The Whole Music Experience

Finnish Kalevala, Wikipedia Excerpt from Whole Music (Soul Food for the Mind Body Soul) Musical Treasure Hunt I started out as a folk-rock musician, but over the years, I have reviewed just about every kind of music on the planet.   For me my introduction to world music began when a music librarian in Seattle introduced me to nuevo (new) tango by the Argentine bandoneon (small accordion), player Astor Piazzolla and an owner of an independent music store introduced me to the Portuguese vocal tradition, fado.   Both tango and fado expanded my music consciousness, and eventually sent me on a quest exploring the world’s music traditions. Similar to treasure hunts from our childhood, I’m going to send you on a music treasure hunt in which the pleasures are many. Pretend that you are a song catcher visiting other cultures where you collect new sounds. While I mentioned sound healers earlier, another important player with music preservation a...

the ruins of Machu Pichu In a world saturated with western pop music or westernized pop music in the East, we have forgotten how to connect to the natural world via music.  We have also lost our listening and appreciation skills for sound vibrations in the same way that people who consume junk food lose their ability to taste real food. Couple that scenario with the fact that we are losing languages and musical traditions in the same way that animals are becoming extinct on the planet.  Our collective heritages and lineages are encoded in these musical traditions, not to mention our personal identities.  When this happens we stumble over our own roots, that is if we have enough roots to keep us grounded and centered in the natural world or our natural place on the planet. With this in mind, I have visited YouTube (yes, the irony of using technology to connect us back to nature) to bring you these indigenous music treasures.  Once you explore these videos, you...