M A S O N   W I L L I A M S

A 50 YEAR CELEBRATION FOR A TIMELESS

MUSICAL MASTERPIECE  

"CLASSICAL GAS"

Mason Williams emerged in the late 1960’s as a strong force in television and music circles.  In 1968 he won two Grammy awards with his unique composition for guitar, Classical Gas. That same year he also won an Emmy award for his work as a comedy writer on The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour.

Mason is perhaps most widely known as a composer and recording artist.  He has recorded more than two dozen albums, five on the Warner Bros. label (The Mason Williams Phonograph Record, The Mason Williams Ear Show, Music, Handmade, and Sharepickers).  Classical Gas was released as a single from The Mason Williams Phonograph Record in 1968.  Classical Gas won three Grammys that year for: “Best Instrumental (theme) Composition”, “Best Instrumental (theme) Performance”, and “Best Instrumental Orchestra Arrangement” (Mike Post, arranger).

In 1987, Mason teamed up with MANNHEIM STEAMROLLER of Fresh Aire fame, to release a new album on the American Gramaphone label.  The Album, titled “CLASSICAL GAS”, includes a remake of his 1968 Grammy award winning song.  Another cut from this album, “Country Idyll”, was a 1988 nominee for a Grammy in the Country Music category for “Best Instrumental Performance by a Soloist, Group or Orchestra.”  This album went Gold in 1991, and is now approaching platinum.

Mason has released (on the Real Music label) an acoustic instrumental album of Christmas/Holiday music album titled “A GIFT OF SONG”, featuring arrangements of traditional carols and original compositions.  In 1992 the Vanguard label released “MUSIC 1968-1971”, a compilation of cuts from his five Warner Bros. albums recorded in the late 60s, early 70s.

As a comedy writer, Mason has written for more than 150 hours of network television programming.  Writing both music and comedy, Mason was a prime creative force for CBS’ controversial SMOTHERS BROTHERS COMEDY HOUR.  His extensive repertoire in folk music gave him the background for many of Tom and Dick’s comedy routines, and with co-writer Nancy Ames, he also composed the shows’ musical theme.  He also created and perpetuated the 1968 PAT PAULSEN FOR PRESIDENT CAMPAIGN, the most elaborate political satire in recent history.

Other major television personalities he has written for include: Roger Miller, Petula Clark, Andy Williams, Glen Campbell, Dinah Shore, and Steve Martin. In 1980 Mason was head writer for NBC’s SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE.  In 1988 Mason received his third Emmy nomination as a comedy writer for his work on THE SMOTHERS BROTHERS 20TH REUNION SPECIAL (CBS).

He is also the creator of the world’s largest sunflower.  Originally intended as a short film, the sunflower concept was conceived as a slow-motion aerial ballet in which an old biplane skywrites (“draws”), the stem and leaves of a sunflower in the sky beneath the sun, the sun thereby becoming the blossom of the flower.

Approaching the 50th Anniversary of Classical Gas gave Williams an opportunity to reflect on his career and collect many of his art, writing and music projects into a fantastic retrospective presentation that has been and continues to be exhibited in galleries around the country.

Most recently, Williams has been returning to his broad palette of writing, composing and performing in a variety of venues. One of his more conspicuous projects is the art concept Üpclose Glimpse, an abstract artist; not just an artist who creates abstract art, he is an abstraction himself.  Üpclose is a viral visionist, and Mason is the host of this opportunistic meme. Mason says, “Üpclose uses me to explore his own unique style of mixing high and low brow art and humor into a form of concrete poetry.”

Mason is also currently working on events around the celebration of the 50th Anniversary of Classical Gas including writing, composing and performing in a variety of venues which con­tinues to this day. 

For more information about Mason Williams visit … 

http://www.masonwilliams-online.com

Dot Claire, Modern-Day Medicine Woman, is an empowerment expert and advocate for Aging Young with Vibrant Living. She weaves a tapestry that embodies vibrant health, empowering women over fifty to awaken their courage, activate their power, and create financial abundance.

