Planetary Gig Talk: Recent Episodes
Planetary Gigs Society
Host Jefferson Glassie, chief spiritual dude of the Planetary Gigs Society, talks with guests about the power of music and how we can create a better world through music.
Synchronicity is a powerful complement to music. Magali Hochlander and Jefferson Glassie were both staying at the Devi Music Ashram in February 2026 but didn't know one another when Jefferson coincidentally invited Magali to join him for an evening Kirtan. That led to a sequence of events, as explained in the podcast interview, and now Magali has taken her love for the power of music and Kirtan spiritual music to a new level in India. They talk about all this and discuss Kirtan singing and music, as well as how this ancient practice can help heal the world.
With special guest: Magali Hochlander, Kirtan Musician
Joseph Wooten has played keyboards for the Steve Miller Band for 30 years, and is one of the famous Wooten Brothers, who have been playing together over 60 years. He also is a profound commentator on life and music. Currently, he has produced almost 900 "I Matter, You Matter" social media posts providing insights, explanation, and perspective on important issues in our lives. This is a landmark podcast, marking the 150th Planetary Gig Talk conversation hosted by Jefferson Glassie, chief spiritual dude of the Planetary Gigs Society, whose mission is making connections through music with the intention of creating peace and harmony around the world.
With special guest: Joseph Wooten, the Hands of Soul
In 2018, Jefferson Glassie interviewed Michael for Episode 55 of Planetary Gig Talk. Their conversation was profound, and addressed many fantastic musical topics. They decided another conversation would be good to do, and this one covers more incredibly esoteric and important musical topics, including intention, the holographic nature of the universe, vibration, quantum physics, perfection of intent, music shamans, the Fong, Hermeticism, and many more.
Rev. Rayne Grant is a force of nature! A singer and songwriter, she has morphed into an advocate for musical and natural connection around the world, through dance, mushrooms, and openness to source through synchronicity and intention. This fascinating conversation with Jefferson Glassie touches on many topics, all of which are profound, inspiring, and constitute needed information for a world that can itself morph into a more harmonious and coherent place for humans and all their relatives to live together.
With special guest: Rev. Rayne Grant, singer, musician, producer, mycologist
Dave Balen has been playing music all his life, primarily as a percussionist in all sorts of musical genres. He and Jefferson Glassie met in Varanasi, India and hit it off. Dave had been in Varanasi as a young person at the same time that the Beatles were visiting the ashram of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi in Rishikesh. Dave has a wealth of knowledge and experience about music and had a wonderful conversation with Jefferson about music, synchronicity, and the power of music.
Gillian Harwin has been singing since her first breath, and plays many stringed instruments (bass, guitar, uke, etc.) so she can sing and play music. She has been having an amazing life in music, with many syncronistic experiences, and also has been fortunate to have learned much from plant medicine. She believes everyone is musical and encourage us all to use our voice in song! She and Jefferson talked about a wide range of topics; she leads a very musical life!
Renaud Ruhlmann has been a musician for years, but also studies the sounds of the plant world. He and Jefferson discuss fascinating aspects of vibrational sounds and connections with plants and animals. Renaud is founder of Naturasounds, which measures and analyzes electrophysiological signals of living organisms and transposes them into sound signals to allow us to hear part of the biological communications of plants.
With special guest: Renaud Ruhlmann
Patty Raine has had the perception of particular aspects of synesthesia all her life and, in this conversation, analyzes the different types of synesthesia and how they relate to and involve music. This is the second podcast interview with Patty, the first being #23 in February of 2018, which is also a very interesting discussion. From her perspective, this gift allows her to understand that every person is a beautiful colorful chord of musical notes!
With special guest:
Patricia Raine, artist/illustrator, musician, synesthete
David Acuna met Jefferson Glassie at Victor Wooten's Spirit of Music camp and they bonded over believing music can help connect people and make a better world.
With special guest:
David Acuna
Penny Mealing had a career as a successful professional singer, then decided to become a music teacher of young children. She talks about her goals and techniques and explains the importance of music education for all children.
Information on music education pedagogy that Penny Mealing mentioned during this podcast:
- Zoltàn Kodàly (vocal based) was a Hungarian composer, ethnomusicologist, music pedagogue, linguist, and philosopher. He is well known internationally as the creator of the Kodály method of music education.
- Carl Orff (instrument based) was a German composer and music educator, who composed the cantata Carmina Burana (1937). The concepts of his Schulwerk were influential for children's music education.
- Emile Jaques-Dalcroze was a Swiss composer, musician, and music educator who developed Dalcroze eurhythmics, an approach to learning and experiencing music through movement. Dalcroze eurhythmics influenced Carl Orff's pedagogy, used in music education throughout the United States.
These are the 3 most influential music pedagogical practices and fantastic composers in their own right.
John Tinger is a master guitarist, known for his inspirational and improvisational music. He also is a philosopher about life, music, and vibration. In this episode, he also discussed in detail how he cured himself of focal dystonia, which affects numerous musicians.
Chrissy Kirkwood is the founder of the Music Monastery, A Spiritual Home for Artists, in Nashville, TN.
With special guest:
Chrissy Kirkwood
Nico Moore is a heartfelt musician, sharing, expressing, finding freedom, living, moving, and speaking free. He and Jefferson Glassie met at The Sanctuary Summit at The Farm in April 2024 and discovered they have much in common.
With special guest:
Nico Moore
Caron Collins has been a music educator basically all of her life, and she used a collaborative method of teaching music and conducting musical groups. She is the creator of the Curiosity, Collaborative, Creativity program and website, and recently also developed a course for music educators titled Peace Building through Music Education. She joins host Jefferson Glassie of the Planetary Gigs Society for a wide ranging conversation about the power of music, and also discussions of Musicians without Borders and Women Frame Drumming.
Lionel Cole is an amazing Grammy nominated musician, with the music business being part of his life as the son of Freddy Cole and nephew of Nat King Cole. He toured with Mariah Carey and has played with many famous musicians. Lionel became good friends with Jefferson Glassie recently through their mutual friend Tara Gorman, who met Lionel years ago through Up With People. Lionel is a brilliant music shaman and eloquent spiritual guru.
Eileen McKusick is a pioneering researcher in the fields of electric health and therapeutic sound, as well as the creator of the sound therapy method Biofield Tuning, founder of the Biofield Tuning Institute and Tuners Without Borders, and the author of Electric Body, Electric Health and Tuning the Human Biofield. She and Jefferson have a fascinating discussion about the biofield and music, and how we can open up and tap into coherence.
With special guest:
Eileen McKusick
Natalie Glassie is a ballet dancer, who is also Jefferson Glassie's niece, they talk about the essential role of music in dance.
Marshall Thomas and Jefferson Glassie met at Victor Wooten's Spirit of Music camp at Wooten Woods and engaged in some interesting discussions about the connection of music and plant medicines, which they discuss further in this podcast.
With special guest:
Marshall Thomas
Jefferson Glassie met Melani at the Devi Music Ashram in Rishikesh, India; they had a lot of synchronicities! Melani is into the book When the Drummers Were Women, knew Biko Casini and Rising Appalachia, works on indigenous peoples issues, and ended up singing with Jefferson for his 70th Birthday celebration in Rishikesh. She also is a founding member of the Council of Music Shamans.
With special guest:
Melani GG
Tara Divina left her job in the music business to become a musician and also a coach for musicians, artists, and others to help them find their core message. She and Jefferson talked about her views of music and life, her vedic astrology work, and the role of shamanism in her mystical coaching practice. For more information, please visit www.taradivina.com
Tara Divina left her job in the music business to become a musician and also a coach for musicians, artists, and others to help them find their core message. She and Jefferson talked about her views of music and life, her vedic astrology work, and the role of shamanism in her mystical coaching practice. For more information, please visit www.taradivina.com
Brian Festa is an accomplished musician but also focuses on helping musicians with their musical, personal, and professional lives. He describes many of the holistic aspects that musicians can learn about and focus on to improve their practices and also his vision for retreat centers built around musicians and their needs. Please check out www.musicianmedicine.com.
Rudy Colombini has been a singer and musician all his life, and has been the lead singer for the Unauthorized Rolling Stones among many other performance roles. He is also the Founder of Music City San Francisco, a multifaceted music and arts performance and community space. www.musiccitysf.org. It mission is provide a self-sustaining music-focused hub in the heart of San Francisco that music fans, performance artists, and professional musicians can discover diverse, music-centric experiences that inspire, educate, and entertain.
Rudy is also a very spiritual musician who leads study of A Course in Miracles and has been guided by many synchronous experiences in his life, including meeting John Lennon on the streets of San Francisco.
This is the first video version of the Planetary Gig Talk podcast, appropriately, with podcast guru and musician Blake Althen. Blake was responsible for helping host Jefferson Glassie set up the Planetary Gig Talk podcast and Paula Bellenoit with Human Factor distributes the shows. Blake talked about the basics of podcasting and options for musicians who might want to get started with their own podcasts.
Verdell Primeaux is a two-time Grammy award winning vocalist in Native American Music. He was brought up with music in his family; he is a third generation recording artist. He met his musical brother Johnny Mike in 1986 and they launched a successful career with 30 records as Primeaux and Mike. Their music was inspired by and performed in connection with the Native American Church, which Verdell talks about in this podcast. Verdell says the music can bridge divisions, including ethic gaps and religion.
“This music has a universal outreach, it has a purpose.” He says, for the Native Americans, music and everything they do is a prayer, and for prayer to be most powerful, it should be in the form of a song. Verdell says, “Now is the time to bring people together,” with books, movies, songs, about the spirit and power of music. He says, “Everyone is blessed with their own voice.”
Jon David Gorman has been playing music his entire life. His father was a guitar player and Jon David remembers listening to his dad play when he was very young. His father unfortunately passed soon after, and his mother Tara Gorman, goddess of Awesomeness and co-founder of Planetary Gigs Society, began hosting Music Nights at their house practically every month. The idea was to invite anyone who wanted to come play music at the Gorman house, and many fine and talented musicians routinely showed up.
Jon David considered himself very lucky and was grateful for the Music Nights with so many ‘super encouraging’ friendly musicians who helped him learn to play. He first took guitar lessons, then saxophone in 4th grade, before settling on bass as his main instrument. The Music Nights became like organic lessons, learning tips here, chords there. Music Nights taught him to be a very versatile player.
He says music is powerful because it conveys emotions and ‘music builds empathy.’ Jon David wants to use music to help build community. He got some good advice at one point, to learn a song that means something and play it, and he tries to follow that advice. He believes music is just as worth it as learning any other language.
Bruce Blaylock began piano lessons when he was very young, but he wasn’t that into it because the teacher never asked him what Bruce wanted to play. Later, his friend Chip encouraged him to start guitar, and Bruce hasn’t stopped playing since, currently with his band Beat Hotel. He says he has met so many remarkable people in his life through music and it has opened many doors. Bruce went to college and law school in New Orleans, and got to experience and play a lot of music from that fascinating city.
Bruce says, “Music helps you find your people and your people find you, and that’s powerful.” He says music is literally magical, and he has seen magical performances on stage in many shared experiences over the years. Music creates a “connective tissue” with others in the music community and the audience, and Bruce also says music can help make life meaningful even when there are dark clouds. Please give a listen to Bruce’s fun and interesting storytelling about growing up with music.
Congressman Jamie Raskin is a Member of Congress representing the 8th District in Maryland, the home of the worldwide headquarters of the Planetary Gigs Society, and also plays piano. So, Jefferson Glassie caught up with him to ask a few questions about music. Raskin says there was always music in his home growing up, because his father was a classical music prodigy on the piano. His father saw the world through music and it was essential to who he was, and he thought society should be organized in a way that connected people just like music does.
Raskin professes that he is not a musician, but only plays by ear, fools around, and improvises on the piano, but also said his entire family plays music, so music is always around. He says that with all the issues we are having, such as the covid pandemic and the January 6 insurrectionary violence, one can despair sometimes. However, he says, “When you listen to music, you understand where humanity is actually going and what we’re really capable of.” He says so many of the pathologies of our time result from people being separate, but music brings people together. Raskin says he is a big champion of science and math, but if we lose touch with literature, music, the arts, we could be headed to a dangerous place.
