Autumn affirmations of Rock Art, Pagans, UU's and the State Fair.

Randy Granger at SWEC 2013 Gala Fundraiser 

Happy autumn friends. We are blessed with an extended Indian Summer here in the Chihuahuan desert of southern New Mexico. Our Rio Grande is mostly Rio Seco (dry) this summer sadly. We had such great rain and were happy for it. Let’s hope it replenishes the watershed. Since my last post I’ve performed up in Albuquerque at the NM State Fair in the Indian Village at the Unitarian Universalist Church in Albuquerque where I got to try out their new worship hall. It is beautiful and austere, very UU. They love my music there and I love playing there where people really listen to the spirit and intent of your music. Also I’ve performed here at the Southwest Environmental Center’s SWEC fundraiser Gala on the Downtown Street of Las Cruces. It was posh and a beautiful evening settled into our downtown canyons and my music swirled and caressed the people and buildings. It was a great cause. I wasn’t paid more than a utility payment for playing, I'm grateful, but hey it’s about keeping the circulation of giving and receiving giving. 

Las Cruces Pagan Pride Day Young Park 

Last weekend I performed at the Pagan Pride Day here at Young Park in Las Cruces. The weather and day was ideal and our fall weather held out for us so well. I really believe diversity is having a respect for everyone’s own journey to his or her Creator. It’s more than lip service for me and I was honored to be  headline the day. My booth was stocked with the rattles, flute, Sage, Smudge, jewelry and music I carry. I also reconnected with some great drummers in the area and we jammed on stage and afterwards that night at Susan Jewel’s drumming studio. My hands were sore. Ha-ha. I love me some drumming.

With all of my recent gigs the number of people who come up to me and tell me how they listen to my music is touching and a much needed affirmation to continue. They say they listen to it every morning to get into a peaceful zone, as they work on their art, their computer, at work, before bed, doing mediation, prayer etc. I’m just so completely overcome with emotion and gratitude when I hear this. One woman came just to buy a copy of Strong Medicine for her friend who has been diagnosed with cancer. She wanted to give her a copy personally.

Another said it was all they listened to when their brother was in his battle. Another has a young, healthy, athlete son who just had surgery for testicular cancer and he said he listens to Deep Peace to You over and over for comfort and strength. I’m so touch by their personal stories. As I work in the studio it’s easy to forget my music impacts the world. When I’m stressing over money I don’t feel I’m anything special and certainly not important to anyone. So these testimonies are affirmation and feedback from creator/universe saying yes you are and you need to birth even more of your music into this world. So thank you.

This weekend I return to perform for the second year at the Rock Art Rendezvous near Comstock, TX. It is at the White Shaman Preserve across from Seminole Canyon St Park. The Non-Profit Rock Art Foundation’s mission in part is to: 

Educating public and private sectors about the endangered status of rock art in Texas

Restoration and preservation research

Acquiring endangered sites for transfer to agencies capable of ensuring their integrity.

Continuing to locate and document previously unrecorded sites

Fostering harmonious relations with land owners for site management / protection and supervised visitation

Archiving photographic collections

Every year they meet and have a rendezvous and organize hikes to the pictograph and petroglyph sites over five millennia old that dot the lower Pecos river area of the southwest. It’s breathtaking and humbling to go on these hikes mostly on privately owned land. I first went three years ago and jammed at night with the other great musicians who come to the gathering.  So I performed a concert last year on the Saturday night and was invited to return and do it again. The feedback from the crowd was strong, supportive and laced with appreciation. I’m the one who is most appreciative the opportunity as I totally support their efforts.  I play me flute at the cave rock art shelters and feel my ancestor’s spirit and presence. They care they took to leave those ancient messages makes me feel so grateful I get to see it. Truly. And, I get to some really special and great friends again !!!!!!

Rock Art Foundation

Work on the new album of solo Native American flute "Ancient Grace" music continues. I haven’t launched the Indiegogo campaign yet because I haven’t been able to edit and finish the video. It takes so much time and care it’s been a challenge. I’m sorry for that. I very much know there is support for it and I will burn the midnight oil to get it launched before I get too overwhelmed. Several people have supported me through PayPal and I have a folder with their backing info. You can also do that in any amount you wish. My PayPal is hangguy@gmail.com Be sure and copy and paste the email as there are 2 “g’s” Thanks

Talk to you after the Rock Art Rendezvous. You can always support them too at www.rockart.org and learn more about their amazing work and mission. 

