Homer Tribune » Music

‘Good Dog’ weds science, music

Newsroom — Wed, 09 May 2012 18:26:45 +0000

• Duo uses songs to teach ocean literacy
By Michael de Moura
Special to the Tribune

Photo provided - Jim Pfeiffenberger and trained vocalist Liesl Davenport-Wheeler formed “Good Dog” 12 years ago.

What happens when a science educator and a music teacher write songs together? The result is “another angle on learning” taken by Good Dog to educate children about marine life.
On Friday, Good Dog is performing “original nature songs aimed at teaching basic ocean literacy” said co-founder Jim Pfeiffenberger.
Good Dog uses scientific accuracy, “one guitar and two voices” to illustrate the adaptations of maritime mammals, birds, and fish.
Trained vocalist Liesl Davenport-Wheeler and Jim Pfeiffenberger formed Good Dog over a dozen years ago in Seward.
Jim currently works at the Ocean Alaska Science and Learning Center. Now a choir teacher at Bartlett High School in Anchorage, Liesl continues to sing as part of Good Dog at events such as Whale Fest Kodiak, the Seattle Folk Festival, and school assemblies around Alaska.
In 2002, they released eleven original songs entitled Tunes from the Tides. The CD prominently features a variety of percussionists, tuba and the naturalistic duo.
At 7 p.m. Friday, Good Dog will make their third appearance in the Shorebird Festival, performing at the Homer Council on the Arts gallery. Inspired by previous festivals, the song “You Could be a Shorebird Too,” imparts knowledge about migratory birds.
“They pair skilled vocals with educational content that’s fun,” said the Anchorage Press. Jim hopes their music “helps to foster stewardship to nature” in the audience’s future.

Taj Mahal show packs audiences to the brim

Newsroom — Wed, 25 Apr 2012 19:31:15 +0000

• Downward Dog Productions brings Taj Mahal Trio for Sunday, 7 p.m. show at Mariner Theatre
Tribune staff

Photo by C. Taylor Crothers - Taj Mahal Trio comes to Homer Sunday.

Famed blues player Taj Mahal is probably the most requested musical artist ever to come to Homer, a musician whose range of talent spans a global history as much as a rich sound.
Downward Dog producer Michael Hayes said Taj has been to Alaska at least once that he’s known of, and comes to the Kenai Peninsula for fishing trips now and then.
“He’s a big fisherman. He’s probably the most requested artist we’ve ever had in the years we’ve been doing concerts. It isn’t sold out yet, but it’s on its way,” Hayes said. “He’s been around, forever. He even played with Jimmy Hendrix back in the ‘60s.”
Hayes works in conjunction with Whistling Swan in Anchorage, a promoter who brings big acts north. In order for costs to pencil out for smaller audiences like those in a town the size of Homer, the small towns work with big promotors on a package of tours. Especially for giant artists like Taj.
Taj is a composer, multi-instrumentalist and vocalist.
“He is one of the most prominent and influential figures in late 20th century blues and roots music. Though his career began more than four decades ago with American blues, he has broadened his artistic scope over the years to include music representing virtually every corner of the world – west Africa, the Caribbean, Latin America, Europe, the Hawaiian islands and so much more,” his biography reads. “What ties it all together is his insatiable interest in musical discovery. Over the years, his passion and curiosity have led him around the world, and the resulting global perspective is reflected in his music.”
Born Henry St. Claire Fredericks in Harlem, New York on May 17, 1942, Taj grew up in Springfield, Mass. His father was a jazz pianist, composer and arranger of Caribbean descent, and his mother was a gospel-singing schoolteacher from South Carolina, according to his website.
Both parents encouraged their children to take pride in their diverse ethnic and cultural roots. His father had an extensive record collection and a shortwave radio that brought sounds from near and far into the home. His parents also started him on classical piano lessons, but after only two weeks, young Henry already had other plans about what, and how, he wanted to play.
In addition to piano, he learned to play the clarinet, trombone and harmonica, and he loved to sing. He discovered his stepfather’s guitar and became serious about it in his early teens when a guitarist from North Carolina moved in next door and taught him the various styles of Muddy Waters, Lightnin’ Hopkins, John Lee Hooker and Jimmy Reed and other titans of Delta and Chicago blues.
Springfield in the 1950s was full of recent arrivals, not just from around the United States but from all over the globe.
Taj says in his biography, “We spoke several dialects in my house – Southern, Caribbean, African – and we heard dialects from eastern and western Europe,” Taj recalls.
In addition, musicians from the Caribbean, Africa and all over the U.S. frequently visited the Fredericks home, and Taj became even more fascinated with roots – the origins of all the different forms of music he was hearing, what path they took to reach their current form, and how they influenced each other along the way. He threw himself into the study of older forms of African-American music – a music that the record companies of the day largely ignored, his website says.
Henry studied agriculture at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst in the early 1960s. Inspired by a dream, he adopted the musical alias of Taj Mahal and formed the popular U. Mass party band, the Elektras. After graduating, he headed west in 1964 to Los Angeles, where he formed the Rising Sons, a six-piece outfit that included guitarist Ry Cooder.
The band opened for numerous high-profile touring artists of the ‘60s, including Otis Redding, the Temptations and Martha and the Vandellas. Around this same time, Taj also mingled with various blues legends, including Howlin’ Wolf, Muddy Waters, Junior Wells, Buddy Guy, Lightnin’ Hopkins and Sleepy John Estes.

