The band Brulé and the American Indian Rock Opera is percussionist Moses J., left, Nicole LaRoche, Paul LaRoche and Shane LaRoche.

courtesy of heather summers

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Had you told Paul LaRoche 15 years ago he would one day lead a band that fused rock rhythms with traditional American Indian influences, he would have thought you were nuts.

LaRoche, 51, was strictly a hard rock musician in his youth, bouncing around from band to band as a struggling keyboardist in southwest Minnesota.

It wasn't until his adoptive parents died in the late '80s that he traced his bloodline and discovered his genetic family hailed from the Lower Brule Reservation in South Dakota.

He reconnected with his long-lost relatives in 1993 and began mixing his old life with the new.

"The artistic part of me went into second gear," LaRoche said in a phone interview last week from Phoenix. His band, Brulé and the American Indian Rock Opera, performs at the 35th Annual Tucson American Indian Arts and Crafts Market at the Tucson Convention Center Sunday.

He added. "I had this whole culture to explore musically. I was like a kid in a candy store. There was so much to take in."

Today LaRoche, together with his daughter, flute player Nicole LaRoche; son, guitarist Shane LaRoche; and fellow Lakota Sioux Indian and percussionist Moses J., are celebrated as innovators in a genre that is still very much in its infancy. It's a type of music where American Indian flute-play bumps up against bass-pumping back beats and vibrant electric guitar licks.

"Contemporary Native American music is as close as I can get if I had to put it somewhere," LaRoche said. "Because it is so different, almost everywhere we go is a brand new market. People haven't heard of what we do even though we've sold quite a few CDs over the years. We haven't been oversaturated.

"On the other hand, it is hard to get the attention of the music industry, people in television and on the radio. You go to music stores or online and you don't find a lot of contemporary Native American music because it doesn't fit into the standard mold. It is all totally new."

Brulé and AIRO has done well for itself despite its lack of mainstream exposure. The band has released 10 albums and has sold more than a million copies combined over the last decade.

It has received a number of honors and was given two major nods at the Native American Music Awards in 2006: one for Group of the Year and the other for Best Compilation for the release "Brulé: The Collection."

LaRoche said it is always an honor to get recognition from people in the field, especially since the sounds stray from traditional American Indian music.

"We have been under the microscope since we started this," LaRoche said. "The elders and traditionalists keep a close eye on us. But over the years I feel we've gained the support of the culture because we've been respectful. If I took a sacred piece of music and did a remix of it, tricked it out with drum grooves, it could be a hit record. But you would have done something that disconnected you with your culture.

"There is a fine line between sacred and social music. I realized early on that certain things are very special, like the drum, how you treat it, how you perform on it and transport it. Because our people have been exploited so many times in history, we are always being watched from within."