Bizhiki is almost wholly a made-in-Wisconsin project, a collaboration between Dylan ‘Bizhikiins’ Jennings, Joe Rainey and the multi-instrumentalist Sean Carey (S. Carey). Bezhikiins Jennings grew up singing within the powwow tradition, around the Lac Du Flambeau & Lac Courte Oreilles reservations in Central Wisconsin. He now makes his home in Northern Wisconsin, on the Bad River reservation on the shores of Lake Superior. He’s joined on the album by his adopted brother, Rainey, a Red Lake Ojibwe powwow singer from Minneapolis who now makes his home within his wife’s Oneida Nation on the shores of Lake Michigan. Bizhiki’s first album, Unbound, is a confluence of sounds bringing traditional and powwow music into an expanded musical palette. In 2015, Jennings got a call from Justin Vernon, the front man of the indie folk band Bon Iver. Vernon invited Jennings to participate in Eaux Claires, a music & arts festival he was launching that summer and they took him up on that offer. They are heading to Madison to be a part of a couple of noteworthy events. On Sunday, November 9, 7:30pm, Arts + Literature Laboratory welcomes Bizhiki, part of the programming associated with the Native Art Market, which takes place the day before, Saturday, November 8, from 10:00am to 6:00pm. Also, to celebrate Native November 2025, the six-piece band will be joined by Native dancers alongside classic Ojibwe storytelling, leaving audiences feeling intellectually, spiritually, and culturally nourished. The performance will be followed by a moderated question and answer with Jennings & Rainey. Special thanks to members of the Indigenous Student Center Coalition for making this month’s programming possible. More information here: An Evening With Bizhiki: A Musical Performance followed by Q&A Tuesday, November 18, 2025 at UW Madison’s Union Theater Shannon Hall.
I had the chance to catch up with Dylan Jennings ahead of these two special events. Dylan and I got into what each performance could shape up to be, the timeline of the group, just how they were able to find the time to get some creative work done in the studio to create the album ‘Unbound’ and get this show out on the road.
Photo by: Graham Tolbert