Bird poets prepare for shorebird production

Newsroom — Wed, 25 Apr 2012 19:28:21 +0000

• Ninth-annual “On the Wing,” evening of poetry and music at the Homer Theatre May 10
By Naomi Klouda
Homer Tribune

HOMER TRIBUNE/Naomi Klouda - Ela Harrison-Gordon, Sunrise Kilcher Sjoberg and Nancy Levinson prepare for On the Wing.

“It was a terrible state of affairs,
And all because one greedy old man
Had gathered all the light–
Every single ray–
And locked it away
In a house with no door,
A house by the Nass,
A river that flowed
From mountain to shore.”

Those lines, by Poet Nancy Levinson, are in “Raven Steals the Light,” a poem she will be reading at On the Wing, an evening of poetry and music during the Kachemak Bay Shorebird Festival May 10 at the Homer Theatre.
Poetry is a funny thing. You need to write it with your hands, pen applied to paper.
“I find I need to write it out long hand. I use the computer for other things, but not for poems,” Levinson said.
A poet of another generation, Ela Harrison Gordon, agrees.
“Writing a poem is physical. It’s like a professor of mine once said, ‘Poetry is a way of paying attention,’” she said.
On the Wing, a night of poetry and music, is heading into its ninth year, an event fine-tuned and ushered along by Sunrise Kilcher Sjoberg. The line up of poets including Levinson and Gordon are Milli Martin, Mary Langham, John Seitz, Dotty Cline and Jean Steele.
The musical lineup includes the Seaside Singers (they’ve been singing together for more than 30 years now) the Homer Ukulele Group, Falcolm Greear, Jessica Aragones, Marjolein Cardon, Judith James, Ann Keffer, Louise Seguela, Lindianne Sarno, Tim Quinn and surprise guest dancers.
Sunrise launched the evening of entertainment as a forum for poets to read their works, in recognition that there aren’t a whole lot of options for poetry these days. The notion of bird poetry has evolved along with it – there are special considerations that go into a bird poem.
In Levinson’s case, ravens kept making an appearance as an image in want of poetic expression.
“A friend had brought me a raven wall sculpture, and then, I went to the Bunnell (Art Center) for the plate show, and there was a raven again. It hit me like a magnet – I wanted to do raven legends,” Levinson recalled.
For the past year, she has worked on the poem to be ready in time for the bird poetry event.
Gordon, who teaches linguistics at the Kachemak Bay Campus and is new to Homer, said it takes either an image or an experience to inspire a bird poem – both of which she has had in plenty. She was raised in London, with family roots in Israel – both very different landscapes from the one in view now.
“There is this huge shift in seasons here and the migrations that I am still getting used to. It’s almost like traveling, because of the constant changing of view,” she said.
In her case, a yellow warbler literally bumped into her.
“It was a wobbly yellow warbler newly arrived. It was the time of year when they just came back – it undulates when it flies. It has these stubby little wings and it was flitting and falling– they fly all the way from Mexico – and it flew close, almost grazed my chest,” Gordon said. “I am crossing paths with birds all the time because we live 18 feet from the edge of the bluff. This one flies and drops and flies and drops, dipping down – and I was wondering, how did it ever make it here from Mexico, flying like that?”
The result of these musings was a villanelle, a tricky 19-line poem Gordon wrote in the course of the past two years.
The first and third lines of the first stanza are rhyming refrains that alternate as the third line in each successive stanza and form a couplet at the close. A villanelle consists of five tercets and one concluding quatrain.
