UPCOMING SHOWS:

A rare moment captured has Brock holding hands with BB King as they were seated at the back of BB King’s tour bus. BB King took Brock by the hand to end an argument between Brock and BB King’s long time bus driver and bodyguard. Very little people have been fortunate enough to touch BB King’s hands due to an aggressive fan in the past. This photo was taken on March 11th, 2006 at Mohican NorthStar Casino in Bowler, Wisconsin USA. Brock was offered the opportunity to open for BB King after a Lenape Language Camp that took place on the Stockbridge Munsee Indian Reservation facilitated by Brock’s late brother and language keeper Bruce Stonefish.

BOOK ENTRY: a peak into Brock’s book series.

  “In my personal experience, I have had to master chasing white man's dreams also known as the American Dream. When I was 20 years old, at first I lived alone just south of Boston on Cape Cod in a new house with 2 full bathrooms on a lot worth $1.5million American dollars.

 I had 3 jobs, my day job was working as an Artisan Interpreter at a 1600s Living Museum in a department called W.I.P. the Wampanoag Indian Program. At this museum I would present Indigenous history and culture daily to hundreds or even thousands on a busy day to students and tourists ranging from Kindergarten to College and University level as well as the tourists ranging from local history enthusiasts to International knowledge seekers from both Colonial and Indigenous relations.

 After my nine to five job, I worked my evenings performing nightly with my guitar at Blues Clubs throughout the City of Boston Massachusetts. I would play my guitar for acts like Doo Wop Hall of Famer Little Joe Cook, or American blues royalty like Elmore James Jr. I made my debut guitar recording in Springfield MA at Billups Entertainment on an album titled "Shorty's Got The Blues" for Louisiana based blues Shorty and The Fox Band.

 Aside from my day job and my night job was my Sunday job working for Visa/Master Card and the Fleet Bank handing out credit card applications during the 1st quarter of every home game at Gillette Stadium played by NFL Superbowl Champions, the New England Patriots. After the 1st quarter I was free to wander the stadium to watch the greatest football team in the country. That season's AFC Championships fell on my 21st birthday, I remember calling home to my mom and my brothers on my cell phone, the crowd was so intense that nothing could be heard on the receiving end of the numerous calls while the stadium was literally rattling under my feet similar to as if a train was rushing passed.

 The first time flying was also the same year, I flew home to visit my mother in Peterborough Ontario Canada for Christmas. Attending Christmas parties telling the tales of my time in Boston and Cape Cod, people would roll their eyes and make comments to assure me that my stories sound too accomplishing for a drunk dirty ndn to lay claim to. Of course the same eye rollers changed the beat of their dance as soon as I would pull from my wallet an uncashed cheque from the Fleet Bank made out to myself by the New England Patriots, I had planned ahead by not cashing my cheque knowing that nobody in Peterborough would want to believe such stories. To this day family members find it tough to accept.

 It is only recently since my debut album has been released that I start sharing these stories, because I have to also share the life I lived behind my song lyrics. A lot of people I know especially in my home community have zero idea without the help of my First Nation just how far on my own I have actually gotten chasing the American Dream, all that most people know are my accomplishments after I moved back to Canada to look after my dying mother.

 After my mom's death I lost all reason to get rich and famous, everything I wanted, a fancy wife, the big house, nice cars, a maid, a nurse, I wanted all these things only for my mother. I drank heavily up until my father died, and that is when I started to take a real hard look into the things I truly want to accomplish, it was a decision to quit drinking or quit living and die, I chose to quit drinking, and to forget about the American Dream.

 The old ndn way of life is far better than any colonial goals that are instilled into our people, my goal now is to convince our people that the American Dream is only designed to separate people from the ones they love, these ways are dehumanizing our society as indigenous people. The American Dream is not worth more than any time spent with loved ones just for the sake of wealth.

 My measure of wealth is not laughing all the way to the bank while blood relations struggle in poverty and are left to suffer in bad health. I now try to live by measuring my wealth based on how much I can create from my own families stories and influences, and take those creations and give them away to others. This way others may gain the influences they are lacking just as I will gain the lacking influences within creations gifted from others. All of this, extending our gifts to one another from creative influence is to restore balance in humanity. This is my current vision, and the proof is in my project called the Indigenous Youth Guitar Giveaway Series.

 I have traded in chasing the American Dream to get back to the old ndn ways I was raised on, the same ways all of my previous blood relations were raised to live by. I have had to master the American Dream to find out that it is unhealthy to my way of life. It is literally physically battering on my brain which naturally has a path of least resistance that does not reflect the choices it takes to live the American Dream. It seems to me that this current colonial path that is evolving as a society in our peoples brains is invasive to the indigenous mind period. Seemingly It has been strangling out the influences and ideas planted by our ancestors from multiple millennia of survival. This means that our DNA holds the map to survival, and revitalization of our language and song is the cherry on top.”

written by- Brock Stonefish