Every musician is driven by a desire to be heard. Dylan Bizhikiins Jennings and Joe Rainey know it well — better than most, in fact. So when the invitation came to play Eaux Claires festival in 2015, they seized that moment and are still building on it almost a decade later.
The output of all the energy they’ve put in took the stage during Wednesday’s Studio Milwaukee Session in the form of Bizhiki, the group they formed with S. Carey. The multi-instrumentalist and secret sauce in the Bon Iver/Justin Vernon universe represents just one of the relationships forged by Jennings and Rainey — members of the Bad River Ojibwe and Red Lake Ojibwe, respectively — in the years since Eaux Claires.
“Mr. Vernon is a close, personal friend,” Rainey said with a laugh. “He’s been in full support of what we do, but behind the scenes are many musicians who have come forward to collaborate. Through our voices and through the experiences that we’ve had as singers throughout our lives, we know how to accommodate. Just being a part of Eaux Claires music fest really laid the foundation of what you see here.”
He gestured to Carey and the other musicians filling up the session stage and filling out the powerful sound that emanated from it during Bizhiki’s set prior to their Wednesday night show at Vivarium. Bass player Steve Garrington, guitarist Jeremy Ylvisaker and keyboardist Ben Lester went to work surrounded by the tools of their trade. But it was the powwow singing of Jennings and Rainey that commanded attention.
In the course of four songs from Bizhiki’s Unbound, they demonstrated the concept of “voices as instruments.” Jennings slid through his scale easily (or made it look easy, anyway) while adding subtle touches here and there. Rainey punctuated moments big and small, reaching a pinnacle during the group’s final song of the broadcast portion, “Nashke!”
It was a remarkable vocal performance that defied categorization, backing up something Jennings mentioned during the mid-set interview.
“Sometimes, we might go to a place, and they already have us put in this spot … and already have an idea, a preconceived notion of where our music and our style and our genre fits in,” he shared. “What we’re saying is, essentially, get rid of that. Break down those categories and allow us to exist within any space.”
Set list
- “Unbound”
- “S.G.C.”
- “Nashke!”
- “Float Back By” (non-broadcast performance)