“It’s a form that is asking themes of the poem to come together so they can refract,” she explains.
Gordon likes the challenge of adhering to tight form. “I think when I started writing poetry when I was young, there was a small distinction between poetry and music and song. With most forms there is rhythm, rhyme and repetition, which are very musical forms of writing a poem. Those are very attractive to me – the way they organize sound,” Gordon said.
Levinson has written poetry for several decades, and said the delivery is one of the poem’s most important tasks.
As a speech major in college, her voice was trained for public speaking and her poems are created to be read aloud.
“You can help your audience so much if you work on how you deliver a poem. Your delivery should be based on your understanding of the poem. It all starts there. Then you use your voice almost like a musical instrument to convey the meanings you find in the poem,” she said.
The forms or structures of poetry are secondary, she said. “I’m not going to pay attention that much to the layout of the poem. Indentations and spacing – I am more concerned about the rhythms and the sense of it. Where do you pause?
Where do you catch your breath? It can be in more than one spot – the poet doesn’t give you that many clues. I feel my own rhythms,” Levinson said. “To me there’s a musicality to poetry in its structure and beat.”

From “Bird’s Bridge,” by Gordon:

“Our Northern spring’s a sudden race of green.
And birds arrive, migrating from the south.
What’s constant is the shift. I live between.

Two spruces frame the path. Their new tips gleam
and point new ferns and nettles on the ground.
This Northern spring’s a sudden race of green.

In time for spring: Kenai Peninsula String Duets

Newsroom — Wed, 18 Apr 2012 19:11:03 +0000

By Michael de Moura

Trina Uvass plays fiddle as Jack Lohmeyer adds guitar at a previous performance. The duo plays Friday at 7 p.m. at the Homer Council on the Arts

Last month, Homer Council on the Arts invited members of the Kenai Peninsula Orchestra to perform on April 20, as part of the gallery concert series.
  Concertmaster Sue Biggs, her husband Jack Will, Trina Uvaas, and Aaron Lohmeyer seized the opportunity. The group chose to play as two duos rather than as a quartet; Trina and Aaron prepared duets for guitar and fiddle, while Jack and Sue will plan to perform mostly double fiddle pieces.
  “Jack plays everything from bluegrass to rock and roll,” says Biggs, a classically trained violinist. After they first met as bandmates in the Spur Highway Spankers, Sue and Jack began working on duets for violin, fiddle and guitar.
Apart from orchestral performances, they have continued collaborating and fusing their musical characteristics over the past 15 years. Harmonized vocals included in performances at Concert on the Lawn, restaurants and lounges, like Alice’s or Veronica’s, distinguish this duo from orchestral affiliation.   
Whether performing lively traditional duets or “lament” filled dirges Aaron and Trina make music that “almost brings tears to your eyes” said Sue Biggs.
Although Aaron is not a member of the Kenai Peninsula Orchestra, he plays clarinet and sax in the same pit orchestra as Trina.
“We play Irish, Appalachian, and Scottish tunes. Aaron does a great job of drawing from his jazz background and throwing some nice jazz chords into his accompaniment,” Trina said.
Since they started working together last Spring their array of influences have brought them to the Summer Music Fest, Farm Fest, Veronica’s and now Homer’s gallery concert.
  The two duos’ concert is 7 p.m. this Friday at the Homer Council on the Arts. Tickets are available online at Homerart.org or at the door.

