The Concert in Eatonia was a great success - see REVIEW below. We had a wonderful warm audience and they blessed us with two standing ovations! We had ended the concert with a very spontaneous rendition of Farmer's Daughter - an idea that I sprung on Ann during sound check because, after all, we ARE both farmer's daughters - and then sang our new song, Buffalo Returns, as an encore! We dedicated that one to Sharon and Peter Butala, who were in the audience. They have just introduced 50 head of buffalo to their protected grasslands. Ann spoke about the setting up of The White Buffalo Trust.

After the concert I remained on our farm with my mother for almost a month, and along with my sister and my aunt, helped her to host many family re-unions and gatherings of friends. It was a rich and satisfying time. By the way, on June 21st we witnessed the wildest thunder, lightening and wind storm we have ever known, followed by an equally unbelievable mosquito plague! We have NEVER seen the hills so green and beautiful but the mosquitoes made it almost impossible to walk in them! Yet despite all that June rain my mother says the crops are now suffering from lack of water. It is a beautiful but unpredictable country and it turns out tough people.

Now we anxiously await the return of our son Paul who has been in Brazil for the past year on a Rotary Scholarship and flies home in a few days!

The Zulu tribes of South Africa are far from the reality of rural Saskatchewan farming communities, yet a pair of prominent Canadian folk singers have managed to found the harmony, both literally and figuratively.

In Saturday night's (June 18) "Coming Home" concert in Eatonia, hometown-returning vocalist Denise Reinhardt-Wolda and her special guest, women's motivational- speaker and folk singer Ann Mortifee, once again demonstrated not only their musical potency on stage, but also their ability to raise money for local projects in Eatonia. The pair last performed in Eatonia in 2002 when the project being assisted then was the newly built community hall.

A crowd of 150 guests - dozens of them ardent Mortifee fans who traveled from communities several hours away to hear her live in concert gathered at the community hall Saturday night. Proceeds from the concert in the amount of $2,300 will be put toward the Eaton House Project to move the Richard King family catalogue house into the community to accompany the Eatona train station in a special heritage site.

Unlike their last concert together which featured more solo performances by each of the women, the bulk of Saturday's program showcased Mortifee and Reinhardt-Wolda in collaboration with each other. "Kitchen music" as Mortifee referred to it, or the kind of performance that results out of spontaneity and little formal prep, the concert resembled very much the principles of jazz improvisation adapted to a folk music style

Mortifee, promoting her new African-influenced recording "Into the Heart of the Sangoma," took the lead on a number of songs from that disc, expounding before each on her inspirations during a recent trip back to her South African homeland. Accompanied by Reinhardt-Wolda on guitar, the women's vocals matched each other in both intensity and expressivity, Reinhardt-Wolda's soprano often soaring to new heights as Mortifee's well-developed alto graced the lower octaves.

Then when Reinhardt-Wolda performed original songs from her previous recordings and musical productions on Cortes Island, B.C., tunes about prairie life and the return of the buffalo would be enhanced with the beating of an African drum and Mortifee's legato vocal delivery.

Those not prepared for the range of spiritualized topics and messages contained in many of the songs were likely won over early on by the passionate and energetic love for singing both musicians expressed on stage. Even above the resounding applause, reverberations from the singers' triumphant concluding song still lingered in this listener's ears for quite a while.

The Town of Eatonia, it was announced by concert organizer Anne Reinhardt that night, has also generously contributed an additional $4,700 to the Eaton House project, half of what the town is receiving from a federal centennial grant. That amount raises the total balance for the house to $16,000, a remarkable amount of which Reinhardt is largely responsible for fundraising herself.

"I think more will still come in," she said after the concert, "but this is wonderful."

Work on the new foundation for the house could begin at the end of Main Street by this week and, according to Reinhardt, July 15 is the target date to have the Eaton house completely moved into town.

Martin: Denise, do you hear me?

Denise: Yes, I do Martin.

Martin: Wonderful, wonderful to speak to you. It is really amazing, thanks to the modern technology, this is possible. -speaks in Dutch- Denise, I am back again in your language. You are married to Ron who is Dutch. Is that right?

Denise: That's right, but I did not understand much of what you just said despite that! (laughter)

Martin: Well, I can translate that back to you if you like.

Denise: It was all positive, I am sure.

