30 years is a long time and it turns out that those bands and duos that formed in high school and college often have the greatest success, especially if they stay together for any length of time – The Beatles, Rolling Stones, U2 etc.
And staying together is no easy feat, so kudos to the Indigo Girls and their great collection of songs and fantastic touring history. They have released about 15 studio albums to date so choosing a song of theirs to record could take some time.
I have always loved the song ‘Jonas and Ezekial’ off Rites Of Passage, an album released in 1992. I bought it when it came out when I was living in Melbourne, Australia. The kind of song it is rhythmically and melodically drew me in for this project – choosing a song to record as a tribute to the Indigo Girls.
Here was a song I could play some slide on. It has a rootsy, earthy, primal vibe to it and once I dug into the lyrics – there are quite a few! – I found it to be totally relevant to today. There are some people out there who have a sick, end-of-the-world fantasy that involves a chosen few being hand-picked by ‘God’ and taken up to heaven while the rest of the world burns and dies. To me, this is a very dangerous fantasy – given the law of attraction – if enough people really focus on the ‘end of the world’, it could actually happen – the total destruction part, I mean, not the ‘rapture.’
We have the technology to destroy all living things on Planet Earth and dangerous men have their fingers poised on the button.
So it is up to us to save the world.
‘I’m not ready for the dead to show it’s face
Whose angel are you anyway?’
Devils and Angels – we are warned in the Bible to ‘beware false prophets.’ Some claim to be on the side of good but secretly, they have evil intentions. It seems like it is hard for people to discern, given so much dis-information on the internet. People are lied to every day, all day. I think that maybe these people have lost touch with their true inner voice, the one that steers us ethically and gives us empathy. The noise of tv and internet news is blaring and people can’t hear their own inner truths. They have become desperate and selfish. Money has become the one true god for many. Some preachers call themselves ‘religious’ and ‘spiritual’ but they are just billionaires in priest’s clothing. People who have spent their lives in service of others are called evil and stories are made up about them and believed. Who knew that the internet could bring such a dark age?
‘Every devil I meet is an angel in disguise’
But the darkness only comes if we let it. Let’s stop calling for the end of the world??
Perhaps it is time to go back to the forest, the river or the desert and listen to your own heartbeat and the melody of your own soul.
‘In the war over land where the world began
Prophecies say it’s where the world will end
But there’s a tremor growing in our backyard
Fear in our heads, fear in our hearts
Prophets in the graveyard’
