Tag: druids

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Druid – A modern movement focused on nature worship, harmony, and earth-based spirituality.

Actually, the Lovely Carla & I don’t feel very modern at all, no, we feel pretty much out of time, out of synch, not really fitting in anywhere, but still, definitely deeply-connected to nature, harmony & an earth-based spirituality. You know, as the Grateful Dead once sang: “Wake up to find, you are the Eyes of the World.”

We feel deeply connected to all things. This is what drives our music & our performances. It is an act of devotion; a devotion to creativity, music, & healing. As our own song tells it: “You Must Believe.” What to believe? Well, certainly believe in the interconnectedness of all things, and sure, make the leap to believing in a better way & better day.

I am convinced that Carla is a world-class healer. After our shows, folks will often come up to us and tell us they have been deeply moved & healed by our music. This is always so surprising, humbling, and also so very gratifying.

What are they responding to? Probably lots of things. The groove, the energy, the commitment, the lyrics, the vision, the open-ness, the embracing of the moment, Carla and I trying to embrace all things at once. These are just guesses. Who knows?! There is mystery around this whole adventure.

The picture above, in a way, points to an answer. There we are, singing our truth, with a painting of a deer, almost like a religious icon, on the wall behind us; a magical, wonderous, mysterious creature, watching us, & watching over us too. Sure, yes, we believe… – Jammer

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Another Songwriting session. 

Sometimes we are just trying to catch the butterfly.  We want to catch it, but we don’t want to harm it, or squelch it, or hold onto it too tight. We need to be gentle, relaxed, not be trying too hard, trying not to chase. We find it’s best if we accidentally stumble into a song.  We try to short-circuit our conscious minds, and tap into the vast unconscious stream. A stream of creativity. It works best if songs come as an accident, a gift, a surprise. It is weird to write about it, best to do it.

Yesterday my partner, the Lovely Carla had all the lyrics, I had a few riffs and chord sequences up my sleeve, riffs I have been playing with over the last few weeks. We sat on a comfy leather couch in our rehearsal room, totally unplugged. My acoustic guitar, Carla with a classic bodhran. We tried out various approaches. I did some finger-picking, alternate picking, hybrid picking, vigorous strumming, tried some different tempos, weird time-changes. I think rhythmically, I was inspired a bit from my recent close listening to the Pogues, “Rum Sodomy & the Lash.”

We ran thru a few parts trying to marry words and chords naturally, organically. It’s all vibe and feel. When we felt we had come close to the heart of it, we turned on our little digital recorder. Best to capture the moment, turns out the best parts are always so fleeting and ephemeral. The defining character of a song is often found in the pauses, the silences, in a particular up-stroke, down-stroke, or oddly-weird strum. Carla’s voice floated in the air; ethereal, gentle, wonderful. We worked, meaning we played, for nearly two hours. Time evaporated. We were in the moment, the expanding moment.

We walked out with a 5 minute recording. Pretty sure it is the song. The song that really wanted to materialize before our eyes and ears. It was exciting, gratifying. It’s always a surprise too. The song seems old, so, so, old world, ancient; another time and place. That has been where we have been going with our songs. The lyrics point to the mystery, the beauty, the grandeur of our natural world. Yes. And the murmuration of starlings.  All sadly vanishing and imperiled by the careless, life-nullifying ways of Human Beings. How tragic.

Anyway, heady stuff for a little song. A song hopefully delivered in the most poetic and exciting way we can conjure up. We are playing forward to go back to another time and place. To my ears it all sounds very Druidic and Celtic, a sort of a Celtic blues alive in a Pagan world, a world ruled by The White Goddess. Handmade, homemade. Other. – Jammer