Sierra Spirit
Rodeo Clown
GIANT
Oral history has always been an essential part of Sierra Spirit’s life. The Tulsa-bred, Otoe-Missouria and Keetoowah Cherokee musician grew up listening to her grandmother tell ancestral stories on long drives across the countryside of Middle America. With Don Williams playing on the radio, she soaked in her family history and listened to long-passed-down stories about her Indigenous heritage as the Oklahoma horizon shone through the windows. On her new EP Rodeo Clown, Spirit taps into such storytelling, blending personal and ancestral histories with soft-plucked steel string and powwow drumming to create a shimmering portrait of her heritage.
Additionally weaving between reflections on relationships and familial heartbreak, Rodeo Clown packs an impressive depth of emotion into its 16-minute runtime. The EP kicks off with its namesake, an homage to Spirit’s late uncle. A softly fingerpicked melody has a brief moment to set the stage before she details the earth-moving person her relative was: “You hung the moon and tore the world down,” she sings. Tears start to well as Spirit details the cowboy’s battle with addiction, the plucked steel string setting a somber mood. The song’s subject was larger than life in Spirit’s eyes, and the deep love she still has for the late bull rider strikes at your heart as she implores us to “take our hats off to the rodeo clown.” The track ends with 10 seconds of near silence in a moment of reflection, capping off the stunning tribute while allowing us to process the complex blend of pride and sadness exuded by Spirit.
While the remainder of the EP doesn’t wrench your heart quite like its title track, Spirit uses the rest of Rodeo Clown to flex her breadth as an artist and storyteller. “Can’t Be Friends” picks up the pace a bit, enlisting a driving kick drum to dance with a zippy bass line as backing for a defiant breakup song insisting that you can’t be friends with your ex. “Walls” takes a more reflective position, with Spirit exploring a derelict house as a metaphor for her personal journey of finding purpose and light in music. The guitar haunts the background like tendrils of fog as Spirit lights a candle to find her way through the house, keen on never looking back for fear of what might be lingering behind her.
As Spirit learned about her heritage on her long drives with her grandmother, she had to blaze her own path as an Indigenous musician. In Rodeo Clown’s release bio, she explains that “growing up there weren’t really any Native artists that I could look up to, so it’s also about normalizing and adding those things into everyday life or music.” This impetus shines through on the EP, whether it be “Devils Tower” taking its name from the spiritual Wyoming landmark that took center stage in some of Spirit’s favorite childhood stories, or the enlisting of intertribal powwow drummers the Sisters of the One Drum throughout the collection. Spirit is damn proud of her heritage and determined to be the Native artist others can look to for inspiration and confidence that she never had.
