♪ Lights in the valley outshine the sun ♪ ♪ Lights in the valley outshine the sun ♪ ♪ Way beyond the blue ♪ ♪ Way beyond the blue, one more time ♪ ♪ And it's way beyond the blue ♪ - Charly Lowry is an incredible singer and songwriter who grew up in Indian country, here in Robeson County, North Carolina.

She's a Lumbee Tuscarora, and her people's resilience is in the DNA of her music and her mission.

♪ Ooh ♪ ♪ Ooh ♪ ♪ An existence so beautiful ♪ ♪ So colorful ♪ ♪ Deep-rooted in originality ♪ ♪ Eye candy of shallow minds ♪ ♪ That was her reality, still ♪ ♪ She walks around with a smile ♪ ♪ For the whole wide world to see ♪ ♪ Insides are screaming ♪ ♪ "Free yourself from strains of society" ♪ ♪ Brown skin ♪ ♪ Why do you hide the pain within?

♪ ♪ Brown skin ♪ ♪ Brown skin ♪ ♪ Day in, day out ♪ ♪ It's the same ♪ ♪ Living by the standards of a male domain ♪ ♪ She can't help but recognize the stares ♪ ♪ 'Cause of who she's talking' to or the clothes she wears ♪ ♪ Yet, she holds her head up high ♪ ♪ For the whole wide world to see ♪ ♪ Insides are screaming ♪ ♪ "Free yourself from strains of society" ♪ ♪ Brown skin ♪ ♪ Why do you hide the pain within?

♪ ♪ Brown skin ♪ ♪ Brown skin ♪ ♪ Brown skin ♪ ♪ Why do you hide the pain within?

♪ ♪ Brown skin ♪ ♪ How long will you continue to pretend ♪ ♪ That who you know, where you go ♪ ♪ Won't phase the life you live?

♪ ♪ That what you do, what you be ♪ ♪ Will catch up with you in the end?

♪ ♪ Oh, yeah ♪ ♪ Live your own life ♪ ♪ Don't worry about the need to please ♪ ♪ Be the queen of your own society ♪ ♪ Yeah ♪ ♪ Whoa, yes ♪ ♪ Brown skin ♪ ♪ Brown skin ♪ ♪ Brown skin ♪ ♪ Brown skin ♪ ♪ Ooh ♪ ♪ Hey-ey ♪ ♪ Ooh ♪ ♪ Ooh ♪ ♪ Hey-ey ♪ - Well Charly, this has been a long time comin' and I'm so delighted that you could join us.

And actually, we're joining you, 'cause we're in your space, your home, your, you know, where the magic happens for you.

So, I just wanted to start there.

Like, tell us about this beautiful place that we're in.

- Well, welcome.

- Thank you.

- I'm honored to have you here, at Credentials Social Club.

This place came out of a vision.

I'm part of the vision.

Four of my dearest friends and original members of Dark Water Rising.

- [Rhiannon] That's the band that- - [Charly] Yep, that we started in 2008, wanting to come home to Pembroke and establish a place of our own.

And so, it's a private club for members and their guests.

- [Rhiannon] Mm-hmm.

- Just a fun place to build community.

Growing up in this area, we tend to put ourselves in boxes.

And, we just try to reiterate that inside each of you, regardless of what kind of institutions we've been raised in, each one of us is an individual and we have our own, just different, unique characteristics to share with the world, and we want you to come to a place that's a safe space, where you feel comfortable to be yourself.

- And you mentioned that we're in Pembroke.

- It's the home of the Lumbee, Tuscarora, and Cheraw people.

Indigenous people to this area, and it's a mecca for our people.

So, we're in the homelands.

- Yes.

- A lot of native folks here, tribal communities all throughout, out in the country.

But right now, we're within the city limits.

And, we're right across the street from the University of North Carolina at Pembroke, which was the first four year university established in the country for Native Americans, by our people.

- Wow.

- And we established it in 1887, because there were no other places for us to go to school, so.

- The regular person's knowledge of indigenous people in America is pretty, like, it's pretty bad, you know what I mean?

(Rhiannon laughs) - Right, right.

- Because there's all these myths and, you know, there's all these kind of ideas that there are no more, or they're just in the west, or all this kind of stuff.

And, I can imagine that gets really frustrating when there's a deep, deep history that's still like continuous, you know, to today.