Peter McClard was born of the 60's, that time when black and white became color and music exploded. He had a voracious appetite for music even when very young. He took lessons on viola in first grade, moved on to guitar when 9 years old. He remembered listening to his brother's twelve string acoustic with a stethoscope and was blown away. There was a "rainbow of overtones, and the sound of metal and wood and vibration just made me so happy and I was just in love with sound at that point."
He eventually went on to play in many bands, but also became enamored with other aspects of music, fractals, math, patterns, new overtones, which ultimately led to development of his theory of holistic tonality, sort of a unified theory of music. Peter says the power of music is so deep, vibration is everywhere, in everything, and goes to the most primal part of our being. Music and sound can be used for any purpose, good or bad, so its important for us to elevate music so that it can create shifts in consciousness that can better society. He says we need to reduce some of the noise and bring out the good stuff, including the silence and peace.
Peter has developed lots of software, but check out a couple of his apps, including Pixound and Different Drummer, and other software at www.technemedia.com. Peter is an amazing, smart thinker and musician.
Fia was ten years old when she went to a Christmas concert at a cultural school in Sweden and first heard an oboe. “I got so enchanted, I said I want to learn,” and she started taking lessons. She began writing songs, in both Swedish and English, and as a writer she writes about her life, the people she meets, and the stories they tell. She was in many bands and different genres, but a few years ago began on a solo track, and started writing about spirituality, which resonated with people and there was a ripple effect, where she gained a following. She crowd-sourced her first album, Made of Stars.
She calls her music “transformational music” that inspires self-reflection and serves as reminders of who we are, which calls us back to our most inner core and connecting us to source, universe, and God. She says we like to see ourselves reflected, and the role of the artist or musician is to put words to emotions that can interact with and lead to a deeper understanding of the self. Writing and singing songs is her way of making contributions and she trusts that she will make a positive mark on this world.
She says, inspiration is found everywhere, it is a divine spark, and when we follow it, it opens the possibility to create so much magic that is unique from our soul. What she is passionate about is to invite people back to themselves and ask who are you, what is your truth, let me see you. And they can be more in touch with themselves. I also see women rising to their own magic and becoming a force on the planet. People should reconnect with their authentic voice - not just talking but singing; what if we sang more? We need to dance, to sing, to tell stories, or we can become sick. “We all have the ability to be light beams ... change makers, on a big scale, small scale, it doesn't matter. We have a lot more power than many of us might think.”
You can find more about Fia here: https://fiasmusicofficial.com
Billy Presnell started playing music when he was really young, about five years old. Piano was his first instrument, and he got a guitar when he was eight. Billy says, “Music has always been a part of my life,” and he was still learning to talk practically when he first started.
He has played many different styles and instruments, though he says, “when I read The Music Lesson by Victor Wooten, it changed the way I approached accompanying people; kinda changed my priorities in making the entire musical piece the goal, as opposed to me playing well with somebody.” He also began attending and volunteering at Wooten Woods music camps, and made so many connections. He learned that being a good person leads to good musicianship, and that will change your life in a positive way. He understood that he didn’t have to impress people, but that it is more about serving the music.
Billy says that, when you play, if you put the intention of healing and providing positivity and peace into your music, it can change the world. He hopes after the pandemic that people will really going back to seeing live music.
Julie Rust grew up in a house where there was a lot of music; her father played trumpet and her mother was a big band singer, and Julie grew up with a piano in her room! She realized that she wanted to play piano at age seven, and was writing songs by the time she was sixteen, majored in Music at college, and ended up playing coffee houses all over the country.
She says that she writes songs by listening to her heart; her music is like a thread of love that flows through her and helps her stay connected. She says music healed her and taught her that she is love, and she hopes her music can help other people realize the same thing. She also says that even if a musician is just playing at home, even that music makes a difference and is changing the world.
Julie says things really started happening for her when she stopped trying to force her career. She started doing what she calls Sacred Space Experiences with particular songs and meanings for individuals in a room. Now she also creates virtual Messages from the Light for individuals., and recently Audible Insights on various and random topics. Please check out https://www.julierust.com
Vivienne Aerts grew up in The Netherlands, and started piano at age 5, and by age 12 was the choir conductor. After performing all over, she got a scholarship from Berklee College of Music, majored in voice and the global jazz program. While there, she met Kenny Werner, author of the book Effortless Mastery. Since then, she has performed often with Kenny and administers the Effortless Mastery Institute at Berklee.
She says that, as Kenny writes in the book, to become a master musician, playing needs to become effortless, where the music plays itself "from the space." She says one can train their mind to play from that space, from the now, which is similar to mindfulness, where you watch yourself play. "It is really a cognitive exercise in letting go," she says. The western world has forgotten wthat we can practice effortlessness. She feels there is a community building around Kenny's concepts of effortless mastery. More about Vivienne is at www.vivienneaerts.com.
Qiaoli Wang remembered the old Buddhist music from growing up in China, but then she had to opportunity to help preserve the music for posterity, and she did it. She listened to the call to make a movie about the monks in an ancient monastery who still played music that was over 1,000 years old. She says, "The music itself refused that I make it short." There had been no audio or video of this old music, and she said the process of making the film was like a pilgrimage. The monks saw their beauty in the music. Qiaoli says, "The essence of music actually is to make people appreciate their own existence." The film opened prior to the pandemic, but will continue in theaters hopefully soon.
Peter de Koning from Amsterdam, The Netherlands, is a drummer and also the creator of Live Earth 2020, which will happen on August 29-30, 2020. Peter was only 6 years old when he started tapping on everything and was 8 when he got a drum kit. His sisters were in the marching band and it inspired him, so he joined marching bands and then the drum and bugle corps and it became his passion. He says, when he is not able to play for a while, he can really feel it; he needs to play and move with music and there are moments of flow with the marching band that are so great.
His new project, Live Earth 2020, came about when he was doing sustainability work in Montenegro and decided to ride a bike back home to Amsterdam with his drum kit trailing behind the bike, as he rode through Croatia, Bosnia, Italy, and Austria. “The purpose of it,” he says, “was to give some concerts at beautiful locations for the earth.” He would get his drum kit out at a place that he felt was good and play to honor the earth and things that had happened at those places. Then, he came up with the idea of Live Earth 2020; “Why not organize … a concert for earth to pay tribute to the earth?”
He says that Victor Wooten talks about the intention of playing music and Peter believes that playing for Mother Earth with the intention of honoring her and showing gratitude will be very beneficial. The goal is to gather 1,000 musicians and indigenous peoples from around the plant to perform and conduct ceremonies almost at the same time. He hopes artists will find nice places in nature, or wherever feels good, to give a concert, or dance, or make some art to pay tribute to Earth with that intention. It is free to sign up and participate at the website www.liveearthconcert.org.
Peter says that he feels music and dance are the closest spiritual connections we can have. He sees in the future also addressing reconciliation with the earth for all of the awful things that humans have done and to focus on the good after the pandemic. He believes it is important to pay attention to the artists and the freedom thinkers to achieve a better world.
Anni Beach grew up in a musical family; her mother was a harpist, her sisters were musicians, as was her husband. She took piano lessons as a child, but the mandolin really grabbed her at age 50. She would take her mandolin to class as a substitute teacher, and one day a couple young boys came to her house and asked her to play some more music. That was the start of the Jam Pak Blues 'n' Grass Neighborhood Band, which has been playing, learning music, and performing from Anni's home as a base. Her goal, and that of the some 25 or more kids in the band for the last 25 years, has been to bring joy and make themselves and others happy through music!
One important key is that they all have a common purpose to be happy and help other people be happy, and learn music and songs and be together. Also, she says, "There are no stars, everybody is on an equal footing; ... we help each other." She also encourages others to start music communities, however big or small; "Don't worry about it; just start," she says! "If you have your music and you can be happy, what a joy!"
Anni emphasizes that we all need a purpose, and that even right now, in the pandemic, we have great virtual platforms to really talk with people, to keep learning and doing. She says, the more we try to create musical communities, share resources, learn from and help one another, the better we will do. "I believe our lives are going to change for the better," she says.
Dr. Pramod Kumar is the Founder of the Devi Music Ashram in Rishikesh India. Dr. Kumar is a philosopher, but his focus is not on metaphysical matters but on solving practical problems. He does not play music, but loves music. Dr. Kumar says music is the highest form of harmony of sound, which is very powerful. Harmony in music brings peace to the mind.
Dr. Kumar’s children were very good musicians growing up, and he supported them and gave them the space to learn music; many in India do not encourage their children to play music because of the economics. He later wanted a place where all aspects of humans can grow, from the musical to the practical to the spiritual. Dr. Kumar says that music can solve many problems of man. Indian classical music in particular can uplift consciousness.
He wanted a place where people from all over the world could come to learn music, art, yoga, etc. and the Devi Music Ashram provides an environment for them to do that while spreading love, music, and service. He believes we can combine the best parts of the West with the best parts of the East.
Biko Casini is the percussionist with my favorite music group, Rising Appalachia. Biko turned me on to The Music Lesson book by Victor Wooten and that changed my life and led to the founding of the Planetary Gigs Society. Biko is a profound player and spiritual thinker.
Biko grew up in an intentional community outside Nashville, where he lives now, and he says it gives him the space to dream about what is possible when humans come together, sharing responsibility of stewarding the land. Biko’s father played guitar – all the time, many different songs, from many different countries and in many languages, like a troubadour. When Biko was 15, his brother carved him drumsticks and that started his lifelong craft as a drummer and percussionist. Through several interactions and his travels, he realized that for him music was a way to be of service rather than strive simply for personal success, and his quest has been to find a place or situation where music could be a key to unlocking healing energy.
He has found that with Rising Appalachia, which is like a spiritual community because they are all working on similar goals. So many musicians have been funneled and co-opted by the music industry to serve the profit motive. Rising Appalachia focuses on the experience and the wild magic of music. “Music has given me more than anything else in my life, but it has also taken more than anything else,” he says.
Biko is focused on an intention to create cultural and ecological learning and rejuvenation centers, with music being a huge part of that. He says concerts and festivals can provide energy for restoring ecology. Arts and creativity, he says, should feed the ecological restoration of the world and cultural renewal, which is the great work of our time. Biko says we all carry cultural trauma and music’s job is to connect us to what’s real inside of ourselves and then to help us be able to restore the external ecology. This also seems to me to be very much consistent with the music and message of Rising Appalachia, led by sisters Leah Song and Chloe Smith, and they have all meant so much to so many people.
I met Neeti Kumar at the Devi Music Ashram in Rishikesh, India. She teaches classical Indian singing and dance at the ashram. I have been so enamored by the concept of music ashrams; there should be millions of them! I posted some short videos of performances at the ashram, including a couple of Neeti singing.
Neeti’s family has been coming to Rishikesh for most of their lives. Neeti and her sisters were always singing when they were little. Their father had a music teacher come to their home. About eight or nine years ago, they decided to start a music ashram to celebrate music, to create a nice atmosphere to develop oneself through music, art, and culture. Neeti says that humans have many different aspects – ethical, spiritual, biological, rational, etc. – and the Devi Music Ashram allows people the freedom, space, and opportunity to develop all these aspects through music.
The Devi Music Ashram is different than most ashrams, which have a guru or teacher who sets the rules and the way of thinking. But there is no guru at the Devi Music Ashram. There are many teachers at the ashram, such as yoga, singing, sitar, meditation, dance, etc., but the gurus are music and nature. She says Indian music is like an ocean, every day there is a news opportunity to be better and have more understanding. She says it is very important for humans to have music in their lives, because music heals in so many ways. She also thinks it would be wonderful for there to be more music ashrams; people need that very much, she says.
Sandro Shankara is a very spiritual musician from Brazil, who leads musicians, pilgrims, and seekers on tours to sacred places like the Amazon, the mountains of Peru, and India. I met Sandro in Rishikesh at the Devi Music Ashram. We really connected and I was able to interview him on zoom.
When Sandro was 17, he found Indian music, having played classical guitar before that. He plays many instruments, including guitar, ukulele, and table, sitar, and harmonium. Since a very young age, he has prepared himself through music to bring people peace. His mission is to unite the scientific knowledge of healing with mantras, and to connect more and more people with their inner being.
He says it is important to drop the individual me, the ego, and join the global harmony. With so many modern distractions, “the most powerful tool to connect us to a space of calm and inner peace is music.” Sandro believes a new moment has arrived and together we will create a better world.
