Sharing the true holiday message-William Close & the Earth Harp Collective

This morning I caught William's tweet about The Earth Harp Collective's livestream performance in TX at the Lake Pointe church.  Being the proud owner of "Holidays" which William self-released this time last year I tuned in to see the live performance of some of its tracks..  The album includes songs that were recorded in the studio that was designed into the home that replaced the one he had lost in a fire two years earlier.  The studio's construction is such as to accommodate the harp and to replicate as close as possible in a recording the live experience of The Earth Harp.  This album shows that that effort was very successful but it is also great to see the Earth Harp and all the other instruments and voices with the holiday decorations around it.

I found this morning's performance ironic, prophetic and a huge opportunity.  Lake Pointe is a non-denominational, evangelical congregation...fundamentalist Christians.  Definitely not the people one would find on The Playa in August covered in skins and feathers, sending their praise and prayers to the Universe heavenward in the giant bonfire that is the immolation of The Temple. In fact, I think it's a safe bet that most of the people that attend this church and others like it would cross the street to avoid contact with the members of The Tribe and go home and say all manner of awful things about these dirty hippie, tree huggers.  And yet, this day those dirty hippies brought probably the truest, most glorious version of "the message" into their midst.

First and foremost my love of The Tribe and my gratitude to them for being invited into its fold is that we believe in a global community.  We believe that the New Era that we ushered in on the Solstice last year will culminate in the breaking down of all barriers.  No more will we use the words racist, biggot, homophobe.  There will be no terms that separate us from one another.  The lamb shall lie down with the lion and we will live in perfect peace.  We will know agape, unconditional love.  We are open to all religious options.  We recognize and respect the great prophets, the mighty people of the gods.  We know the names given to the divine mother and father spirits and honor them all.  We appreciate the merits of the life and words attributed to the man known as Jesus of Nazareth.

So it is that The Tribe came humbly into this gathering of those who claim to follow this Jesus and with them they brought His message of deep, peace.  They delivered spiritual healing with instrument and voice.  William, a human imbued with knowledge of the angels, brought that otherworldly instrument into this space so that humans could experience the actual sounds of Heaven.  Rafe came with that voice that rises over the din and delivers this glorious prayer in Jesus' own native language.  They came with the spirit of family-both nuclear and extended.  Sarah and William took their love for one another and pushed it into the strings of the Harp.

I'm sure that all the members of The Earth Harp Collective were well aware that the people they were sharing this with, in other circumstances, would not associate with them,  would call them heathens, unbelievers.  However, the agape love they live compels them to share the greater message.  To help fill in the blanks left in the theology.  The Tribe truly loves mankind.  It is not that we are "better than you"...we want to add our parts of the machine to this.  We want you to "live life abundantly".  We want to help break your hearts and spirits open, to throw open the gates and let the real joy, love and peace enter in.  This was your Jesus' message.  It can be so much more.

Thank you William, Sarah, Rafe, and all the other musicians who share their talents so unselfishly.  I have to say that I was terribly sad to find the words I feared seeing in the chat screen running alongside the video feed.  I pray often that "Christian" would live Jesus' teaching about not judging.  I wish they would open their spirits and see that we are all part of this family, we just have different ways of connecting with the Divine, worshiping, praising and honoring the Great Being(s) that created The Universe.  Interesting that it was a "fundie preacher" that once taught me that we all have a tiny sliver of this great Universal pie and the point for us each to share it to create the complete story.  Last year when I did my Good Friday labyrinth meditation, I saw this all as a giant machine and we are each a gear, a cog, a chain, a key...it will take every one of us to run smoothly...to create peace.  Don't take the joy out of this holy season of The Solstice, Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanza, Yule...this season when we come together to find the strength to get through coldest part of the year, to celebrate having survived to the longest night and moving toward more hours of daylight even though it is a time that food is at its scarcest and weather its fiercest in the Northern Hemisphere.  All these holy days have elements of coming together, sharing a meal, gifting, decorating and bringing a light into a dark place.  I hope that those people who have accepted the twisted message of The Christ, have a vision of what my friends brought to them and shared with hearts filled with love and one day start to break down the walls and learn to live in real peace with ALL people.

You can purchase "Holidays" here:
ttp://williamcloseholidays.bandcamp.com/album/holidays
http://www.amazon.com/Holidays-William-Close-Earth-Collective/dp/B00ALBNO1K
http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/williamcloseandtheearthh2
and on iTtunes

Learn more about William Close and The Earth Harp:
http://williamandtheearthharp.com/
https://www.facebook.com/WilliamAndTheEarthHarp

Music line-up for Lightning In A Bottle announced

Today DoLab posted the powerhouse line-up of musical performers for this year's festival.  In its new home at Lake Skinner,  Lightning In A Bottle will welcome Nicolas Jaar, Rusko, Tycho, and Paper Diamond as headliners to this summer’s festival.

Over the past eight years, DoLab’s main event has taken place over the Memorial Day weekend in Oak Canyon Park.  Due to new land use regulations the festival has not only changed its location to Temecula but has also dates.  This year things get rocking on July 11^th and run thru the 14^th.

The music lineup for the the country's premier boutique music and arts festival also includes the sounds of Miguel Migs, Eskmo, Tim Green, Cari Lekebusch, Blockhead, and Kastle. Icon of house François K, indie artist Blackbird Blackbird, L.A.’s own Jason Bentley, Herbert Bail Orchestra plus many others.  Mixtures of performance, music and installation art will be presented by Lucent Dossier Experience and William Close with the Earth Harp.

DoLab co-founder and curator Jesse Fleming sums up the music elements of Lightning In A Bottle like this, "Our goal with the music is to create a positive and uplifting experience, with a good balance of beautiful melodic music and good old party music. After 4 months of in depth research and a lot of listening we tried to cover as many genres as possible that we feel fit the vibe that we're trying to create with Lightning in a Bottle.”

For more information about Lightning in a Bottle, and to purchase tickets, visit http://lightninginabottle.org. Follow LIB at  www.facebook.com/LightningInaBottle or The Do LaB at www.facebook.com/thedolab or www.twitter.com/thedolab.                    

ABOUT THE DO LAB / LIGHTNING IN A BOTTLE

Based in Los Angeles, The Do LaB’s mission is to craft experience as art and bring communities together. Aside from showcasing electronic music artists throughout Southern California, The Do LaB is well known for creating unique art installations/stages and curating cutting edge acts at the inner misting Oasis stage at Coachella in addition to producing Southern California’s Lightning in a Bottle and the game changing 2012 Winter Solstice event The Great Convergence which took place at the pyramids of Giza in Egypt. The Do Lab’s work has also been showcased at Virgin Music Festival, Global Gathering, Portugal’s Boom Festival and many more.

Phoenix Frederick Nathaniel Close

While you are all waiting for my feature article on William Close because we are all waiting to see how he does in the next round of America's Got Talent, a wonderful event occurred in William and Sarah's lives yesterday.  It took Dad a couple of weeks to actually post the announcement, Phoenix was born on June 15th.  Everyone is doing fine.  


Please be patient.  For those not aware, contracts are things that have to be honored to the letter of the law. In this case both for the artist and the press.  William has assured me that as soon as NBC and AGT give the green light we will not only publish the feature in FourCulture but probably add a follow up interview.  In the meantime, please watch for his next performance with the Earth Harp and vote if you love it as much as I do.  William is blessed with incredible talent as a teacher, instrument inventor and musician.