With 36 years of experience, Dot brings nursing, healing touch, and aromatherapy to her work as an intuitive healer and Reiki master teacher. As a Sacred Place Practitioner, she shifts the energy of one’s environment and creates sacred ceremonies to support and empower women who are feeling overcome and distraught by money, health, and loss issues.

Through speaking engagements, online courses, and private sessions, Dot passionately inspires women to shift thinking, energize money flow, and flourish financially in life and in business.

Dot Claire, Medicine Woman and Energy Expert

“Moving Energy to Attract More Money”

Kerry Hines is the ultimate stylist and media legend. He is the creator and host of the popular syndicated Hair Radio Morning Show.   It’s the nations first 3-hour daily show about hair.  He has been featured in American Salon, New York Daily News, Atlanta Journal Constitution and many other publications. He is the brainchild behind the HairRadio broadcast network and touches the heart and soul of the industry at every conceivable level.

Dr. Lee Baucom is the creator of the internet marriage program, Save The Marriage. Dr. Baucom has over a quarter of a century of experience helping couples and individuals learn to thrive. Dr. Baucom is trained as a therapist and life coach. In addition to therapy and coaching, he has provided consultation for organizations and businesses. Dr. Baucom is also a popular speaker on a number of topics relating to thriving.

Dr. Baucom is happily married, having just celebrated a 28th anniversary. He and his wife have two children. In his spare time, Dr. Baucom scuba dives, paddleboards, and trail runs.

Debbi Dachinger interviews a Man Panel. What is that?  Debbi is single in the past 9 months.  She put together a panel of men to ask them questions to help her and other women go into the dating and relationship world and be successful.  Debbi pulls back the curtain to find out what do men really want? What is a turn off? What are we doing to screw things up? How can we be in a successful relationship? 

These 4 Amazing Men speak openly about how it is.

This is real conversation on sex, love, relationship, dating, laughter, communication, receiving love, and MORE! This is off the hook!!  

Meet Rob Dionne, Tim Wade, David D’Silva and Patrick Cullinane

One of my most favorite hours on air! (VERY illuminating…)

Amy Brenneman is an actress, producer, writer, director; advocate for inclusive education; champion supporter of women's rights and reproductive health; Mother, daughter, wife, friend, creative spirit. Amy Brenneman was born on June 22, 1964, in New London, Connecticut. She played Janice Licalsi on the police drama N.Y.P.D. Blue. In 1999, after acclaimed film work, Brenneman returned to series television with Judging Amy, which garnered her a People’s Choice Award and three Emmy nominations. Brenneman is married to director Bradley Silberling and they have two children.

ABOUT EDD EDWARDS:

As a young boy, Edd played with energy between his hands and throughout his body. With a passion for science and physics, Edd searched for the scientific explanation of the energy he was experiencing. In 1994 he met the distinguished physicist, Dr. William Levengood of Grass Lake, Michigan. Dr. Levengood was able to measure and quantify Edd’s energy output in his laboratory. Along with his work with Dr. Levengood, Edd took part in laboratory experiments with Dr. John Gedye and Charles Pyler. Through their measurement and assistance, he learned how to increase his energy output, to turn the energy output off completely, to control the switch of the polarity of the energy from positive to negative, and to affect the lab equipment from a great distance (even thousands of miles). Edd and the scientists designed and carried out countless experiments with Edd’s measurable output of energy continually increasing with precision. Today, Edd teaches others about this energy work and travels across the country offering his help to those in need.

Dr. W. C. Levengood, Bio-physics Research, has determined that  Edd trained his autonomic nervous system to interact with the ever shifting isomeric configurations, called “resonant energy”, that are ubiquitous in all living organisms. By attuning this resonant energy with a patient, he then shifts the frequencies of their energy in a way that gives maximum benefit for healing. Through biofeedback mechanisms, he senses the changes in isomeric configurations and is able to shift them in a way that influences metabolic processes in a positive way, at the quantum level, and it creates , in most cases, tingling , heat and an awareness of energy flowing through the recipient's body or bodies. Dr. Levengood published his fist peer reviewed paper about this energy with Edd's help in his lab , which is called , Evidence for Charged Density Pulses Associated with bio-electric fields in Living Organisms.

