Cecil Gray Native Blues will be the headliner for this year’s Cheese Festival entertainment. The band was formerly known as Cecil Gray and the Red Dawn Blues and bill themselves as a blues band with deep ties to their Native heritage. They will perform from 12-4 Saturday, October 12.
The band won the 2004 Native American Music Awards’ best blues/jazz recording for its album Indian Harmony. The awards were established to recognize Native American artists for their contributions to music.
Cecil Gray has been nominated six times by NAMA, with four blues and one gospel albums, in addition to Indian Harmony.
The gospel album, Prayer Warriors, featured his mother and aunt on vocals. The most recent album completed is Saddle Mountain Blues, a nod to classical blues, with one original song tucked in for good measure.
He was inducted into the Oklahoma Blues Hall of Fame in 2015. An accomplished singer, songwriter and musician, Gray is an enrolled member of the Kiowa Nation. He is backed up by Terry Tsotigh on drums and Patrick Toingigh on bass guitar. From time to time, Tara Cargill sings lead and backup vocals. She is an enrolled member of the Comanche Nation and descended from Kiowa, Navaho, Choctaw and Chickasaw tribal members. Her deep, rich vocals are strongly influenced, she says, by Etta James and Koko Taylor.
The band is headquartered in Lawton. For more information or to listen to a demo track, go to cecilgrayblues.com