Follow him on Instagram, where he posts about his trips and music. Also, he has four CDs on Spotify.
Raj Sagonakha is with the Devi Music Ashram in Rishikesh, India. I met Raj when I walked into the ashram almost entirely by chance in March 2020. I had gone to Rishikesh to visit the ashram of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, where the Beatles visited in 1968, and I felt a profound connection with all this.
As background, Raj started playing music when he was ten years old, learning the tabla, or Indian drum. He and his sisters became musicians and Raj transitioned to the sitar. His family had traveled to Rishikesh, and he says there is “something in the air, in the environment, here that is so amazing.”
They gradually developed the idea of starting a music ashram, making a space for people to share music, and for them to share what they know about Indian classical music. At the Devi Music Ashram, there is no guru or master, but music and nature, and knowledge, says Raj, are your master. “You are free to discover your own divinity through music.” At the ashram, they offer all sorts of music, sound healing, chanting, singing, dancing, and learning to play instruments.
Raj says that, “In India, music is not just entertainment; it is also a part of spirituality, peace, and harmony in life.” He says there is a metaphysical concept where we believe that everything is a vibration, a cosmic vibration, an unending sound, the sound of the cosmos. And then there is also the sound that we create. Indian classical musicians were saints, spiritual seekers, and Indian music developed that way, where you try to connect with the ultimate source or reality through music. There are also different moods of notes and tones, and those are how the ragas were developed by the Indian saints so when you listen you can experience that deep connection.
The Devi Music Ashram is a very special place and Raj says that everyone is welcome there. Personally, I believe there should be millions of music ashrams around the world and I urge people to support the Devi Music Ashram and more music ashrams around the planet.
Ria Marie’s mother was a singer and voice teacher, and Ria used to listen outside the lesson room at her house. “I was just captivated by singing,” she says. She has always loved powerhouse singers who had soul, like Ella Fitzgerald, Whitney Houston, and Christine Aguilera. Ria says music can teach you so many things. “Music puts you in the present moment,” she says. She also has learned through music not to compare herself to others.
Ria says that music and Source came together for her and Source has really helped her singing. She says it’s important to surrender to Source when writing or singing; “sometimes you just have to let it go, … the beauty of it is in the imperfections and not being perfect and just letting it flow.” She also says, “Music teaches you how to be vulnerable with people and yourself and forgive yourself and forgive others.”
Also, Ria says, “You have to let that ego go in music; … you can’t have the ego and be vulnerable at the same time.” She also says singing and breathing go hand in hand, just like meditation and breathing. Vibrations of sound can help change attitude and she knows there is more to learn about how frequency and vibration impact our emotions.
I met Hubert Gonthier-Blouin at the Spirit of Music camp at Wooten Woods and we hit it off right away. Both of Hubert’s parents were musicians, and his mother knew she was going to play piano at the age of three. Hubert’s father gave him a guitar when he was young, but later Hubert started on bass and realized that’s what he wanted to do. He says it is a gift to play music, and he has gotten to know so many people through music; people and community are so very important. He wanted to discover who he was through music, and he thinks it takes courage to speak your voice through music.
Hubert says there is a magic in music that goes hand in hand with living and growing. He says being honest with yourself and looking at where you are and being able to give back to the listener is magic. He says, “I think music is a gift of peace. … Music is a doorway to peace, connection, cooperation. I’d just say people need to play more music.” When you are really playing music and putting your heart and soul into it, you can’t be angry; you can only be creative, peaceful, and happy, he says. “Whatever happens, I’m just going to keep playing music.”
Allen Holmes is an excellent musician and good friend, and was one of the first interviewed for the Planetary Gig Talk podcast. He remembers me saying that Victor Wooten talked about music being a living entity and he has reflected on that a lot recently.
Allen says, “I believe that music is a living spirit, it’s alive, and that some people that devote themselves to it, that practice, are able to have a relationship with this spirit and learn from it.” He also believes there is another living entity whose purpose is to destroy or counter music; like yin and yang, they co-exist and help each other grow. Allen calls this, for lack of a better term, anti-music. He says some musicians choose anti-music.
Allen says each of these have their own minions; the minions of music are things like pitch, tone, rhythm, skill, passion, emotion, and collaboration. Anti-music also has minions, such as passion without skill, materialistic and ego-driven playing, that pollutes music. The intention behind music is a key ingredient. Allen says, “I feel like I am an instrument for the entity of music.”
Allen also says, “I believe everything is one; everything is interdependent in the biosphere of earth. We are all biospheres … we are all one. … I think it’s important to recognize that. … I believe that Mother Earth is a living entity.”
And Allen says a change is coming. “I believe that mass consciousness is growing. … This is my new goal. … I want to write and make music that is going to help mass consciousness grow. … The people are rising. … I think there is a shift.”
Brent Paschke was co-founder of Spymob and is best known as Pharrell Williams’ guitarist, having worked with Pharrell since 2001. Brent was introduced to me by Linda Helms, who is a friend of Brent’s.
Brent says that, “Music was just in me.” He knew the first day he got a guitar when he was about 12 years old that playing guitar is what he wanted to do with his life. He was always drawn to art and music, so he understood kids who struggled with school. As Brent got more into production, be began to see a lot of kids wanting to be in production, but there wasn’t much available in the schools. So, Brent started Tuniversity, to teach how to use an iOS device and the Garageband app to deconstruct and reconstruct songs. Brent says that the computer is really the instrument these days and he wants kids to be able to tap into music because you can really find yourself and learn how to express yourself through music. He says, as we get more comfortable with music, it is better for us.
Brent also does a lot of mindful meditation, which parallels with playing music. Music provides such life lessons, he says. You can learn to forgive mistakes and yourself through music; it teaches you to be present, just like mindful meditation. “That’s life; it’s all about being present, forgiving, loving, caring. It all lines up with music, it’s all in synch with music.”
Kevin Roy Kramer has been listening to the Planetary Gig Talk podcasts, has attended Victor Wooten’s camps, and reached out to me so I invited him to do a podcast interview. What a smart, eclectic, thoughtful, cool guy!
Kevin started with the recorder in 4th grade, trumpet in 5th grade, guitar in 8th grade, and now also plays drums and other instruments. Kevin says, “Music is a way for people to just express themselves as themselves.” He also says music “is a great way to connect and reconnect with yourself and it’s a source of renewable joy.”
Kevin is a very spiritual human too, and has been practicing yoga for some time and also setting mantras to music, i.e., cosmic chants. He says we have been in a visually oriented society and the auditory has been overshadowed. He says sound and vibration are building blocks to our material world. “Music actively enriches our lives.”
“I know how music has helped me and inspired me, and so if I can make music that down the road helps other people and inspires them, then mission accomplished, I suppose.” Kevin says that the power of music is really the power of love. It’s more than just the love of two people; “we have so much in common, we’re all in this together.”
I met Linda Helms at Victor Wooten’s Theory of Music camp; she’s a sound bowl practitioner. I had brought my sound bowl, so the energies brought us together. She says she always loved music, and could tap into something IN the music, some vibrational essence. When listening to music, she could feel the energies around her and the musicians and, by tuning in, could deepen the feeling of the musicians. She says, “Music is a conversation,” and when you listen deeply you give the musicians space. She says deep listening leads to deep connections.
When she first heard a sound bowl, also called a singing or healing bowl, she just knew that was something she had to have and experience. She has a sound bowl teacher, who is from Nepal. She says that our bodies can get out of tune, and the bowls can help remedy that. She says intention is the key to the healing, and the bowls really help people heal themselves. She has worked with students with depression and anxiety, and the sound bowls really help them; she says their whole spirit and attitude have been uplifted by using the bowls. She says sound is a formidable, powerful treatment for depression and anxiety. Linda says Western medicine is great, but there is a separateness to it and another level that is missing that can help treat us. Linda also says there is an awaking happening on the planet, as people are becoming more aware of our connectedness and our common source energy.
Val Carter was referred to me because she wants to do a podcast on mid-adulting and asked if I would show her about producing podcasts. So, she came over to Studio 1 of the worldwide headquarters of the Planetary Gigs Society and we talked and did a test podcast. She asked a lot of questions about creating and hosting a podcast, and in this raw and unedited discussion, we talked about some of the things that go into doing a podcast and Planetary Gig Talk in particular. We also talked about considerations for someone wanting to do a podcast. I am hopeful that more people will consider starting podcasts, blogs, etc about the power of music, and this podcast conversation covers some of those issues. Enjoy this fun and different conversation that hopefully will also be informative.
In addition, we talked about the upcoming house concert with Gaye Adegbalola on Nov 23!
I met Nathan at Victor Wooten’s Spirit of Music camp. We were talking about random stuff and Nathan said he runs a research firm and investment fund in which he focuses on volatility to understand the dynamics of markets, which he said relates to music in that volatility is really just vibrations, like music. So, I knew we had to do a podcast interview.
Nathan grew up in a musical family; both of his parents played music. Nathan distinctly remembers seeing some kid play a drum solo in a talent show in 5th grade and knowing instantly he was going to play drums the rest of his life (he also plays bass and guitar). He is into listening, and sometimes hooks up to an EEG when playing, where he can observe his heart rate, brain waves, and internal rhythms. Nathan says, “The groove emerges from listening.” And being present starts from listening, too. “Everything emerges from listening and feeling.”
Nathan says money is like a language; it’s a medium of exchange that conveys economic intent. Exchanging value is fundamental to cooperation, he says, and that we can express ourselves through money. “Money is a tool of communication,” he says. Music and money are both about expression.
Nathan believes we can think of music as a life form, as Stephen Jay says, and then also as an organism, and the same could be said about money. How markets change is musical, he says. The market is like macro vibrations arising from micro vibrations, and is interrelated to so many things, just like music.
He also says fear manifests in markets, and that humans are often playing out of tune in the markets, because of different national versions of money and tribal mindsets. To get the system operating better, Nathan believes that it starts with listening and understanding flows of money or blocks to the money flow. He says there is a lot of overlap in dynamics of money and music, how things change, the vibrations of the world, and Nathan thinks the markets are more natural than people think. He says we can be more in tune with our vibrations through this understanding.
Great conversation with Dylan Hughes at Victor Wooten’s Spirit of Music Camp!
Dylan’s parents were theater actors and his father really loved music; even named him after Bob Dylan! Dylan knew he wanted to play music very early; at first it was the flute in 4th grade, which he played until 8th grade. But in 7th grade, Dylan got a bass, and that was it. “I just wanted to play … I just wanted to make music. … Music is always tapping me on the shoulder.”
He played in a band in high school named the Missing Link; he had some great music teachers, including his friend Tyler Hamilton. Dylan got away from music for a while recently, but deciding to go to Spirit camp made a big difference this year, and he is back! Dylan currently plays a lot around Seattle, and his brother is a great guitar player, too. Dylan recently did a big show featuring John Coltrane’s A Love Supreme. We agreed that trying to learn a song or put on a show can give one’s life meaning.
He was particularly taken by what Michael said in the Planetary Gig Talk interview about having the intention of bringing healing vibrations when playing. You can say or think before playing, “I offer you this healing vibration.” He told this to the audience prior to the Love Supreme show.
“If you can do basically whatever you’re doing with the intention of healing, offering the vibration in a healing manner, I just believe that can make the world a better place, maybe that the ultimate intention,” Dylan says. He encourages other musicians to try that, offering healing vibrations when they play. He also thinks that one of the best things people can do is to find their passion and purpose, and to follow it; that would lead to a better world too, he says.
Chris Anander is an amazing musician. His earliest memories are musical memories, such as when he was in a stroller at age two with Tchaikovsky’s B flat piano concerto in his brain. We had a great conversation at Victor Wooten's Spirit of Music Camp.
Chris started violin in kindergarten and was always an avid listener. He went to Berklee College of Music for trumpet, but played a lot of guitar and now considers himself a bassist. He has played all sorts of music, from classical to heavy metal.
He says the power of music “might be greater than any of us can describe. … There is a primal thing to music that defies explanation.” He is aware of the profound effect remembering music has had on him and he says, “I want to impart the passion” of music to others. “I try to use my own experience as a guide for what is possible, what music can do. When the memory of a song can bring me to tears without hearing it, I would like to show people how to get there.”
