Medicine Dream spun a web of mystical music Tuesday when it opened for Rita Coolidge's band Walela in front of a rowdy crowd at the Arctic Education Foundation fund-raiser in Atwood Concert Hall.

Masters of ceremonies for the fifth annual "Native Voices" concert entertained the crowd for a good 20 minutes before the show finally started on what they called "Inupiaq time."

Medicine Dream kept the audience clapping with more drums than you could shake a stick at: Chuck Henman on an acoustic drum set, Cea Anderson on a handheld natural drum and Buz Daney with a long, thin drumstick playing a natural drum as big as a black bear. George Newton looked like one of the Ramones as he reached past the acoustic guitar hanging from his neck to play an electric guitar on a stand.

For "Petals" band leader and Native American flute player Paul Pike, keyboardist John Field and guitarist George Newton took up the drums to create a thundering overture, with Daney leading the Native chant [intertribal vocals].

Medicine Dream appeals to the spirit, mind and body of the listener, setting lyrics about the Creator, politics and social issues to traditional Native tunes with a rollicking, rapturous rhythm. Their message is as simple as their look: There is nothing Native about self-destruction.

Through music and in between sets, they spoke about the dangers of alcohol use and suicidal fears lurking in the minds of young people separated from their culture. They also dedicated a song to women and mothers and sent up a prayer for women murdered on Anchorage streets.

If you have a radio, you've heard Rita Coolidge's Grammy-winning voice. Her group Walela started out slowly but quickly gained momentum. The trio of cool, smooth voices poured out like cream from your grandmother's pitcher in a bygone era.

Walela was formed a few years ago to share the Cherokee library of music with young Native Americans and non-Natives in the United States and abroad. Almost every song had a family association, which Walela began to share more often as the performers got used to the audience. They dedicated "Cherokee Rose" to their late grandmother.

At one point, songwriter Priscilla Coolidge serenaded Rita, her sister, with Kitty Wells-type enunciation and rhythms. The two Coolidges spotlighted Priscilla's daughter, Laura Satterfield, who could pass for one of the Dixie Chicks and still fit in singing with Buffy Sainte-Marie. According to the concert program, Satterfield also won a Native American Music Award for writing the song "Warrior."

Walela's music reflects the trio's Cherokee-Baptist-Southern heritage, evident in songs like "Muddy Road" and the Cherokee national anthem, "Amazing Grace," both of which the sisters related to the Trail of Tears.

The three-hour show, broadcast live on KNBA and other public radio stations across Alaska, brought rural residents into the circle of music so they could warm their hearts for the long winter in communion with us urbanites.

Native American art brought together the fans of locally based but internationally influenced Medicine Dream and internationally known but quintessentially American Walela. I wonder who "Native Voices" organizers will share with us next year.

.