2022 Painted Mountains Tour

For the first time in Bureau history, the BLM Artist-in-Residence program featured a multi-site tour when Native American jazz trumpeter Delbert Anderson and his ensemble D’DAT visited several National Conservation Lands sites in June and July 2022.

Anderson and D’DAT spent time at each location researching Indigenous land stories and music, then held workshops in which students collaborated to create music. They concluded a final day with an outdoor public performance to celebrate America’s public lands.

About Anderson

Delbert Anderson and D’DAT combine jazz, funk, and hip hop yielding a unique and compelling sound appealing to people of all backgrounds. Anderson is a faculty member at San Juan College in Farmington, NM, and bases his music on traditional spinning songs from Native Americans. The resulting sound is rhythmic, multi-tonal, and rich in texture.

Historically, Navajo spinning songs have been a way for Diné to compose new pieces reflecting the present moment. Traditionally passed from generation to generation, spinning songs grew with the times and are still present today.

Anderson found a cassette tape of spinning songs and spoke with native elders to explore fusing spinning songs and today’s modern music. “They had songs for everything, love, war, ceremonies and healing," he said. "The spinning songs I was influenced by were those with messages to our youth about minding manners."

In its performances, D’DAT merges traditional and modern music structures to create an exciting new sound.

About the Artist-in-Residence program

The BLM Artist-in-Residence program provides artistic and educational opportunities to promote deeper understanding of, and dialogue about, the significance of natural, cultural, and historic resources on public lands managed by the BLM – including the National Landscape Conservation System.

The BLM Artist-in-Residence program is managed by a participating BLM field office or site, often in conjunction with one or more partner organizations. Through the program, artists are encouraged to use their observational skills in portraying the variety of cultural and natural resources on BLM lands such as historic structures, artifacts, cultural landscapes, geologic features, and plant and animal life. Learn more!