There are more great musicians now than at any time, he says, but the problem is with compensation, that everyone is getting paid but the musicians. The secret, Chris says, is that “everybody is important.” He says, “Music is truly one of the last things I have faith in.”
Stephen Jay is a fabulous musician, composer, and really smart and spiritual guy! He has played based in Weird Al Yankovic’s band for decades, but also has amazing insights and stories, such as music in Africa during his younger years. He also is working on new discoveries about rhythm and pitch, as he explains in this podcast. We recorded this under the Pavilion one afternoon at Wooten Woods during Spirit of Music Camp.
Stephen’s mother was a beautiful pianist and his father played several instruments. So, seeing his mother in such joy while playing, Stephen knew when he was only about 5 years old that he wanted to be a musician. Music was simply paramount around the house when he was young, he says. He started piano first, then guitar when he was about 10, and bass when he joined a band at 13. His high school group Covington Tower was good enough to get a record deal!
He majored in music and composition in college, and was fortunate to hang around with some real luminaries on the cutting edge of music, including John Cage! Nonetheless, he’d always been inspired by African drumming, so he and his wife Barbara left for West Africa in 1971. It was quite a trip to get there, which he describes in the podcast, but central to the experience was that the Africans he met in the villages were really still of the hunter/gatherer culture and they had a really special relationship with music.
Musical instruments were seen as living beings, and “music nourished every phase of life; … music was everywhere, and it was alive and beautiful.” Everyone did music, and musicians were not in some rarefied atmosphere as today in modern areas. Stephen says, they had no written religion, other than “a sanctity and respect for all things, including inanimate things.” He says quantum physics has shown this to be correct. There was also no money or ownership out in the wild; everyone shared everything. He says Africans felt “music was a life form, not an art form. Gigantic, spanning the entire universe, and all know time, that lives, and needs musicians to help it live, at least in the audio realm.”
He is currently exploring pitch and rhythm and you will have to listen to understand it. Essentially, he says, harmonic intervals each have their own signature rhythms. You can check out www.stephenjay.com for an article on this topic, among others.
Stephen says that we have tapped into music to make a better world; look at how much peace, fellowship, and brotherly love music has brought to us. He says music has an inescapable beauty. When you witness something so beautiful and so much larger than yourself, it diminishes ego, and with that you worry less of things that are to come, have less fear of the unknown, and so we can get to more love and peace. “Music is sacred; it’s not a commodity.” He also says, “Music can help us distrust our fears.”
“Music, and art, is our savior,” says Stephen Jay.
Roy “Futureman” Wooten has been playing music with his brothers his entire life. I was fortunate to be able to talk with him for the 100th Planetary Gig Talk podcast at Wooten Woods while there for Victor Wooten’s Spirit of Music camp. Please check out this amazing performer and futurist thinker. Here are some of the conversational tidbits for you:
- Roy says artists and musicians are carrying the weight of the world, because what we do with art will speak for the ages.
- His mother loved music, especially listening to Nina Simone on the Sunday morning radio, and she said that music helps people get through the week, and could carry people through tough times.
- Roy says, “Music is taking us on a journey, and … if we have a question about something, the question is the beginning of the quest; … if you stick with your questions, it’s gonna take you on a quest with intention.” He says, “You don’t know how you’re influencing people when you are doing what you love.”
- Roy discovered the seminal book A Course in Miracles when he was young; he still remembers the line in the ad he saw from the Course: “Only the veil that is drawn across reality is lifted, nothing has changed, yet the awareness of changelessness comes swiftly as the veil of time is pushed aside.”
- Roy says he and his brothers used to discuss spiritual principles like those in the course quite a lot. Victor mentioned the Course to me when I interviewed him last year for this podcast.
- The Course says, according to Roy, there is only love and fear, and love has to take the form of forgiveness, which is the axis of the world.
- Roy also talked about the principles of the Hawaiian principles of Ho’oponopono, based on the book Zero Limits. Roy says it is really about forgiving ourselves first. Ho’oponopono says everything is in you, and if you can look at life in a different way, it can change you.
- Roy says the world often leans toward a chaotic place, but that the artist is the centering thing; the artist has a role in society that is more than most artists know. There is a heroic journey for artists.
- He says, “The only thing that will create cohesion and order is frequency.” Music has a sacred quality, and “when we are dealing with music, we are dealing with the theory of everything.”
- He says, “Musicians are magicians; there is magic happening [in music].”
- He talked about the theories of the Dogon tribe in Africa, where Stephen Jay visited, who believed that, “Music is a conscious force and what we call god is really music.”
- “Music knows who you are … when you join music, music joins you, and you begin to be able to speak your voice.”
- “Some people are afraid of their truth … a lot of times your genius is residing in you, but it’s in a comfortable place, and you have to get uncomfortable before it can come out, before you are willing to let it come out.”
Vance Umphrey says, “Music was there before I can start remembering anything.” His mother was a singer and his grandfather was a choir director. Vance began playing with the family’s electric piano when he was 5 and started lessons when about 10-11. He joined the middle school band and took percussion. So, when he went to Humboldt for college, he ended up with a double performance major in percussion in piano, but more importantly, he was introduced to the steel pan and it’s fair to say his life has never been the same.
Vance has played the steel pan ever since. It is really a complex diatonic instrument, and is often played in large steel pan orchestras, with up to 120 pan players! The steel pan was originated in Trinidad and Tobago, where the African population was prohibited from playing drums from the 1880s until the 1940s or so, and based on the need to play, they came up with the steel pan instrument made out of the hammered bottoms of steel oil drums.
“When I hear a steel orchestra,” says Vance, “I hear the elements of triumph and overcoming oppression.” Vance says, playing the steel pan is “super meaningful” and that, “I am just following music; … music is directing me. …Most of my decisions are actually guided by music.”
He says that the philosophy of Victor Wooten as brought out in The Music Lesson has really impressed and influenced him; “it opened my eyes to the enchantment and magic of music.”
“Internationally, pan has been a huge gift of bringing people together. … Everyone is trying to become one in the band.” He says music gives an appreciation for different cultures. Vance also likes the community aspect of music, and has a vision for music-based community centers for people.
Dan played music at school growing up in California, and was in several bands, but also conducted music. He says music education is very important, like team sports, but it is not competitive, and helped him get in touch with his emotions while growing up. Although he dropped out of college to be in the music industry as a session musician and record producer, he eventually went back to get his degree and became a college professor primarily researching the neuroscience and psychology of music. His bestseller This is Your Brain on Music opened many doors for him, including meeting and becoming friends with Victor Wooten.
He says that recent research on music and the brain confirms that music activates pretty much every region of the brain that has been mapped. Music also can reduce pain and pre-operative anxiety in hospital settings. Music can also combat depression and has great therapeutic benefits, including reducing anxiety in people with dementia. Dan says that preforming, writing, or even appreciating music requires very complex memory modulations and sophisticated brain mechanisms that other animals don’t have; it requires being able to hold an idea in one’s mind that is not in front of you.
Dan says that music can lead to mutual cooperation, passing on education through schools, and creating systems of justice. When people play or listen to music, their brain waves synchronize, which also can lead to cooperation.
Dan Levitin is truly a trailblazer in the science of music and has a new book coming out titled Successful Aging. Please check out www.daniellevitin.com.
Greg Crossfield started with music in church, played trombone from 4th grade through high school, and later came back to music with guitar. He says, "I have a belief about music, that music has an interest in what it wants us to do with it." He likes to share music with people who don't play by showing them how to play Ode to Joy on two strings of the guitar. "To be a musician means to facilitate a WE of people, versus just the I of myself in a fairly I-centric society." He also says, "Music is very powerful and builds community quickly and helps foster energy that other things don't."
Mester Bo and Tina Israni form the group Ritual Sound in Copenhagen, and conduct sound baths by playing singing bowls, gongs, and the handpan. Their goal is for every home on the planet to have at least one singing bowl.
Bo’s mother played piano, and Bo played various instruments through his life, guitar, piano, and saxophone, but a few years ago found the handpan, which is like an inverted steel drum instrument. He said the handpan came into his heart and he knew this was the instrument for him; “the instrument was waiting for me.” The handpan makes a very beautiful sound.
Tina was born in New York but her family was from India, where she has lived. As a child she did a lot of dancing and moving her body to music, using her body as a musical instrument. She played a few instruments, but lost touch with music for a time. Recently, when dealing with some mental health issues, she got into sound healing and reiki, found a woman who played gongs, went to some sound baths, and at a gong training, she met Bo. She said that was sort of magical, there was amazing energy and she and Bo then started playing together. “We played (one time) and lost track of time and space and were just one with a sound wave.”
During their sound baths, they play singing bowls, gongs, and the handpan, which helps tune the human body, because the human body is an instrument and sound can flow through us.
Check out Ritual Sound on Facebook and http://mesterbo.dk/.
Singing has been Sara Wood's passion her entire life; she just happens to also be an association executive. She started singing with a children's chorus when she was 11 years old and sang classical and opera, before beginning to sing Barbershop harmony six years ago. When singing Barbershop, you're focused entirely on singing together, she says. "For those few minutes, I feel a freedom and peace that I don't feel other places. ... Music forces me to slow down and be present." She also loves the community aspect of Barbershop harmony singing.
She loves the performance aspect of singing, "it's you and the audience with a shared experience." She feels that she has a duty and obligation to bring the music and the best of herself. She urges musicians to put it all out there for the collective experience that you can have. "If you can take ten minutes a day for a musical activity, your blood pressure will go down," she says. She also encourages everyone to make space in their lives for music, and it will impact how you see life, and the more who do that, the better the world will be.
Chef Daniel Ben-David is currently a chef at the Hotel Del Coronado in San Diego and has a passion for music, art, and cooking. His father was a chef growing up in South Africa, and music was always playing in their house and at parties. Chef Daniel says that when you put music and food together it becomes more of a unity rather than an event and it is very natural. Chef says there is almost always music playing in kitchens, and the chefs and food preparers often sing to enhance the rhythmic chopping and sounds of cooking. There is always sound and rhythm with people working and creating, says Chef Daniel. However, in a very large kitchen like at the Hotel Del, the power of music is so strong and there are so many people moving around with knives, heat, and hot oil that music is not permitted for safety reasons.
Chef Daniel is very passionate about music and listens to music all the time. For example, when taking time off with his dog and listening to music and eating good food near the ocean, he says “I find myself at peace this way.” He says that chefs are often called kitchen pirates because they are rugged, but they all love food, art, and music. He also says, “Food is art, and music is art, and art is art, and you can’t judge somebody on it, just try to relate to it, figure out what can tie you to their art and don’t be so quick to judge it.” Please check out Chef Daniel’s Instagram account @chefdbd616.
Dave “Razz” Rasmussen grew up in a family that played music around the house all the time. His mother was a pianist who played piano until very late in life. His father played the gut bucket, and Razz’s brother and sister played music too. He remembers living in Hawaii at the Navy base where everyone was playing ukulele, but he liked guitar because it had two more strings. He was constantly playing gigs and with people, and when he was twenty-nine went to the Guitar Institute, which really opened up his playing.
Razz says that, “people come together through music … they can’t help themselves.” He says everyone can play some instrument, that it lowers personal barriers, and helps people get in the same harmonic resonance. He says that music can even relax animals, and Razz at one point remembers playing with a parrot named Wilbur, who would bob his head and whistle and sing along with the music! He believes that meetings of world leaders would be much more productive and beneficial if they started off conferences with jams to set the tone!
Razz has wanted to implement a movement that he refers to as the Harmonic Unity Musical Ministry (HUMM), which would be a global network for musicians to hang out and play together in cities all over the world. Instruments would be provided to those who needed them along with screens and chord charts so everyone could play the same songs together. HUMM would also use, promote, and instill collaborative precepts so that players would be able to play and jam cooperatively, such as “those that know, help others to grow!”
Zach had a lot of music around his house growing up, as his mother is a musician and music teacher. He focused on sports when young, but then his parents got him an acoustic guitar when he graduated from high school. It was in college in the mountains near Boulder, Colorado, he says, when he “really started writing from my heart and my soul.” It helped him get some peace and tranquility in his life and he committed to music in a way that was real and deep.
Zach says, music allowed him to find himself; “It allowed me to step past my own confines and barriers because there was something bigger than me on the other side of it. … Just letting go … and honoring this craft is my conduit. … It’s transformed my perspective.” He also says, “I will tell everyone and their mother that they would be good at some musical instrument or singing.”
