Photo courtesy of InConcert! Medicine Dream, an Alaska-based traditional band, plays Friday in Crowder Hall. The group infuses sobriety and spirituality into its music.

Liquor and music go back a long way. The combination is, in fact, the root of the Alaskan traditional band Medicine Dream, which comes to UA on Friday.

In Tucson for the first time, the goal of the seven-piece band is to spread the messages of clean, sober living and spiritual ways through music. The ensemble blends native powwow chants, native and modern drums and flutes, keyboards, bass and electric guitar with bandleader Paul Pike's modern vocals.

The group formed in 1996 after a close friend and fellow musician committed suicide after years of battling drug and alcohol abuse.

"To lose someone to drugs and alcohol, it's a wake-up call," Pike said in a 1999 interview with the Anchorage Daily News. "It's something that has been poisoning our culture for a long time. There comes a time when you have to say 'no more.'"

The band is so dedicated to the message of sober living that it once refused to play in a bar for a radio show, passing up a chance to gain a national audience.

"Alcohol becomes like a ceremony for people," said Pike, who is currently working at a remote Alaskan recovery camp. "When people celebrate, or when they run into tragedy, the first thing they do is reach for a bottle. Every time they do, they give up a piece of their spirit."

Hours away from civilization, the camp focuses on hunting, fishing and creating a family environment for substance-addicted Native Americans. Native Americans, Pike said, are confronted with "generational grief," a sense of loss carried through generations, which makes them particularly susceptible to substance abuse.

Pike began playing drums at age 4. He was playing guitar by 9 and had bar gigs by 14. At 21, he was playing heavy metal. After a few years on the Alaskan heavy metal-bar circuit, he quit writing metal songs, claiming the music no longer spoke to him. He then turned to the mix of contemporary and native music at the heart of Medicine Dream.

Reid Statton, the group's production manager and occasional vocalist, has been with the band from the beginning.

"The songs build a strong sense of unity," Statton said. "They fill in the gap between ages. You see children at the shows with their grandparents; it's really a beautiful thing."

Since its formation, Medicine Dream has released two albums. The latest, Mowio'mi, was released on the Arizona-based Canyon Records. The album's title means "The Gathering" in the Mi'kmaq language.

Medicine Dream plays Friday night at 8 in Crowder Hall. General admission tickets are $10 in advance or $12 at the door. Tickets can be purchased at Antigone Books, 411 N. Fourth Ave.; Hear's Music, 2508 N. Campbell Ave.; and at DoTucson.com. Call 327-4809 for details and ticket information.