RockOm

This week, considering that it's Halloween and all, we've decided to share with you articles about the darker side of music, death, and all that is frightening and spooky. After all, part of spirituality is dealing with and coming to grips with death, so we wanted to help provide you with some musical inspiration for your Halloween weekend.

Below that we've also included our normal RockOm Roundup links, all that's going on around the world in the areas of song and spirit...

Halloween Roundup

• A Halloween Playlist: The Scariest Albums Of All Time - "I've created a list of the scariest albums ever made. It wasn't easy (seriously, I could've included every black-metal album ever made or Avril Lavigne's The Best Damn Thing), but rather than focus on visceral screams, I went for ephemeral chills. These are psychological thrillers — dense, raw, positively horrifying albums, guaranteed to turn your Halloween into a total fright-fest." (mtv.com)

• Scary songs to put a shiver in your Halloween party - "It’s Halloween and time for some scary songs – and, no, I don’t mean Bobby 'Boris' Pickett’s 'Monster Mash.' I mean really scary songs. Here are 20, arranged chronologically, that’ll give you the chills..." (leisureblogs.chicagotribune.com)

• Slayer to stream entire new album on MySpace Music for Halloween weekend - "Thrash legends Slayer will take over MySpace's Music portal this Halloween weekend to promote their upcoming album, World Painted Blood." (examiner.com)

• What are the scariest rock songs ever?- "Aside from the truly frightening new release by the Backstreet Boys or Bob Dylan's new Christmas album, what are the scariest rock songs to tingle your spine and rattle your senses?" (blog.mlive.com)

Miscellaneous Music & Spirituality Links

• The RZA: Hip-Hop's Prophet - "In his new book, Tao of the Wu, RZA tells the story of his own rise, from the streets of Staten Island to the top of the hip-hop world. He describes the lessons he learned about life, music and spirituality--many of them hard--in the simple, elegant prose of a hip-hop poet." (pbs.org)

• Bruce Almighty - "Springsteen saved me when I was a suburban Cleveland teenager, bored and unconsciously seeking fever and fire. My mom advised channeling that desire into the Catholic Church by praying more. 'Mass is what you bring to it,' she said." (philly.org)

• What makes music beautiful? Alfred Brendel knows - "Interpreters should never assume that understanding the structure of a work might automatically give them insight into the work’s character, atmosphere and spiritual state." (artsblog.freedomblogging.com)

• Sting: Obama best person to handle world's 'mess'- Sting says, "My hope is that we can start talking about real issues and not caring about whether God cares about your hemline or your color ... We are here to evolve as one family, and we can't be separate anymore." (news.yahoo.com)

By Tom Crenshaw and Trevor Harden

On Tuesday of this week we posted our review of Sting's new winter-themed concept album, If on a Winter's Night... It just so happens that one of the musicians who plays on this recording - violinist Daniel Hope - shares a home city with RockOm. We reached out to Daniel to get his thoughts on Sting's new collection, what winter means to him and more. First a little background...

British violinist Daniel Hope is a four-time Grammy nominated violin virtuoso who has toured and performed with the world’s greatest orchestras and conductors for many years. Hope is renowned for his musical versatility, creativity and his dedication to humanitarian causes. A compelling performer, Hope’s work involves standard repertory, new music, raga, and jazz. He is also an artistic partner, associate artistic director, and producer of musical festivals, events and special musical programs around the world.

Daniel Hope, now an exclusive Deutsche Grammophon artist, has earned a Classical BRIT award, the Deutsche Schallplattenpreis, and five consecutive ECHO Klassik Prizes. He previously recorded for Warner Classics and Nimbus, playing Bach, Berg, Britten, Elgar, Finzi, Foulds, Ireland, Mendelssohn, Mozart, Penderecki, Schnittke, Shostakovich, Tippett, Walton, and Weill. His interpretation of Ravi Shankar’s compositions, on the CD East Meets West, met with worldwide acclaim.

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RockOm: Briefly describe how you came to be involved with If on a Winter's Night...