- It can be frustrating, but I'm happy and proud to say that I come from people that are very well accomplished.

We tend to blend in to society, so even if you, you know, see a Lumbee or a Tuscarora from this area, you might not know exactly who or what you're looking at.

Just like you said, people think that we're extinct.

(Rhiannon laughs) But, we're very successful people.

We've got individuals, multiple individuals in many professional careers, and, you know, also thinking' upon it, we are natives.

We tend to stick together, within our tribal communities.

So me, as a performer and an entertainer, I look at it as part of my responsibility when I go out, to educate others.

And, you know, we just need more people doing the same thing.

To get the word out.

- That's right.

- Mm-hmm - 'Cause there's a, you know, we're still here, have been here, and the idea of bringing light to that.

It's not, you know, I feel like we have a very similar story of what we're trying to do, is to bring light to things that people aren't aware of.

- A lot of history books describe this place as somewhere that, especially a colonist, that you did not want to go through.

- [Rhiannon] Okay.

- Because we're very territorial.

Come from warriors, and we would fight you and kill you.

And so, it became known as Scuffle Town.

Though, it's now known as Pembroke, Lumberton, Robeson County, in general, doesn't have the most positive, positive name attached to it.

This area's very swampy.

You know, we're an hour and 20 minutes inland from either Myrtle Beach, South Carolina or Wilmington, North Carolina.

We're an hour and a half south, southeast from Raleigh.

And, even when we had the Indian Removal Act and they were trying to push us out, a lot of our people found safe haven in the swamps, they knew how to navigate it, and we stayed here, and then laws were imposed upon indigenous people that prevented us from speaking our languages, practicing our ceremonies.

We lost a great deal of that, but we have still maintained a lot of our bloodlines.

- Yeah.

- Here, in this area.

When I was in my 20s or, well really, when I was in my teens, I was introduced to my mentor and friend, Pura Fé, and she really helped to, like, a light went off, like these are your songs.

I was Junior Miss Lumbee at the time, and so I was the tribal dignitary, and that's when I really started, like, learning about who we were.

Because, a lot of our people, we just put our heads down and work, work, work.

We don't talk about our culture, we just live it.

We just are.

- Mm-hmm.

- And, I just never really heard anyone singing our old traditional songs, or even saying, "Hey, these are bits and pieces of your language, and you can add other components to it."

Like vocables.

- [Rhiannon] Right.

- To create, to recreate more songs and more story telling.

(playing "Backbone" by Charly Lowry) ♪ Oh ♪ ♪ I said no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no ♪ ♪ There's no rest ♪ ♪ There's no rest ♪ ♪ No rest for the weary, no ♪ ♪ There's no ♪ ♪ Rest ♪ ♪ For the weary ♪ ♪ Ow ♪ ♪ Gotta have a backbone, backbone ♪ ♪ Gotta have a backbone, backbone ♪ ♪ Gotta have a backbone, backbone, backbone ♪ ♪ Gotta have a backbone ♪ ♪ Gotta have a backbone, backbone ♪ ♪ Gotta have a backbone, backbone ♪ ♪ Gotta have a backbone, backbone, backbone ♪ ♪ Gotta have a backbone ♪ ♪ If things don't go your way ♪ ♪ You can't tuck your tail and hide ♪ ♪ Gotta have a backbone, backbone ♪ ♪ Gotta have a backbone ♪ ♪ From the cradle to the grave ♪ ♪ Comes more and more with age ♪ ♪ Gotta have a backbone, backbone ♪ ♪ Gotta have a backbone ♪ ♪ When you're down, down, down in the valley ♪ ♪ Oh, when you're down, down, down so low ♪ ♪ Oh, when you're down, down, down in that valley ♪ ♪ That's when you got to have a backbone ♪ ♪ Gotta have a backbone, backbone ♪ ♪ Gotta have a backbone, backbone ♪ ♪ Gotta have a backbone, backbone, backbone ♪ ♪ You gotta have a backbone ♪ ♪ What about Martin?

♪ ♪ What about Franklin?

