Joseph Strider is an acoustic guitarist who has covered a lot of musical ground during his career. Strider has spent years developing his own unique style-a style without an established genre, but can best be described as modern Indigenous alternative. As a child, Strider received professional vocal training. As a teen and young adult, he gained valuable experience over a six year period of touring in his home state of Texas. In the years since, he has refined his unorthodox playing style, determined to fully utilize the potential of the acoustic guitar. Since reappearing on the music scene, he has pursued his career with a determination and eloquence that many cannot match. That dedication to his music was acknowledged at the 2010 Native American Music Awards where he received a nomination for Debut Album of the Year.

Strider's performances are like a road trip: through every terrain the music takes you down roads familiar, roads forgotten, and those that are brand new. From complex instrumentals to simpler tunes with poetic yet accessible lyrics, his songs are a combination of both; Strider's vast repertoire has something for everyone. Inspired by decades of great guitarists and combining elements reminiscent of Hedges, Cockburn, and Segovia-Strider's live performances leave you jaw-dropping awestruck. His seamless transitions, numerous changes in tempo, and intricate picking style almost convince you that you're hearing half a dozen guitarists playing and not just a single supremely talented man and his Taylor. Listening to Strider's music, one can't help but bless the day that he set the electric guitar down and picked up that old acoustic. Joseph's new instrumental album, "String Theory" has just been released and takes the guitar and his music on a new journey.

I am proud to be associated, and to share my music, specifically with the song "Sundown," for the World Peace For Animals fundraising project, in an effort to possibly be able to help the Souls/Beings who have no voice.

The song is a celebration of both the Feminine and the Wolf. The elders looked upon the wolf and learned a great many things, too much to elaborate on, but in this case the necessity of the family: the care and the love that she has and shares with her young. For without mother...we are nothing!

I have read that "Man" was given dominion over the animals. Does this mean that "Man" should exploit and slaughter them for his own means? I believe that the answer to this is an absolute NO! We should stop taking away their homes, and stop referring to them as a nuisance, but rather family-family that needs our love, care, and attention. Just as we wish for a sanctuary, so should we maintain a sanctuary for the voiceless?