Kim Moberg Band ~ 2025 June 5 ~ Cotuit Center for the Arts, Cotuit, MA
Kim Moberg (lead vocals, guitar); Heather Swanson (fiddle); Brad Conant (drums); Jon Evans (bass, vocals); Brian Miller (guitar, vocals); Rachel Moberg (song intros, vocals).
Scroll to below video for a review of the show.
Videos
The Fourth Fire: Two Faces
Review
This powerful presentation of Kim Moberg's work "The Seven Fires Prophecy: Suite for Humanity" was much more than a concert. Kim is descended from the Tlingit, a Native American tribal group that inhabits southeast Alaska, and she now resides on Cape Cod, land of the Wampanoag, People of the First Light. Her recent CD, "The Seven Fires Prophecy: Suite for Humanity" is a 9 song suite that tells the ancient Anishinaabe legend "The Seven Fires Prophecy," nine songs telling of encounters between indigenous peoples and the white settlers and the spiritual resources and responses of the tribal peoples.
The show had three parts: a poetry reading, a video, and a concert by Kim and her band. The evening began with a poet, Robert Peters, Mashpee Wampanoag, reading from his poems, illustrating stories of his tribal background and history. The second component of the evening was a video, showing how the artist who created the cover art for the CD drew from symbolism relating to the Seven Fires.
Then the concert began. Kim's daughter Rachel Moberg, in addition to providing lovely backing vocals, read an introduction to each song, each of the "seven fires," telling of the significance of that song in the prophecy, essentially explaining the plot of the story that is told in the prophecy. Rachel's introductions added significantly to the already very good songs, as the band went through the seven fires, and then also an eighth fire, which one might think of as a bonus track. Her introductions explained what each song is about, as Kim and the band went through each performance, and the songs fell together telling a complete story, with the Eighth Fire giving a hopeful ending. The cycle of seven songs tells the story of the indigenous experience in America, and with the addition of the Eighth Fire adds hope in the end, that if enough people in this nation choose a path of respect, wisdom, and spirituality, catastrophe can be avoided and a new era can unfold.
I've seen Kim perform a number of times solo or with Heather Swanson on fiddle, but I'd never seen her with a band, and it was extremely enjoyable. I've seen Jon Evans on bass with Grace Morrison a couple of times. For most of the songs the additional instruments added considerable enjoyable texture; the percussion was varied and rounded out each song. Having a lead guitar was surprising and delightful. Then they got to the "Seventh Fire" (the singalong: "the fire still burns") and guess what -- this girl can rock. There is an inner rock 'n roller waiting to be let out in Kim Moberg. Who knew? The drums set the beat, the guitar wailed, the singalong became a shoutalong. I loved it!
Here's the intro to the Fourth Fire video that is included, above. This "fire" takes place at the time that explorers and colonists are just starting to come to Turtle Island, to what the colonists mistakenly call the New World:
The Fourth Fire was given to the people by Two Prophets who said: "You will know the future of our people by the face the light skinned race wears. If they come wearing the face of brotherhood then there will come a time of wonderful change for generations to come. They will bring new knowledge and articles that can be joined with the knowledge of this country. In this way, two nations will join to make a mighty nation. This new nation will be joined by two more so that four will form the mightiest nation of all. You will know the face of brotherhood if the light skinned race comes carrying no weapons, if they come bearing only knowledge and a hand shake.