RockOm

By Tom Crenshaw, Tom@RockOm.net

Carly Simon needs no introduction. Since 1971 her music and hits such as "That's the Way I've Always Heard It Should Be", “Anticipation”, “You’re So Vain” and many others have been part of the soundtrack of millions of lives around the world. Her 1973 album No Secrets rocketed to #1 on the US album charts and held firm for six consecutive weeks, eventually going Platinum and receiving a Grammy Award nomination. One song from that album, "You're So Vain", was also nominated for Song Of The Year and Best Pop Vocal Performance and as of 2008 was listed at #72 on the Billboard definitive list of the Top 100 songs from the chart's first 50 years.

In 1988 Carly won an Academy Award, Grammy and a Golden Globe for her song “Let the River Run” from the Working Girl motion picture soundtrack. Only one of two artists to ever accomplish such a feat (the other being Bruce Springsteen for "Streets of Philadelphia"), Carly hasn’t rested on her laurels, instead she has continued to write not only more great songs, but film scores and children’s books as well.

Now Carly has a new album out entitled Never Been Gone which was produced by her son Ben Taylor on his Iris Records label. Never Been Gone is a collection of Carly’s hits, re-recorded this year with minimal backing instrumentation, allowing a refined, sultry, autumn sound to emerge. This fresh take on classic favorites also includes two news songs where we hear Carly continuing to evolve and grow as an artist. RockOm recently had the extraordinary opportunity to sit at length with Carly to discuss her new album and also explore music and healing, chant, meditation, the beauty of the human voice, prayer in its various forms and much more.

Tom: Your new album is entitled Never Been Gone and is out now on Iris Records. I think I speak for millions saying through your music I never felt you had been gone. The great songs on this album are timeless, yet simplistically and beautifully refined. Which songs surprised you the most in how they spoke to you after you re-recorded them?

Carly: I’m glad that you said that because I don’t want anybody to think this is a compilation. There have been quite a few compilations of my albums but this is really a reinterpretation as if I were singing in a foreign language. I limited myself to certain instruments such as not allowing myself to use drums except for on one song. My hits were always marked by my love of the huge tom-tom fill [laughs] and since we didn’t have any of those fills I feel much more exposed on this album. On songs like “Loving You is the Right Thing to Do”, I’m not awash in production. I also feel very exposed in “Coming Around Again". Certainly in the original the emotion came across but not in the way it does on Never Been Gone. When I listen to this album it affects me more, hurts me more, elates me more; it gets back to the core of what the emotion is of the song. When I was listening and mixing "Coming Around Again" it seemed very much like a chant in a way. It sort of moves you vibrationally sometimes like when you sit and chant. I’m not sure which organ it affects - whether it the spleen, the heart, or the liver - but there’s something about it that puts you in a “hum” mood.

Tom: I agree. It’s a liberating listening experience. I imagine it must have been the same for you doing these songs in an entirely different way.

Carly: Well, yes it was and certainly my son Ben [Taylor] had a huge hand in that. He wanted to know how I originally wrote them and then he wanted me to move from there, to take my toys and do them bare and stark. You know, it’s not that I’m not very much helped by Ben and David Saw and [other musicians on the album] but there’s something so different about this album. We’re all older; we’re all approaching it in a different way. There are some new musicians who were never in on the songs before. David Foster certainly put a very new spin on “Let The River Run.” I find that song can be sung in any way. It’s a hymn, so it cannot be sung as a sultry love song, but in terms of whether it’s chorally done or [performed] by one voice or by a duo or trio; it’s very versatile. We sang this in a beautiful and simple choral way, although there are aspects of my solo voice that come through. But it’s largely a guitar-based song; it doesn’t have the thrust of the original version that I did for Working Girl.

Tom: Since we’re talking about “Let The River Run”, your Academy Award-winning song from Working Girl which became somewhat of an anthem after 9-11, what do you think it’s going to take for us to find the “New Jerusalem” and create more harmony between each other on this planet?