“What I think we are doing as musicians, as artists, is finding a way to double down on who we are, believing that if we’re ourselves, if we invest in that, if we really live that fully, people feel that, they see that, and a lot of people need that, and I needed it for a long time, I was inspired by a lot of musicians and artists.”
His current band is Lunar Eclectic in Austin, Texas.
Tara Linhardt is a musician, educator, photographer, event coordinator, and movie maker. She didn’t have a lot of music in her house growing up, but started playing guitar at seven just because it was fun! She then played music with friends in high school and began playing the mandolin. She got serious about music when she spent time in college in Nepal and Thailand, even using music as meditation as a way to get into and stay in the moment.
She says, “music can be for everyone” and that “helping people meet other people is great.” She spends a lot of time putting people together, whether bluegrass music jams or by conducting music tours. She says so many people just sit around passively and she likes to help set up jam sessions where people can play together and learn how to play together to create a sense of community.
She and some friends several years decided to make a film in Nepal and ended up with a movie titled the Mountain Music Project. The film highlights the gandarba musicians in Nepal and also the similarities with Appalachian bluegrass players in Virginia, who surprisingly have some songs in common!
Tara also has tours to Nepal, where travelers can meet musicians, artists, woodworkers, and work with orphanages and schools. Please visit www.TaraLinhardt.com for more information on the tours and movie.
Elijah Wald is a American folk blues guitarist and music historian, and 2002 Grammy Award winner. He says there was always music around when he was young. He started playing when he was seven and, after seeing Pete Seeger when he was eight or nine, he decided he wanted to be a musician. He also was influenced by Woody Guthrie's book Bound for Glory and, after studying with Dave Van Ronk in New York, spent 15 years playing guitar and traveling the world. He has published more than a thousand articles, mostly about folk, roots and international music for various magazines and newspapers, including over ten years as "world music" writer for the Boston Globe. Elijah says that music can connect people and that it is important to go out and find other types of cultures and music.
Elena Mannes had music in her life "from the womb" and many musicians in her family, so it is no surprise that she is an award-winning author of a book and director of a documentary movie on music. The book is titled The Power of Music and the movie is The Music Instinct: Science and Song. The book includes great information about music and along with the movie are both listed on the Planetary Gigs Society website. The movie features musical luminaries Dan Levitin and Bobby McFerrin and provides a ground-breaking exploration into how and why the human organism and the whole ebb and flow of the cosmos is moved by the undeniable effect of music. Elena says, "The new science is showing how we are really wired for music in so many ways; we're wired to respond to certain harmonies, even infants."
She also has a new book out called Soul Dog, about the spiritual lives of animals. Elena says, "We're all the same stuff."
Tracy Silverman remembers listening to music with his father as young as 2 or 3 years old and by 5, he had been totally smitten by the violin and started taking lessons. He practiced incessantly and eventually attended The Juilliard School. After that, he started playing in rock bands and began making electric 6 string violins. “I wanted to play violin so it sounded like an electric guitar because that is the voice of my generation.” “Music is a language,” Tracy says, “and I didn’t want to be singing in an old-fashioned language.” He says he had a “desire to touch people, to connect people … in a language they understood.”
Tracy says music is “powerful enough that plenty of crazy orthodox religions ban it because it moves people.” Rhythmic music makes people respond with their bodies, so something is going on there, he says, and when added with the human voice or instruments that mimic the voice, it is a “pretty potent substance there that can target your emotional brain.” He believes musicians have an incredible responsibility when they are able to touch people deeply to open up something in them and that music can be a “real instrument for social good.”
Dave Welsch says, “I don’t remember a time when there wasn’t music in my life.” His mother played piano, his father played trumpet and had weekend gigs, and Dave’s first performance in front of an audience was when he was nine years old; he was gigging with his father at about fourteen. He learned music mainly by ear and playing along with records.
He met Victor Wooten in 1994 and helped create Vic’s first website. Dave has played with Vic, served as his assistant and tour manager, and was with Vic when his first music camp was held in 1999. Dave says, “Vic is an idea person,” and had wanted to start a music and nature camp; the camps are now in their 20th year. Of the camps, Dave says, “I think we’ve really been somehow successful in making the connection between music and life.” He says that so many students have grown personally from music, with many life-changing experiences, and so many fine musicians are wonderful people.”
Dave says that Vic’s book, The Music Lesson, is rooted in the idea that music is a language. The audiobook is really special, he says, because it was all produced in Vic’s studio with the people who inspired the characters. “The more you think about music as a language, the better you are going to learn it.”
He also says a key facet of music is “to look at music as a living entity.” Dave says, “It’s amazing to me always to watch people enjoy music … music affects them in some way that they don’t care [how they are dancing]!” He says, “One of my goals in life is to make people smile,” and that certainly happens through music.
When people go to concerts, they don’t care about who the other people are, what color, what religion, they are just enjoying the music. And, he says, if we can do that for two hours at a concert, we have to be able to do that in the world. The feeling of community through music is so important, he says, “you feel empathy and compassion, and love for the people around you.”
Both Bob and Ira have been smitten by bluegrass music most of their lives. Bob's band Big Hillbilly Bluegrass played a regular gig at Madam's Organ in DC for about 20 years, and through that made a connection that led to invites from State Department public affairs offices at various foreign missions. They eventually brought their bluegrass music to over 30 countries in Africa and Asia. Bob says, "You can make friends with music, that's the bottom line." They made deep emotional connections through music on every day of their tours. They played their music at numerous events in myriad venues and usually, local groups also played, and they often shared songs, finding common ground. The response to American Bluegrass music was uniformly positive. "There is almost a human genetic response to Foggy Mountain Breakdown," Bob says. Ira wasn't on all the tours but said he remembers playing with some amazing musicians in the Republic of Congo, and he also played for pygmies in the Central African Republic. Bob's favorite country was the Republic of Georgia, where he says the people "gather spontaneously and sing songs in hugely resonant voices that are one thousand years old." Bob also says, "We saw demonstrations of commonality almost incessantly" during the tour, and that "We were far more effective at creating good will among people than any platoon of military men."
Roddy Barnes grew up on a farm but knew he wanted to play the piano when he was only three years old. He ended up taking lessons a few years later and got his college degree in classical performance on piano. But he always loved Black church music and called it "that good music," and now plays blues, jazz, and gospel. He says, music is a "thing that we need," and healing the psyche is what we are here for. "It feels like we have gotten away from [music, but] people need it for their health," Roddy says. He has some good advice: "When I need inspiration, when I am writing, I go to the garden. I say listen to nature a lot. But even better, find good music, sit down with a glass of wine if you like, have no distractions, no phones, no anything, and listen, get inside the music, close your eyes and just go inside and listen to all that's happening and let it affect you, really absorb it."
Richard Lewellen fell in love with music as a toddler, watching movies such as Aladdin, Fantasia, and the Jungle Book, and the amazing music in those films. His mother was a classically trained pianist and his father loved jazz. Richard was a Beatles fan in middle school and played guitar, but was introduced to Barbershop harmony singing at age 14 and it has been a huge part of his life since then. He met his wife, Christina Lewellen, through Barbershop singing (she was interviewed in Planetary Gig Talk #73).
Richard says Barbershop harmony singing was his way of being like a Beatle; he says it is very accessible and allows one to be in a community of various voices. It is not well known, but Barbershop harmony really was started about the same time as jazz by African American singers and was not accepted more broadly until whites began to sing Barbershop. Barbershop singing combines interesting rhythms, creative search for harmonies, improvisation, and percussion. Barbershop singers must be fully present in the music in a way that overcomes technical flaws; Richard says you can hear the heartbeat of music in the moment of singing.
Richard also has become a professional music therapist. He says music therapists undergo a rigorous regimen of study and must be Board Certified to practice. Music therapists serve the entire population, cradle to grave, including helping to soothe children in neonatal units, assisting children in schools, those with autism, at-risk teens, veterans with PTSD, rehabilitation from medical events like stroke and gunshot victims (including Congresswoman Gabby Giffords, who was aided in regaining her speech by music therapists), pain management, dementia/Alzheimer’s patients, and in many other situations.
He says music and rhythm can help balance out many issues in the body or psychologically. Richard says, “Entrainment through music is really powerful; it’s a human superpower we don’t tap into enough.” He also says we don’t apply the intention of using music as broadly as we should. Music is a big part of many societies and it is how they connect with something larger than themselves.
Will Ackerman plays guitar beautifully and has inspired many people with the heart in his music, including his many records and the artists he produced as founder of Windham Hill Records. He listened to music all the time as a youngster, and used to call in to Jim Lange’s show on KGO radio to request songs. He was even interviewed by Lange when he was young and saw the record business. He also knew the members of the Kingston Trio while at Stanford, and learned that, “Music is made by people; it’s not a distant thing. … From a very young age, music was very important to me.”
He experienced many amazing coincidences in his life related to music, as he explains in the podcast. A neighbor, Michael Kilmartin, first put a guitar in his hands, and then ended up promoting Will’s first record nationally to radio stations. “There was almost nothing that was intentional,” he says. He found something in open tunings that really resonated with him when playing guitar; they allowed him to remove the intellectual aspects from the process and the only thing he had to work with was emotion and feeling. “It was just pure heart,” he says. Doors flew open for him, and that was also the story with the founding of Windham Hill and the many, many fantastic artists on its records.
“I found refuge in listening to music, and I think probably that informed my approach as to how I approached music in myself. … The process for me was utterly subjective. I wasn’t trying to change the world. I wasn’t trying to give the world a gift. I was only trying to be true to the emotion, and some very painful memories or new occurrences. I was somebody who needed deeply, emotionally, to express something that I think words were not capable of doing for me.”
He also has felt great solace through nature in his life, which is also sensed in his amazing music. Please enjoy a fascinating Planetary Gig Talk podcast interview with Will. You can find out more at www.williamackerman.com and contact him at will@williamackerman.com.
Paula Bellenoit had a lot of music in her life when young, and started taking piano lessons at age six. She took lessons for many years, played in a wedding band at age 16, and then was music director of the church choir when about 19. She loves music with a purpose, the kind of music that could "make me soar." She says, "Music can affect your emotions" and "takes you places you might not have gone to." Music adds meaning and context, she says, and singing especially is something that everyone on the planet can do, "everyone can feel the music." Music can help bring lucidity, even for dementia patients. You can also play music with people who don't speak the same language. She now is on the production side and produces podcasts for Human Factor LLC, which also produces Planetary Gig Talk.
Milagros Phillips grew up in a musical family and she says, "Music was always in my life." She was always singing as a child, various eclectic forms of music, but stopped singing in her teens because of an issue with a teacher. She started singing again when a friend asked her to sing in her wedding. She then discovered a new way of using her voice, in sound therapy, which came naturally and intuitively for her. She also sang for hospice patients, which was very profound.
She studied the power of music in many ways, including cymatics and the book Nada Brahma, the World is Sound. She realized that healing others through music and signing was really an effort to heal herself, and that "healing me is healing the world." She also says, "I'm willing to be still and be quiet so that I welcome the instrument through which the music is played, so at no point do I own the music, I own the instrument." She says, "Music is one of the most healing things on the planet," and that, "We are naturally attuned to music from in utero."
She has recently been conducting seminars on race healing. She says people are made of vibrations and all have their own sounds and frequencies, but have a common ground that is loving the people in their lives, and have more in common than their differences. She explains that people need to look at and understand the past, because it is difficult to heal if one is in denial. She is currently engaged in a new television show, Race Healer TV; please visit www.racehealertv.com.
Scott Ainslie’s mother played piano, and he started learning to play music at the same time he learned to talk, about 3 years old. He played all sorts of instruments, but when he first heard John Jackson sing and play guitar, that was his first taste of vital, homemade, handmade music. Scott sought out John and other experienced musicians. He says, “I’m a strong believer in the power and necessity of apprenticeships, and I also know when you love something, it will transform you; you should let the music change you before changing it.”
He believes people in the old times played music to serve and support their families and communities. He also believes that musicians hold up a mirror to ourselves, and try to put us in someone else’s circumstances for a moment, which can create empathy and compassion, making the world a little kinder and breaking down the barriers. “What better use of white privilege could we have than to honor the multiracial nature of our country.”
