The Herb Wyfe Concert Series

Paul Geremia in Concert

Saturday, May 28th ~ 7:00pm

This is an opportunity not to be missed to hear a true legendary artist in the blues music industry.

Cost $15 per person. Reservations required as seating is limited.

For almost forty years, Paul Geremia has survived solely by the fruit of his musical labors. Having abandoned all other means of support in 1966, he has been traveling far and wide ever since, performing in every capacity from street singing to club and concert bookings, throughout the U.S.A., Canada and Europe. In the years since,

Geremia has built a reputation as a first rate blues-man, songwriter, a "scholar" of early jazz and blues, and one of the best country blues fingerpickers ever with his tools - six and twelve-string guitars, harmonica, piano and a husky soulful voice - and with an innate sense of the humor as well as the drama of the music, he keeps traditional blues fresh and alive with his performances. Combining his interpretation of the earlier music of people like Blind Lemon Jefferson, Robert Johnson, Blind Willie McTell, Scrapper Blackwell and Blind Blake, with his original compositions, he has created a style which is very much his own and which has received accolades in the U.S.A. and Europe, too numerous to mention.

Geremia's background isn't typical for a blues-man. He is a third generation Italian-American who, as he laughingly puts it, "was born in the Providence River Delta". Growing up in a family that moved across the country and back numerous times weaned his appetite for music, history and travel, which served him well later on. During the sixties, Paul noticed that the music he had enjoyed playing on harmonica (his first instrument) was now referred to as "Folk Music" and was enjoying popularity.

During his short time in agriculture college, he was mostly occupied with learning guitar and hitch-hiking to where the music was. He soon left college and hit the road permanently. He found paying gigs in coffee houses and "basket houses" in cities and at college campuses and made occasional forays South and West in search of the music he loved and what gigs he could find.

During these years, Geremia crossed paths with people whose influences were beneficial to his development and understanding of the tradition. He worked as opening act for some of the early blues "legends" thereby gaining an immeasurable depth of knowledge from people like Babe Sandoval, Yank Rachel, Son House, Skip James, Howlin' Wolf, and many others, especially Pink Anderson whose career he helped revitalize. Geremia has recorded ten solo albums, and has appeared on numerous anthologies and compilation discs. His superb recordings have made him a critical favorite and place him firmly among the legends that inspired and influenced him over the past four decades. Paul is currently with Red House Records of St. Paul, MN and has a number of releases on Red House and other labels.

Discovering the Sacredness of Breath and Sound

with Phil Shiva Jones

Friday, June 3rd ~ 7:00-9:30pm

Cost: $25 per person. Pre-registration is required as seating will be limited. First-come, first-serve basis.

~ A Spiritual Sound and Breath Meditation Workshop and Chanting Performance ~

Visiting Australian interfaith minister and recording artist Phil Jones will present an interactive workshop teaching meditation and simple breathing techniques with the Australian didgeridoo.

The didgeridoo is an ancient mesmerizing drone instrument made from a eucalyptus tree and traditionally played in ceremony and healing by the Aboriginal clans of Australia. Playing the didgeridoo creates soothing and resonant harmonics that easily erase the the 'monkey chatter' in the mind - enhancing mental clarity and emotional equanimity. The primordial vibration of the didgeridoo and the simple breathing techniques help create a state of relaxation, lower blood pressure, relax the heart, improve digestion, and - as reported by the British Medical Journal - significantly reduce sleep apnea and snoring.

Phil has been performing Sanskrit chants for over 40 years and will begin the evening with meditative chanting - setting up a wonderful vibrational atmosphere for the workshop, whereby the participants will be invited to tone and chant the OM mantra as he sings the chants to the accompaniment of a Shruti box (a traditional east Indian instrument).

No musical experience is necessary. All participants will be provided an instrument to play during the workshop. Instruments and meditation CD's will be available to purchase after the workshop.

Phil studied seven years with an enlightened Hindu teacher (1968-1975) and parallels the didgeridoo, a non-denominational meditation accelerator, with Eastern Philosophy, New Thought, and Aboriginal Traditions. He was the lead singer and songwriter of the renowned English band Quintessence (Island Records/RCA), where he pioneered the merging of sacred Sanskrit mantras into a modern musical format during the late 1960's and 1970's (performing three concerts at the Royal Albert Hall and two at the Queen Elizabeth Hall in London).

Phil is the only artist to have preformed at the first Glastonbury Music Festival (United Kingdom) in 1970 and '71 and most recently at the Glastonbury 40th anniversary 2010 where over two hundred thousand people were in attendance....he will also be performing in Australia at the Byron Bay Blues Festival in 2011. An engaging interfaith minister and inspiring singer, he speaks and performs at churches and spiritual fellowships, universities, yoga studios and wellness centers across the USA. Phil has been a frequent guest presenter at Deepak Chopra's Center for Well-Being, has appeared on radio (NPR, Sightings, etc) and television (The Wisdom Channel, ABC, FOX, CBS, NBC, BBC), and is featured performing and teaching the Australian didgeridoo on the IMAX DVD: 'Sydney - A Story of a City.'

Phil's website is www.philjonesmusic.com