Dr. Dain Heer is an internationally renowned entrepreneur, speaker and best-selling author. Raised in the ghettos of Los Angeles, Heer is the co-founder of a diverse range of businesses around the world, including PROA, a resort in Costa Rica that utilizes biodynamic land management and Castellodi Di Casalborgon, a luxurious castle in Italy. A conscious and creative business leader with a profound understanding of the power of entrepreneurship, Dr. Heer draws upon his personal experience and unique perspective to invite people from every culture, country, age and social strata to create the money, business and life they truly desire. In addition to his diverse business portfolio, Dr. Heer is co-creator of Access Consciousness, a popular personal development organization operating in 173 countries, and is the author or co-author of nine books including “Right Riches for You” and “How to Become Money.”​

I  live with my husband and three small children in Oxnard, California, an agricultural town on the Pacific coast.  The abundant farms drew my family to California from Mexico three generations ago: one set of grandparents followed the crops as migrant farm workers and never left; the other grandparents worked in a sugar beet factory that gave birth to my hometown.

The morning breeze brings the scent of the season’s crop. Some morning smell of celery; others strawberries.  Not all smells are sweet. I was asked by an Angelino (a resident of Los Angeles), “Why does Oxnard smell bad?”  The pungent odor of fertilizer spread over the land makes a lasting impression on the “outsider.” Those of us who live here rarely make any comment about the fragrances which sometimes tiptoe and sometimes stomp into our awareness. For us, it’s the aroma of life in our slice of the world.

This intimacy with the land fuel’s my passion for the subject of water conservation, and my strong activist roots transform my passion into action. My father raised me to be a change agent. He refused to swallow his own destiny as a child farmworker. Against all odds, he earned a college degree with the assistance of the G.I. Bill. My childhood memories include my father loading my sisters and me into the stuffy station wagon to take us to the United Farm Workers (UFW) marches and college lectures delivered by his heroes of the Chicano movement. In the summer of 1988, again he loaded us into the station wagon. We drove 200 miles to Delano, California. We gathered among 3,000 mostly farmworker families to pray for the health of Cesar Chavez, founder of the UFW, on his 29th day of his fast. His fast was to draw attention to pesticide use on fields he understood to cause birth defects among farmworker children.

My own entry into water conservation began with the launch of Azul Conservation Products, a distribution business of water conservation products to retailers and industry. Ultimately, I distributed over 80,000 shower timers around the country. In 2010, my small business was honored with a WRAP (Waste Reduction Awards Program) award from the California Department of Resources Recycling and Recovery (CalRecycle). In June 2011, I was profiled in Ventana Magazine as one of Southern California’s most notable “Progressive Thinkers” on the leading edge of the sustainability movement.

My training in Public Policy from the University of Chicago taught me to become a relentless researcher. While building Azul, I discovered while conserving water in obvious ways is important to reducing water scarcity, most water wastage occurs in the production chains of the foods we consume. This research led to Eat Less Water.

When I began my farm visits I saw how the dishes we put on our table entails a far-reaching story about the earth’s water cycles. By telling some of these stories and by bringing the reader face-to-face with people directly involved in the food-production process, the book makes vivid for the reader the seldom-seen connection between the choices each of makes while shopping for groceries and the looming threat of global water scarcity.

It took seven years, 16,000 miles of travel and a whole lot of faith to finish my new book “Eat Less Water (ELW).”  The official release is this Wednesday, November 1, 2017:

"As a researcher trained at the University of Chicago Harris School of Public Policy, Florencia sets out to understand problems afflicting vulnerable communities and looks for solutions. Her articles appear in the San Jose Mercury News; the James Beard awarded Edible Communities Magazines and her blog. Florencia has recently been featured on several radio programs including NPR member stations, and Entertainment Weekly. Eat Less Water received the prestigious Gift of Freedom Creative Nonfiction genre prize from A Room of Her Own Foundation (AROHO). She lives in the coastal town of Oxnard, California with her husband and three children. Please join us as we visit with Florencia and discover why it’s important for us to understand that “the same amount of water saved over the course of a year in the bathroom can be saved in a week in the kitchen, because seven out of every ten gallons of water is used for food production.”