He says, “I think we can make the world a little better with something as ephemeral as music in the air.” In that way, musicians are servants to society and can inspire people; we can become better people playing on stage and performing music.
Marcus Sims started playing music and writing songs early in his life and played with his brothers in a bluegrass band. He says, “Music comes naturally, so you can jump into it.” In this podcast, Marcus explained TaKeTina, which is a musical activity for the purpose of creating inner peace and learning about life. Marcus says, we are rhythmic and have rhythm in us; life is rhythm, but modern humans have lost touch with the rhythm of life. TaKeTiNA helps awaken our natural rhythms and is one answer to the challenges of life by reconnecting with nature and the rhythms of nature. TaKeTiNa takes us through a musical journey using our body as an instrument, with rhythmic mantras, clapping, and stepping.
TaKeTina helps shift our perception from linear to simultaneous to enter a deep state of relaxation. It is a very joyful process and can result in a deep trance or deep state of being, and lead to profound insights. TaKeTiNa “cultivates the state of being music,” and helps modern humans remember this. Marcus says it is a good thing to cultivate the present, and focus on our own inner world, starting with ourselves and our families, and creating peace and music in our families.
For more information, visit www.taketina.com and email Marcus at rhythm4life0112358@gmail.com.
David Julian Gray has been playing music for 60 years; the clarinet chose him to be his main instrument. He remembers hearing music when he was just 4 years old and being profoundly influenced; he had never experienced such pleasure before and music has been the most important thing in his life since then. He says, "All that we experience as so-called reality is the intersection of vibration." He says playing music is a very real state of heightened awareness, feeling and manipulating vibrations. Music is a great path to higher consciousness and, if you attain that, then more peaceful and empathetic behavior happens naturally. He wishes everyone was taught music in schools as in the past, "which leads to a greater degree of empathy than learning morality out of a book."
Arminda Thomas grew up in Memphis and her parents always had music playing. She sang a lot as a child but didn't really play an instrument, until Guy Davis left a banjo at her house and she started playing. She also remembers that, when both of her grandmothers passed close in time, she began researching the music they would have listened to when young, which led her to discover the wide variety of roots music. That led eventually to her radio show "Music from the Well," hosted as MemphisMinda, which features eclectic roots music, streams at www.rhythmandsoulradio.com, and is archived on mixcloud. She says "I like the idea that the music is alive" and wants to give people the "chance to connect." She says a lot of roots players were the type who sang and played on their front porch; she thinks it was joy, the joy of doing it, that was their goal. She also says, "I think everybody should be in a band, because bands are about being in relationships in ways that are very practical, and also emotional, but there are solutions. It has helped me grow, ... leads me closer to building peace."
Bill Barclay is Director of Music at Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre in London. When he was young, he took piano lessons and sang with folk groups in church, and in middle school was in choirs and orchestras, and plays bass, guitar, trombone, and other instruments. He is a composer, director, musician and actor, and enjoys music most when it serves a story. He has been a fan of Shakespeare forever and was interested in music during Shakespeare’s time, which led him to conduct research into the topic, the Music of the Spheres.
That took him to Johannes Kepler, who had researched the planets in the early 1600s, and determined by calculating measurements of the speed of the planets that their paths were elliptical, rather than circular as the Catholic church believed. Further, Kepler found that the relationships of the orbits of the planets were consistent with the Western musical overtone series. Bill says this indicates the planets essentially entrain themselves, seeking and “finding ways to discover consonant stable relationships over time. … Entrainment says that over time things, objects, the universe, everything wants to find a stable relationship … and everything that’s periodic, regular, seeks stability with other things that are regular.”
He believes also that “people do reach for music to entrain certain pleasant emotional states.” The mainstream responds to entrained tonal and rhythmic behavior in modern music. The music is describing stability and what the inclination to order looks like. Bill says, “the focus of healing ourselves and what to do in our modern world should be with our vibrational state.”
Referring to the book Nada Brahma, The World is Sound, by Joachim-Ernst Berendt, Bill says Berendt points to a “new consciousness, which is trying to raise our vibrational energies towards even more compassionate, more aware, more kind, more empathetic, to the rest of the world, more appreciating and tolerant of differences, above differences, above our thinking, and into a felt oneness with each other and with the planet.”
He believes people should include as much music in their lives as they can, and that it is important to share music they like as much as possible. He also suggests musicians focus on their performance space, and entrain the audience to the space, explaining the why and how of the music to be played, so as to entrain us together.
He has presented on Shakespeare’s Music of the Spheres numerous times and a video of the presentation is here: https://www.shakespearealoud.com/music-of-the-spheres/
Shana Oshiro had music all around her growing up; her parents met in a band and Shana was always singing and immersed in music. She has degrees in voice and music therapy. She was classically trained but began singing Barbershop, which involves intricate four-part harmony singing, which was based on many African American singing styles, such as work and spiritual songs. The singing creates amazing overtone and undertone vibrations that are really profound.
She says, “The vibrations create this indescribable moment of joy when you are doing it and also can contribute to lasting relationships and friendships.” Barbershop singing is a social and musical experience and can teach us how to approach conversations and conflict with an understanding of our interconnectedness and help us work together in tense moments. Such singing relies on collaboration and cooperation and can result in the blurring of self-other distinctions.
She is a trained music therapist, which is a research-based professional practice that can provide a variety of benefits to individuals with many needs. Shana has a desire to connect with others and music therapy allows connections with others for the purposes of healing.
She is now with the only African American female Barbershop quartet – the Halo quartet - competing on the international stage, and has realized that the special aspects of Barbershop singing also can help address the residues of racial and social ills that still resonate today. She says Barbershop music can help us have conversations about race and embrace the tension of racial conversations as a beautiful thing. In other words, we can allow the philosophy of Barbershop singing to guide conversations about race today. The Halo quartet is doing just that in a series of programs with singing called Race and #RealTalk. You can find out more at http://www.haloquartet.com/.
Pearl Bailes took piano lessons as a child and played the oboe for a while, but later in life she says, "the harmonica chose me." She says when you play that little unique instrument, the sound really comes from your body and you just need to breathe. Playing harmonica is joyous, she says, and the most important thing about playing is about communicating. She also says music builds community and if people can be open to one another's music, that can lead to understanding of other cultures and help bring us together.
Christina Lewellen grew up with Barbershop singing; her father started when she was just born, and her entire family are Barbershoppers, including her mother, husband, and children. She has won an international competition and recently finished her term as President of Harmony, Inc., which is a longstanding and wonderful female Barbershop signing organization.
Four-part harmony singing is not easy; it is hard, and takes a lot of teamwork, but “it is healing, it’s stress reduction on steroids,” she says. The singing can produce amazing overtones and undertones, like a fifth voice. “Where the magic happens is in the relationships, in the love and cherishing of each other and the respect for each other.” She says you can tell when singers are there with ego and not surrendering to the music, and that Barbershop singing is very spiritual. “If you get into a song and she (the singer) tells the truth of that story from her perspective, everything around you stops.”
There is “something very powerful, that we are only beginning to figure out, the full impact of what music can do,” such as in music therapy. “There is something about making that music that really strips away any of the artificial social constructs that we put either on ourselves or on each other.” And, she says, “having a female only singing organization is special to the Nth degree. … The ability to sing with women is more necessary than ever before.”
Check out www.harmonyinc.org
Lyric Hartley grew up in Alabama, where participation in the Church of Christ was a big part of his life. The Church had many services, but all were a cappella, without instrumentation, and Lyric loved the singing. His family also got together frequently for musical gatherings called 'Pickin's" where everyone participated with some sort of instrument or singing. Lyric spent a lot of his life on spiritual quests to India and elsewhere, and after getting back into guitar, found out about The Music Lesson by Victor Wooten and attended Spirit of Music camp. He says, "Music tunes me," and that music and spirituality are similar. He says imagine humans are like tuning forks and need music to be in tune and harmonize together on the planet for a more peaceful world.
Enjoy some of the highlights from Planetary Gig Talk podcasts 12-22 with Rev. Kim Capps, Moe Jackson, Erasmus Caffery, Sharon Kneebone, Scott Ballantine, Andra Faye, Nina Casey, Mike Lessin, Jane Callen, Jeffree Heaton, and Adalia Tara. You'll especially want to hear about the body tambura and fonging!
Joe Filisko is one of the best harmonica players, teachers, and technicians in the world, but he didn't play harmonica when he was young. He started playing guitar in his teens and it "made time simultaneously stand dead still and fly ahead rapidly." After playing a while in a guitar ensemble, he became intrigued by some of the master blues and roots harmonica players, joined a harmonica club, started to participate in the Society for the Preservation and Advancement of the Harmonica (SPAH), and ultimately began to work on harmonicas. His initial goal was to understand, explain, and teach about the role of the harmonica in American folk, blues, and roots music so that people could appreciate the rich nature of that music. He has now been playing roots music with Eric Noden for over 15 years (rootsduo.com).
Joe says music is magical, and people want to participate; they feel a sense of being, purpose, peace, and relaxation through music. He says when musicians can get the audience clapping and singing it always raises the energy level in the room. The harmonica can be a magical musical fix, and he believes everyone should own and play simple songs on the harmonica. He also says all public schools should teach singing and rhythm. "I wish people were getting together and making more music."
Gary's earliest musical inspiration was his mother, who had a terrific voice. When he was four, he saw his grandfather play music and "how happy everyone was." When seven, he received his grandfather's harmonica, and Gary knew he had found his purpose. He since has played in many bands, both harmonica and guitar, and written many songs, too. Gary says, "The power of music is love, pure love; ... more pure than any other kind of love you could have; ... it's completely unconditional." He founded Harmonikids almost 30 years ago to teach kids how to play music and improve their lives. "Never underestimate a child and the power of music. ...Everyone has a way to make the world a better place. Check out www.harmonikids.org.
Jason Walker was smitten by the drums early in life, and is still playing with some of his childhood friends. He says he has been fortunate to play in a lot of different situations and always wants to see where music leads him. "Music takes you out of regular time and space," he says. He plays with the intention of best serving the space he is in. Vibrations of music are a powerful thing, he says, and can heal your body; "rhythm is bigger than all of us." He is thankful for the conversations about the power of music, like at Victor Wooten's Spirit of Music camp, and says it is on musicians to pursue this. He says it seems to him that music is a being or entity and that we are being played by music as much as we are playing music. He also talked about Taketina, which is a polyrhythmic exercise to experience vibrations in your body
Kanttara Naba has been singing her entire life. She was born in Israel; her mother was from Yemen and her father from Iraq; she has since moved to the United States and recently to Hawaii. She says, "Music is what I was born to do." She was very shy as a child, but when singing, "something greater than me took over." Kanttara says music and singing can and should be used to elevate consciousness. She had "a vision of myself leading a musical production that is going to elevate consciousness." She says healing and music are one and the same. "My voice has been given to me not just to entertain, but to heal." She says music and art can bring a new level of awareness, and musicians have important roles in that. Please check out the link to support her project "Queen," https://www.patreon.com/join/KanttaraNaba?
Planetary Gig Talk host features short highlights from the first eleven podcasts, featuring Eric Weinberg, Steve Little, Allen Holmes, Michael Roudebush, Alison Chase Radcliffe, Barry Warsaw, Grant Dermody, Frank Fotusky, Mary Flower, Erick Schonher, and Tara Gorman! If you didn't have a chance to listen to the initial podcasts, this compilation will be fun. Further compilations will be published in no particular time frame.
Alexander Sovronsky grew up in a very musical family, and fell in love with the violin when he was 2 years old watching Itzhak Perlman play on Sesame Street! He started with Suzuki violin and has become an exceptional professional violinist, actor, and musical composer. One of his specialties is studying how Shakespeare used music in his plays. Alexander says Shakespeare's goal in using music in the theater was always unification and connection with the audience. He says that "the power of music is about connection and community...music is a great way for humans to be together." Alexander says music is a vibration that affects us all on a molecular level and that, in order to create change, we should "find theater, find music that affects you and share it with people." Please check out: www.AlexanderSovronsky.com
Bob has a clear image of when he first remembers music; it was at his grandmother’s home when he was about 3 or 4 years old. He figured out the keyboard and played songs, making up stories in song, started playing saxophone when he was 11 and was gigging by age 16 or so. He has played with many great musicians, including Paul Simon and Mike Stern, and recently has been playing in a trio with Victor Wooten and Dennis Chambers.