Daniel: In a sense, Sting and I go back a long way, but our connection is a curious one. He bought Yehudi Menuhin's house in London, the place where I spent the first seven years of my life growing up. The house was very important to me, and offered me the first chance to experience some of the greatest musicians close-up, such as Ravi Shankar, Stephane Grapelli, and of course the classical masters. I consider it one of the most important musical influences in my life. When Sting moved into the house, we lived across the street, and so I would often see him around. I became acquainted with his music first through The Police, which I listened to when I was a small boy. In 2006 we were both awarded the German ECHO Prize (the equivalent to the German Grammy), and we met officially for the first time backstage in Munich. Sting was so intrigued by this co-incidence, that we have kept in touch since. Then, early this year, he emailed me and invited me to guest on his new album. I was honoured and very excited.

RockOm: Your improvisation skills are quite impressive and impeccable. How much improvisation did you and the other musicians incorporate into the album?

Daniel: There are phenomenal musicians on this album, and all of them are masters of improvisation too. Classical musicians are not usually required to improvise, but my earliest musical training encouraged me to learn how to, and I am very thankful for that! Of the tracks in which I was involved, and also listened to, there was great freedom between the musicians, and it was inspiring to watch the story unfold.

RockOm: What are your overall impressions of the completed album?

Daniel: I think it's a beautiful, unique and deeply powerful album. Sting is a supreme artist, and his knowledge and command of repertoire, style and musicality is simply astonishing. I can't think of another pop star who would have the courage or the insight to bring off, for example, a song from Schubert's Winterreise or a Purcell Aria, and yet, everything Sting does, he does with his own voice and expression, and the very highest level.

RockOm: What does winter mean to you, both personally as well as from a philosophical viewpoint?

Daniel: For me winter is a season of reflection, and calm, especially as the year draws to a close. I can't think of a better companion to these feelings than sitting in front of the fire, and listening to If on a Winter's Night...

http://www.danielhope.com/home/

Early today we posted an insightful interview with Christine Stevens of UpBeat Drum Circles. Now's your chance to hear the interview first-hand. Check out the newest episode of the RockOm Podcast to hear our conversation about how music bridges cultural and spiritual "differences" and to check out all this amazing group is doing in the world.

CLICK HERE to visit our Podcast page to download this and other episodes of the RockOm Podcast. Grab it for your commute and be sure to tell a friend we're here exploring the bond between music and spirituality!

By Tom Crenshaw, Tom@RockOm.net

Three melodic strings, a drumbeat and a passionate desire to connect with another can create a force that is larger than life. This immense, graceful force can be found in Christine Stevens and UpBeat Drum Circles as they travel the world, often venturing into hostile and war-torn territories to bridge cultural and spiritual barriers through music.

Music holds many keys for conflict healing and is an incredibly valuable weapon for promoting peace and reconciliation. Through music Christine Stevens has selflessly dedicated her life and resources in a mission to change the world one heartbeat and drumbeat at a time. Christine is an internationally acclaimed musician, author, music therapist and speaker as well as the founder of UpBeat Drum Circles. RockOm has made a dear friend in Christine featuring her work many times on our website.

We caught up with Christine recently to talk about bridging cultural barriers through music and instrumentation knowing she would have much to share with us on the subject. In connecting with Christine again we are introduced to the Strumstick: a three-stringed instrument whose small nature belies its capabilities. Through the Strumstick and drumming Christine has propagated goodwill, grace and peacemaking not only in Iraq but around the world as well.

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Tom: In your work with Ashti Drum in Iraq, when you first are introduced to perform for a group is there an air of apprehension on either your part as a musician or those you’re meeting for the first time with regards to your being a Western musician? If so how do you make that first, all-important connection?

Christine: Well that’s a good question. "The beginning is half the whole" as they say and the first moments of a connection are crucial. A lot of preparation goes into going to Iraq. I dress according to the cultural norms; I dyed my hair, wore a hijab and prepared to meet people in their way. The first connection - what I noticed - it was all about making music and not talking at all.

More often than not, I introduce myself with drumming  and then wait and see if someone will answer you. [Laughs] What I love about the Strumstick and bringing a melodic instrument with me to Iraq to complement the drum circle program is that the Strumstick is in open tuning, like a drone. When you start to make that drone, people start to come. It’s a magnetic force for group gatherings. When you play a Strumstick it’s a call for singing and chanting. So I would play a simple open drone and often someone would just stand up and chant using Middle Eastern scales.

