Pigeon Opinion Featuring an Interview with JP KENNEDY

JP Kennedy’s Hokahey is a driving folk-rock single that fuses storytelling, history, and raw musical energy. Built on warm fiddle melodies, steady tribal-influenced percussion, and an upbeat, radio-ready pulse, the track reimagines a moment of nineteenth-century Native American resistance through a cinematic lens. Kennedy’s performance carries both urgency and purpose, balancing accessibility with a clear narrative weight. As part of a larger concept album inspired by Wild West lore and family history, the single feels like a key entry point into a broader world. Hokahey succeeds as both a standalone anthem and a chapter in a larger, mythic narrative.

Interview with JP Kennedy

1. What drew you to the word “Hokahey” as the emotional and thematic anchor for this song?

Once I discovered the word, I knew it was going to be the title of my song. It is a Lakota Sioux battle cry broadly meaning ‘Let’s Do It!’ or ‘Let’s Go Men!’ It summed up the spirit and resilience of Chief Red Cloud and an alliance of Native American tribes resisting the U.S. military in the 1860s. It unified the warriors and intimidated their enemies. In modern culture, ‘Hokahey’ is often interpreted to mean, ‘Today is a good day to die.’

2. How did you approach telling a historically rooted story like Chief Red Cloud’s resistance while keeping the song accessible and modern?

Standing up for your rights is a pretty universal theme, so I think a modern audience can easily relate to it. When your whole way of life is under threat, I think it’s normal to want to defend it. Chief Red Cloud was an inspirational figure who made it possible by galvanising different tribes against a common enemy. It was the only major war won by Native Americans in the nineteenth century against U.S. Army encroachment.

3. What role did the fiddle and tribal drum elements play in shaping the emotional identity of the track?

The fiddle is the driving and melodic heartbeat of my album, Road to Jerome. It carries the music forward, similar to an Irish reel or a style of American folk music. I was lucky enough to call upon two amazing players, Brian Cannon and Sophie Vardigans.

For the Lakota Sioux, the drums (čhaŋčhéǧa) are more than just instruments. They are living entities that connect the tribe to the rhythm of the earth. Rather than playing a loud cadence while charging, Lakota warriors used the deep drumbeat and highly specific vocal chants to provide spiritual protection, unify the riders and call upon their ancestors for bravery and strength before engaging the enemy.

4. How do you balance the celebratory, upbeat feel of the music with the serious historical weight of the story?

Certainly, conflict of any kind is a heavy topic to sing about, but it can also have a rousing effect and bind people together. Many national anthems are about beating some enemy or other. Hokahey is not national anthem material but it does depict a win against the odds and everyone loves an underdog.

5. Your great-grandfather’s Wild West stories clearly influence your work — how directly do those oral histories shape your songwriting?

For this project, it shaped the whole album. From a young age, we were keenly aware that we were related to a man who held his own in the Old West. These stories were passed down through the generations. One story that stands out concerns my great-grandfather’s cousin, Mike Kennedy. He was killed by a grizzly bear in 1895 while traversing the desert with his friend William Smith on their way to Jerome in search of work. My album takes its title from this expedition, Road to Jerome. It is almost as if reaching Jerome represents a kind of biblical salvation, but he never makes it. My great-grandfather, Con Kennedy, was part of the search party that discovered his remains. I cover the whole episode on the concluding song on the album, Stitch.

6. When writing about frontier America from an Irish perspective, how do you navigate authenticity and interpretation?

Well, I can only speak from what I learned from my own family. I am no authority on the greater Irish experience in frontier times. There are bound to be some embellishments added through the years and that becomes part of the folklore. In Ireland, we say, ‘Don’t let the truth get in the way of a good story.’ 😊.

In music, I would say you also have a fair degree of poetic licence to fill in some gaps. Regarding my great-grandfather, we know he ran saloons in Winslow, Arizona and Gallup, New Mexico. We have a photo of him outside one of his establishments. He was one of the few Irish emigrants who actually returned home to live in Ireland. We still have his old trunk and through his stories we were lucky enough to learn a great deal about his time there. The bear attack story is backed up by a newspaper article of the time which will feature in the album notes.

7. How important is the visual storytelling in the music video compared to the song itself in your overall artistic vision?

The video is almost as important for me. For several of the songs we have gone all out to make a mini western movie. A good video makes it easier for your song to gain some traction and luckily, I’ve had great directors to guide the vision. For Hokahey, we were privileged to have the help of the reenactors at the Old West Pioneers in Ludwigshafen, Germany, who preserve the traditional lifestyles of the American Frontier.

8. You’ve moved from punk and grunge influences into folk and country storytelling — how has that genre blend evolved over time for you?

I’m probably just getting older! It’s basically a transition from writing with a band to sitting at home with an acoustic guitar. The presentation is different but I still like the songs to have an edge and sense of danger. I don’t want to be a traditional singer-songwriter, I prefer to be an outlaw. The subject matter this time just required a softer touch, but I would never abandon my alternative music instincts.

9. What do you hope listeners take away about resilience and cultural survival from “Hokahey”?

I hope that Hokahey is a reminder that you can galvanise one another and even unite with former enemies for a common cause. With regard to cultural survival, nobody would want their way of life taken away, yet it happens repeatedly throughout history. We are custodians of the land from our ancestors. I love keeping the old traditions alive and passing on what I learned as a child; it is intrinsic to who we are. Indigenous people in all countries must be protected and respected.

10. How does this single set the tone for the broader concept album you’re building around Wild West-era narratives?

This song aims to strike a little balance in the overall Wild West narrative. My great-grandfather would have encountered people from all walks of life in his saloons. Native Americans are synonymous with the frontier era; it was important to acknowledge that. Road to Jerome is the road less travelled, and there are plenty of adventures along the way from Donegal to Winslow.

(•)> That's all, Folks! Check out JP Kennedy on the Pigeon Opinion Playlist