Martin: Now I'm blushing. Denise, yes, it's positive because it is so exciting to have you on the phone and to have your music on the show. You are a troubador, or something like this. I mean, you write songs from the heart, and you spread the music in your community up there. Tell me about it, how does it work?

Denise: Well, I've been writing songs since I was twelve years old, and I am 58 now. That is a long time for a first love, and song-writing truly has been my first love. And as the years go by I realize more and more that that is because the writing is how I connect with Spirit. And that is how it has always been for me, although I didn't always have the language or the awareness to talk about it. But that to me is what creativity is - it's the way we connect with spirit and express that connection - and songwriting has been my saving grace. I would have been locked up years ago if it had not been for the ability to connect and write songs! (laughter)

Martin: So you, when you write a song, start with the lyrics or the inspiration which comes from spirit. You also compose the music?

Denise: Yes I do. When I write I am very much swept into an emotion, into a feeling place. It comes from my heart. You, of course, being a musician yourself understand that completely. So I centre and I focus and I ask what wants to be said. Then I scribble it down as fast as I can! I usually get the lyric and the music together and it is all based on heart-felt emotion. Yes, it usually comes in a lump, together. I am pretty impossible to live with in that state because I want nothing to be in the way (laughter). In fact, each year I write a musical, a theatre piece for a local school. We call them The Linnaea productions.

Martin: Yes, yes, I saw that on your website. Yea, tell me about it.

Denise: This is a wonderful alternative school, private, and partly funded by government, and each year we do the Linnaea production. Kindergarten through grade eight take part in this - there are only about sixty students. There are as many adults (parents and friends) from the community, as there are students and teachers, who contribute to this production. So I get the script from the principal, who adapts it from a classic. For instance, Tales of King Arthur, The Ramayana, Midsummer Night's Dream - this kind of thing.

Martin: Shakespeare!

Denise: Shakespeare, yes, it's very global and universal. So, our Principal, Donna, takes these classic stories and adapts them and turns out a play for children and then she hands it to me at the end of her Christmas holiday, which is when she works on it. I receive it early in January and I set my appointment in my calendar. I write the name of the script in my calendar and this is when I intend to sit down and begin. This sets my intention and my expectation. I sit down at that moment and I read through the script and I ask for the music. I write all the music for the play over a period of about three days. And that's usually 8 or 9 songs. Then about 10 days later I go in and start teaching it. And 5 weeks later we are on stage!

Martin: It's instantaneous almost.

Denise: It's a great leap in faith on everyone's part and I think that is partly why, or perhaps mainly why it works so well! The audience knows that we have put this together in a matter of weeks, and that it has taken a great deal of trust and a great deal of work to deliver. The children do a marvelous job. And we are also packaging these plays and I do a CD of the music. After the play I record the songs, or I take the Live recording of the children singing the songs at the event, and I put it all together. We're getting the scripts ready, a video, notes about costume creation (the costumes are outrageous) and all of this is going to be nicely presented in a package. We're hoping that other schools might be interested, because there is a lack of music that inspires, I think. And a lack of fresh music. This will become a Fund-raiser in part.

Martin: You are providing for this need, Denise.

Martin: So tell us something about the songs we just played on the radio, please.

Denise: Okay, I'd love to. New Light was the first one you played, and that was a song that I wrote while I was driving through the Rocky Mountains in British Columbia, heading east. As luck (?) would have it I entered the prairie just as the dawn was breaking, and that was such an inspiring moment. My husband was sleeping in the back and I was driving, receiving this song, and trying to keep it in my head and not lose it before I had a chance to write it down. The whole moving through the mountains in the night and the coming out onto the plains, the prairies, where you can see, at the break of dawn, was a metaphor of course for transformation and for awakening. It was written years ago and I feel like its time has come. I feel very excited for I believe that despite what the media tells us, we are at a turning point and people are at a place where they are beginning to scream out in unison, Enough!

Martin: Yea.

Denise: You know? And that is what the song is about, New Light and a new day and to take heart!

Martin: Exactly! That's a good message we share around the globe as you are calling from Canada.

Martin: Denise, wonderful, the second song we just listened to, what about that song?

