NPR: Late Lumbee singer Willie Lowery became a cult rock hero

Monday, July 23, 2012  

"In the 1960s, the late Lumbee Indian singer, composer and activist Willie Lowery led a band called Plant and See — as in, plant the seed in the ground and see what comes up.

The band recorded only one album, Plant and See, which went out of print shortly after it was released in 1969, but psychedelic rock fans have always held it in high esteem.

Plant and See's music was very much of its moment: a hazy, Southern blend of rock, soul and blues. And yet in some ways, the band was ahead of its time — especially in its diversity. The drummer was black, the bass player was Latino, the back-up singer was white and the frontman was American Indian — Lowery.

Malinda Maynor Lowery, Willie Lowery's widow and a professor of history at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, says some of the band's vocal harmonies have roots in the Lumbee church.

"Singing in harmony has been something we've done for hundreds of years, in churches without instruments — the richness was provided by voices singing in harmony," she says. "That's what he heard from babyhood. And Willie was an incredible perfectionist when it came to making sure his band members, and making sure he himself, were doing the right things.""

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A Tribal Anthem's Author — And A Cult Rock Hero (NPR 7/21)