Music / announcement
Keith Secola Releases 'Broken Down Hero' and Its Official Video
The Anishinabe musician's new single began on a 1979 canoe trip and features Tim Saxhaug, Ketch Secor and Joe Savage.
Keith Secola released "Broken Down Hero" through Ishkōdé Records on Oct. 21, and its official video premiered on YouTube on Oct. 29. The song began on a canoe trip in Minnesota's Boundary Waters in 1979 and was finished in spring 2025.
Secola, who is Anishinabe, wrote and produced the track, which he describes as a reflection on the environmental crisis.
"I wrote the first verse, chorus, and melody nearly fifty years ago," Secola said in the release. He returned to the unfinished song after waking from a dream about water.
Tim Saxhaug of Trampled by Turtles sings on the bridge and plays bass. Old Crow Medicine Show's Ketch Secor also sings on the bridge and plays fiddle, and Joe Savage plays steel guitar and harmonica. Germaine Gemberling, Sharon Rowbottom, Steve Marinetti and Chris Petrack also perform.
Rich Mattson recorded the single, Secola mixed it and Jim Fox mastered it.
A Native Music Hall of Fame inductee, Secola will include the song on Look Up Here, his album due in 2027.
