Reservation Blues

Reservation Blues, Sherman Alexie, Atlantic Monthly Press, 1995

In 1992, legendary bluesman Robert Johnson arrived on the Spokane Indian Reservation in the state of Washington. This is the same Robert Johnson who allegedly sold his soul to the devil in return for legendary blues skills and recorded only 29 songs before being murdered over 50 years previously. Johnson has come looking for a woman in his dreams who can help him and to try again to get rid of his guitar, a guitar which always finds Johnson no matter where he leaves it or what he does to it. Johnson runs into Thomas Builds-the-Fire, misfit storyteller of the tribe.

With the help of Johnson's guitar, left in Thomas' truck, the band Coyote Springs is born. Thomas is on lead vocals, Victor Joseph plays Johnson's guitar (sometimes it seems like Johnson's guitar plays Victor), Jumior Polatkin is on drums, and twin sisters from a Montana reservation, Chess and Checkers Warm Water, handle the backup vocals. They call their music "four-and-a-hlaf chord rock and blues," being part blues, part rock, part folk and part Unknown. They get a couple of gigs in small-town bars, plus a gig in Seattle. They attract a couple of female groupies, white women named Betty and Veronica, who "get it on" with Victor and Junior. This is not appreciated by Chess and Checkers, and by the tribal council back on the reservation, who don't think much of fraternization between Indians and non-Indians.

Chess temporarily leaves the group to return to singing in the chruch choir. She also has a major crush on the priest, Father Arnold. He realizes this, and asks his bishop to be reassigned elsewhere. The bishop refuses, so Father Arnold leaves the church completely.

She rejoins the group when they are contacted by Cavalry Records and flown to New York City for an audition. It turns into a disaster, and Victor and Junior take off for their own night-long tour of New York City bars, with Thomas, Chess and Checkers looking for them. They are reunited the mext day.

The record company flies them back home, but, after that, Coyote Springs fades quickly into the sunset.

I really liked this book. The author does a fine job at mixing humor with the reality of '90s reservation life. This is my first exposure to Sherman Alexie, but it will not be my last.