Carly: Oh, what a good question. I think that if we all chanted at the same time, everyday, from country to country to country, without any time zones interfering that we would all be vibrating on the same plane, which has always been a great healer. Music has always been used to heal because it makes people feel a lot better. Not all music does; there are certain songs, intervals and chords which don’t make you feel very good. Pythagoras freed the minds of his disciples from the worries of the day by playing music, which would calm their minds and would also produce deep sleep and prophetic dreams. In the morning he would banish the lingering effects of sleep by playing stimulating melodies and rhythms. Major chords will do one thing to your mind and body and minor chords will do something else. Suspension chords will do something else. Then there’s the Devil’s interval which does something. So music and its properties are just fantastic the way they can alter your state of mind.

Tom: I think that’s why we come back to our favorite music over and over again when we want to recreate that original experience.

Carly: Yeah, when you think of it the ancient Hebrews or the prophets foretold the future through chanting and the sister of Moses was said to have immense visionary powers which were conveyed through chanting. Shamans cured diseases and mental anguish by coaxing the evil spirits into leaving their victims through the powers of chanting. There have been all kinds of enlightenment through music, but healing the sick is also a major [attribute]. There are so many curative powers in music. I think that music is the strongest of all the arts in terms of being able to cross all the boundaries and being able to do so many things, especially vibrationally to the body. Looking at a piece of art is very effective and impressive, but I don’t think that it does the same thing if you’re not also the participant. There’s something about the way music brings people together in a communal way; it's such a terrific thing. And it seems to me that the most powerful thing about church or temple for me was always the music.

Tom: Do you use music in meditation to relax? It’s widely known that you have some issues with stage fright and it’s ironic that you create this beautiful music and yet you have stage fright before going on. Does music help you to calm yourself?

Carly: [Laughs] I would love to be on stage and perform music - just the vocal aspect of it - with a whole lot of other people. I would love to sing in a choir or as some of the Irish folk musicians do; they’ll sing while being held from the back by another singer, and that person will be held by another person, and that person by another so that it’s like a chain of singers who are holding each other and they feel each other vibrationally. I would love that. When I’m singing by myself I feel incomplete a little bit. I wish that I could actually feel the warmth and the vibration of another human being right next to my body while I was singing.

Tom: Well you certainly have the vibration of millions of fans that you’ve performed for over the years supporting you. I hope you feel that at times.

Carly: Oh I do, I do! I love it when the audience sings with me. What I don’t like is the very stillness of a room and then just my voice. That’s what sort of scares me. I jump at the sound of it, it’s so solo. I think there are some people who really feed on that and feed on the complete solo-ness of their voice as a lone instrument in the dark. I like the togetherness of the community singing.

Tom: Let me ask you about the creative process. I know that besides being a musician you’re also a very successful film arranger and children's author. Can you explain where all the magical melodies and lyrics, the ideas and words for your books and music come from?

Carly: Oh I have a thousand stories and as I was explaining to somebody the other day, I think I was born with a faucet in my mind. It’s always dripping a melody but there are other things that will be in the way of it. For instance, I’ll be talking to you and I won't necessarily be thinking of the melody, but as soon as I’m still again the melody will come. So anytime I want to tap into it I can and then I‘ll go from there. I go from whatever melody I’m given to a lyric that will seem to go with it or to a better melody or to a chord that I play on an instrument. There's always a starting place. It happened to be with my children’s book that the starting place was in telling my own children stories that I would be making up, because it would be easier to put them to sleep when the lights were out and I was not reading a book. So I would turn off the lights and I would make up a story. Everything that I write has to be very real to me or I have to be able to identify with it.

Tom: Who do you turn to musically for inspiration?

Carly: It’s usually classical music. To be specific I would say the music of Debussy, Poulenc and Gershwin, who's obviously not just classical but he’s the modern composer who I’m most attracted to in terms of melody. There are so many people in pop music and in jazz that it would be to hard to limit myself. If I go to my CD collection it’s almost impossible to chose one myself. It’s easier to turn on the radio and see what happens by accident. There’s always something that I’m fascinated and/or moved by.

Tom: Included in the new album is your song “Coming Around Again.” You write about coming back home to Martha’s Vineyard:"I know nothing stays the same / But if you're willing / to play the game / It's coming around again / So don't mind if I fall apart / there's more room in a broken heart." The music has changed this time around but the words still hold a simple truth that is unchanging about a space - in this case your home - which holds peace and serenity. Other than your home what sustains you when all else fails?

