A unique sound
By KAREN SHADE, 6/14/2006
Arigon Starr (Courtesy)
Kickapoo artist blends folk-country music with comedy
She might be the only Kickapoo singer-songwriter-playwright-actor-artist on the road with four records and a hit music-comedy act, but Arigon Starr could trade her distinctive, multi-strung title for a single word -- diva.
"I figure I better just call myself 'diva' so people can know who I am," she said in a recent phone interview from Los Angeles.
Her life, however, isn't one given to outbursts, unreasonable demands and a tempestuous air of recognition for her own specialness. Starr knows she's good, but by phone, she's more prone to boisterous laughs and an unmistakable exuberance when talking about returning to Tulsa, her family and her upcoming show at the Nightingale Theater.
"My concept of a diva is somebody who's really good at what she does rather than (someone) having a lot of attitude, which is kind of the more common perception of that word. I kind of knew I had something and people were encouraging me," she said.
Thunder Road Theater Company will present "An Evening with Arigon Starr" Friday night at the Nightingale, where Starr will perform songs from her CDs with some comedy in between.
After her Tulsa show, Starr is scheduled in August to perform her one-woman act "The Red Road" in New York City and at the National Museum of the American Indian of the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C., two days later.
For now, morning in L.A. is great, and she speaks as if she were a talking post card.
"It's beautiful. It's going to be a good summer day. The sun's out already. It's just pretty -- wish you were here."
Starr moved to Los Angeles from San Diego, where she spent much of her childhood after her father retired from a career as a U.S. Navy recruiter. She is a member of the Kickapoo Nation through her father, but she is also Creek through her mother, as well as Cherokee and Seneca.
She also inherited some of their musical tastes, which continue to influence her folk, rock and country-blended style. She grew up listening to the Beatles, the Who and the Rolling Stones.
"Between my mom and her showtunes and my dad and his country music and all, it finally came together. It was strange growing up where it was either Frank Sinatra or Hank Thompson or Hank Williams," she said.
After finishing school in San Diego, she found work in Los Angeles as a publicist for the Showtime network and for Viacom. But working in the entertainment industry behind the scenes was not the life she wanted.
In 1996, she introduced Arigon Starr (a stage name) to the world through her first CD, appropriately titled "Meet the Diva." Her publicity know-how helped spawn her sound.
"What I did is I took those stories and things that were happening in Indian country at that time and kind of set them to music. That's how I sort of identified and branded myself, some people say. That was my hook. I'm a Native American singer-songwriter. I sing about Indians, and that was kind of unusual at that time," she said.
She's used that feeling of being "born with a pencil in my hand," to create a unique place in entertainment, and she enjoys taking the act on the road to American Indian music festivals and on the radio airwaves. On June 18, her radio comedy "Super Indian" will be produced during the Native Radio Theater Conference at Missouri State University-West Plains, Mo.
"In the commercial marketplace, you have to be able to tell people who you are, and I think that's really important for any artist to learn when they're out there putting their music out," she said.
Starr's mother, Ruth Cornell, grew up in Tulsa, and she still has family in town as well as in Sapulpa, Tahlequah and Holdenville.
Starr said she's excited about returning to Tulsa and hopes Friday night's show will be the first of many. That is, until she gets her dream job on "Saturday Night Live."
"Of course, I haven't gotten there yet," she said and laughed.
"An Evening with Arigon Starr"
When:
8 p.m. Friday
Where:
Nightingale Theater, 1416 E. Fourth St.
Admission:
$10 general, $8 seniors and students