Bob says that when you play, you have to let go, and there is not a sense of power but of peace. “The energy that happens is beyond our control; when we are playing, it’s not us. We’re just letting the music flow.” He says it’s not thinking, planning, or making decisions; it’s a spiritual experience.
He says the whole system we live in is vibrational, and when you manipulate the vibrations in an aesthetically pleasing way, it runs very deep. Music is a force for unification, he says, and “I see the unification of humanity through music.” The promotion of division is the opposite of music.
Musicians tend to be deep thinkers about existential issues and realize there is a wonderment, excitement, and joy to living. He also says he wished people would travel more to have direct contact with other people because we are in a miraculous space.
Liz's mother was famous musician Ann Rabson, so Liz had a lot of music around the house growing up. She started on the sax when she was 8, played clarinet and flute too, and began guitar when she was 14 years old. She says making connections with people through music really can enrich their lives. Also, teaching people that they can play music is very positive. Her mother was very interested in music education and Liz and her father have been promoting blues in the schools. She is also a photographer and currently is very active in the music community in Brooklyn and plays with eclectic group, the "Queens of Everything."
Kelley Hunt says, "My first musical memory is of my mother's voice." She was an incredible singer and her father played bass; there was always music in the house growing up. Kelley couldn't see well when she was young and navigated by touch and sound. She started playing piano at 3 or 4 years old and could play songs by ear; she didn't have a lesson until she was 10. She says the core of a piece of music that moves you is love. "I see love as a universal energy." She says, "My intention is to spread the love through music; that's why I'm on the planet." She also says, "I haven't lost hope, I am determined. I believe in love; the tool that I have that I can best use is music."
Dave Dickens played music on and off throughout his life but got serious when he turned 60 and started focusing on playing bass. He says the power of music is a "freedom you just can't express." He has attended many Victor Wooten camps and says they "change you forever on the inside and you become a better person." He says it would be great if we could spread the feeling of Wooten Woods around the world. Dave also has been helping musicians and artists in many ways for years through his Non-Cents Productions company.
Andy's mother was a piano teacher, and he says the piano was powerful and was an "energy source in the home." He realized early on that he just needed to play music, and that's what he has done his whole life. He and his wife Linda recently went on a house concert tour around the country in a van that they call Tour de Friends, doing over 50 shows in a year. Andy says, "Who doesn't want to head for the horizon with a dream in your pocket and a song in your hat?" He says house concerts are great, everyone all gathered around this flame of sorts." Andy says music is one of the pure sources out there that we can trust and music "calls us to the moment like few other things can. Music is the juice that I go for."
Ariane Cap took classical piano growing up, but a trip to America when she was 18 opened her up to new kinds of music she knew she had to play, eventually picking up the bass guitar. She says, "When you can get together with musicians, you want to create something good and beautiful." She says, "I see the connecting power of music; deep down, everyone just wants to lead a good life. I deeply believe people deep down in their core are good people." Ari believes there is no substitute for live music and says, "more live interaction (with music) would be very healing" for society. Please check out her websites: arisbassblog.com and arianecap.com.
Alixe Landry remembers when she was a child feeling the vibrations of the piano when her mother played. She took lessons and played some guitar, but stopped when she became a mom. Later, she says music came into her life and saved her spiritually. "I felt so blessed, when I was going through such a dark period of time, to have music come to me right then; I couldn't think about anything else and I could have a bit of peace and even joy." She also has attended Victor Wooten's camps, which "fueled my soul." She says, on bringing peace to the world, "I really feels it starts with ourselves. I don't think anger brings peace to the world." It starts with me, she says, it has to do with intention; it has to do with my thoughts. "I believe in the power of positivity; if I focus on positive things, I create a more positive life for myself."
Zig listened to records constantly as a kid and knew early on that he wanted to be a drummer. He says, "Being a great listener is the key to music." He played in jazz and other bands in L.A. and then moved to Nashville, where he started playing for kids. His "Hands On With Zig" program has brought joy to well over a million children. He says, "Music has no boundaries." He especially enjoys working with children with special needs. Zig says kids do better with music, relating to math, science, and other disciplines better. He encourages musicians to advocate for music in the schools and to be "arts in education artists." Check out www.handsonwithzig.com
Rick Franklin started playing the trumpet when he was young, then harmonica, and finally found guitar. He played in rock bands, but met Archie Edwards and John Jackson and fell in love with their style of playing, Piedmont blues. He used to regularly visit Archie's Barbershop, which he said was a "safe space where a group of black men could hang out and not feel threatened." He still loves the Barbershop community today, but gets a lot of satisfaction playing farmers' markets, seeing people enjoy music. "Seeing the joy on their faces puts a big smile on my face too!" He says music makes a difference in peoples' lives; "If you feel it, don't hide it."
Michael’s mother was an excellent musician, and Michael first sang for people when he was six; by the time he was in 5th grade was a cellist. He played in youth symphonies and later in college began playing more eclectic styles of music. He met Victor Wooten in 1988 in Nashville. He says The Music Lesson book has very special thoughts and ideas, and that spiritual growth through music is central to the Wooten brothers. Michael says every human being is in need of the vibrational healing power of music. This is an epic, extended interview with the one and only Michael!
From an early age, Bob Hemenger was into music (piano at 5 and sax starting in 5th grade) and nature (loving the outdoors since a kid). "My two loves truly are music and nature," he says. He met Victor Wooten at tracker school; he helped Victor make his first fire, and Victor helped Bob see nature as music. "To be a good musician, you have to listen deeply," he says, and for both music and nature you have to listen with your entire body. Both music and nature put you in the now, touching oneness, connecting with all things. He says music can come through you and heal you and the audience; that's magic, he says. "We can change the world, we can change each other." Great musicians don't play music, music plays them.
John O'Connor has been playing music with friends all his life; his main instrument is the bass. He always saw that music had the power to make people happy, but also to make them think, so he was drawn to music with a purpose. Through a nonprofit organization he helped found, Concerts Unite Us, he is putting on concerts for equal justice. He says we don't use the power of music to address social issues as much as we should. He says music was prevalent in the civil rights, antiwar, and other movements. He believes music can help those who are sick, but also those affected by modern propaganda.
Eli Namay's parents were both very musical and artistic, he played all sorts of music growing up, and now plays bass in several bands in Chicago. He says, "Music just feels like the right thing to do." He believes music is very powerful and that musicians have a deep responsibility to examine what they are doing and putting out into the world, and that political and cultural activity are distinct but also inter-related; "there is a role for music in culture." He describes music as a "meaning generator" that is mostly positive. He thinks of music as a way to create new possibilities in relationships and believes we can organize politically to solve problems and get things done.
Emily Martinson is a Doctor of Audiology, who says "the power of sound is tremendous," and when the sound goes away in terms of hearing loss, it is a big concern. She took piano lessons and sang as a child, but she remembers the effects of significant hearing loss on her grandfather, who separated himself from groups, conversations, and music. Her mother was a speech pathologist, and audiology became appealing to her because she realized that hearing loss can have profound impacts on relationships. "We all need sound," she says. Not hearing well can be a source of anxiety or isolation. "Communication through music and sound is so critical to the human experience," and she says people including musicians with hearing loss should look into ways to improve their experience. Sharing music even globally is an incredibly powerful tool and a unification force for all of us.
Victor Wooten is a legendary Grammy award-winning bassist, and also author of the amazing book, The Music Lesson, A Spiritual Search for Growth through Music. He says that he knew music was really special at a very early age, when playing shows with his brothers. His spiritual sources, in addition to his parents and brothers, include A Course in Miracles (his brother Roy turned him on to the Course), as well as Illusions, the Adventures of a Reluctant Messiah by Richard Bach and Conversations with God by Neale Donald Walsch. Victor wrote The Music Lesson in response to requests from students, but rather than an instructional book, he created a work of fiction to address key concepts about music. He sees the effects of the power of music all the time; in his CD Trypnotyx with Dennis Chambers and Bob Franceschini, he talks about music being a "cupid bomb" that can bring people together. He says music erases our differences, and that musicians can bring us together better than politicians or churches. He encourages us to play music fully with intention, and focus on why we are playing, which is also to be covered in his forthcoming book.
Eric started playing the piano when he was 8 years old, but by high school guitar had become his first love. He played with high school mates, and 40 years later, many of them are still playing together! He says, "Music takes you to a place nothing else does;" there is a sense of peace, euphoria, and freedom when you play. Eric is a huge Beatles fan and even visited Liverpool; he feels the trajectory of music changed with the Beatles. Music was also a very positive influence for his son, who is an excellent musician as well. Eric says music gives one a sense of purpose. He also says there is a "tremendous confluence between music and peace," and believes we should focus on promoting music for young people and combat negativity through music.
Jeff Arbor's father played the organ, and Jeff started on sax in 4th grade, moved to guitar, and now plays the bass. He found Reiki ten years ago and is now a certified teacher. Reiki is a universal energy and can show us that "we are more connected than we know." He says, "Reiki and music have been wonderful healing sources in my life." He also has spent three weeks at Victor Wooten's camps and says, they "changed my perspective on what music is or could be." Jeff says, "Healing (through Reiki and music) is remembering who we are." He also says, "Everybody is a musician," and "I would love everybody in this world to play music and we'd be in a much better place."
Skip played a lot of drums and guitar in his life until having an epiphany about music. He had an experience of knowing he could play the blues, and he just had to do it. He says surrendering in music is being drawn to play and being able to say, "I am a musician." Then, you just go with what you play in the moment. He also says, "Music is available to everybody." And it's important to just start, and you can learn to play music like being in a conversation.
Ben Potock says that music was always part of the fabric of his family and that he always wanted to be a musician. He saw a friend play a drum solo when very young and he told himself, "I want to do that!" He says music can help you know yourself and connect better with other people. He has read The Music Lesson by Victor Wooten and says it changed the way he thought about music and his relationship to music; he became more intentional with his voice and how he communicates. He teaches music now and plays with his wife Lara in the band South Rail. Ben says that we really need kids to play music; learning an instrument transcends music and teaches long-term lessons and builds good habits. He and Lara are working on an app called Practipus that will help children learn to practice better, so they can more easily put in the time and realize the long-term benefits of playing music.
Geoff Seals always liked harmonica, and after playing a lot of standard songs, started playing blues harmonica about 20 years ago. He now teaches blues harp at Archie Edwards Barbershop and at Blues Week. He says, "You experience the spiritual side of music before you understand it...you just ride the wave as it lifts you up." He also read The Music Lesson by Victor Wooten and says it made him reflect on his relationship with music. He says music gives a perspective on life itself; there is an ebb and flow like in life. Geoff also says that "Music is inclusive, and has a healing quality that is very therapeutic."
Jay Summerour's grandmother taught him to whistle, and he has been playing music ever since. He always had a harmonica, while walking, fishing, jamming with people in the backyard, or around in DC at many different venues. He says, "Music affects peoples' lives; people live by music. Music can really calm you down; I feel so at ease when I play the blues."
Scott Castonguay first got the "bug of music" when he was around 10, playing the saxophone. He switched to guitar, and now plays and teaches full time. "I love to play and I can teach and make money," he says. "Music is the language of the heart, it's a language of feelings...we can share feelings without words; there is a geometry to the structure of music that's like physics...music is built into the fabric of the universe." He also says, "Music is co-creating joy. When I play music, I feel like I am sharing joy."
Robert Lighthouse remembers listening to the Beatles when he was very young, got a guitar when he was 12, and loved Muddy Waters and Jimi Hendrix. He played on the streets of his home town in Sweden, then moved to the U.S. He says that any kind of art, like music, makes you think. A musician can "put feeling into a note and it goes straight to your heart." He says music is more powerful than dictators and can play a big role in making a better world.
Donna Fletcher sang as a child and learned harmony from her mother, and played protest songs in coffee shops when she was young. She started going to Blues Week thirty years ago and learned from some great Piedmont guitar masters, like John Jackson and John Cephas. She comments that "playing with other people will improve your skills by osmosis if you listen," and that "listening is a participatory sport!" She also has been booking performances for the Folklore Society of Greater Washington for decades and more recently the Holiday Market at Eastern Market in Washington, DC. She says she likes music that has a message and that that music can bring us all together.
