Two musical things, with a connection, happened recently. My wife and I walked into a music shop in Brighton UK and there on a large-screen tv was Sonny Terry and Brownie McGee – happiness!
When I got home I found more music waiting form me, this time from the UKs singer-songwriter Martin Kerr, who currently lives in Edmonton Canada.
Martin wrote and thought I might be interested in two songs for preschool children. Yes I am but his work is also a great inspiration for people of all ages. I suspect that other teachers will, like me, warm to Martin’s music.
His songs and or lyrics would make a wonderful starting point for Philosophy for Children, or adults, especially if the philosophising led back, in a loop, to making songs. This is such a fine expression of the I (capital I) voice of creativity, of the subjective voice, as described in the SunWALK model and in Ken Wilber’s writings.
My response to Martin:
uncompromsing like Sinéad O’Connor or Dylan
lyrical like John Denver or Red Grammer
thoughtful like so many fine thinkers
structurally his lyrics and singing cut songs in your consciousness like a sculptor revealing his vision from stone
His published CD is at http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/martinkerr
About himself he says;
I write what I’d like to listen to – songs of honesty and passion, very personal accounts of struggles and adventures that we all share in some form. Originally from Oakham, a wee town in middle England, I grew up with a world map on my wall, and have since travelled to 26 countries and counting. My favourite type of music is “live” – there’s a unique power to being face to face with the artists, to feeling the soundwaves through your body and seeing the lyrics and melodies interpreted on their faces and on those of the audience. My music collection is mostly populated by other independent musicians whom I’ve met at gigs and traded CDs with. Songs are definitely more powerful when you’ve met the person who wrote them, and feel you know them a little. For the same reason I always tell stories when I perform, to give the songs greater context, life and colour. I often exaggerate my proper English accent in order to appear intelligent and sophisticated, although despite this, at least 50% of the North Americans I meet think I’m from Australia…the other half think I’m Hugh Grant in disguise…
The liner notes for Martin’s CD read like this
Written across 4 continents and recorded during his time in China, these songs share the profound thoughts and transformative experiences of a young songwriter finding his place in the world.
Liner Notes
by Martin Kerr
There are two meanings to the title of this album. On the level of our ailing sociey, “I don’t wanna be just another man”, but as a human soul that is, of course, exactly what I am. ‘Just Another Man’ means, to me, that art is not the exclusive domain of a uniquely gifted few. It is a universal human phenomenon – the expression of every sincere heart. I believe that our musical future will not be one where individual idols, swathed in lights and artificial glory, look down on adoring mulititudes. It is one where each child grows up with the knowlege that every human heart contains such jewels as beauty, love, truth and faith. One where the sharing of those treasures through sincere and creative expression is a daily delight and the basis of true community. My hope is that by sharing in these few rough, dusty gems of my own wandering heart you may be encouraged to find and give forth more of your own…
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