Noah Alvarez, affectionately called Buddha-Noah, is the Founder of Family Futures Media, as well as a healing facilitator for families and households in need all around the globe.

Noah landed in Los Angeles, CA in December 2012 with his girlfriend and dog in tow. Over the course of 5 years he has become one of the most sought-out intervention healers in Southern CA and beyond. While his young age is notable, his stature and wisdom assist in carving a path that is unique to his particular spiritual experience. 

Not only has he served celebrities with his counsel in their times of need, but he has served the underprivileged and homeless communities alike. 

His most notable work is with the Family Futures Healing Tour, which launched in the fall of 2017 and is set to return in the first quarter of 2018.

With a focus on the "new nuclear family," as well as "preserving home and soul partnerships in the 'new world," Alvarez spends most of his time working to build up families, one household at a time.

Instagram - 

• @BuddhaNoah
• @FamilyFuturesMedia

Facebook -

• @familyfuturesmedia

Would you like a consciousness environment comparable to 1,000 monks praying for you?  Or to raise the vibrations of a cell phone or other devise so instead of harmful  EMF waves it gives off positive ones. My two guests today have developed technology to give you an energy that will raise your vibrations/consciousness and those in your environment.  Meet Jeffrey Stegman and Clayton Stedmann.

Jeffrey Stegman’s focus has been on creating a high consciousness culture in his businesses, which parallels his own personal spiritual path. Jeffrey is the co-owner of two manufacturing businesses, including one that has been in business since 1835. FLFE is a confluence of Jeffrey’s manufacturing, engineering, business and spiritual evolution.

Clayten Stedmann has worked in the education, training and coaching business for over 30 years. For the last 20 years he has focused on business as a spiritual path in his coaching practice. Since discovering Consciousness Kinesiology (CK) in 2004 he has done over five million CK calibrations and created over 10 consciousness assessments and several unique energetic medicine protocols. FLFE is a continuation of his purposeful intention to create the conditions for humanity to have a higher level of consciousness.

Focused Life Force Energy (FLFE Innovations Corp) is a service company providing a subscription to greatly increase the level of consciousness of a property and/or around a mobile object to a very noticeable and beneficial level and provides a free trial so that people can feel it themselves before subscribing..

For centuries people have been making pilgrimages to places around the world known for their cleansing, healing, restoring and loving energy. The highest aspects of this energy can be expressed on the spiritual path and also by being a loving parent, a devoted husband or wife, a hobbyist gardener, a full-time farmer, a dedicated photographer, a steadfast employee and a business owner.

For almost as long people have been working on ways to re-create and harness this energy through study and inventions. People such as Albert Einstein,  Nikola Tesla, Masaru Emoto and Buckminster Fuller are just  a few of the better known of hundreds of researchers who understood that perhaps the greatest contribution to humanity’s evolution that we can make is to raise our own consciousness and sought ways to accelerate that process.

The study of atoms and later quantum physics confirmed what ancient spiritual teachers had been stating for centuries; ‘the law of nature states that everything has a vibration.’ Today most of us use terms like ‘ I do/don’t like the energy or vibe of that room, business or person.’

As humanity evolves new ways of measuring these vibrations emerge. A recent discovery has made it easier to measure vibration in everyday life in order to facilitate positive changes in people’s level of consciousness.

In the latter half of the 20th Century, a very successful psychiatrist, David R. Hawkins, M.D., Ph.D., after treating thousands of patients, began to see common levels of thinking, feeling and acting.  He realized that people’s challenges and advances depend on their level of consciousness. He first outlined a scale measuring levels of consciousness or vibration, named the ‘Hawkins Map of Consciousness’, in his New York Times bestselling book ‘Power Versus Force’ (1995). Hawkins, along with a group of researchers, over a period of more than twenty-five years, used kinesiology to measure the level of consciousness in everything they could imagine; people, books, music, events, countries, locations.

