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Notes from the Songwriter

I love to sing, and I love to share that with others. I especially enjoy involving the people who are there with me. Over the years of singing like this, the songs I write have taken on that character also. Nearly all of the songs on this CD are invitations for the listener to join in. The more the audience gets involved and participates, the richer the music becomes. My goal is to move people in such a way that after a song is finished, there is no need to applaud (for whom?). With this approach, it is very easy for silence to be felt in the room – and I invite that after every song for as long as the silence remains alive. After that, it’s time for the next song.

Singing has become for me a doorway to silence – a doorway to meditation. I started experiencing the poetry of Rumi years ago. But it wasn’t until a few years ago that I really began to appreciate the power and genius of Rumi’s poetry, and the remarkable way that he presents his ideas. One idea is presented, and then another. They are each interesting in themselves, but, when experienced together, they cause a great “pause” within me.

Each one of the songs “happened”. I didn’t write them – I simply started singing them out of the pause that they caused in me.

The poet Rilke once said that the most important thing about music is the gaps between the notes.

One night, a friend of mine who was singing in the group that had gathered that night suggested I record the songs. She said there were many lovers of Rumi and they could benefit from the silence and peace that happened from experiencing and singing these songs.

When she suggested it, I felt a very clear “yes” inside. And, ever since the songs started happening, I have felt a deep affinity with Rumi.

I felt “counseled” by Rumi all along. “What would you have me do here?” I often asked. Sometimes the answer came out rock and roll, sometimes there was only silence. The quality of the silence wasn’t a withdrawal, but a feeling of support to allow me to just let what whatever wanted to come out, come out. That support was always there; even when I got sidetracked. I often felt like I was getting whacked as a reminder to stay in the moment – to let the moment itself decide what was to happen next. It was a delightful combination of discipline and joy.

In creating this album I wanted to create a journey into silence. I also wanted to find ways for the music to support the poetry; to let Rumi come off the page and dance and sing. I wanted to engage the listener and introduce Rumi and his ideas in such a way that, with every song, the listener could go deeper into the intelligence, insight, and mastery of a person who had come to dissolve himself into life.

Rumi seems to understand it all – from the simplest question of a child to the most complex understanding of how life moves from one form of intelligence to the next. To read him is to become one of his students. These are the same words that Rumi spoke to his most trusted and intimate students. These poems are a front row seat in his classroom.

The songs are an invitation to dance with him. Rumi loved to dance, sing, and be surrounded by music. I often have felt Rumi’s joy in those special moments when my friends and I have become lost in the magic and majesty of his poetry as we sang these songs.