Deletta Gillespie grew up surrounded by music; both of her parents were musicians. She has been singing in churches since she was a child, and is an incredibly powerful blues singer. She says, "Music is a gift. Music changes the vibrational frequency of wherever you are." She believes everyone can sing and also that "You can literally hum or sing your pain away." Singing and dancing are part of community, joy, and merrymaking, so "Just sing!"
Rico Amero, Sr., has been making music since he started teaching himself guitar at age 5. He also plays trumpet and is a sound man, having done sound all around the world, including DC's famous Blues Alley and currently at Madam's Organ. He has always focused on listening, listening, listening, and advises us to "Listen to excellent music." He says, "Music possesses the ability to instantly transport you to the time and place you first heard the music. I believe music can also influence your thoughts, feelings, emotions, and even actions." He also says, "If you take care of the music, the music will take care of you. The job of a musician is to move people, either move their hearts or their asses!"
Joe Steen first remembers singing Nat King Cole's song Paper Moon when he was 5 years old. He went on to play in churches for decades, but first played the blues at Archie's Barbershop. He is now 82 and says, "Music is universal in nature and it is a healing thing." The blues is great, he says, because people can get out of a bad mood and feel happy. "Music touches everybody," he says.
Miles Spicer got his first guitar when he was 23, first went to Blues Week in 1991, and learned from many masters, including John Cephas, John Jackson, Mike Baytop, and his teacher Paul Bell. Miles said he "wanted to be able to sit in any situation and hold my own." He has now been playing with MSG - the Acoustic Blues Trio - for over 15 years. "Music is my form of self-expression," he says. "As a musician, you want to reach people. This is a shared experience; we are not playing for you, we are playing with you." He says, "music teaches people how to cooperate for a common goal."
Jamie Logie started teaching himself guitar in his early teens. He loves the guitar, which he says is a complex instrument that takes a lot of work to play. Jamie often says, "I just want to play music with my friends." He says that playing music together is collective creativity and that, through music, we can learn to create together. Music is a great way to intentionally work at producing good together.
Eleanor Ellis loved to sing as a child and played a lot in New Orleans during college, especially bluegrass. She moved to Maryland and started playing "spiritual and truth" music with Flora Molton, and also played country blues with Archie Edwards. She is one of the founders of the Archie Edwards Blues Heritage Foundation. She says it is really positive and good for people to connect, and music does that. Music is a way of making bonds and "music creates a sense of community."
Gaye Adegbalola has been playing music all her life; her father played in a jazz combo and her mother brought her records from the jukebox to listen to as a child. She first started singing on the streets and wrote her first song at an early age. She played the flute and piccolo in high school and then played guitar. She found her dharma, her purpose, to make music at Blues Week. "Blues is a healing magical music," she says. She was with Saffire the Uppity Blues Women for 25 years and blazed trails to empower and bring joy to women and particularly old women. She says it is so wonderful and magical that we have this ability to create music. "I give thanks every day for the blessing of music."
Eric Noden's father played roots music, and that's what Eric plays now with musical partner Joe Filisko. Eric learned many guitar styles when young, even taking classical guitar, which taught him discipline and technique. He has been involved with Blues in the Schools and other children's programs. He says there is an honesty and sincerity in music, and roots and folk music allow anyone to participate and express themselves. "Music is my spiritual thing," he says and the "spiritual nature of music is that it lifts people up and makes them feel good." And the audience experiences that with and through you.
Shauna Simon grew up in a musical family and played music all her life, including piano, recorder, and guitar. She lived in an ashram for 20 years where there were chanting meditations, and Shauna writes and plays chants (listen to a short example in the podcast). She says people use music to feel calm when they are worried or upset, or when feeling joy; yoga can help us in the same way. Music helps us focus, she says, and to be in the moment, like yoga. "Music is the language of the soul, of the spirit; music touches all of us in some way." Here is information about her yoga studio: http://simonsaysyoga.com/.
Tom Cox was first captivated by the bass as a youngster while watching the bassist in a combo playing in a ship crossing the Pacific Ocean. He was mesmerized by the Beatles in 1964; everything changed for him. Tom says, "Music makes me feel really, really good. Listening to or playing music sure beats going to a psychologist." He says, "Everywhere you go, whenever you hear music, you know people are happy and enjoying themselves. If more people listened to or played music, the world would be a better place."
Scott has been playing music all his life. He says, "Music is therapy for me; it's a lifelong love." He was with Up With People, "which has pure positive energy and gives people a hopeful message." He founded the Positive Music Association, as well as World Singing Day, which is for everyone and is held the third Saturday of October. "If you can speak, you can sing," he says, and "research shows singing bonds people together faster than anything else." Scott says, "Music is healing, is the way to get in touch with my wise joyful self, and probably saved my life too."
Hamilton Belk has been captured by music since he was 10 years old; he remembers his father playing an old guitar. He says there's always a song in his head. He says, "I don't think there is anyone who is not musical." He plays because "I just want to make music that moves me and hopefully others can have a positive experience from it." Finally, Hamilton says, "If everyone played music, the world would be a better place for sure."
Stan Orr has been playing guitar since sixth grade, when he played "Gloria" a million times in his room! He says music was his outlet and sanctuary, and is a very personal thing. Stan says, "Music affects everyone no matter what they're doing. Music is a unifier that creates an opportunity for dialog and love and respect." He says the current situation presents a great opportunity for an organization like the Planetary Gigs Society to share the word about peace through music.
Diane Phillips sang with her family from a young age, and loved to perform. After touring with Up With People and performing for years, she realized it was important for her to help others with music and that she had been missing the root of music, which is joy. So, she taught groups like Kids of Note (KidsofNote.com) and The Notations in Saskatoon, Canada that include children with and without disabilities. She says, "Singing can be used for connecting and creating space for everyone and anyone." She says people can learn to hear with their whole body and that "music helps you understand that everyone has a part to play because of who they are."
Willie Leebel is the current president of "Archie's Barbershop," where there are acoustic blues jams every Saturday afternoon, as well as workshops and performances throughout the year. The Barbershop is open to all levels of players and listeners and is the hub of a wonderful music community. Learning how to jam is crucial, and Willie says, "You have to leave room for other musicians; that's jam etiquette. The mojo of the Barbershop is learning to listen." Check out www.acousticblues.com.
Marianna Previti knew at a very early age that she wanted to be a singer. There was a lot of music in her family and she has played countless gigs throughout her career. Her master's thesis was on what it means to listen; she says listening is a big part of music, and that "a real listener becomes the best musician." As a teacher, she says children need to have less structure and more silence; "within the silence, they can find their own voices." She suggests we "try to be silent as much as you can."
James Boberg started playing horns in 5th grade, but since junior year of high school has mainly played bass and guitar. He says he always needed to play music, "it's like food for the soul." It's such a part of his life, he doesn't understand why everyone doesn't play. "Music is a language that conveys emotion like nothing else. All of our existence is some form of wave energy that is manifested and all of the factors of music are in life." Bo also says that music has always and can continue to lead to social change.
Patty Raine has seen colors in people since she was a child. She learned that she has synesthesia, and sees the energetic fields of people in tonal values, i.e., colors and music. She says music is "implicitly transformative;" it is a vibrational quality that creates form. Similar to principles of quantum physics, she says that listening, singing, playing, and appreciating music are all involved in actually creating music. We each have our own tonal values, she says, "You are a precious musical chord."
The first song that Adalia Tara remembers hearing was John Lennon's Imagine when she was four. She has always been drawn to meaningful music since dancing with her family as a young child. Songwriting is the reason she does music, because of the powerful message music can bring. "Music has a magical quality to bring people together," she says, and that performing music is "total exchange, where we can recognize our common humanity; it is a tool for learning empathy." Her new album is "Why Wait."
Jeffree Heaton was adopted, grew up in a commune, and busked the streets of Baltimore, Washington, Seattle, and Portland before moving to Alaska and starting his band, Loose Gravel. He says music is an "infinite thing," and he learns from it every day. "Music saved my life," he says. "Writing music is a way to channel the spirit, speak my mind, and pray. Music can help soothe the hatred that's being cultivated now," he says, "We just need to love each other. If music is honest and genuine, it will make people happy."
Jane Callen has worked in relief situations around the world, as an EMT, and in hospice; she found out about a wooden stringed instrument used in India called the Body Tambura, which is played directly on the body to relieve pain and stress. She uses it to help bring peace and healing at the end of life.
Mike Lessin taught himself guitar at about age 12. He says music is a place to escape stress and worries of the day, and he always tries to find that place where the music just flows through you. A common thread of music is "happiness and healing." "Music is not valued as much as it should be; somebody has to provide music." Of his daughter Charlotte he says, "It would be a great loss to herself and the world if she didn't get to present her songs and her voice."
Nina Casey had music in her house growing up and always loved singing; then she found the blues and it changed her life. Transformative moments included hearing Joe Filisko perform a train song on the harmonica, and Phil Wiggins sing "Roberta." Her purpose in singing is connecting with people. "I have to sing because I feel so much." She believes we can change the world even through small things, like singing a song.
Andra Faye performed with Saffire, the Uppity Blues Women, for 18 years; they were modern trailblazers of women playing the blues. Andra played music her whole life, and has made great friends through music; she says that music is the universal language, a common bond for us all that reaches across walls. She wants to knock down borders with music.
Scott Ballantine talks about how music gave him a sense of who he was and represents the proudest achievement of his life. Playing music is "the hardest thing I do" and is truly a matter of "time spent." He says connecting through music is intoxicating and can change lives.
Sharon Kneebone has been singing all her life, and says music is always in her life; music reduces stress, alters mindset, helps one concentrate, allows one to be relaxed, and helps ground her as an association executive. She thinks that associations could benefit from incorporating more music.
Erasmus Caffery is the Fongmaster, who talks about fonging being an ancient art that brings the healing sounds of the universe to humans, sorta like music; it's a little crazy, but ultimately true.
Maurice "Moe" Jackson sees the powerful effects of music on people all the time when he is DJ'ing for weddings, parties, and social events. A DJ has to have lots of music and read the crowd to have the best effect. It's not easy to learn to DJ, and Moe says there are many great and helpful communities of DJs. Moe says, "Everyone needs music in their life to be happy."
Rev. Kim Capps talks about being drawn to writing songs her whole life, as well as being drawn to ministry. She "came out" as a blues musician during a sermon, and discusses the feelings and emotions behind her new CD, Together, We Rise. She says, "making music is a community builder."
Tara Gorman talks about how she found Up With People, how her time with the cast singing and dancing for peace around the world was transformative, and how she maintains deep friendships from UWP. She also talks about Music Nights at her home, where everyone is invited and folks play music in every room, and how she believes the 22,000+ Up With People alumni still have that music spark and, even though so many people get so serious about life with jobs, kids, etc., that we can all go back and find the spark we had, recover the person we were, if we just take one step in the direction we want to go in and tap back into that joy.
Erik Schonher is a bass player, who spent years as a music therapist, helping many disabled or autistic patients with music. He talks with us about these things and describes how a recent music session at the ASAE meeting was so inspiring.
Mary Flower grew up in a musical family and was smitten by the guitar. She says music is essential for us, and "can take you away and that's the magic." Mary also says grassroots music and house concerts are the future.
Frank Fotusky from Maine is an exceptional guitar player, who grew up around his grandmother's piano. Frank says, "Music is a great conduit to the heart," and that "Music breaks down barriers." Frank believes people come together deeply when food and music are together.
Grant Dermody from Seattle is an amazing harmonica player, as well as Buddhist and Shaman, and he talks about how one note can change your life, how Shamanism is essentially about music and playing music is for all of us, and how music can cut through the forces that try to divide us.
Barry Warsaw talks about Victor Wooten's book, The Music Lesson, the elements of tai chi, principles of quantum physics, and how they interrelate.
Alison Chase Radcliffe is a fabulous singer, musician, and artist; she talks about the artistic process, why house concerts are her favorite venue, and says more art and music would be better for everyone in society and that musicians should be paid more.
Michael Roudebush of Up With People, traveling around the world with the cast bringing peace through music. Michael says "life without music is a mistake," and that "music is a key to building bridges" among people.
Allen Holmes, fabulous harmonica player and teacher, talks about how the lessons of music and life are intertwined.
With Steve Little, who plays guitar professionally at retirement communities, discusses playing music for older people and a bit about his show, “Dementia Melodies.”