Blackfire (American band)

Blackfire was founded in 1989 in Flagstaff, Arizona by siblings Jeneda, Klee, and Clayson Benally. Their mother was a folk singer-songwriter of Russian-Polish Jewish descent,{{Cite web|last=Godrèche|first=Dominique|title=Indigenous Anarchist Klee Benally In Paris|url=https://indiancountrytoday.com/archive/indigenous-anarchist-klee-benally-in-paris|access-date=2021-12-25|website=Indian Country Today|language=en}}{{Cite web|last=Malkin|first=John|date=2020-05-15|title=Prayer in Action: Klee Benally|url=https://www.spiritualityhealth.com/articles/2020/05/15/every-action-is-a-prayer-navajo-musician-activist-klee-benally-on-the-front-line-in-navajo-nation|url-status=live|access-date=2021-12-25|website=Spirituality & Health|language=en|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200925001131/https://spiritualityhealth.com/articles/2020/05/15/every-action-is-a-prayer-navajo-musician-activist-klee-benally-on-the-front-line-in-navajo-nation |archive-date=2020-09-25 }} while their father, Jones Benally, was a traditional Navajo medicine man. The siblings have been playing music since "their instruments were bigger than they were."{{Cite web|url=http://www.blackfire.net/index2.shtml|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20090921005846/http://www.blackfire.net/index2.shtml|url-status=dead|title=B L A C K F I R E|archivedate=21 September 2009|accessdate=21 September 2020}} Jones and his children perform as the Jones Benally Family."{{Cite web |url=http://www.indigenouspeople.org.uk/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=23&Itemid=38 |title=Indigenous People |access-date=2009-08-18 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080404143034/http://www.indigenouspeople.org.uk/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=23&Itemid=38 |archive-date=2008-04-04 |url-status=dead }}

In 1994, C.J. Ramone produced a five-song EP that became their debut album released on their label Tacoho Productions. It also included musical contributions by their father Jones and Robert Tree Cody. In 1999, they received a NAMA nomination for Best Independent Release.{{citation needed|date=February 2023}}

By the end of 2002, they released their first LP One Nation Under. Featuring their father doing traditional vocals, the album is described as "15 passionately burning songs of struggles, resistance, and hope."{{Cite web|url=http://www.instantmayhem.com/virtual.htm|title=Virtual Mayhem|website=Instantmayhem.com|accessdate=21 September 2020}} The song "No Control" was used in "New Mexico, Old Monster," the 13th episode of the 2nd season of What's New, Scooby-Doo?. It is also the last project that Joey Ramone, who dubbed Blackfire's music as "fireball punk-rock," contributed to before he died due to lymphoma. On the album, he provided additional voicing for the songs "What Do You See" and "Lying to Myself." That same year, they won the NAMA Best Pop/Rock Album award.{{citation needed|date=February 2023}} Fleming was also nominated for Best Producer.{{citation needed|date=February 2023}} One Nation Under is available through Canyon Records.

In 2003, they journeyed to Essakne, Mali in northern Africa. Their performance was included in the compilation album Festival in the Desert. By next year, they released a two-track EP titled Woody Guthrie Singles. The songs on the EP are called "Mean Things Happenin' in this World," a protest song dealing with issues like wars waged for fortune and encroachment of rights by the federal government, and "Indian Corn Song," a song about "political and big business corruption, the poor economy, and ends with a plea to feed the homeless and orphans."{{Cite web|url=http://www.indiancountrytoday.com/archive/28179879.html|title=Indian Country Today|website=Indiancountrytoday.com|accessdate=21 September 2020}}

Vocalist and guitarist Klee Benally died on December 30, 2023, at the age of 48.{{cite news |title=Klee Benally, Navajo advocate for Indigenous people and environmental causes, dies in Phoenix |url=https://apnews.com/article/navajo-activist-klee-benally-died-phoenix-13751582e2994e16ed7745d914fb3d49 |access-date=2 January 2024 |publisher=Associated Press |date=1 January 2024}}

• Clayson Benally – percussion, vocals (1989–2011)
• Jeneda Benally – bass guitar, vocals (1989–2011)
• Klee Benally – vocals, guitar (1989–2011; died 2023)