Musical McKenna featured at HCOA

Newsroom — Wed, 07 Mar 2012 20:32:32 +0000

Michael de Moura
Special for the Homer Tribune

Photo provided

The gallery concert will feature Tim Quinn on mandolin and banjo, Jenny Martin on bass and Sunrise Kilcher-Sjoberg on melodica, back-up vocals and percussion. Also Lindianne Sarno and her fiddle will make an appearance, harmonizing for a few songs.
McKenna, known for her folksy performances at bluegrass festivals and concerts throughout Alaska, began her musical career in 1985 with the Hardly-Heard Strings band, a Homer collective which played for square dances and benefits.
These days she sells produce at the Farmer’s Market and works as a nurse, but still stays active musically. A few weeks ago she “experimented with rock” during Out of the Woodwork; last summer McKenna played at Concert on the Lawn, Seldovia’s Summer Solstice Festival and at Mermaid Café.
Premiered at the Anchorage Folk Festival in January, her newest song “Star” is part of Friday’s set list as “a first for Homer.”
The concert starts at 7 p.m. Admission for anyone under 18 costs $5, $10 for HCOA members and $15 for general audience. Tickets are on sale at the Homer Bookstore, homerart.org or at the door.

Soulful sounds from glacier trek

Newsroom — Wed, 07 Mar 2012 19:58:08 +0000

• Local composer to have piece performed in Anchorage
By Andrew Wellner
Special to the Homer Tribune

Phil Munger

Composer Phil Munger finds inspiration in the most varied of places.
His cantata “The Skies are Weeping” was inspired by Rachel Corrie, who was killed by a bulldozer demolishing a house in the Gaza Strip in 2003. He wrote a ragtime piece in tribute to a conductor friend — and ragtime fan — Gordon Wright, who was found dead on his porch during a cold snap in 2007.
“He was sitting on his porch frozen, sitting on top of this casket he’d made for himself years ago because he was 6-feet, 8-inches (tall)” and he didn’t want to be buried in a casket where they’d have to bend his knees,” Munger said, describing how Wright’s friends wound up putting him in that casket to carry him down the hill his house sat on.
“They got so tired from doing it that eventually they started sliding him down the hill.”
Munger, who hails from Neklason Lake, designed this latest programmatic piece to be performed by a youth symphony. It is called “The Wild Coast” and draws inspiration from a trip a couple of friends took hiking, skiing and pack-rafting from Seattle to Unimak Island in the Aleutian chain.
Husband and wife team Bretwood Higman and Erin McKittrick of Seldovia have since published a book and participated in a documentary about the journey. They’ve also founded an organization, Ground Truth Trekking, that ventures into remote areas of Alaska to promote understanding of natural resource issues in the state. They will be featured speakers Wednesday night in Homer.
Munger said he found one stretch of the journey, between Yakutat Bay and Controller Bay, to be enthralling.
“Nobody lives there. People used to live at Icy Bay, but the logging operation closed down,” he said.
The piece he wrote tells that part of the story.
“It’s an adventure piece of classical music,” Munger said.
The Anchorage Youth Symphony, which actually commissioned the work, will perform it Tuesday at the Atwood Hall in the Alaska Center for Performing Arts in Anchorage.
“The Anchorage Youth Symphony played another piece of mine called ‘Lamentations’,” he said. “For a town the size of Anchorage, they’re really good.”
Oddly enough, Munger won’t attend. In addition to his work as a music professor at the University of Alaska Anchorage, this year he’s also conducting an orchestra.
“Our last rehearsal before our winter concert is Tuesday and I just can’t farm it out to anybody,” Munger said.
But unlike the early days of conducting, Munger said he has a pretty good idea of what the piece sounds like. Composing at a computer is worlds away from composing at a piano. He said he’s able to hear what he writes as he goes through the magic of digital sampling.
“I pretty much have a good idea of what it is going to sound like,” he said.
Munger, who, aside from composing, has some degree of notoriety as a political blogger at Progressive Alaska, said computers are marvelous things.
“Writing music at the computer tends to be about seven times as fast as writing it out by hand,” Munger said. For more information about Ground Truth Trekking, visit groundtruthtrekking.org.