Blessings to you at every turn. Be sure and check me out on iTunes, Amazon.com, CDBaby.com. Pandora, Youtube and my website. 
Randy

randygranger.net

Alchemy as a Music Metaphor

“Everyone seems to have a clear idea of how other people should lead their lives, but none about his or her own.” ― Paulo Coelho, The Alchemist

Paulo Coelho’s seminal book “The Alchemist” is a fable like story of a Sheppard boy searching for the meaning of a recurring dream. Along the journey he meets archetypes that tell him it means treasures, wealth, secrets but an alchemist reveals it is his own personal story that he must transform into the metaphor of gold. "When you want something, all the universe conspires in helping you to achieve it" is the core theme of the book. Coelho was met with failure and ridicule when his book was first released and after a “period of healing” so believed in his work he went door to door of publishers. This undoubtedly, his own personal transformational journey he wrote about.

Las Cruces Museum of Art Feb 1, 2013

This week I taped a short radio interview about my album Strong Medicine and also to promote an upcoming show in El Paso, TX Feb. 10. The interview is scheduled to air Feb. 9th 11:30 AM MST at www.ktep.org on a long-running program called State of the Arts. The interviewer had listened to and reviewed the new CD and had a page of notes. She is a pro and musician as well. She said to me before the interview that she is incredibly moved by this new album, paused then said, “You know Randy, you’re an alchemist.” She said I had turned so much love, pain, grief and loss into something so personal and moving that is stunned her. She shared a story about her own loss and how when her mother was battling cancer in the last stages she heard a bird singing loudly outside her window during a thunderstorm. Just then she received a call that her mother had passed. So when she heard the line in my song “Where Did You Go” about a bird singing outside a window, she knew I had been in that place too—where the artist makes the personal into the universal. Alchemy.

Las Cruces Museum of Art Feb 1, 2013

The process of writing and recording the music for Strong Medicine felt like mining, which is another metaphor for how we get gold. If you’ve any knowledge about gold mining it is messy, hard, ugly work that involves searing heat, tons of water, chemicals to extract the gold and a lot of sweat and dirt. Sometimes making art is like that too. You don’t come out of it clean, shiny and radiant. You need time to heal and recover too. It is an enormous privilege and responsibility to be given the gifts and talents to do this. You want to avoid sentimentality and cliché as much as possible. You gotta dig deep and mine that emotional core of each song in an authentic way. Listen to the interview if you get a chance. If you miss it the State of the Arts website posts past shows so you can catch it later. I only hope I was an alchemist of this music for posterity and for you, the listeners. Ultimately though, it has to be about my own, the artist’s, transformation from raw materials into something precious and worthy and my own personal transformation.


During the interview she got choked up a couple of times which is very humbling to me as she is a pro. At one point, when I mentioned my late partner’s name in reference to a lyric a speaker in the studio howled and squealed with feedback for an unknown reason. This shook us all up. The engineer piped in and said he had no idea what that was caused by and suggested we had a ghost with us. We exchanged a knowing glance. I think this will be edited out of the interview though.

Don’t forget I’m playing a full concert 3PM, Feb 10, at Grace United Methodist, 400 N. Carolina Dr, El Paso, TX. www.graceumcelpaso.org/about.html it’s Free!

Radio interview airs Feb 9 @11:30AM MST, www.ktep.org Stream live or listen after program airs at http://www.ktep.org/programs/state-arts

Peace and well being

Randy

Music as Good Medicine

Randy Granger, Rock Art Rendezvous 2012 photo by Greg Bodin

Greetings friends. As fall gives way to winter here in the southwest I hope you are all settling into the change  of seasons with good friends, family and music. I’ve been on the road quite a bit performing at Native Rhythms in Florida, the Dallas/Ft. Worth area, Yosemite festival, New Mexico State Fair and various other festivals, concerts and appearances. Staying busy is how I prefer to be as a working musician of course. Since Strong Medicine was released in September I've been performing music from it at shows. It has been received well and seems to be moving people emotionally. The response from listeners has been moving as they share their own stories of strength, grief and compassion with me. Often they are unable to speak or are overcome with emotion as they express gratitude for being able to connect with feelings of healing. What’s interesting is that many have not heard the back story yet feel the emotions from the music. How grateful I am for their honesty and openness and willingness to share their stories. I believe the music of Strong Medicine is meant to heal. Certainly the music ranges from meditative, joyous, peaceful and healing. You can hear the clips at Cdbaby.com and decide for yourself.

To order the CD from me directly go to my website via PayPal securely using a credit card or bank account. If you’d like it signed simply indicate that in the notes to me. It is also on iTunes, Amazon or CDBaby.com. Feel free to leave a review. I’ve included a couple of recent reviews and articles published about the album. I find them very thoughtful and well written.

I’m in the process of booking performances for 2013 and am open to house concerts, churches or shows in your area. Feel free to contact me at hangguy@gmail.com for booking questions. In December I will be in Colorado working on a mixed-art performance with renowned writer Craig Childs. In January I’ll be performing at Green Valley in Arizona. February finds me in El Paso, TX, Feb. 10, for the  2^nd Sunday Series at Grace United Methodist - 400 N Carolina Drive, 3:00pm. 

May the peace and reflection of the season comfort you and your loved ones always.

