Music is a powerful, ancient aspect of our being that unites us all.  This page contains some of the music that has touched me that I’ve had a chance to record so far along the journey.  I’m honored to be able to share these people’s songs with you.  Also included are some of my songs I’ve recorded with some of these folks.  I love how songs take on new life in each new mix of person and place.

I have categorized these recordings according to the ancestral lands where the recordings took place.  For continuous play without the narrative I’ve made a playlist at the bottom of the page.

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Chumash Country (Santa Barbara Area)

Jan Smith

Jan Smith is an amazing woman and I am grateful to know her.  She is a resident at the Quail Springs Permaculture Farm, and spends her days tending the gardens, managing goats, chickens, rabbits, ducks, and yeast, and sharing her wealth of knowledge with visiting students.  Her music is as real as she is.  I had the chance to record her playing her new song Beauty with my Zoom H2N with the birds singing outside the main building on the day after the two week permaculture design course I took there.  The Well was recorded months later with my Tascam 8 track and condenser mic in a little cobb house.  When you fall in love with her music you can find more at www.redsequin.com

Beauty

 

The Well

 

 

Hopi Country (middle of Utah) summer, 2013

David Holladay

Dave Holladay (Yes, he’s kin to Doc) is a man of great mojo.  In addition to being a legendary wilderness guide of the Great Basin and a fully dedicated father and husband, he is a gifted songwriter.  His lyrics and the quality of his voice share great power with simple clarity.  I recorded these songs in a slot canyon with my Zoom H2N.  He’s playing his Appalachian lap dulcimer.  The white noise is the sound of the wind in a nearby cottonwood tree.  So far this is the only place you can find his music unless you encounter him in the wild or come see him playing with our new band, Singing Dirt (at least when we play in Utah).

By Just You Being You

 

Native’s Lament

 

 

Maidu Country (Nevada City, CA) fall, 2013

Singing Dirt at Banjo Dave’s House

We met Dave our first night in town and quickly became good friends.  He’s a permaculture designer, phenomenal picker, and all around good guy.  I met Ross, Katie, and Angelica, a couple days later at a coffeeshop, beautiful people and very talented musicians. Before leaving the area for the time, we all got together at Dave’s place and did a few recordings together.  More from this session are being edited, but here’s a couple for now.  Thanks Dave!

Bottom Up

Dave Carrol:   mandolin  Ross Plunkett; trumpet  Angelica Pray; melodica, vocals  Katie Grenell:  flute  Timothy Sexauer:  songwriter, vocals, guitar

 

Meter Maid Betty

Dave Carrol:   banjo  Ross Plunkett; trumpet  Angelica Pray; melodica, vocals  Katie Grenell:  flute  Timothy Sexauer:  songwriter, vocals, guitar

 

Singing Dirt on KVMR

Singing Dirt rolled into Nevada City on the synchronicity train and a week later ended up on KVMR, a great local radio station, with a few new collaborators.  The following is one song, Moonstar Mojo, from the show recording.

Moonstar Mojo

Dave Carrol:  banjo, mandolin  Ross Plunkett: trumpet, flute  Angelica Pray: melodica  Katie Grenell:  flute  Timothy Sexauer:  songwriter, vocals, guitar  Alison Hensley:  vocals, shaker  Matty:  big hairy drum

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Santiam/Kalapuya Country (Willamette Valley, OR) written 8/27/2014

“Everyone had a song.  You didn’t talk about this power-but expressed the power by singing.”  -northwest indigenous scholar Henry Zenk on the Kalapuya people

For many years, in many contexts, I have heard the phrase, “Are you from Oregon?”  I’ve always looked forward to visiting and exploring why I might give off an Oregonian impression. Well, I’m finally here encountering Oregon after all these years…when I was a teenager I kayaked the Rogue River for a few days with some family, but this is my first time exploring up here in my adult life.  It’s been a long time coming, but once I made the realization that this was the year to do it everything began to fall into place, as it tends to go…After I started planning what my late summer Oregon trip might look like my cousin Danny asked me if I would be a groomsman in his wedding on August 23rd in the Portland area…I could see the timing of this long awaited Oregon meeting was taking the shape of an intelligence greater than my own, as it tends to go…Big Brain workin’!…I had been planning on visiting Oregon on a road trip in my Chevy s-10, but shortly before leaving I realized that wasn’t simple enough.  I arrived here on the train with my Surly Long Haul Trucker touring bicycle, a guitar and harmonica set, some food, some clothes, and a mobile recording studio consisting of my old Zoom H2n, my new Zoom H6, a condenser mic, a dynamic mic, another mic, and some XLR and quarter inch cables.  That is what I will leave town with/on when I head south to visit more long lost friends on my way back to California.  I am currently house/dog/plant-sitting for the bride and groom for a few days while they go on their honeymoon.

Since the wedding a few days ago I’ve had the chance to make and record a bit of music with family and friends in the area.  I am so impressed with the spirit-moving beauty I see manifest in the expression of my fellow humans.  We each have Song within us.

The Fam Jam

After the wedding some of the family in town got together at Cousin Atoya and Rich’s house for some bbq, catching up, and musical sharing.  This is a raw kitchen recording, made with the Zoom H2n, of some of us cousins jamming on a song I wrote on my sailboat off Avalon, Pimu back in 2012.  Everyone really let loose and the Spirit was moving!

A Peace of Mind (thanks to Liz for the name)

Tim Sexauer: songwriter, guitar, vocals; Becky Holguin:  vocals (“all right now”); Atoya Bass:  vocals; Jeremy Sexauer:  guitar; David Sexauer:  bongo

 

Getting the Band Back Together

The next day after the Fam Jam, Cousin Atoya and her beautifully-ready-to-burst pregnant daughter Kiani drove me over to the downtown Portland house of some friends (Ross, Katie, and Angelica) that I met on a synchronicity tour in Maidu country last fall.  Playing with them made me fall in love with having wind in my songs, which was a major factor in my learning the harmonica this winter.  This was the first time me and Ross have ever had a chance to play harmonica and trumpet together.

When we arrived, I introduced the family to Ross, and we set up my Zoom H6 and some makeshift mic stands in an empty room and started making some music.  Atoya has one of the most powerful voices I have ever heard in my life, but at times she is shy about her gift.  This was her first time singing these songs.  I love listening to these recordings as she goes back and forth between being shy and ridiculously powerful.

Angelica arrived when it was near time for us to leave, just in time to record a couple songs with her.  Once Atoya heard Angie’s smoky angelic voice, she got mesmerized and shy and didn’t sing another note, as much as we tried to urge her to sing with Angie.  I’ve included a recording of each of them singing along with Ross on his song “Flightness”, so until the blessed day when we can hear them actually sing together we can at least imagine what it might sound like.  Getting the band back together is a never-ending process, as, synergy upon synergy, Life unfolds…

 

Flightness (Ross and Atoya)

Ross Plunkett:  songwriter, guitar, vocals; Atoya Bass:  vocals  Tim Sexauer:  maraca

 

Fire and Water

Tim Sexauer:  songwriter, vocals, guitar, harmonica; Ross Plunkett:  trumpet; Atoya Bass:  vocals

 

Gently, Sweetly

Angelica Pray:  songwriter, vocals, guitar; Ross Plunkett:  trumpet

 

Flightness (Ross and Angie)

Ross Plunkett:  songwriter, guitar, vocals; Angelica Pray:  vocals; Tim Sexauer:  maraca

 

I have plans for music night with Angie, Ross, and Katie in a couple days, so stay tuned for more…

 

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