Athabascan singer – songwriter comes to Homer

Newsroom — Wed, 12 Oct 2011 19:13:24 +0000

• George Holly Jr. performs 7 p.m. Friday at Homer Council on the Arts

Photo Provided - George Holly Jr. (Center) is a contemporary Deg Xit’an Athabascan singer/songwriter who performs Friday at Homer Council on the Arts.

When the devastating earthquake and subsequent nuclear power plant eruption hit earlier this year in Japan, a Kenai Peninsula musician decided to write a song. Called a world-wide “Healing Meditation and Prayer for the Japanese Nuclear Power-Plant Workers,” George Holly Jr., dedicated the song to those who were consciously giving their lives for the sake of all.
“This is an inter-faith effort to send them healing energy and God’s love,” Holly wrote beneath his YouTube posting.
The contemporary Deg Xit’an Athabascan singer/songwriter comes to Homer on Friday for a performance at the Homer Council on the Arts, a rare treat on the music circuit. Holly began creating his own adaptations of standards for the bluegrass sound 16 years ago. He writes verses in Deg Xinag and Dena’ina Athabascan with the help of elders and other language learners. His compositions have been sung by Native dance groups in Southeast Alaska, the Yukon and on the Peninsula.
He also has written music that has been featured at the National Museum of the American Indian in D.C., the Field Museum and Newberry Library in Chicago and children’s programming in the Juneau School District and Perseverance Theater in Juneau.
The band features Holly on the banjo and Paul Gray on mandocello and djimbe.

KPO launches 2011 summer music festival

Newsroom — Wed, 27 Jul 2011 18:00:40 +0000

By Randi Somers
Homer Tribune

Leading up to major concerts, free music performances at restaurants begin August 1 under the auspices of the Kenai Peninsula Orchestra. Fresh Sourdough Express is the site of Monday’s performance. On Tuesday Rudy Multz performs at the Mermaid Cafe. Wednesday brings Victim with Crime to the Harbor Grill, Don Jose’s is the fun spot Thursday and Two Sister’s Bakery is the music scene Friday.
Sunday, August 7, features Champagne, Chocolate and Chopin a la Tutka at the Tutka Bay Lodge on the far side of Kachemak Bay. That soiree is held from 6:00 to 10:00 p.m. and is $120 per person.
Noon tunes continue Monday August 8 with Michael and Jessica Schallock performing at Fat Olives, Mark Wolbers at the Bunnell Street Gallery Tuesday, Jack Will and Sue Biggs at the Duncan House Wednesday, Madison String Quartet at Land’s End Resort Thursday and Amy and Todd Schendel, Gerrall Heiser and Tony Cecere at Latitude 59 Friday.
The Madison String Quart with Maria Allison and Mark Wolbers performs Monday, August 8 at 7:30 p.m. at the Faith Lutheran Church.
The Kenai Peninsula Orchestra Gala Concert with Tammy Vollom-Matturro and Mark Robinson conducting, performs Rimsky-Korsakov’s Russian Easter Overture and Beethoven’s Symphony number nine at the Mariner Theatre Saturday August 13 at 3:00 and 7:30 p.m. There is a lecture 45 minutes before show time. Tickets are $18 general admission, $15 senior or parent, and $12 for youth or member.
The Brass Chamber Concert with Amy and Todd Schendel, Anthony Cecere, Mary and Eric Simondsen and Harvey Ambrose will be presented at the Faith Luthern Church Sunday August 14 at 7:30 p.m. Tickets are $15 general, $12 senior/youth/member.