The idea for music for peacemaking has to do with some very important principles including inclusiveness and we get everyone to participate by handing out our rhythmic instruments. Everyone can join the beat. I love what Mickey Hart (drummer for The Dead) says, “When we drum together we create sacred space.” When we add the Strumstick and that drone - chanting and rhythm - we create a symphony of cultural sharing from the heart.

Tom: So using a Strumstick made the difficult work in bridging cultural barriers easier?

Christine: I would say that it makes it much easier because this time I had this fantastic instrument that was created by Bob McNally (he’s based in New Jersey and his information is at strumstick.com). What I love about it is that it’s three strings and no wrong notes! Anyone can play this! The biggest barrier is words, I think. As long as we’re aware of each other's culture and we’re sensitive, what is the real barrier? It’s words! With music, we can talk. We have to simplify to create that bridge for cultural connection.

The other thing I will say is that in my travels around the world with the Strumstick, everybody knows Bob Marley and you can play Bob Marley tunes on this real easily. According to the Dalai Lama, what we need to do to create peace on the planet is to have more music sharing and music festivals.

Tom: Oh, I agree. More music and more music festivals. That’s the plan and a perfect prescription. Many times we get caught up with words, like you say, when we simply should just let the music speak for us.

Christine: I think we’re becoming energy linguists. In sound and in music we can communicate best… our heart, our feelings. When we communicate on that plane there’s no conflict, there’s no war. We create “sacred space.” What happens in sacred space? We create connections and harmony. Just the word harmony is a metaphor for what we’re creating on the planet right now, one beat at a time.

Tom: Why is it that some people think they could never learn a musical instrument when drumming and the Strumstick, with only a fraction of instruction, turn anyone into a music-maker?

Christine: The key is having a very easy, immediate learning curve. We give up on ourselves too easily. If I had to sit down and try to learn piano scales right away I’d probably quit too, but because you can get a sound immediately on a drum, and a good sound immediately on a Strumstick without any training, all of a sudden children who have never played an instrument before can be in a jam session. I think it’s time to remove that dualistic thinking that some people have talent and some don’t and recognize that music is who we are - that we are biologically wired for music. We all have a singing voice, we all have a drum beat called our heartbeat, and it’s time to let go of all those myths and lies, find the instrument that calls to our heart and be part of the music.

Tom:  In your experience how important are the arts, especially music in connecting us with one another and why aren’t diplomatic efforts on the part of nations engaged in peace making more focused on cultural exchanges involving musicians and artists?

Christine: That’s actually not true. There are many diplomatic efforts right now happening through music. If you look at U.S. history one of the first efforts of diplomacy was sending an African-American gospel choir to Russia during the beginning of the Cold War. Louis Armstrong was paid by the State Department to travel and play music.  I just think we need more of this and the vision that I hold is that before the United Nations talk - we have to have dialogue - first we would have music together. First there would be a performance and then there would be dialogue. I don’t believe it’s only about the music; I think it’s about the whole protocol of combining music-making, musical sharing and appreciation of each other’s culture, and true listening.

Tom: What’s upcoming in the near future for UpBeat Drum Circles?

Christine: We have opportunities to train people in the HealthRHYTHMS program that Remo Drum Company sponsors and we’ll be teaching more in the sacred drumming and peace building traditions in places like the Shambhala Mountain Center. We’re working on some new books and CDs about UpBeat Drum Circle's and Ashti Drum's whole journey in the Middle East hoping to continue to build our drum ashram, our drum ministry, our peace drum corps and continue to collaborate with RockOm. We love learning so much from visiting your site and tuning into what RockOm is doing. Thank you so much for that, Tom.

LINKS:

Visit Strumstick.com to learn more and to see and hear Christine demonstrate its versatility

Be sure to view all our features and interviews with Christine Stevens:

The Rhythm of Life

Social Change and the Power of Music

Global Resonance

By Trevor Harden, Trevor@RockOm.net

"People worry about kids playing with guns, and teenagers watching violent videos; we are scared that some sort of culture of violence will take them over. Nobodies worries about kids listening to thousands - literally thousands - of songs about broken hearts and rejection and pain and misery and loss."