Hawkins documented these consciousness levels in a scale from 1 to 1,000. On this scale 200 is the level above which we begin to add energy to everything around us. Below 200 we are net consumers of energy. A few of these levels are: Shame, which vibrates at 20, Fear is 100, Courage is 200, Acceptance is 350 and Love is 500. Enlightenment levels range from 600 to 1000. Today tens of thousands of Hawkins students and practitioners in multiple disciplines use the Hawkins Map to measure and effect change in quality of life and personal evolution.

In 2008 two men met through a mutual friend. They were both working on accessing and utilizing high consciousness fields.  Jeffery Stegman was creating high consciousness fields and cultures in business and Clayten Stedmann, as a coach in business as a spiritual path, was creating high consciousness fields for healing the human mind, body and spirit.

They came together with an inventor who had devoted his life to creating free energy for humanity.  Although he did not create a free energy device, He had discovered a way to re-direct and focus large amounts of life force energy (also known as subtle energy) on an object.

Between Jeff’s experience in engineering and Clayten’s knowledge and extensive practice in Consciousness Kinesiology and the Hawkins Map they re-engineered the original device to broadcast a high consciousness wave to specific locations around the world. At first, Clayten and Jeffrey used the device and associated technology to raise consciousness around the world as a public service project. As they were able to increase the power available and the ability to positively affect a property, they brought the consciousness raising technology to the public as ‘Focused Life-Force Energy’ (FLFE). FLFE Innovations Corp was formed in Nelson B.C., Canada to create the infrastructure to offer the service and to support customers on the FLFE wave.

Today after an additional 9 years of research and hundreds of customers and testimonials Jeffrey and Clayten are beginning the process of increasing public awareness of this unique consciousness raising technology. FLFE Innovations Corp offers a monthly FLFE subscription on a property or on a mobile object (FLFE Mobile, also known as the FLFE Bubble).  The technology associates (entangles) the FLFE device with an address or photograph of an object using custom developed software integrated with the FLFE device and creates the FLFE wave that works with the property or object. The FLFE wave will clear negative history (on a property), raise consciousness and increase greatly the positive energy available for people and animals on the property or in a specific radius around the FLFE Mobile Object, as well as many other enhancements.

I have been using the energy for over a year and have seem positive improvements in my health and interactions with others, and in my holistic environment with difficult neighbors moving away, algae clearing from water bordering my yard, neighbors congregating in front of my house, other stopping to visit and not wanting to leave and more.

KEITH THIBODEAUX 

I LOVE LUCY'S 'LITTLE RICKY'

DRUMMER, SINGER,SONGWRITER FOR

'DAVID AND THE GIANTS'

EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR FOR 'BALLET MAGNIFICAT!'

SPECIAL GUEST ON THE RAY SHASHO SHOW

Keith Thibodeaux is the Executive Director of Ballet Magnificat! since 1993. Keith first came to national attention as the drum-playing son of Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz on the now classic "I Love Lucy" show. Hailed as a child prodigy, Keith started drumming at the age of two in Lafayette, LA. His abilities led him to a national tour, a starring role as "Little Ricky Ricardo" and various acting stints on television, including The Andy Griffith Show, Route 66, The Shirley Temple Playhouse, Hazel, and many more.

While attending the University of Louisiana in Lafayette, Keith joined and recorded with the then mainstream rock band, "David and the Giants." Keith left the group after several years, but, following his (and fellow band members) Christian conversion, the band regrouped under the same name and went on to become one of the nation’s top contemporary Christian music groups. As a drummer, singer, and songwriter for the Dove nominated "David and the Giants," Keith toured extensively for 10 years in the United States, Canada, Jamaica, and England, recording 9 albums before leaving the group in 1989 to pursue other interests.

Keith has been featured in such publications as Newsweek, People, Saturday Evening Post, Modern Drummer, CCM, and Classic Drummer Magazine. He has also been a guest on NBC's The Today Show, Entertainment Tonight, CBS's Good Morning America and The O'Reilly Show.