♪ ♪ What about Henry Bear ♪ ♪ All through history ♪ ♪ Backbones for victory ♪ ♪ No pain, no gain ♪ ♪ No rest for the weary ♪ ♪ What don't kill you makes you stronger ♪ ♪ You will win in the end ♪ ♪ Yes, you will ♪ ♪ What don't kill you makes you stronger ♪ ♪ You got to get on up, ♪ ♪ Take a stand ♪ ♪ Gotta have a backbone, backbone ♪ ♪ Gotta have a backbone, backbone ♪ ♪ Gotta have a backbone, backbone, backbone ♪ ♪ Gotta have a backbone ♪ ♪ Gotta have a backbone, backbone ♪ ♪ Gotta have a backbone, backbone ♪ ♪ Gotta have a backbone, backbone, backbone ♪ ♪ Gotta have a backbone ♪ ♪ Gotta have a backbone ♪ ♪ Gotta have a backbone ♪ ♪ Backbone ♪ ♪ Gotta have a backbone ♪ - It's been nice to, over the past 20 or so years, to just find new ways of creating art while honoring our culture and our ancestors.

And also, having some of our elders there to say, "Yes, this is it.

You're heading in the right direction."

And seeing, you know, folks that are younger than me that are digging even deeper and finding our more traditional languages.

- You still have that spiritual centerpiece, and now you're trying to, you know, gather that stuff back in, and it's gonna happen in different ways, it's gonna be a different journey for you as for somebody who's younger, somebody who's, you know- - [Charly] Right.

- A little bit older.

- Yeah, we have elders that, it's like in my quest for saying, "So when you were growing up, what did you identify as?"

Like, I was trying to get to tribal names.

But, there's a whole generation of people that that's completely lost.

- [Rhiannon] Yeah.

- And they're like, "We didn't, we didn't have a name, we just were Indian."

- [Rhiannon] Right.

- They knew they were indigenous, but because of Jim Crow and all years before that, and it's kinda sad, but then you have that younger generation who's really, like, they understand it, but they're not letting it hold them back at all.

- [Rhiannon] That's right.

- They're not dwelling on it.

They're like, "We got to put these pieces together."

- [Rhiannon] Yeah.

- Yeah.

- We were kind of like, in that connective generation, I feel like, you know?

- Yes.

- Where we're like- - Yes.

- We jugged that whole idea of, Pura Fé and like, Taj Mahal and, you know, those guys were kinda like, "Here, there, come over here and, like, look at all the stuff that you can do."

And we're like, "Oh."

And then we start, and then that, when that next generation, they're just drilling down.

- Right, right.

- But it takes all three.

- Yes.

- You know, it takes the elder to spark.

- Intergenerational.

- Yep.

- Project.

(both laughing) - Yes, it never stops.

It never stops.

So, when you're doing something like "Brown Skin," which is one of my favorite songs of yours, you know, and the decision to put hand drum with that.

That's like, you know, there's a whole lot behind that.

- Well now, that came from a time when I couldn't play the guitar.

- Ah.

- And so, I've always had my voice, and always had, you know, little song ideas, growing up.

But, the impetus from that came from being a student at UNC Chapel Hill.

Like I mentioned, it's only an hour, an hour and 45 minutes away from here.

And, when you grow up in this community, you know who's living next to you, you know who's all around you, you go to church with them, you go to school with them.

And then, when you go to Chapel Hill, there's 30,000 non-natives and 100 people who identify as indigenous.

You come with this strong identity, and then you get to a place like that, and it's like, "Okay, wait a minute.

(Rhiannon laughs) Y'all don't know who we are?"

- Yeah.

- It's like, we've always known Chapel Hill was here, we've always known about Raleigh, but y'all don't know who we are?

Like, have you not been to Pembroke, Robeson County, Lumberton?

But then you have to stop and think, you got all these other factors that are against you, Charly, okay?

You got Scuffle Town, people think if you come through there, you're gonna get robbed or mugged, and that's everybody else's preconceived notions.

It was really amplified on campus.

- Mm.

- When people talk to you, and they hear the dialect, and they can't figure out your skin color.

Are you black, are you white, are you Hispanic?

- What are you?

- Yeah, that was it.

What are you?

And, in my head I'm like, "I'm a human being, I'm a young lady.

What do you mean, "What am I?"."

And then they start, you know, are you white, are you black?

And I'm like, "No, I'm Lumbee.

I'm Native American."

"What about your parents?"

I'm like, "Both of them, yeah, they identify as Lumbee."

"Okay, what about your grandparents?"

- Mm-hmm, yeah.

- I'm like, "No, we're all from, they're from there.

That's home to us."

- [Rhiannon] Yeah.

- And so, at that point, I was like, "Man, they don't, nobody knows."

