I first met Bill Horncloud 25 years ago. It was a log cabin on the north end of Pine Ridge Village. There were other singers there, all men bearing names which leaped out of the Sioux history books: Frank Afraid of Horses, Edgar Red Cloud, Francis Janis. Bill himself, was a namesake of his grandfather who had been killed at the Wounded Knee massacre.

Wherever these men gathered there was certain to be a drum nearby. Bill's love of singing had started when he was a boy. Born in 1905 at Potato Creek in the Medicine Root District a few miles northeast of Kyle, Bill learned to sing from the old timers. On that memorable night the drum throbbed and I heard his voice for the first time.

It was the clear, sharp falsetto and what the Sioux call akis'as'a "yelps" that attracted me to his singing. His voice was strong, the words were clear. The night was spent listening to new songs and old songs. The songs made us laugh; some made us ponder about the days gone by. Old Frank interrupted the songs to pray. He took out an old pipe and tears streamed from his eyes as he offered it up. The mood of the evening changed to one of respect; the strength of the Sioux could be felt in the solemn beats of the drum.

That was my introduction to the songs of Bill Horncloud. Twenty-five years have passed, but the clarity and sharpness of Horncloud's singing has not diminished. He is, as the Sioux say, Ikce wicasa, and old timer, and his music reflects the values of another generation which again are being sought by younger Indian people.

It is appropriate that Canyon has offered us another album of Horncloud's songs, this time, Songs of War and Love. The songs express a wide range of Lakota values: the honor of a chief, the boastfulness of a warrior, and the emotions of young people in love. But these songs should not be regarded only as expressions of nostalgia. It is these excursions into the Lakota past, that gives meaning and substance to the Lakota present.

The first eight songs featured on this record are old songs – songs of war journeys against the Crow and Pawnee, as well as against the Germans in World Wars I and II. The recent wars have given new meaning to the old songs, and because of this, the old songs survive as do old Lakota values.