Carly: I think it’s prayer, in its various forms. It’s prayer, where I stay quiet and see whether I can hear the voice of God and how the voice of God comes to me. If it’s in the form of music, then there’s some kind of spiritual prayer which is more sacred than it is secular and that can be any number of things. There’s a requiem by Fauré I happen to love. My thing is I have to remember to [pray]. When I’m not being sustained or when I lose myself or when I’m angry or when I’m in the wrong space I have to remember I can click it off. I have to remember that I can pray if I choose to do so.

There are many things that are meditative for me. Painting is meditative; I love to paint. I love to garden and to look at my beautiful trees that I’m so lucky to have. My son’s music is just exquisite. I listen to that; I listen to the beauty of his voice. Just the beauty of the human voice is really something; it’s a meditation all of its own. The voice of my daughter… there are so many beautiful voices that I just love. My favorite tenor is Yussi Beurling and some of the beautiful music that he sang, just that voice in itself can pull me in a whole different direction, as can various pop songs. I listen to a lot of Motown, especially to Otis Redding, Marvin Gaye and Sam Cooke. And dancing... I would be a whirling dervish if I lived in that time. In fact, I might start a little group of my own right here in my apartment. [Laughs] That would be fun!

www.carlysimon.com

Photos by Amanda Borland

By Trevor Harden, trevor@RockOm.net

A caesura is "a break or interruption in music, notated by two diagonal lines often referred to as railroad tracks. The break can be of any length at the discretion of the conductor." (Source)

There's power in the pause. Cessation often makes that which follows the silence punch with more pizazz.

A musical caesura is just that - a moment when the music stops, when the conductor holds his arms in the air and all the players wait with anticipation for the baton to drop. The silence is charged with expectancy. Furthermore, the quiet of the pause stands in stark contrast to the dynamic, forte blast of the music's reentrance.

Herein lies two more good reasons to participate in meditation, prayer or other such "stilling" practices.

First, in shutting down our senses for a time and then reemerging from the silence, the world then seems brighter and more dynamic. When we never step "outside" of the world and its activity, it is quite easy to take it all for granted. In choosing to deny the physical world for a spell - if even for a morning quiet time - we return to see it again in all its glory and wonder.

Secondly, in the retreated quiet, our senses long for stimulation. You and I experience it as restlessness and a desire for the session to be over. Many meditation practices seek to eliminate that craving and agitation through the practice. That's fine and good. But occasionally it may make sense to meditate on your "wanting" and then just consciously enjoy the feeling of satisfying those antsy urges upon the end of your session. Anticipation, by definition, waits for a resolution. Instead of just wishing the anticipation would go away, take some time and enjoy seeing your desire come to fruition!

Either way - to more fully experience life by momentarily retreating from it, or by consciously playing with anticipation and resolution - writing in regular caesuras on your life's sheet music is a profound and enjoyable practice. Will you find power in the pause?

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

• Katy Perry: Sass, spirituality and secrets - Katy Perry says, "I'll never be really blasphemous. I kind of just straddle the line between being the sex kitten and Lolita. My faith is still important to me and I guess you could say that, spiritually, I'm still a wanderer." (TheStar.com)
• A Muslim meld of punk and piety - "That's about when the cops put an end to one of the strangest cultural mash-ups in North American Muslim history." Here is a story about Taqwacore: a furious meld of punk and piety. (theglobeandmail.com)
• Spirituality and Music 101 - "Music is simply a different form of prayer - or talking to/with/about the human experience of life and its transcendent dimensions, God." (examiner.com)
• Fearlessly I Will Sing the Attributes of the One without Attributes... - "I'd like to share a jewel of a bhajan (devotional music) written by sufi saint Kabir, the great 15th century saint from Varanasi, India..."(blog.seattlepi.com)

"Bach gave us God's Word. Mozart gave us God's laughter. Beethoven gave us God's fire. God gave us Music that we might pray without words."

[quote from outside a German Opera house ]

This week we're proud to introduce you to Sarah Hart, an excellent singer-songwriter whose new album merges the ancient wisdom of saints past with a modern, folksy pop sound.

Six years ago, Sarah Hart stumbled across the Anima Christi in an old prayer book her mother used as a child. Awed by the beauty of this ancient prayer, she set it to music, then began searching for more. The first collection of its kind, SaintSong is a contemporary montage featuring wisdom from saints throughout the ages.