[Nick Hornby, High Fidelity]

As the old adage goes, "energy flows where attention goes." Does your music help point your attention to what is good, noble and true? Or do the sounds pumping into your head via your headphones pull your thoughts into the realms of despair and darkness?

Of course there are times for it to do both. Sometimes there's nothing like a good, angry Nine Inch Nails song or brooding Tori Amos piece to help you work through (or just wallow in) difficult feelings.

But perhaps what Mr. Hornby is saying is that music's ability to influence your emotions (or even behavior) shouldn't be underestimated.

My mind thinks back to the Columbine assassins who apparently listened to Marilyn Manson or how The Beatles' "Helter Skelter" infamously influenced the murderous actions of Charles Manson. Is this all folk lore or fact? Did the music influence the behaviors or did people prone to heinous acts simply and in an unrelated coincidence prefer a darker style of music? Who the hell knows.

I'm certainly not suggesting we only listen to New Age flute music in order to keep our minds positive. Most of what I personally listen to tends to have been pulled from a darker place, or at least a place that acknowledges the full expression of human emotion and reality. But if "we become what we behold," then consistently filling our minds with "toxic" music MAY have some affect on our physical/emotional state. Or does it?

YOUR TURN: What do you think? Does continued exposure to "songs about broken hearts and rejection and pain and misery and loss" affect the listener negatively? Or is all of this simply scapegoating, pointing to music as a straw man in order to take the blame off the individual?

"There are dark shadows on the earth,
but its lights are stronger in the contrast."
[Charles Dickens]

Dickens' words remind us of what we enjoy bringing you each week at RockOm: musically-deep artists who reveal all the rich variety of the light/dark spectrum.

The luminosity of light quite literally marks this week's Featured Track of the Week by the artist known as Lights. Lights is an up-and-coming electro-pop artist whose song "Saviour" can be previewed on the homepage all week long.

From the darker end of the spectrum check out my review of Sting's newest offering, If on a Winter's Night... This collection of original and "borrowed" folk tunes is an intensely reflective and spiritually-rich companion for the coming wintry season.

Enjoy,
Trevor Harden, President of RockOm.net

By Trevor Harden, trevor@RockOm.net

"For we are gathered here to celebrate and explore the music of Winter,
the season of frosts and long dark nights."

So writes Sting in the liner notes to his latest recording, If on a Winter's Night..., a concept album centered on the darkest and most contemplative of the four seasons. What began as a suggestion to create a Christmas album has evolved into a collection of pensive songs - both original and borrowed - that survey that most spiritually reflective time of year.

Sting continues,

"Like all early creatures we seem pre-wired to recognize and respond to the polar archetypes of light and dark, of heat and cold as they are encoded in the rhythm of the days and nights and the perpetual cycle of the seasons."

And while most of Sting's popular work - if not lyrically, at least in tone - has rested more in the realm of light, If on a Winter's Night... plunges into the darkness and stays there for 50 frigid minutes, never budging from its stoic, frosty soundscape.

To get a sense of this album, one has only to look at the cover art: Sting walks alone in a snowy woods, accompanied only by his icy-whiskered companion named Compass. There is a silence that whispers from within the photo, only presumably broken by the sound of crunching snow collapsing beneath rubber soles. And this picture, in its simplicity, sums up the album perfectly, as if the audio from these 15 tracks had coalesced into a single image.  Both Sting and his marketing team have done a fantastic job "setting the stage" for this album, carrying out the concept and vision to its fullest potential: Pictures in the album's liner book include a heavily bearded and deep-eyed Sting, blustery landscapes, sweaters and coats, candle-lit living rooms and musicians in wistful meditation. Wintry words spill out from the pages of Sting's personal commentary such as mentions of "hot mugs of tea," scarves, ghosts and coal fires... he's certainly attempting to paint a picture. And he has, quite successfully.

PARALLEL STORIES

You could go so far as to say that a Winter-themed album that ignores the reality of Christmas would be in error, as the two have become so intertwined in Western culture. As the large portion of Sting's borrowed material stems from British and Scottish sources, it's no surprise that the album begins with a song singing the praises of Mary, the mother of Jesus. In fact the story of the "God-child come to earth" makes repeat appearances on If on a Winter's Night..., appearing also in the recordings of the 15th century German carol "Lo How a Rose E'er Blooming," the touching fable-song "Cherry Tree Carol," and beyond. Despite Sting's self-professed agnosticism, he shares that "the sacred symbolism of the church's art still exerts a powerful influence over [him]."

