Jams with Julianne

In the weeks post, I am going to be talking about the history of Western Swing! Western Swing began in the dancehalls of  small towns throughout the lower Great Plains in the late 1920s and early 1930s. It is a subgenre of American country music. It is a type of dance music with an up-tempo beat, which ultimately attracted large crowds to the dancehalls. Western swing is a combination of rural, cowboy, polka, old-time, Dixieland jazz, and blues blended with swing. In a western swing band the main instruments are drums, saxophones, pianos, and, most importantly, the steel guitar. The string instruments, especially the steel guitar, gives the music a very distinctive sound. It is the first music genre indigenous to Texas. It brought the steel guitar, which is the most distinctive sound in the genre, to country music and also brought the drums to the front of country music stages. Horns were also used in many western swing bands. The western swing dance is a ballroom dance with a west...

 For this post, I want to dive further into the Native American culture. The Native American culture is specifically important to me because I am American Indian, which if you do not know that is another term used for Native American/ Indigenous. I have recently found out that American Indian is my true race. With that being said, my family and I are part of  the Bute Tribe of Bayou Bourbeaux. One part of the Native American culture that really interests me is the traditional dances.  The hoop dance is traditionally performed for healing ceremonies in the tribal community. These events were very sacred and were to bring balance and harmony back. For this dance, the hoop is considered the most important part. Most Native Americans viewed the hoop as a never-ending circle of life. The hoop is very symbolic and is continuously seen throughout the Native American culture. For example, during the dancing in the powwows the dancers are in the formation of a circle. When the hoo...