“The process of creating this project allowed me to really deepen my Catholic faith, through the knowledge of these saints and their beautiful perspectives on God,” says Hart. “My hope is that maybe it will do the same for others.”

The CD presents 12 brand new compositions in Sarah’s signature folk-pop style. Texts include poems, prayers and other writings by some of the Church’s most revered doctors and theologians. St. Augustine figures prominently, as do women mystics like Catherine of Siena, Hildegard of Bingen and Mechthild of Magdeburg.

With sub-sections inspired by lectio divina, the ancient Benedictine method of praying with texts, each song becomes a devotional and catechetical exercise. The CD is enhanced with a prayer guide that directs the listener through four steps: Read, Reflect, Respond and Rest. “Read” features the complete song text along with a short bio of the saintly author. In “Reflect,” Sarah shares her personal thoughts on the text. “Respond” is a prayer or petition inspired by the text, while “Rest” offers a theme for meditation.

The devotional content and songs combine for a powerful resource for personal prayer and more. Offering several songs for use in the liturgy, SaintSong is great for youth and young adult ministries, retreats, sacramental preparation, and prayer services.

Sarah discusses the music of SaintSong in short videos available for viewing at www.spiritandsong.com/saintsong. Visitors to the site can also hear full-length versions of 11 songs and purchase the enhanced CD, offered at $18.00.

About spiritandsong.com
spiritandsong.com, a division of OCP, offers the latest releases by both big-name artists and emerging new talents. OCP, a not-for-profit publisher of music and worship resources based in Portland, Oregon, has been in operation for more than 80 years. Worship materials produced by OCP are used in thousands of churches in the United States and are distributed worldwide. More information is available at ocp.org.

Source: Press release by spiritandsong.com

The musical term pedal tone (also known as a drone or organ point) is a low, sustained tone that remains steady in the bass of a composition while other voices move about above it. It's a presence that's always there, underlying whatever dance is going on above it. If the music gets intense enough the pedal tone may be completely drowned out, but even then it can usually still be felt.

Through the effects of a spiritual practice, or a relationship with God, or a connection with the Ground of Being or emptiness we too have the opportunity to have a constant presence at our side, a droning and infinite sustained “tone” that can always be at least felt during whatever may be going on in our lives. And that is precisely the purpose of having a spiritual practice – a regular, disciplined time of prayer or meditation or creative practice or interaction with the natural world... whatever it is that connects you with the divine. It trains us to be able to hear and feel that quiet “pedal tone” that we hear and feel when we are in the quiet of our practice out in the loud and restless world.

If you'e fallen out of disciplined practice, regular prayer respites, or scheduled meditation – consider jumping back into this week. Start tomorrow. Or start today. For if we find comfort and meaning in that droning “pedal tone” of our quiet times, we can certainly train ourselves in being able to experience it through the loud jazz of everyday life.

By Trevor Harden, trevor@rockom.net

Discuss this article

Want to trigger a spiritual experience or simply become a less selfish person? Get lost in meditation, prayer or even a good song, MU researchers say. Doing so, they’ve found, deactivates the part of the brain programmed to focus on your self.

Brick Johnstone, a University of Missouri neurophysiologist, released a study early this month that linked decreased activity in the right parietal lobe of the brain to spiritual experiences. That particular area of the brain, found in the upper back portion, controls a person’s ability to recognize themselves, their abilities and their relationship to their environment.

Johnstone studied individuals with brain injuries and discovered that people with trauma to the right parietal lobe reported higher levels of spiritual experiences.The finding is important, he said, because it means people can learn to become selfless by decreasing activity in that part of the brain through meditation or prayer.

But one doesn’t have to be religious to experience it; even getting lost in a good song can take a person’s attention away from the sense of self, said Dan Cohen, an MU professor of religious studies and anthropologist. "Losing your sense of self is a human experience that happens in various degrees," Cohen said. "If you’re listening to music, your favorite song on the radio, you lose yourself and suddenly it’s over. You lost your sense of self for a moment as you’ve merged yourself into the music. It’s a joyful and pleasant experience."

