Power in the Songs BUFFY SAINTE-MARIE
She ’ s always done it her way & she ’ s more loved than ever
BY MICHAEL RAINE
PHOTO : MATT BARNES
“ Oh ,
fantastic !” Buffy Sainte-Marie exclaims , exuding her characteristic enthusiasm . “ I ’ ve been on the road for 50 years . I took 16 years off to raise my son , but basically even then I was touring . So , to have a legitimate excuse to stay home is something that I ’ ve always looked forward to . Plus , I live on a farm and there ’ s nobody around , so the isolation is easy for me .”
Even over Zoom from her rural home in Hawaii , Sainte-Marie radiates positivity , often punctuating sentences with a laugh . But her positivity is hard-earned . It ’ s not positivity born of naivety or innocence . It ’ s the outlook she ’ s earned from a full life of experiences , explorations , and learning .
Throughout our conversation , which stretched well beyond the scheduled 45 minutes , Sainte-Marie will go off on excited tangents (“ Do you have time for a funny story ? I don ’ t think anybody ’ s going to be interested , but …”); talk openly about childhood trauma with appropriate sensitively but not a bit of self-pity ; shoot down any question ’ s premise she doesn ’ t agree with , especially any attempt at armchair psychology (“ I wouldn ’ t call [ music ] escape and therapy ! Hell no . It was fun ! Guys who play hockey , what is that – escape and therapy ?”); readily take credit where it ’ s due , but also not pass up any joke about her own shortcomings (“ I wasn ’ t self-managed – I just didn ’ t have a manager !”); and chat honestly and warmly on all manner of topics from throughout her remarkable career .
“ I ’ m told I was about three-years-old because that ’ s when I first saw a piano . I never played with Barbies . I never played sports . But when I saw a piano , I wanted to get up on it . I just had an ear for it immediately ,” Sainte-Marie , who will turn 80 in February , says to me about when music took over her life . “ But , you know , there ’ s 360 ways to be in music . People approach music in all kinds of ways . I mean , you approach music through journalism . Somebody else like me just hears an instrument and loves it and that ’ s what they do for the rest of their life .”
A Cree woman born ( she thinks ) on the Piapot 75 reserve in Saskatchewan , Sainte-Marie was adopted by a white family and grew up in Maine and Massachusetts . She has spoken openly and frankly – including in Andrea Warner ’ s excellent biography – about the sexual abuse she was subjected to for years by both her older brother and a much older relative , as well as bullying in school , and the lasting effect it has . She rejects , though , any notion that she used music to cope . For her , music has always been about having fun and the appeal was that simple .
“ For me , it ’ s the same as sports or other kids playing Barbies . I ’ m saying that although there were predators around and I was bullied – I was the littlest one and the youngest one in my class and couldn ’ t get a break – I was happy because I could go home and play fake Beethoven . They wouldn ’ t let me in band or choir or any of that kind of stuff , but I ’ d go home and I play fake Mozart or , you know , eventually I played Fats Domino . So , I was happy . I don ’ t look at it as escaping and therapy at all . No , it was my number one choice and I got it .”
34 CANADIAN MUSICIAN