• Blackfire (Five-song E.P., 1994)
• Blackfire (Three-song E.P., 1998)
• One Nation Under (2001)
• Woody Guthrie Singles (2003).Woodyguthrie.org. [http://woodyguthrie.org/mm5/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=TWGS&Product_Code=CDWGS&Category_Code=SCS The Woody Guthrie Singles – Blackfire.] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070719201057/http://woodyguthrie.org/mm5/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=TWGS&Product_Code=CDWGS&Category_Code=SCS |date=July 19, 2007 }} Retrieved Nov. 7, 2007.
• Beyond Warped: Live Music Series (CD/DVD, 2005)
• [Silence] Is A Weapon (2007)
• Anthology Of Resistance (2009)

{{Reflist}}

• {{cite book|author=Vincent Schilling|title=Native Defenders of The Environment|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xADOBgAAQBAJ&pg=PT76|date=1 November 2011|publisher=Native Voices Books|isbn=978-1-57067-995-7|pages=76–}}
• {{cite book|author=Brian Wright-McLeod|title=The Encyclopedia of Native Music: More Than a Century of Recordings from Wax Cylinder to the Internet|url=https://archive.org/details/trent_0116405745989|url-access=registration|year=2005|publisher=University of Arizona Press|isbn=978-0-8165-2448-8|pages=[https://archive.org/details/trent_0116405745989/page/61 61]–}}
• {{cite book|author=Michelle H. Raheja|title=Reservation Reelism: Redfacing, Visual Sovereignty, and Representations of Native Americans in Film|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wkk1AwAAQBAJ&pg=PT171|date=1 January 2011|publisher=U of Nebraska Press|isbn=978-0-8032-6827-2}}
• {{cite book|author1=David King Dunaway Professor of English University of New Mexico|author2=Molly Beer freelance writer University of New Mexico|title=Singing Out: An Oral History of America's Folk Music Revivals: An Oral History of America's Folk Music Revivals|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=epHUZ7YOye4C&pg=PA168|date=14 April 2010|publisher=Oxford University Press, USA|isbn=978-0-19-970294-7|pages=168–}}
• {{cite book|author=Bruce E. Johansen PhD|title=American Indian Culture: From Counting Coup to Wampum [2 volumes]: From Counting Coup to Wampum|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=mw-FCgAAQBAJ&pg=PA564|date=22 September 2015|publisher=ABC-CLIO|isbn=978-1-4408-2874-4|pages=564–}}
• {{cite book|author=Russell M. Lawson|title=Encyclopedia of American Indian Issues Today|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-5nYmCjtMcQC&pg=PA688|date=2 April 2013|publisher=ABC-CLIO|isbn=978-0-313-38145-4|pages=688–}}
• {{cite book|author1=Elaine Keillor|author2=Tim Archambault|author3=John M. H. Kelly|title=Encyclopedia of Native American Music of North America|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=HkuaQRR23K4C&pg=PA181|date=27 March 2013|publisher=ABC-CLIO|isbn=978-0-313-05506-5|pages=181–}}
• {{cite book|author1=Eunice Rojas|author2=Lindsay Michie|title=Sounds of Resistance: The Role of Music in Multicultural Activism|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7WmjAQAAQBAJ&pg=PA42|date=8 October 2013|publisher=ABC-CLIO|isbn=978-0-313-39806-3|pages=42–}}
• {{cite book|title=American Indian Culture and Research Journal|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=cVDzAAAAMAAJ|year=2008|publisher=American Indian Culture and Research Center, University of California}}
• {{cite book|title=Living Blues|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=eK8JAQAAMAAJ|volume=171-175|year=2004|publisher=Center for the Study of Southern Culture, The University of Mississippi|pages=42–}}

• [https://www.discogs.com/artist/1205219-Blackfire-2 Discography at Discogs.com]
• [http://www.blackfire.net/ Blackfire: Official Website] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191024153847/http://www.blackfire.net/ |date=2019-10-24 }}

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Category:Native American musical groups

Category:Punk rock groups from Arizona

Category:Sibling musical trios

Category:Musical groups established in 1989

Category:Musical groups disestablished in 2011

Category:1989 establishments in Arizona

Category:2011 disestablishments in Arizona