Johnstone stressed that the study isn’t intended to minimize spirituality as simply a brain function. "Just because the brain is shutting down, allowing you to be more selfless, that doesn’t take away from the spiritual experience you feel," he said. "There’s something incredibly wonderful about the universe people feel connected to; for monotheistic religions, that’s God, or for other religions it’s nirvana or the universe, for lack of better term."

And there’s no evidence that spirituality can be linked to just one area of the brain, Cohen said. The brain is too complex and individualized to try to compartmentalize or oversimplify its functions, he said. "You have to be careful to not say, ‘Oh, that explains it,’ " he said. "That’s dangerous."

Johstone’s findings align with other studies that have shown Buddhist meditators and Franciscan nuns experience the same neuropsychological functions during religious experiences. Locally, Cohen has found that individuals from various religious denominations benefit mentally not because of religious rituals but because they feel support and love from their respective congregations. Cohen and Johnstone are now studying spirituality among individuals who have suffered a stroke or have cancer or other health problems.

The research "can be used to garner greater mental health and to make minds work better, longer and stay healthier," Cohen said. "Brain health is becoming increasingly recognized as an important part of a good life, a satisfying life."

By JANESE HEAVIN
Originally posted at the ColumbiaTribune.com here. Reposted with permission.

Discuss this article

I want to invite you into a new way of thinking – a fresh way of experiencing prayer and spiritual insight – a reformed way of entering worship. For, you see, today I want to ask you to be open to the voice of the Living God as encountered in music and the arts. Don’t get me wrong: I am not saying that the One who is Holy is not present in traditional styles of worship and prayer; nor am I suggesting that what we are about to embrace in this experiment is better than the liturgies of previous generations. That would be both stupid and arrogant.

Rather what I am trying to articulate is that at this moment in time – for a thousand different reasons – there seems to be a consensus emerging that music – and other forms of artistic beauty – have a new role to play in the awakening of sacred compassion and hope within and among God’s people. That is to say, from painters and dancers, to poets, sculptors and musicians a chorus is forming around the idea that art can not only show us something of the world that ought to be, but beauty and music can help us taste it and see it, too.

Music, you see, can bring healing and nurture to both head and heart simultaneously – it can inspire and strengthen – and put us into intimate communion with the Lord so that our prayer is no longer an abstract intellectual exercise or a childhood habit of superstition, but a feast where we are fed from the inside out by God’s gracious presence. The poet, Maya Angelou, put it like this:

A Rock, A River, A Tree
Hosts to species long since departed
Marked the mastodon,
The dinosaur, who left dried tokens
Of their sojourn here on our planet floor,
Any broad alarm of their hastening doom
Is lost in the gloom of dust and ages.
But today, the Rock cries out so clearly,
forcefully.
Come, you may stand upon my back and face your distant destiny,
But seek no haven in my shadow,
I will give you no hiding place down here.
You, created only a little lower than
The angels, have crouched too long in
The bruising darkness
Have lain too long
Facedown in your ignorance,
Your mouths spilling words
Armed for slaughter.
Now the Rock cries out to us today,
You may stand upon me; but do not hide your face.
For across the wall of the world
A River sings a beautiful song. It says,
Come, rest here by my side.

Does that resonate with you at all? She is saying what is being felt and created and experienced all over the world: the ground of our being – the Rock of existence and creativity – the very heart of God is calling us to rest – to be comforted – dare I say to be healed? So that we, in turn, might share the bounty we have received from the very heart of God as compassion and beautiful acts of justice.

This is critical – this is a deep way of living our spiritual commitments – for it is embodied spirituality, it is shared in community rather than privatized and it is about both head and heart. "Come to me all ye who are tired and heavy laden and I will give you rest, right? Are you tired, frustrated, burned out on religion? Come away with me… and I will show you the unforced rhythm of grace." (Matthew 11: 28)

And that is what [the act of] worship asks you to consider: letting go so that you can feel the unforced rhythm of grace. Letting go and being carried by the music, you see, is a way of prayer.

