We first got together with our instruments in a log cabin studio in the mountains of North Carolina.  Over the years and hours of exploration we have selected these pieces of music to share with you. 

Wysteria - this song appeared to us while performing at Spirits by the River in Asheville.   The music is best embodied in a poem I remembered from years of life in Costa Rica:

al la tarde ser  (at dusk)

hora de melancolia   (hour of melacholy)

hora que no es de noche   (hour that is not yet night)

y aun no es de dia   (but yet is no longer day)

hora que regresa todo que se fue  (time that all that has left returns)

hora de estar triste sin saber porque.   (time to be sad without knowing why.)

         - M

Cole’s Song - was first composed on summer afternoon  with Greg Brown at a gathering at Peter Katers place in the Shenandoah Valley in Virginia.  My heart was filled with love  in anticipation of my son’s birth.  Later, in the studio with Greg, we added the bridge to the song. - M

Desert Rain - Mark and I sat under headphones in the studio ready to embark on another musical exploration.  I began playing extensions of an earlier composition of mine called Spanish Fantasy.  We wandered around with sounds for a few minutes and then rolled the tape.  When we listened back, we felt Desert Rain. - G

Galapagos - This composition was and still is a journey for me.  I decided to adjust the hammered dulcimer to an open tuning to fit the harmonics of Mark’s flute.  Plucking with my fingers was the only way to capture the mood.  We added bass, percussion, and harmonica.  Galapagos is a suite.  Out on a boat, the sea slowly begins to stir, the wind kicks up the swells, and we are sailing on the edge of a gale.  We ride  it out and end with the stillness afterward.- G

Whales Song - We had begun imagining Galapagos.  Mark started playing flute sounds and I played the effects processors.  We layed down three flute tracks and then I went back and mixed Whales. - G

Awakening - An old rusty string banjo begins this piece patiently gathering energy as memories of other places, other times, possibly other lives surface from the players soul. -  G

Paz - the Spanish word for peace.  This simple melody played with two Native American flutes is a prayer asking for and expressing gratitude for the blessing of peace on earth. - M

El Sendero - The name of our musical exploration is Sendero,  the Spanish word for a path, the way somewhere.  This piece was inspired by a imaginary journey to the sacred Incan mountain, Machu Pichu.  Two white men ascending the mountain from Cusco on foot,  passing Incan men on horseback,  Incan women on foot, some carrying children, passing us as we walk..  This music is the mood of that journey, the look in their eyes, the history of these people.  The sadness,  compassion,  wonder,  and hope.  The uncertainty of tomorrow,  the power of this moment.- M

Ascension -  This was our first recording.  I began to strum my guitar,  Mark began to play his flute,  we rolled tape, and Ascension is now with us.  It is a song of meditation, hope and realization.  - G

Appalachian Blue -  If the Cherokee and Irish had played music together two hundred years ago this might have been what it sounded like.  The banjo and flute,  the Celtic and the Tsalagi,  the ancient ones sharing the spirit.