Jazz in the Cove benefits Horn Section Music Fund

Newsroom — Wed, 22 Jun 2011 17:54:41 +0000

• Quiet Place Lodge hosts jazz concert Saturday, leaving Homer Harbor 5:30 p.m.
By Randi SomersHomer Tribune

Dan Mac Sextet

With many people volunteering their services, this year’s Jazz in the Cove is expected to funnel most of the money raised into the Horn Section, a music education fund established in memory of beloved music teacher Renda Horn.
Three charter operators, Bay Excursions, Red Mountain Marine and Homer Ocean Charters are providing transportation to and from Halibut Cove, departing Homer promptly at 5:30 p.m. Saturday, June 25 from Ramp One below the Salty Dawg Saloon and returning around 10 p.m.
Quiet Place Lodge is hosting the event for the third year in a row. Owner Pauli Hall said that 60 guests will dine and enjoy the music from two of the lodge’s decks, sheltered by table umbrellas while the band performs from a floating amphitheater tied up in front of the lodge.
The jazz will be performed by Anchorage pianist Dan McElrath and the Dan Mac sextet.
A graduate of Furman University School of Music, McElrath has performed piano jazz for 30 years in venues across the United States, covering a wide range of musical styles from gospel to contemporary jazz. Recently the DanMac Sextet recorded with vocalists Cat Coward, Katie Strock and Voni K. He performed with saxophonist Rick Zelinski and the quintet is currently touring to promote their newly released CD Ajazzka which is music he composed. He has garnered praise throughout his tours. “Dan’s fingers danced across the keyboard like a master,” one reviewer wrote. “His presence, stories and joyful heart created a delightful show.”
“Technically outstanding, musically fascinating, beautifully mesmerizing,” enthused another. “In a nutshell, one of the finest concerts in the series.”
Chef Sean Marriot will preside at the seafood cookout which, in addition to fresh seafood, will feature pork, salads and desserts. He too is volunteering his services in order to maximize money flowing into the fund.
Renda Horn lived in Homer for just 10 years, but in that short time she made an enormous impact, teaching elementary music and band in Homer area schools, giving private music lessons and reviving Inlet Winds, a community band. Renda inspired many with her musical expertise, boundless energy, devotion to family, friends, and community and her passion for living life to the fullest. Her community service extended to participation on several boards including the Bunnell Street Arts Center and the Homer Foundation.
Community members who knew and loved Renda have established “The Horn Section: A Music Education Fund in Memory of Renda Horn” at the Homer Foundation as a lasting legacy to preserve her memory and extend her impact on the community, particularly with regard to music and music education, to future generations. Grant awards from the fund will be used to provide musical opportunities for school-age students, support musical events and programs, enhance school music programs, and/or support the creation of a community performing arts center, should a credible campaign for that purpose be launched. Jazz in the Cove at Quiet Place Lodge is an annual fundraiser to support this fund.
Tickets are $125 per person or $250 per couple available at The Book Store or the Homer Foundation office. Phone 235 0541 for more information. The ticket includes transportation to Halibut Cove.