Scholars have argued for millennia about [the last chapter of the book of Job] – some choose to translate the Hebrew one way while others turn it upside down and draw opposing conclusions – but another consensus is emerging that perhaps the poet Stephen Mitchell has got it right. After 42 chapters of agony, death and fear – after 42 chapters of Job sucking it up and getting horrible spiritual wisdom from his so-called friends – after finally breaking down and screaming at the Lord in rage and encountering God’s mystical and almost Zen-like response from out of the whirlwind – Mitchell translates Job's epiphany like this:

Lord, I now know that you can do all things and nothing you wish is impossible. Who is this whose ignorant words cover my design with darkness? I have spoken of the unspeakable and tried to grasp the infinite. Listen and I will speak; I will question you, so please instruct me. For before I had only heard of you with my ears; but now my eyes has seen you – I have experienced you – so now I will become quiet, comforted that I am dust.

Now be careful: Job is not confessing that he is worthless or unworthy or filled with shame or sin when he tells God that he will be comforted that he is dust. No, he is admitting only that when he surrenders – lets go to all his preconceived notions, hopes and fears about God – can his humanity - dust - be at rest in God’s loving and sacred presence. Are you with me? When Job lets go… he can find rest and comfort in his human condition because he has found the healing presence of God in his life. No more abstractions. No more superstition. When he let's go, he let's God be God and that allows his dust to dust/ashes to ashes humanity to rest.

Since September 11th, more and more artists all across creation are wrestling with how they can help us both let go and be comforted by God’s presence. They are reclaiming their sacred calling to help us move beyond the cynicism of the status quo and imagine the world the way it ought to be – a world where we do something beautiful for the Lord – and are strengthen by the unforced rhythm of God’s grace.

NOTE: What you have just read was the introduction to an extended meditation on music and scripture based upon readings from the Community of Iona. To see the full meditation liturgy which weaves songs like the Beatles' "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" and Joan Osborne's "One Of Us," see this article's original posting HERE.

[By "RJ" - a musician, blogger and pastor serving a United Church of Christ in Pittsfield, MA. Visit RJ's powerful blog - When Love Comes to Town.]

[by B.J. Hoff]

You've given me the words, Lord...
and the music
A song of life that's new and unrehearsed;
You have given me the joy that makes my heart sing,
Even though at times the tears come first.
You've taken all my yesterdays of discord,
A clash of cymbals, meaningless and vain,
Transposing all the noise into a love song
That floods my very soul with its refrain.
You've taken all the gifts I once thought mine, Lord,
And changed the composition of their worth,
Reclaiming what was yours from the beginning,
Returning them, transfigured by rebirth.
You've given me the theme for my existence,
And I will sing Your glory all my days.
For now, Lord, and forever,
be my Music and make my life
a symphony of praise.

One of the best known composers of music for prayer and worship, Dan Schutte counts “Here I Am, Lord,” “City of God” and “Sing a New Song” among his celebrated works from years of collaboration with the St. Louis Jesuits. Now liturgists, musicians and communities seeking a renewal of faith through music and prayer are discovering the inspiring power of a concert or workshop with Schutte.

“While my evening events are often advertised as a concert, they are quite different from most concerts,” says Schutte. “At the conclusion of these evenings, people often comment that they feel like they’ve been on retreat. I’m glad when that’s what they experience. These ‘concerts’ are a combination of music, stories and reflections on our common journey of faith.”

Schutte’s music continues to be part of the standard repertoire for Christian worship worldwide. He is one of the best-known, most prolific and influential composers of Catholic music for the liturgy. Table of Plenty, an anthology of favorite Schutte songs published from 1985 to 2000, is slated for release in the fall.

“A Dan Schutte concert unites generations in song,” says Ken Canedo, youth ministry advisor for Holy Trinity Church in Beaverton, Ore. “Today’s teens are still singing ‘Here I Am, Lord’ and ‘City of God,’ just like their parents did. Dan’s spirituality and musicianship ground the event, but he also knows when to step back and let his audience carry the singing.”

“We attach graced memories to Dan Schutte’s songs: First Communion, Confirmation, youth ministry, weddings, RCIA,” continues Canedo. “An audience walks home from his concerts with new memories as the People of God united in song.”

These events are rare opportunities to tap into the experience of an award-winning liturgical music legend. Worship communities interested in booking Schutte for a concert or workshop should contact OCP Events at 1-800-548-8749 or events@ocp.org.

About OCP
OCP (www.OCP.org), a not-for-profit publisher of liturgical music and worship resources based in Portland, Oregon, has been in operation for more than 80 years. Worship programs produced by OCP are used in two-thirds of Catholic churches in the United States and are distributed worldwide.