Minneapolis Native Joe Rainey thankful to be 'elevating powwow music'
November 28, 2022

David Guttenfelder
Joe Rainey grew up in south Minneapolis and was a part of the Little Earth and Red Lake tribal communities.
Amid the mishmash of indie-rockers and electronic acts at Bon Iver's Eaux Claires music festivals in the late-2010s, Joe Rainey and his dramatic style of singing and drumming stood out like a loud wolf's howl on a still summer night.
"The thing that really struck me was the physical intensity of powwow singing, the natural volume," Minneapolis multi-instrumentalist Andrew Broder recalled.
A half-decade later - with help from Broder and the attention he earned at those festivals - Rainey is standing out in a way that has garnered him national recognition and made people rethink powwow music, or at least recognize its unique power.
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