, Stevie Salas speaks through his guitar. His words are passionate and precise, delivered at a blistering pace and punctuated with massive power chords that hint at his experiences touring with Mick Jagger and hanging out with Jeff Beck.
Salas lists huge accomplishments (touring with Rod Stewart, or selling millions of solo albums in Japan) in a dismissive tone, like it’s "all in a day’s work" for him. But ask Salas about his work in Aboriginal communities, and he really lights up.
“I was just shovelling dirt for a playground in Whitedog, which is like eight hours from Thunder Bay,” says Salas in a phone interview with CBC Music. “That for me is a career highlight. It’s not all about hanging with Bowie and living the rock star life,” he adds, laughing.
Salas recently became involved with Dreamcatcher Charitable Foundation, which offers arts grants to Aboriginal people and is using Salas's talents to help others.
“I promised myself that when I turned 40 I would give back, since I was pretty selfish through my youth, which you sometimes need to be if you’re going to be successful,” he says.
As a teenager, Salas moved from his home in San Diego to make his musical mark in Hollywood, but the best he could do was a job answering phones and sweeping floors at a small recording studio. One night, he was sleeping on a studio couch when he was awoken by funk master George Clinton, who needed someone to play a guitar riff on a song he had just written. And so the trip began.
From there, Salas went on to record with his own trio, which included Bootsy Collins on bass and Buddy Miles on drums, while Salas was increasingly being asked to play as a session musician and tour guitarist. He’s since travelled the world with Rod Stewart, Mick Jagger, Terence Trent D’Arby, Duran Duran, Justin Timberlake and Jeff Healey.
Born of Apache and Mexican heritage, Salas knew a little about his roots, but didn’t advertise it while growing up on the beaches of San Diego.
“Being Indian wasn’t talked about,” Salas says. “My grandfather once told me that if you said you were Indian you’d be sent away, but if you said you were Mexican you got on some land and could farm a bit.”
Salas became friends with Ozzy Osbourne’s drummer Randy Castillo, who also had mixed Native American heritage. Salas says Castillo took him to a few reservations because “he saw I needed to get grounded.”
Salas has become increasingly active within Aboriginal circles as a music teacher and mentor, and is now focusing his efforts on building a bridge between mainstream music and native communities.
“The mainstream wants to learn more about Aboriginal cultures, and we need to surround ourselves with people who will help us grow into the mainstream,” he says.
Salas’s current projects include the Smithsonian Museum of the American Indian, where he's an advisor in its Contemporary Music Program, and is helping with an exhibit bridging modern rock with little-known native pioneers.
“Link Wray, the guy who invented the power chord, was half Shawnee Indian,” says Salas. “Jeff Beck and Pete Townshend both credit Link for causing them to pick up a guitar!”
Salas is also helping to bridge the cultural divide through his music variety show Arbor Live on the Aboriginal Peoples Television Network, and through television projects that are in the works with actor Adam Beach.
“My heart is really into working in Indian country now,” he says. “There’s something ancient in my soul, and doing this work is really feeding that.”
You can catch Stevie Salas at Winnipeg's Pyramid Cabaret on Saturday, Nov. 3, as part of Aboriginal Music Week.
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