Denise: I Am Sister was written a few years ago for our Linnaea School production of the Twelfth Night, and this is the voice of Viola. Its main message is, and I would like to just quote these lines from the song: I am sister - the feminine must wake. I am sister - my power is no mistake. I am not my brother - no weapons here of steel. I am sister - my tools are no less real. I am sister. I like that because it moves from weapons to tools, from dark to light, from negative to positive. That's not to say, of course, that the masculine is all negative. I am just speaking of the Patriarch, having had it's day, and how we are moving into a more balanced place now. And that balance is something that each one of us seeks within ourselves. We also seek it within our relationships, especially in our intimate relationships. And the whole world is seeking it. The earth is crying out to recall its feminine self, and bring us all into a place where we can be wise again and where our power is not about greed, but our power comes from truly loving one another. I mean, it really is preposterous when you think about it, that what's in power is greed rather than love?! Something is wrong here. The feminine must wake up and bring us back into balance.

Martin: Well, that is a big issue all around the globe for mankind. Denise, it is a universal issue, and it's wonderful to speak to you, half-way around the globe, because this is also the tao, the yin yang, half and half. We have another song from you that you were just so generous to send to me, send to us, to share with us. The third song, what is it about?

Denise: The third song is a whole lot of fun. Of course, it has a message as well. Silly songs also often conceal messages! It's from a play that we call African Tales. These are the voices of the leopard and the fly. The fly is very flashy and beautiful, and everyone loves him. And the leopard is, in this tale, a bit plain and unimpressive, and nobody ever pays any attention to him. So it's the conversation between the leopard and the fly. Of course, this also is an important part of what doesn't work in our world, because if we could all feel flashy and good about ourselves, then there wouldn't be the resentment and anger. The leopards among us hold onto the anger. Now Ann Mortifee - who is very well-known as a singer, writer, healer, keynote speaker, and is also happily my dear friend and next door neighbour - Ann sings with me on this one. Ann is the Fly! (In fact we wrote this song together) We had so much fun with this one in the studio that our dear neighbour, Richard Trueman, made a movie of us while we were recording. So, on my CD, To Honour Joy, which I think is a title you can relate to, you have this movie AND a beautiful slideshow! The slide show was created by Irene Blueth and it really captures the beauty of our area and the feeling in our community.

Martin: Okay, we are going to get back to this later on tonight, when I am going to tell the listeners about your website, which is pretty beautiful. Denise, we are going to listen to that song, The Fly and the Leopard. And keep in mind the spirit behind the music and that we are all instruments if we allow ourselves to let go of the grip of, you know, of only mind or analytical activities, and just express the creativity together.

Denise: Yes, thank you, Martin. You know it has been very meaningful for me to speak to you because someone, practically on the other side of the globe, is coming from his heart and has a Radio Show in which he can express that feeling. That's very important. Thank you. And thanks to Guido as well. This was his idea.

Martin: Denise, much love from all of us, and I hope to speak to you again. Let's keep sharing the music!

Our art is our conversation with Mystery, with Spirit, the unknown, but not the unknowable. It is our way of reaching beyond the surface and past the mundane. How successful we are depends upon our openness. To some degree of course, it depends upon our skill, but most importantly, our openness. And our willingness to admit that we are not small. We are vehicles able to receive great things, and as long as we remember that we are vehicles in the act of receiving, then all flows! Recently I recalled a poem that I wrote when I was twelve years old. Perhaps it has stayed with me all these years because it seems to have set the tone for my life.

We are a dreamy, airy bunch, we artists, trying to grasp that thing again and our contentment seems to rest upon how successfully we grasp, and connect, and then share that experience. This is Idea to Form, a second chakra issue. Our own particular art form is our unique opportunity to express how connection feels to us.

I’ve been thinking a lot about writers lately, and about what writers write about. They say that you teach what you most need to learn. I believe we also write what we most need to learn. If our art is a conversation with Mystery, and Mystery is loving, (that is certainly my experience of her) then Mystery would want to teach us. In the past, my topics have pertained mostly to relationships, to being strong, to struggling. Now, I would hope they are less ego-based, more message laden and more altruistic. More often they are songs of joy, wholeness and healing. That does not mean that they are all serious. Great messages can be concealed in very silly songs.

In 1995, shortly after having moved to Cortes Island, I began to do Reiki, a mode of hands on healing that has come to us from Japan. Reiki was to change my life. Gradually, I developed my own style of session during which I was increasingly guided. To my delight, I realized that the sessions and the song-writing had much in common. They in fact shared the same source, the same process, and the same hoped-for outcome, that of healing.

