In October, Kevin Locke won Record of the Year for his latest album "Earth Gift" at the 11th Annual Native American Music Awards (the Nammys). This is the music industry's largest awards organization for Native American audio recordings. Kevin previously won a Nammy in 2000 for Best Traditional Recording for his album "The First Flute."

Kevin says "Earth Gift" has “sounds that don’t tie things to a specific culture, tribe, or ethnicity. It really takes people into an area that transcends cultural specificity; a place of universal appeal.”

Three-time Grammy-winner Tom Wasinger, producer of "Earth Gift," explains part of the album’s unique genre-mixing attributes. “If we made it strictly traditional,” says Wasinger, “we’d have a small palette of sounds to work with. I sought out instruments that, although they are not traditional to this music, complement the essential sound, and in some ways are more related than one might think.” Various tracks feature instruments that are firmly rooted in America’s past. The nail violin (a bowed set of tuned nails popular in the 18th century), the pianolin (a combination of piano and violin), and other once-commonplace variations on the zither (a category of instruments that have strings which stretch over a resonating chamber but do not extend beyond it) are from the same era, the late 1800s, as many of Kevin’s Lakota teachers and their songs.

One of the goals of "Earth Gift" and Kevin's programs is to remind us that we are the caretakers of the world around us. With that in mind, the new Earth Gift is printed on 100% Green Forestry Practices certified stock with eco-friendly, vegetable-based inks.