In January of 1991, he joined his wife Kathy on the road with Ballet Magnificat! and in 1993, Keith became Executive Director.  In addition to his current responsibilities at Ballet Magnificat!, Keith still finds time for the drums and recording. Keith's book, Life After Lucy, tells the story of his life as Little Ricky on the I Love Lucy show, and subsequent encounter with Jesus Christ as Savior. Life After Lucy is sold in bookstores and in the Gift Shop section of his website. Keith and Kathy have one daughter, Tara, who is a dancer and choreographer and married to Bryce Drew, former player in the NBA and head basketball coach at Valparaiso University.

Leonard Perlmutter is the founder and director of The American Meditation Institute in Averill Park, New York.

Leonard also serves as the author and editor of “Transformation,” the Journal of Meditation as Mind/Body Medicine.

Over the past thirty-nine years, Leonard has served on the faculties of the New England Institute of Ayurvedic Medicine in Boston, Massachusetts and the International Himalayan Yoga Teachers Association in Calgary, Canada. He has studied in Rishikesh, India and is a direct disciple of Swami Rama of the Himalayas––the man who, in laboratory conditions at the Menninger Institute, demonstrated that blood pressure, heart rate and the autonomic nervous system can be voluntarily controlled. These research demonstrations have been one of the major cornerstones of the mind/body movement.

Mr. Perlmutter has presented informative workshops on the benefits of meditation and Yoga Science at the M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, The Albany Medical College, The New York Times forum on Yoga Science, the Commonwealth Club of California, the University of Wisconsin School of Nursing, the Washington University Medical School, the University of Colorado Medical School and the West Point Association of Graduates.

Since 2009, Leonard’s Heart and Science of Yoga® empowering self-care program has been certified for continuing medical education credits by the American Medical Association and the American Nurses Association for continuing medical education credit.

Social Networks

Linked In: https://www.linkedin.com/in/leonard-perlmutter-ram-lev-ab19b12a/

https://www.facebook.com/AmericanMeditationInstitute

https://www.facebook.com/leonard.perlmutter.9

and Facebook Live....

Twitter: @amimeditation

Barbara Hand Clow is an internationally acclaimed ceremonial teacher, author, and Mayan Calendar researcher. Her numerous books include The Pleiadian Agenda, Alchemy of Nine Dimensions, Awakening the Planetary Mind, Astrology and the Rising of Kundalini, and The Mayan Code. She has taught at sacred sites throughout the world and maintains an astrological web site, http://handclow2012.com/

Bestselling author Barbara Hand Clow shows how the Mayan Calendar is a bridge to galactic wisdom that fosters personal growth and human evolution

• Unearths the meaning behind the calendar, its message for modern civilization, and what will happen after the calendar ends

• Reveals how time acceleration is a manifestation of the acceleration of consciousness

• By the author of The Pleiadian Agenda

The Mayan Code is a deep exploration of how, with the end of the Mayan Calendar, time and consciousness are accelerating, giving us a new understanding of the universe. Using Carl Johan Calleman’s research, as well as the ideas of other Mayan Calendar scholars, Barbara Hand Clow examines 16.4 billion years of evolution to decode the creative patterns of Earth--the World Mind. These great patterns culminate in 2011, and then during 2012 and beyond major astrological influences will inspire us to attain oneness and enlightenment.

The Mayan Code shows how the time cycles of the Calendar match important periods in the evolutionary data banks of Earth and the Milky Way Galaxy. These stages of evolution converged during the final stage of the Calendar, the period between 1999 and 2011. War and territoriality, resource management and separation from nature, are all part of daily events we must process during the coming transition years: evidence of the tightening spiral of time that we experience as time speeding up. Barbara Hand Clow counsels that our own personal healing is the most important factor as we prepare to make this critical leap in human evolution--now referred to as the awakening of the World Mind.

My guest, Betsy Muller, is a coach and best-selling author who has helped thousands of people discover their full potential through life balance in action. She lived decades of frantic imbalance while climbing the corporate ladders at PPG Industries, BP Oil, Southwest General Health Center and OsteoMed II before jumping off to start her own business in 2005. Since then, she’s overcome stage fright and technology terrors to address international audiences through speaking, TV, radio, and the web.  Betsy is an Accredited Master Trainer and Advanced Practitioner of Emotional Freedom Techniques, the only one in the Midwest region.