Don't for a minute believe this is a Christian-centric album, however. Alongside hymns singing the praises of "the root of Jesse" are hints of something more ancient, medieval, folksy, ritualistic, natural and even pagan. In his own words, Sting says that it was "important to draw parallels between the Christian story and the older traditions of the winter solstice."

Spiritually and metaphorically, Winter's Night draws you inward through sonic themes related to winter such as reflectiveness, introspection and stillness. In order to fully "get" this album and its overtly subtle tone, one almost needs to understand Sting's motivation:

"...there is something of the Winter that is primal, mysterious and utterly irreplaceable ... as if we somehow need the darkness of the winter months to replenish our inner spirits as much as we need the light, energy and warmth of summer."

He goes further, acknowledging that Resurrection and light are just around the bend as Winter soon makes way for Spring. In truth they are two sides of the same coin:

"We are reminded that there is light and life at the centre of the darkness that is Winter - or conversely that, no matter how comfortable we feel in the cradle, there is darkness and danger all around us."

THE SONGS

Those longing to hear a new offering supported by Sting's Fender P-bass, electric guitars, synthesizers and a trap set need look elsewhere for herein we experience the folk-inspired sounds of harp, classical guitar, Melodeon, cello, Northumbrian Pipes, and fiddle. Fans of the Sting who penned Brand New Day, Mercury Falling, Ten Summoner's Tales and the majority of the Police's material will have to be remarkably open to other styles of music in order to include this alongside their favorite of his albums. This is not because this latest release is less than his previous offerings, not at all, but rather that it is so extraordinarily different from them. If On a Winter's Night... was released on the Deutsche Grammophon label which is both appropriate and telling, for this collection of songs belongs more suitably alongside your classical CDs (or even his own 2006 album Songs from the Labyrinth) than it does next to your Peter Gabriel or Paul Simon discs.

Sting begins with "Gabriel's Message," singing "Most highly favored lady, Gloria!" over the gentle instrumentation of a nylon-stringed guitar, muted horns and tight vocal harmonies.  From there the album slowly and intentionally bubbles forward like a frozen-over brook, presenting classical and folk pieces including a Celtic begging song, a folk tune from Sting's home of Newcastle, a number from Henry Purcell's King Arthur, a reference to Schubert's Winterreise and more; as well as two original pieces, the beautiful "Lullaby for an Anxious Child" and a new arrangement of the previously recorded "Hounds of Winter."

CONCLUSION

If on a Winter's Night... is almost "application music," or music for the purpose of introspection, mood setting, or direct listening. It most likely shouldn't be considered for enlivening your holiday party with yuletide cheer and may not even be - if I may be so bold - for entertainment. Like most music with depth, it requires a certain conscious presence to fully appreciate and experience, coming to grips with it over time like slowly warming beneath a freshly applied sweater.

There's a mystery in the dark of winter that is both unsettling and strangely comforting, as if everything remains unanswered and yet is perfect as it is; If on a Winter's Night... resides in that mystery. It isn't music for everyone, nor will there be any signature Sting hit singles emerging from it, and yet for those brave enough to look within and meditate on what lies in the heart of darkness, it is a welcome companion to the bleak seasons, both in nature and in the soul.

"If I have a spirituality at all, it's about music. I play and I listen to music as if it really matters to my soul, to my eternal being." [Sting]

by Lights

Visit Lights at...
Website: iamlights.com
MySpace.com/lights
The Listening on iTunes

LIGHTS is the name of the "sparkling, otherworldly electro-pop" singer-songwriter who has been making a splash on the Warped Tour as well as with her debut full-length album, The Listening (Warner Brothers). She has been highlighted as buzz-worthy by Rolling Stone magazine, calling her a "retro new wave... keytar-rocking pixie."

Light's song "Saviour" caught RockOm's attention as a tune about calling out to something bigger than yourself.