- [Rhiannon] They don't know.

- I got to use my voice, I got to use my.

And then, you know, my friend, Brittany Jacobs-Locklear, who is Coharie from Sampson County.

Another smaller tribe.

We were met with the same, it felt like, opposition.

Because people just couldn't accept us for who we were.

Often times, it was followed up with negative stereotypes or that kind of thing.

- Yeah.

- So, she experienced it as well.

We related upon that, and were able to write that song for young girls, young women who may have been experiencing the same things.

Coming from communities like ours, very rural, to a bigger place where you know you've got this light inside of, you know you've got this energy and this message inside, to get out.

Don't ever shy away from that.

- I love the way that you find ways into experiences with your songs, and I just wanted to know a little bit more about "Hometown Hero."

Because that is just, there's so much emotion going on in that song, and it's just, you sing it so beautifully, so.

- Yeah, songs come to me in different ways, you know, as a songwriter, I know you know.

Sometimes you get the lyrics first, and then you have to sit at your instrument and come up with the chords.

Sometimes, that message just comes, just like a gushing, just refreshing waterfall, and that's the way "Hometown" was.

- Mm.

- It was inspired, unfortunately, after the passing of a young girl from Lumberton.

- [Rhiannon] Mm.

- And, her name was Krista Deese, and she was an acquaintance of mine, but every time I saw her, she was the same.

Just radiant, full of life, bubbly, and you know, when she passed, I was like, "Gosh."

She died in a car accident.

- [Rhiannon] Mm.

- And, I went on her wall, like we do in these times.

- [Rhiannon] Yeah.

- And, saw comments from her friends and family, and I just got so wrapped up in reading all the comments, and then I just was like, "We're gonna all have to experience it someday.

We're all gonna have to lose somebody we love."

And, in her situation, being stripped away in a car accident, it's like, did she, when was the last time she got to talk to her parents?

Did they get to tell her, "Goodbye," or?

And that got me to thinking about how, you know, sometimes they are stripped away without a word, no explanation.

And you, in that situation, you find yourself longing for them.

Longing for some kind of connection.

Whether that's reuniting on the other side or something, some supernatural experience.

- Right.

- For you to have.

To happen here, on Earth.

And that's what actually inspired that song, but since then, it's been a song for medicine and healing.

("Hometown Hero" by Charly Lowry) ♪ Hometown hero ♪ ♪ Lost a life today ♪ ♪ Folks try their best ♪ ♪ But sometimes, it's just hard to explain ♪ ♪ Hard to explain ♪ ♪ Stripped away from a lover's arms ♪ ♪ And carried off on the wings of love ♪ ♪ And I'll be waiting ♪ ♪ To see your face again ♪ ♪ I'll be waiting ♪ ♪ Waiting ♪ ♪ I didn't have a chance to say, "Goodbye" ♪ ♪ But I'll say "Hello," in the afterlife ♪ ♪ Just like ♪ ♪ The first time we met ♪ ♪ Sometimes I wish ♪ ♪ On a falling star ♪ ♪ And I wonder how high up you are ♪ ♪ I'm thinking to myself ♪ ♪ Oh, it feels so nice ♪ ♪ To believe in another world ♪ ♪ And I'll be waiting ♪ ♪ To see your face again ♪ ♪ I'll be waiting ♪ ♪ Waiting ♪ ♪ I didn't have a chance to say "Goodbye" ♪ ♪ But I'll say, "Hello," in the afterlife ♪ ♪ Just like ♪ ♪ The first time we met ♪ ♪ Oh, and you ♪ ♪ You ♪ ♪ You give me ♪ ♪ The sweetest memories ♪ ♪ Yes, you do ♪ ♪ Oh, and you ♪ ♪ You ♪ ♪ Oh, you'll always, always mean ♪ ♪ You mean the world to me ♪ ♪ And that's why ♪ ♪ I'll be waiting ♪ ♪ To see your face again ♪ ♪ I'll be waiting ♪ ♪ Waiting ♪ ♪ I miss you, my friend ♪ ♪ But, I'm gonna hold you in my heart ♪ ♪ Until my very end ♪ ♪ You are my ♪ ♪ Hometown hero ♪ ♪ You are my ♪ ♪ Hometown ♪ ♪ Hometown hero ♪ ♪ My hometown hero ♪ (logo boings) (logo whooshes)