Local musician makes debut album

Newsroom — Wed, 06 Apr 2011 18:18:24 +0000

• Milo’s new album considered his most professional yet
By Naomi Klouda
Homer Tribune

Milo Matthews

“Miles of Eva” is Milo Matthews’ sixth solo album, yet the well-known musician considers it his debut.
How can that be, given the definition of debut is to “formally introduce one to the public?”
“I’ve spent the past 20 years on these songs, and some go back to 1989,” Milo said. “It’s a compilation of everything I’ve done, everything I am. This is the first recording I’ve done in this way – no holds barred. I worked on it every day for a year.”
The local musician whose name surfaces in conjunction with many musical events and venues in town is becoming an essential standard, giving a versatile cross section of art, youth and adult concerts. Along the way, he also makes big contributions to the lives of musicians through his production company Lovelifemusic, with his wife, Shawn Zuke.
The new album, called “Miles of Eva” in reference to his son, Miles, and daughter, Eva, ranges in musical genre from funk to reggae to softer jazz-like vocals. After mixing the music at his local studio, Milo embellished the final mix in a collaboration with Peter Ratner in Anchorage and the Philosopher’s Barn Eric James of London for a professional finish. All this was done by Internet, which allowed Milo to stay home in Homer and continue his musical life uninterrupted by the travel that used to drain artists in the past.
“I like to be in the same room with people I’m working with in production. It’s good energy. But this way, working from a distance, we got a lot done and because I was able to stay in my own space, I worked from my own creative energy,” he said.
Milo was raised in Boston, and began playing the bass at the age of 12. Through his teens and early 20s, he “busked” the subways, making a living playing for eight hours underground in the subways. He credits the experience with teaching him a lot about music and also performing.
“When I started, it was always, ‘why aren’t people giving money?’ and when I was more aware of that, no one would pay much attention, so I started focusing on the music and different styles and experimenting. I would close my eyes and just feel the music, and then I would open my eyes and my case would be full of money and people around me were really getting into what I was playing. I learned about that connection,” Milo recalled in a recent Homer Tribune interview with Katie Emerick.

Miles of Eva

Writing and composing music occupies one side of Milo’s artistry; helping other musicians through producing their CDs takes up another set of his honing skills. With his wife Zuke, the couple is recording CDs for Cindy McKenna, Ruben Cash, the Alaska Women Songwriters for Peace Album, Sally Wills and others. Zuke, whose Alaska Women album has successfully raised about $3,000 for Haven House so far, has a solo CD coming out tentatively called “Still Free and Clear.”
“We want to take (Lovelifemusic) as far as we can, not just for Homer musicians but to reach out to whoever comes here,” Milo said. Since album sales are dwindling, due to iTune and other Internet transitions, marketing CDs require availing of a whole other set of “opportunities,” Milo said. One is an aggressive local marketing approach where albums are sold where ever musicians play and especially on home turf. A new movement called “Concerts in Your Home,” hosted by patrons in locations that require tours, also give new venue opportunities as a chance for audiences to experience greater personal interactions with up and coming artists.
Milo and Zuke, in a holistic approach to their performance and production careers, are concerned about a spiritual plane of living in service to others. Meditation and yoga, for example, would be offered to artists who come to stay with Zuke and Milo while recording their CDs.
“The biggest thing that we’re about,” Milo said, “is being self aware, being aware of your choices, and being aware that you’re here. Being aware of the person next to you, that we are one, that we do love each other. It doesn’t mean that you have to change the world, but you do have to be aware of your choices.”
The path to spirituality has been a journey for Milo, who grew up as a Baptist born-again Christian, and Zuke who grew up Catholic. They find a home among members of the Center for Spiritual Living which meets on certain Sundays of the month at Land’s End.
Yet, perhaps their outlook is spelled out best in the chosen title of their production company: Lovelifemusic.
As they say by way of explanation: “LoveLifeMusic honors the divine in all of us, manifesting positive, peaceful messages that resonate and awaken the spirit … and grooves that make you want to shake it on the dance floor.”
Catch Milo tonight at the Down East.