Peace

Randy

Reviews:

Give local books and music this holiday By S. Derrickson Moore / dmoore@lcsun-news.com Las Cruces Sun-News Posted:

lcsun-news.com

December 9, 2012 Las Cruces Sun-News 

LAS CRUCES - "Strong Medicine" by Randy Granger (www.randygranger.net). Award-winning singer-songwriter-musician Granger calls this album "my way of transmuting into music the unconditional love it took to help my beloved through pancreatic cancer."

The result is honest, sometimes surprisingly upbeat and steadfastly loving and healing.

"Deep Peace to You" could become a timeless lullaby as well as a classic comfort anthem. "Dancing Skin" and "Where Did You Go" are moving love songs. Granger's unique perspectives, Indian heritage and skills with Native American flutes and percussion are showcased in "Hawk Medicine On I-10," "The Radical Faeries Morphine Drip" and "The Hospital Stairwell Blues."

http://www.lcsun-news.com/las_cruces-sunlife/ci_22154791/give-local-books-and-music-this-holiday

S. Derrickson Moore can be reached at (575) 541-5450. Follow her on Twitter @DerricksonMoore.

_________________

Friday, 30 November 2012

Multi-instrumentalist Randy Granger delivers a triumphant tribute to loss and recovery with ‘Strong Medicine’

By David Salcido

For the Las Cruces Bulletin

It’s been a long two years for musician Randy Granger.

In the first year, he watched as his partner of 10 years, poet Wayne Crawford, slowly returned to the spirit world, leaving him with responsibilities of estate closure and a grueling return to the stage.

In the second year, he gathered together all of the elements of that experience and processed it through his music. The result, “Strong Medicine,” is both a tribute to the poet who shared his life and a universal gift to any who have ever sought understanding in the face of tragedy.

Granger remembers the day, back in October 2010, when the diagnosis was delivered in a cold examining room of a research hospital in Houston.

“We were shocked. You could feel the room swirling and closing in,” he said. “That was a difficult night, as you can imagine, back at the hotel. We both were very emotional and just didn’t know quite how to process the information.”

Five months later, Crawford was gone. The ordeal, however, wasn’t without its moments of clarity.

“When we were in chemotherapy was when I first heard the sound of the pumps,” he said. “I was mesmerized by the sound and thought it was worth documenting, so the next time we went I took a little handheld digital recorder and recorded the sound. Wayne saw what I was doing and said, ‘You’re going to get some really great music out of this.’” The words proved prophetic.

“What I was doing was what songwriters tend to do,” Granger said. “We take emotional snapshots. I was hyper aware of everything that was going on. Somehow I knew I had to put all my grief on hold. I had to store it for later use. I didn’t start to write any of the songs until he had passed away.”

In fact, it was a full year before Granger began writing the songs that would become “Strong Medicine.” A year in which he hit the road and reconnected with his fan base, while also dealing with the problems of settling Crawford’s estate, selling their rambling home and downsizing for his new life as a single man. When the muse finally called, he was more than ready to meet the challenge.

The title track, “Strong Medicine,” opens with the sound of the chemotherapy pump, playing in counterpoint to Native American drum and traditional flute, then flows into the poignant play by play of painful discovery and hopeful regeneration. As in most of the songs on this album, the lyricism of each powerful word resonates with a poet’s heartfelt precision. The plaintive vocals wring emotion from every line and it is here that the storyteller truly comes of age. Artifice is burned away and all that remains is pure, raw emotion.

Another standout is the gorgeously simple “Where Did You Go?” A single acoustic guitar is joined by a mournful flute, but it is the gentle overdubs of the artist singing harmonies with himself that give the song resonance. Once again, it is the words, however, that provide the power behind the emotions. “Are you the bird who sings outside my window? The gooseflesh on my neck?” Who hasn’t asked these questions when a memory moves us to remember those who are no longer with us, except in spirit?

Even the instrumentals that have been Granger’s stock-intrade for the better part of the last decade have taken on an edge that is anything but emotionless. “Awaken Dreamer,” “Hawk Medicine On I-10” and “Marfa Lights” are haunting glimpses into a cultural pain that is only beginning to surface.

National promotion and marketing of“Strong Medicine”will begin in January 2013. Will it have the impact and acceptance of his 2008 award-winning release “A Place Called Peace”? All signs point to yes.

“The response when I play it live has been almost overwhelming,” Granger said. “I don’t think people are responding because of sentimentality, I think they’re responding to the authenticity of the emotions.

“That’s very rewarding.”

Granger said he believes that this incident has brought him to a better understanding of himself and his process.

“Before I came to Native American flute music, I had been a songwriter and performer for decades,” he said. “This is like coming back around to myself, but with an entire new quiver full of tools and instruments. This album is my return. I did the relaxing ambient stuff and I’m really glad, but I now have something to say and this album definitely communicates that.”