Music feeds my soul and singer songwriters are the farmers whose craft of cultivating fertile fields of rhythm and rhyme, harmony and lyric, bring to the table all manner of nourishment. I am blessed to know many talented musicians in this genre. Among them are a foursome that call themselves Accoustic Blender. Hailing from the Philadelphia region, they are husband and wife Jenny and David Heitler-Klevans (a.k.a. Two Of A Kind), whose music has entertained children in this area for decades, attorney Hope Wesley Harrison who also is a furniture finisher and Justin Solonynka who makes math fun as a classroom teacher. In their first (and hopefully not last) CD together, entitled Crazy Whirled, they blend social consciousness with consummate musicianship and between them, they play guitar, whistles, percussion instruments, bass and piano. Their voices merge beautifully as if they were meant to sing together.
Some of the pieces on the release are covers of the songs of others, inlcuding Jackson Browne’s Lives in The Balance about the war in Latin America in the 1980’s; the Roches’ Anyway which was adapted from the words attributed to Mother Teresa, but were written by Kent M. Keith. “People are unreasonable, illogical and self centered…forgive them anyway.” Justin’s Caleb’s Real is a lively, foot stomping, hand clapping frolic. I particularly resonated with A Question of Tempo, since I am almost always on the go, moving at such a speed and laughed at the line “I think I’ll add a relaxation class.” The cover of the Beatles’ In My Life is a sweet treat, that had me sighing with bliss. Patty Larkin’s Metal Drum is a wake up call to the environmental tragedies we face. Jenny took a turn at songwriting, putting herself in the role of her mother when moving from the West Coast to the East Coast when Jenny was an infant, in the piece called Suspended in the Air. Mary Chapin Carpenter penned the song (they pluralized the name) Why Walk When We Can Fly? as a chant to challenge listeners to soar beyond limitation. Even You came through Justin when, after being cut off in traffic, he was tempted to lash back and realized that love trumps anger.
Even more delight awaits….for adults and children.
Rev. Edie Weinstein, MSW, LSW is a Renaissance Woman and Bliss Mistress who delights in inviting people to live rich, full, juicy lives. Edie is an internationally recognized, sought after, colorfully creative journalist, interviewer and author, a dynamic and inspiring speaker, licensed social worker, interfaith minister, offering uniquely designed spiritual rituals. In addition, she is a PR Goddess, promoting events and transformational teachers, healers, writers and artists. She speaks on the subjects of wellness, spirituality, sexuality, creativity, time management, recovery, body image, mindfulness, self esteem, stress management, re-creating yourself, caring for the caregiver, loss and grief. She is a frequent guest on radio and TV. Edie is currently writing her first best selling book entitled The Bliss Mistress Guide To Transforming the Ordinary Into The Extraordinary and is offering a workshop for women who want to re-create their lives, based on those concepts. A 20 year old journalistic vision came to pass in July of 2008 when she interviewed His Holiness The Dalai Lama. It was a potent reminder to never, ever, ever give up on our dreams. Over the years, Edie has written for mainstream and transformational publications. She has interviewed hundred of notables in the transformational fields, including Wayne Dyer, Marianne Williamson, Debbie Ford, Leonard Peltier, Shirley MacLaine, Michael Beckwith, Jonathan Goldman, Gregg Braden, Neale Donald Walsch, Mary Manin Morrissey, Dan Millman, Alan Cohen, Ram Dass, Jack Canfield, Jean Shinoda Bolen, Patch Adams, Ben and Jerry, Donna DeLory, James Twyman, Elizabeth Lesser, Michael Franti and Jean Houston. Her website is http://www.liveinjoy.org
Read more from VividLife.me bloggers:
“The secret of life is in art.” – Oscar Wilde There was a time in my life when I had not considered myself an artist. Sure, I played with paints and crayons, etch-a-sketch and playdoh in childhood and the sight of an oversized t-shirt splashed with color brings me right back to kindergarten when we wore them as smocks to cover our clothes. As I grew up, I became more self conscious, hesitant to color outside the lines literarally, if not ,…
God is IN the People by Jeff Brown
God is IN the People: An excerpt from ‘Soulshaping: A Journey of Self-Creation’ At the heart of Soulshaping is a profound faith in the human experience, in the karmic significance of our personal identity. This stands in real contrast to some of the detachment models that are gaining favor in Western culture. These models present true-path as something distinct from the emotional body, as though our usual self-identifications are inherently inauthentic, as though our physical forms are inferior. At the extremes, they seem to suggest that God made a mistake when she placed us in,…
Written by Edie Weinstein
Edie Weinstein, MSW, LSW (Bliss Mistress) is a colorfully creative journalist and interviewer, internationally known transformational speaker, licensed social worker, interfaith minister, Bliss coach and the author of The Bliss Mistress Guide To Transforming The Ordinary Into The Extraordinary. Over the past 25 years, she has interviewed such notables as Jack Canfield, Marianne Williamson,Dan Millman, Shirley MacLaine, Ram Dass, Ben & Jerry and His Holiness the Dalai Lama. She is a regular contributor to Beliefnet, Elephant Journal, Wisdom Magazine, The Whirling Blog, Identity Magazine and Bellesprit.
