Wisconsin Life Wade Fernandez Transcript

[Wade Fernandez strumming guitar]

- Sometimes people say, "Well, what kind of artist are you?  Are you a rock player, a blues player, [plays a riff] a country, folk, jazz, flamenco?"  
"Well, I dabble with it all.”  

My name is Wade Fernandez, Wiciwen Apis-Mahwaew. It sort of translates to "Walks With The Black Wolf."  I'm from the Menominee Nation in Wisconsin. I'm a musician and also an educator. 
♪ ♪

That's my career and I travel around the world doing it. 
♪ [playing Native American flute] ♪  

A lot of my music has a strong thread of growing up on the Menominee Reservation and being part of the Menominee culture. 

["Cry of the Wolf"] 
♪ You hear it in the mountains ♪ 
♪ The cold wind calls your name ♪ 

As soon as I get my hands on an instrument, it's like a song wants to come out. 

["Cry of the Wolf"]
♪ You're burning down the forest ♪ 
♪ With your selfish pride ♪ 
♪ Kill until your fears are pacified ♪  
When you're writing something, sometimes you don't even know where it's coming from. That's what song writing is. 
♪ Listen to the wolf as he cries ♪ 

You feel that faucet starting to drip and you think, "Well, let me just open it up a little more and let it flow." 

♪ [vocalizing soulfully] ♪

And then, the song comes out. 

♪ [vocalizing] ♪
♪ ♪ 
[cheers and applause]
 
[performing "Commodity Cheese Blues"]
♪ I Went downtown to get my commodities ♪  
♪ I Went downtown to get my commodities ♪ 

I love to perform. I love to travel. I love seeing the world. ♪ Tell me please when I'll get my commod cheese ♪ It could be a solo acoustic, a singer-songwriter type of stuff, or folk kind of stuff, or it could be a duo with my son. 
♪ Mmm... commod cheese ♪ 
♪ You keep me filled ♪ 
♪ My cheese on my fry bread ♪ 

He's been touring with me since he's 11, and now he's 16.  I love stepping onto the stage and just feeling what is needed in that moment,  It's a special thing to share that with your children.  - What's really gratifying to me is to be able to share everything that you are, your ancestors, your culture,  the music that flows through you. Because we are a combination of everything that came before us and everything that's around us in the present still.  

I had a teacher once that told me, "After two years with you, you still sound like Wade Fernandez." And he was very angry. And then I, and I was kind of hurt, but then I started to think, "Maybe that's who I'm supposed to sound like. Maybe that's who I'm supposed to be." 

["Cry of the Wolf"]
♪ Listen to the wolf as he cries ♪ 

That's all we can be in life is to be ourselves. And if we can do that with a lot of conviction and some hard work,  it's the ultimate life to me.  

♪ [vocalizing during "Cry of the Wolf"] ♪

[cheers and applause]