Featured Track: "Saviour"

Click to Play

"'Saviour' is a big example of taking one of those really dark emotional situations and turning it into something positive. I just happened to get hit with a really dark sad night. The melody started coming together and the words started pouring out. I was crying when I wrote the first line of the chorus and it actually sounds kind of like crying. It's a really, really powerful song for me." (Lights)

WATCH THE VIDEO:

See also:

Acoustic version (YouTube)

Live version, Warped Tour (YouTube)

By Tom Crenshaw, tom@rockom.net

The most popular bands in rock are getting their game on - or hoping to now that The Beatles: Rock Band has taken over the world. Van Halen reportedly has a Guitar Hero release coming soon and U2 wants their own Rock Band release. There's no telling who may be next on the shelves with their own music video game.

Is there more to music than its use as a tool to become centered or for expressing and experiencing one's highest states? Of course there is. In fact there's more to music than we can possibly imagine, but fundamentally music has one basic purpose: it should makes us feel good and in the moment. I like the 19th Century English philosopher Herbert Spencer's take on the primary purpose of music:

"Music may appeal to crude and coarse feelings or to refined and noble ones; and in so far as it does the latter it awakens the higher nature and works an effect, though but a transitory effect, of a beneficial kind. But the primary purpose of music is neither instruction nor culture but pleasure; and this is an all-sufficient purpose."

Right on! Music should be pleasurable and with Rock Band and Guitar Hero (and before these two there was, and still is, Karaoke) we're seeing an entirely new paradigm as it relates to "feel-good music" - one of non-musicians experiencing some of the engaging, transformational aspects of the musician experience. But what's happening underneath all this good, clean, interactive music-centered fun? Are there latent forces at work while we enjoy the animated Fab Four reunited in high-def glory and come back to life while we wildly sequence colored buttons to "Strawberry Fields Forever" on a virtual guitar connected to a video gaming system?

Yoko Ono recently had something interesting to say about The Beatles: Rock Band video game that caught my attention and made me think about music in an entirely different light:

“I think (the) game is the second revolution. In the beginning [The Beatles] made a splash with their music; with the video game we’re going to create a planet of music and art. Music and art are both very interesting healing vibrations, and with that vibration we can create the world we’ve always wanted, a world of peace." (Britain’s Observer newspaper)

The simple truth is that while everyone has the ability to be musical, not everyone is a musician. The virtual musician experience is better than no musician experience at all in so much that if it rocks your world in the present moment - that's a good thing! Let's leave the final word to author Sonnett Branche:

"Music is one of the best ways to enjoy the present. It's not much fun to look forward to hearing music or to remember what a song sounded like last week, but music right now absorbs you and places you in the present moment."

RockOm Round-up is a quick glance at what's going on around the world in the areas of music and spirituality...

• Good Vs. Evil Do Battle Joyously - "Hellfire and damnation, and a whole lot of heavenly singing and earthly argumentation. That's what you get in 'The Message Is in the Music (God Is a Black Man Named Ricky),' Jackie Taylor's red-hot new musical for the Black Ensemble Theater." (suburbanchicagonews.com)

• Meshell Ndegeocello: Sacredly Profane - "'If you could lick your balls,' chuckles [musician] Meshell Ndegeocello, 'you would!' With that playfully indelicate visual, Ndegeocello illustrates a point she's been making through music for the better part of her career: Spiritual growth need not preclude sensuality." (seattleweekly.com)

• In Search Of Beethoven - "Where did a man so flawed and troubled by life, love and illness find the spiritual depth to write music that was so moving and even joyous? Where does the hope come from?" (brisbanetimes.com.au)

• Unrelenting Desire for Spiritual Freedom Through Music - "Various literature and textbooks in the history have referred to music as the food for the soul. If the right chord touches the heart, it is said to soothe the mind and body of an individual, freeing them from all worries and stresses that are pent up inside. Nizar Lalani and Njane Mugambi are two people with a mission of accomplishing spiritual freedom through the music they create." (thenews.com.pk)

• Q&A with a Jewish Rock Star- "Rick Recht, a top touring international Jewish rock star, is distributing free copies of his brand new album of inspirational Shabbat melodies, Simply Shabbat..." (jewishinstlouis.org)

• Q&A: Michael Buble talks new CD, love and religion- "As I get older I have a different concept of what God is to me and — it's not that I'm into organized religion — the truth is that I don't know. I'm sorry if that offends people out there, but I'm just being honest, I don't know..." (news.yahoo.com)