Recordings
All CD's are $15.95 plus 6% tax, and $3.00 shipping/handling. E-mail comserv@nd.gov or call 701-328-7590 to order.

• Spirit Woods: Traditional Stories and Songs of Forests and Trees
• Achikadidi: Traditional Ma'di Music of Southern Sudan and Northern Uganda
• Un de' che cha pi: The Way We Are by Mary Louise Defender Wilson
• Faerie Harp by Debi Rogers and Sue Bicknell 
• At the Fiddler's Knee by Dick and Lisa Barrett 
• My Relatives Say: Traditional Dakotah Stories as Told by Mary Louise Defender Wilson
• Morning Star Whispered: Traditional Mandan and Hidatsa Stories and Flute Music by Keith Bear
• The Elders Speak: Dakotah and Ojibway Stories of the Land. Told by Gourd Woman and Eagle Heart

Spirit Woods
Traditional Stories and Songs of Forests and Trees

• The tree is an ancient, near universal symbol found in cultures across the world playing a central role in Germanic, Celtic, Norse, and American Plains Indian lore. To this day, revered trees like oak, ash,elm, cottonwood, evergreen, and others figure prominently in folk beliefs, stories, songs, and art. Told by award-winning storytellers, this collection of folk stories illustrates the cultural, artistic, educational, and spiritual place trees occupy.
• More information on Spirit Woods

Achikadidi
Traditional Ma'di Music of Southern Sudan and Northern Uganda

• Named after a famous waterfall in Ma'di territory in southern Sudan, this CD features traditional musicians and singers from a growing Ma'di refugee community in Fargo who continue to play music and sing as they make a new life. The CD's ten songs, performed in a call-and-response style, reflect Ma'di culture and history ranging from New Year celebrations to marriage traditions and from British and Arab colonial rule to the current civil war in Sudan. An enhanced CD component includes the traditional story The Friendship Between Hare, Lia, and Leopard, a video of the song Kalendo, as well as maps, song translations with associated cultural notes, and photographs designed to provide a broader context for Ma'di music and culture.
• More information on Achikadidi

Un de' che cha pi: The Way We Are
By Mary Louise Defender Wilson

• The third spoken word CD by Mary Louise Defender Wilson produced by the NDCA, this CD features five traditional stories that deal with four issues in human nature that people struggle to keep in balance: food, violence and anger, group or gang tendencies, and sex. The previous two CDs - The Elders Speak (with Ojibway elder and storyteller Francis Cree) and My Relatives Say - were co-produced with Makoche Music of Bismarck. The new CD features several stories about Unktomi, or Spiderman, a trickster representing human nature before we became "civilized," according to Mary Louise. She states that the issues of food, anger, group tendencies, and sex are inherent in every human being and must be kept in balance if we are to live freely to be the "kind of civilized person we are meant to be."
• More information on Un de' che cha pi: The Way We Are

Faerie Harp
By Debi Rogers and Sue Bicknell

• A delightful array of Celtic melodies and stories from the British isles are woven together in this aural tapestry. Faerie Harp conjures images of a land steeped in magical enchantment. With a strong sense of tradition, three ancient stories, instrumental tunes, and lush vocals sung in Irish, Welsh, and English blend with guitars, Gaelic harps, Highland bagpipes, and fiddle to transport you to Celtia.
• More information on Faerie Harp

At the Fiddler's Knee
By Dick and Lisa Barrett 

• This compact disc features Dick Barrett, one of the best traditional fiddle players in the country, his talented wife Lisa, and two of their gifted apprentices, John Owen Lardinois, Jr. and Preston Schmidt. The deeply rooted music, presented here in 29 tracks, is intertwined with colorful  interviews that illustrate how the fiddle tradition and this master fiddler's life have shaped one another. 
• More information on At the Fiddler's Knee

My Relatives Say
Traditional Dakotah Stories as Told by Mary Louise Defender Wilson

• "They are wiser than us in many ways," says Mary Louise Defender Wilson. The lessons and character of humanity and how to live in a civilized way are taught through traditional stories and are exemplified by the animals, wind and stars observed around us. This audio and enhanced CD contains cultural content, photographs, and video clips of the animals and artwork spoken of in the stories.
• More information on My Relatives Say

Morning Star Whispered
Traditional Mandan and Hidatsa Stories and Flute Music by Keith Bear

• Keith Bear, whose name in the Nu E’ta (Mandan) language is O’Mashi! Ryu Tâ, meaning Northern Lights, is an award-winning Mandan and Hidatsa flute player, storyteller, and traditionalist of exceptional talent living in Drags Wolf Village on the Fort Berthold Indian Reservation of northwestern North Dakota. He has performed nationally at the Smithsonian Folklife Festival, the Library of Congress-American Folklife Center, the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, the National Museum of the American Indian as well as internationally in Switzerland, Ireland, Wales, Germany, Austria, and Canada.

• This recording, produced by the North Dakota Council on the Arts, features Keith playing music on flutes he carved himself and telling stories involving the Morning Star and other astronomical bodies. The enhanced component provides cultural context to the stories told and ‘the stars’ [Sun, Moon, Mars, Venus, comets, etc.] referenced in the audio component through images of traditional art, text involving folk beliefs, an interactive map, audio interviews, and animation from NASA and the European Space Agency.

• This CD is $14.98 (plus $4.25 shipping & handling per order [not per CD]). To purchase this CD, contact Makoché Music at 208 N 4th St., Bismarck, ND 58501; telephone: 800.ND.SOUND; web site: www.makoche.com; or email: info@makoche.com.

The Elders Speak
Dakotah and Ojibway Stories of the Land. Told by Gourd Woman and Eagle Heart

• With a simple offering and acceptance of tobacco, the "Old Ones" unfold ancient stories and make known a mystical and spiritual land. The storytellers speak of a land where the waters, buttes, stones, plants and animals reveal the lessons and origins of Humanity. These places and their stories are all around us and speak to us today. Gourd Woman and Eagle Heart, with kindly hearts and a genuine desire to preserve these rare stories for future generations, share them on this remarkable recording, available on cassette and enhanced CD. Great for children, adults, students, educators and those simply wanting to be entertained, this enhanced CD contains maps and photos of the landmark areas and folk arts described in their stories. This enhanced CD can be heard in any CD player.

• More information on The Elders Speak