Betsy puts her BA in Chemistry from the College of Wooster to work in the kitchen now and then, however she uses her MBA from Baldwin Wallace University just about every day.  Betsy hates writing, yet is the author of four books, including the Amazon best seller Energy Makeover – A Conscious Way to Stay Young, Have Fun and Get More Done, as well as a contributing author to the Clinical EFT Handbook.   Betsy lives in Strongsville where she shares an empty nest with retired Cleveland Browns’ Marketing Director George, golden retriever Gracie and a naughty kitten named Violet.  Her proudest accomplishment is being the mom of two employed and happy college graduates whono longer ask for money.  Her love of travel and culinary adventures has earned her a Level 6 Contributor and Restaurant Expert awards on Trip Advisor  When she’s not on the job, Betsy’s working up a sweat, in a natural setting overlooking water.

Mary Youngblood - Native American musician
Bio: Bending tradition, Mary Youngblood is a modern American Indian woman of one half Aleut (Alaskan) and one half Seminole (Floridian) descent. With her children, she currently resides in Northern California. Youngblood is often touted as the first Native American female to professionally record the Native flute. Verifying her talent and mastery of this ancient instrument traditionally played only by men, she was the first woman to win the 'Flutist of the Year' award in both 1999 and 2000 as well as, the 'Best Female Artist' award in 2000 at the Native American Music Awards (NAMMYS).

Each of Youngblood's three recordings are different stylistically from one another. Her debut 'The Offering' is a solo flute recording that was recorded live to DAT in the huge underground chamber of the Moaning Cavern in California. These natural acoustics lend an amazing echo and organic quality to the distinctly memorable melodies that Youngblood creates with her flutes.

"In addition to the haunting sounds of various handcrafted wooden flutes, the listener can occasionally hear the drip of water in the cavern, which adds a surreal you-are-there feeling." -Monterey County Herald News

'Heart of the World' found Youngblood weaving her flute melodies with the lush accompaniment of guitar, percussion and the exquisite voice of Joanne Shenandoah. The impetus for this recording is the U'wa people of the Rainforest in South America who are struggling to save their land from drilling development by oil companies. Heart of the World is the name the U'wa have given their native land in South America and proceeds from each sale of this album benefit their resistance struggle. 'Heart of the World' won numerous awards and accolades including:
'BEST NATIVE AMERICAN RECORDING'
Association for Independent Music INDIE Award - 2000

Youngblood's newest release, 'Beneath the Raven Moon', can be considered a poetic concept album. The title of each track is a line from a poem written by Youngblood. Thematically, this album is all about the human condition; growth, interaction, and journeys. For the first time ever, this album also showcases Youngblood's strong voice harmonizing along with her many flutes. Further instrumentation is arranged by award winning producer Tom Wasinger who has worked on each of Youngblood's three albums. 'Beneath the Raven Moon' explores Youngblood's exemplary flute playing with other American music styles such as Classical and Blues (two of Youngblood's favorite genres).

"Mary Youngblood brings a fresh perspective to original melodies." -Dirty Linen Magazine

Mary Youngblood co-founded the Northern California Flute Circle and is a secretary on the board of directors for the Sacramento Urban Indian Health Project. Youngblood has a lifetime of musicianship behind her. She started with piano lessons at age six, violin at eight, classical flute and guitar at ten. As an adult, when Youngblood received her first wooden Native flute, she was driven to pursue the mastery of this instrument so tied to her own heritage. Now years later with three unique and accomplished albums under her belt, Youngblood owns over 125 hand carved Native flutes in her collection and uses a wide variety of them throughout every one of her albums. Each of her flutes is masterfully crafted from different types of wood, bringing a unique sound and texture to each song.

When Youngblood performs it takes only a moment to acknowledge the profound spirituality of the sacred Native American flute and its historical courtship and wooing attributes. Her haunting music is much more than a song ... it's liquid poetry, a prayer. Mary Youngblood takes little credit for the intense emotions people feel when they listen to her music. "I am only a vessel between Creator and this instrument. As a sculptor would tell you, the clay has a spirit of its own and decides what it will become; so it is with the flute. These songs came from those who walked before me."
 

