|
Bio
I started playing music at about age 22, picking up the guitar on my travels while living in South Korea. A friend of mine had a CD she lent me called "Beleza Tropical: Brazilian Classics," filled with songs by Brazilian legends Caetano Veloso, Gilberto Gil, and many others. This music, particularly that of Caetano, made me want to sing, to play guitar, and to begin to translate my poetry into songs.
During my early 20's, I spent a few years traveling and living in Spain, Brazil, India, South Korea, Egypt, the Middle East, Mexico, and Central America. The music I came across in those places touched my soul in a way music rarely had in my upbringing in the US. The rhythms, melodies, and messages of traditional music in many of these places, as well as the popular music of Brazil, opened me up to a deeper vision of what music could be. Poetry had for many years been a healing and magical art for me as I wandered the earth, and now I began to find ways to place these words and messages into music.  I began writing music in Portuguese and Spanish, inspired by my early love for the great songwriting traditions of Brazil and Latin America. Singing and playing guitar for the southwest New Mexico band Compas brought Latin, Brazilian, African, and Middle Eastern dance rhythms and songs alive in the place that I had grown up. From there I began playing solo, and writing dozens of songs all at once. I came out with two albums in 2007: "Presente", a Portuguese and Spanish album of mostly original music in Afro-Brazilian, Peruvian, and other latin styles, and "All I Know," a fun, mostly English-language album of all original songs in styles as varied as Afro-pop, American folk, and spoken word.
Two other albums, "Remystify," and "Alone" followed, and then in 2011 I finished my latest album called "Uncover the Beauty." Two of my songs from this last album, "Campfire," and "Get Back," were entered in the 2011 Tucson Folk Festival Songwriting Contest, which I ended up winning after being an alternate finalist only entered at the last minute.  Through my songs and music, I seek to touch a deeper place in the human experience. This place lives within all of us, underneath the small-talk and the hurrying, the masks and roles we wear on the surface; it is the place where wisdom comes from; a place where the truth can be found and spoken, and eventually hopefully lived. Many elements of music can touch this magical place. Rhythm can take you there, in the ancient sound and interplay of the drums... beauty can float you there on it's wings, bringing tears as a river to carry your soul....and poetry has the power to cut through our blind spots, to call us out and remind us... to carry us home for a moment, hoping that we will eventually remember the way ourselves.
Music is a gift, and gifts are meant to be given. May this gift I was given successfully arrive in your hands, and in your heart. That is my wish. |
2011 Tucson Folk Fest Songwriting Contest Winner!
On the first weekend of May, I traveled to Tucson to perform in their annual Folk Festival. Our band Compas played there a couple years ago, and I've played there solo the last two years also. I had entered two songs in their well-known Songwriting Competition, but was not selected as one of the ten finalists. The day before the contest, festival organizer Jim Lipson called me and told me that one of the finalists was sick and unable to attend, and that I was the first alternate, so I was invited to participate in the finals. Surprising news for me, as I had just recently decided to sort of "hang-up my guitar," and put aside the performing thing, as I have so much going on with community organizing, programs for kids, etc. with our new Gila Circle Way Project. Unsure what to expect or make of the news, I agreed to join the contest.
I showed up on Saturday on a beautiful spring day in Tucson in my homemade buckskin moccasins and funny-looking cattail hat, amidst a group of professional-looking songwriters from around the country. All the stages in the two-day festival are outside in downtown Tucson in a big city park network. The other finalists all played well-polished songs, crafted by expert songwriters and performers. I went ninth, and played my two songs, "Campfire," and "Get Back," both from my new album "Uncover the Beauty." I didn't think I played them very well, and didn't even consider myself a possibility for winning anything, and so didn't even give it a thought. Later in the afternoon, I sat under a Palo Verde tree as they announced the winners of the songwriting contest. They announced the third-place and then second-place winners, and then, over the P.A., "and the winner of the 2011 Tucson Folk Festival Songwriting Competition, from Silver City, NM....", and I literally thought, "wow, another one of the finalists is from Silver City?" Silly me. I was the only one, and for some strange reason, the universe had selected me in this moment to win the award. Confused as to what the heck to make of it all, I decided to let my songs bloom like desert flowers in a dry spring on the big stage that night, and thoroughly enjoyed the experience of sharing that beautiful spark that comes through us in our art, in our music, in our poetry, and in our experience of life. The mystery was upon me again, sending wild messages and gifts from the place our minds cannot understand; the place where we are truly home. May 13, 2011 Click to listen to a live version of the traditional Zimbabwean mbira song "Nehondo", played by Andrew and special guest Mark Holdaway (from kalimbamagic.com) on kalimba at the 2011 Tucson Folk Festival |