We have a very special school here on Cortes Island, and each Spring we present the Linnaea Musical Production. Our Principal, Donna Bracewell, creates the script and Meinsje Vlaming and Ayami Stryck oversee the design and creation of the costumes, and I write the music. For the past five years I have received this play script from Donna in early January. As though the script is a living being, I have begun to pencil the title into my calendar, for example- STAR TALES, Jan. 9, 11:00 AM -thereby setting my intention. During those few days leading up to beginning I am consciously clearing away distractions, making sure I will not be interrupted for the next while, and I am conscious also of a building up of energy within. By the time the scripts appointment has arrived, I am very excited and full of expectation. It is also a serious moment for this innocent appearing folder of 40 pages will rule my life for the next few months! As I said, this year I opened the script and began writing on Jan. 9. I received 8 songs in 5 days and had the arrangements worked out well enough to begin teaching them by Jan. 20. By March 1st, we were on stage, just 7 weeks and two days after my initial appointment with STAR TALES! It is fairly obvious to me that I am a vehicle.

I will try to describe my process. I read through the script very slowly the first time, allowing myself to be there, making notes and noticing where Donna has written the word, “Song?” I am usually hearing at least one melody before I have finished my first reading but I actually try to make the music wait until the second time through. During the second read through, I really sink myself into the underlying issues and emotions. I literally feel myself going deeper. A little like a detective, I ask, “What is the underlying issue and emotion behind the action?”, for that is what has made this tale a classic! Why is it a universal story? What life issue, shared by human kind throughout the ages, is reflected in this scene? Sometimes the characters themselves seem to sing to me in my head. Good solos can usually be found in these songs. Other times I hear a choir singing their comment on a situation, a less personal, more general remark. Naturally, these songs will be more suited to our choir. The point is, a good strong script (and Donna turns out a good script) contain issues, strong words, a depth of emotion, and when I can sink into that place and listen, a melody and lyrics usually suggest themselves. It is almost as though the issue contains the lyric, and the emotion contains the melody! Carolyn Myss, an intuitive diagnostic, says that she receives her information about her patients from their emotional bodies. I also receive my information from emotion. That is where the energy is!

There are certain ingredients that I find to be very important when we create. They are, openness, trust, intention and gratitude. I come to my work full of trust and intention. I expect to hear the music, and when I do I am as high as a kite, very grateful, and often in tears.

Here is some detail about the writing of one of the songs, The Rising of the Sun, the finale for STAR TALES. This one was unusual in that the melody had already come to me one day in November while reading the words to the Tibetan Buddhist Chant, “Om Mane Padme Hum”. Suddenly the chant began to sing itself back to me. The message seemed to be one of peace. It suggests leading from the heart, “leading” -the active male principle; “from the heart” -the feminine principle, and so the peace found in the balanced approach. Enlightenment through the heart. I felt the main message behind STAR TALES was also one of peace and enlightenment through the balancing of the male and female. In my song Mahpari I describe the moon as luminous and whole, the Lighted Soul. She is a blend of earth and sky, female and male, and she leads us through this dark Piscean Age to the Day, the Sun, Enlightenment, the Age of Aquarius. If the message within the chant was the same as that contained in the script then perhaps my chant melody would also work for the finale. I got a bit cheeky then and asked for some direct guidance around the lyrics and immediately received the following three verses:

“Om Mane Padme Hum” had become the message and the melody for the STAR TALES finale.

Now, a few more tangible do’s and don’t’s for the songwriter that I have established for myself over the years. Do have a tape recorder. Do have a space of time where you know you will not be interrupted. Do not lose the original energy, but at the same time do not nail the song down too quickly. (This is a struggle for me as a composer and music director of the Linnaea Productions. Everything happens so quickly that the songs do not have a long time to percolate and they are finished and arranged very quickly. However, they certainly work!) And one last bit of questionable wisdom- do have coffee! Coffee is my real secret.

Recently I wrote a melody for the poem I shared at the beginning of this piece. Now there’s a song that was 44 years in the making! As a song, I have given it a more positive twist, for experience has shown me that we can grasp that thing again, at least some of it, some of the time. That thing after all, is Spirit, and have you heard that, whereas, the Piscean Age was the age of blind faith, the Aquarian Age, into which we have moved, is the age of miracles? So we must all have the courage to grasp and co-create miracles, works of art, visions, whatever is your calling! It is time to step forward and converse with Mystery and with each other. The meek are finally on the move! Power to the people! Have the courage now to know that you are not small, for in the New Age our joyful challenge is to open to and manifest miracles! Back to the TOP