The tall, lanky, Tantoo Cardinal is a metis, the term in Canada applying to those of mixed Native American and European descent. Raised among the Cree, she turned her political activism into an acting career that has included roles as the knowing wife of the Medicine Man in "Dances With Wolves" (1990), the poignant childless companion of Rip Torn in "Where the Rivers Flow North" (1993) and the mother of Brad Pitt's wife in "Legends of the Fall" (1994).

Being involved with the Amer-Indian activism of the 1970's Tantoo felt acting would be a way to reach people and send her message of "truth" to the world. Along with Russell Means, Graham Greene and others she has accomplished a part of her "mission." She began with public speaking and lecturing on the Native-American condition which gave her confidence.  Cardinal was a leader of a youth group petitioning to get the Canadian government to build more schools on Indian reservations in the province of Alberta when she was cast in a small role in a 1971 Canadian docudrama on the life of Albert Lacombe, a 19th century Roman Catholic missionary.
Though uncomfortable with having to portray Lacombe as a savior, Cardinal made the most of her part and, bitten with the acting bug, began performing in films, TV, on stage, and even in industrial films. By 1986, when she moved to the US to pursue a career in Hollywood, she was nationally known in Canada. Strong parts in feature films followed.

Having auditioned for Kevin Costner by translating the dialogue into her native Cree, she landed the role of Black Shawl, the knowing wife of medicine man Kicking Bird in "Dances With Wolves". In 1991, she was cast by director Bruce Beresford in "Black Robe", which earned her critical acclaim for her death scene, complete with an arrow in her neck. Cardinal went on to portray Bangor, the companion to Vermont logger Rip Torn in "Where the Rivers Flow North", making a strong impression in a scene in which she laments not having children, and in Sam Shepard's "Silent Tongue" (1993), she had the title role as the ghost of a raped and murdered woman who haunts her husband. As the decade wound to a close, Cardinal portrayed the title character's wise grandmother in "The Education of Little Tree" (1997) and had a featured role in the popular Sundance premiere "Smoke Signals" (1998).

Cardinal has also worked extensively on TV, often in PBS dramas or films on historical First American figures and stories. She broke into network TV with "Gunsmoke: Return to Dodge" (CBS, 1987), and followed with the PBS "Wonderworks" special "Places Not Our Own" (billed as Tantoo Martin-Cardinal), as one of the metis women trying to cope with the difficulties of the Depression. Cardinal also appeared in "Tecumseh: The Last Warrior" (TNT, 1995) and was featured in "Grand Avenue" (HBO, 1996). She made the first of her recurring appearances on the CBS drama series "Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman" in 1993, cast as Snow Bird, the stalwart Cheyenne friend of frontier physician Jane Seymour. In 2000, Cardinal played a relative of twin sisters separated at birth and reunited as adults in the heartwarming "Hallmark Hall of Fame" production "The Lost Child".

Tantoo has garnered many acting awards for her work. Already with two children of her own: Cheyenne and Clifford, she married John Lawlor in 1988 and they have a child, Riel. She continues as an Amer-Indian activist and has done much for the Native-American community throughout her life.  Recently she accepted the Sun Hill Award for Excellence in Native American Filmmaking at the Harvard Film Archive. The award is given in honor of a director, actor, producer, or writer who has made a significant contribution to the legacy of Native American film.

NATIVE SPIRIT AND THE SUNDANCE WAY...

Native Spirit is narrated by Tantoo Cardinal (Dances with Wolves), who takes the viewer back to the days of Red Cloud when "Our old men talked to spirits and made good medicine. Our young men herded the horses and made love to the girls. In this way our grandfathers lived and were happy."

In the second documentary, The Sun Dance Way, Gordon Tootoosis (Legends of the Fall) brings to life the voice of Thomas Yellowtail as he describes the mysterious and ancient Sun Dance ceremony. For more information on the cast and characters, the content of the documentaries, and to see video clips, visit the web site of the DVD program. Educators should go to the version for classroom use when purchasing the program.