Reputable sources are claiming that Arizona-based slacker-rocker Hataałii comes across as “utterly charming, disarmingly approachable, and delightful” on his debut album Singing Into Darkness, released a couple weeks back via Dangerbird Records. Even on the record, you get a sense of the young songwriter’s strength as an improviser between his seeming stream-of-conscious lyrics and his in-the-moment impulses on guitar. Naturally, these strengths are only more visible in his live performances.
Setting up within the Navajo Nation lands he was born and raised on, Hataałii filmed a brief “Neighborhoods” set for us wherein he plays album cuts “Story of Francisco” and “Male Rain Days” high up in the Chuska Mountains, a range located about 200 miles west of Albuquerque on the New Mexico/Arizona border. Strumming an electric guitar over a minimal electronic drumbeat, it’s Hataałii’s vocals that stand out as they weave around the minimal instrumental. See how they do it on the Navajo Nation below.
