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User:Timster132/SONAmusicgroup

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SONA
Picture of the three members of SONA
Joe Credit III, "Beltana" Holzer and "Papa" Joe Credit
Background information
OriginMissouri
GenresNeoPagan Folkadelic, Folk rock
Years active2000–2009
LabelsWiccabilly Studios, Magyar Magick
Past membersJoe Credit III, Bernadette Holzer, Joe Credit, Jr.
Websitewww.wolvenwold.drak.net/sona

SONA was the name of a NeoPagan music group that toured and performed at NeoPagan gatherings and other events throughout the Midwest during the first decade of the 21st century. They were popularly known as “the Peter, Paul and Mary of Pagan music” [1]. [2]

The three members of SONA were Bernadette “Beltana” Holzer, “Papa” Joe Credit and his son Joe Credit III. Beltana played the conga drums, Papa Joe played guitar and Joe Credit III played mandolin. All three sang, harmonizing with each other. All three also wrote songs for the group.

Formation

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The members of SONA met in 2000 at Brushwood Folklore Center [3] in New York as they attended the Sirius Rising and Starwood music festivals. Beltana reports having a dream about a mandolin player the night before meeting the Joes [4]. The next day she saw Joe Credit III carrying his mandolin and introduced herself to him and his father. As soon as they started singing together they found the combination of their voices to be extraordinarily magical. The next day they were in the bardic pavilion show on the main stage performing one of their original songs, “Land of the Sidhe” together for the first time--- before 500 people. That night they also played again at the Tavern. And so the band was born.

Name of the Band

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Word spread quickly and the three were invited to perform at the Festival at Tara at Camp Gaia near Kansas City, Kansas. On the way to this concert the three discussed Buddhist philosophy, and Joe Credit III told the story of the lute player and the Buddha [5]. This parable describes how the Buddha taught a lute player how using our energies to find enlightenment is like bringing the lute's strings to just the right tautness so that the instrument will be in tune, and so, as we keep our energies in balance we will be in tune and find enlightenment.

Not long after this discussion, Papa Joe found a book of Buddhist teaching which revealed that the lute player's name was Sona [6] . When the three of them got together at Wolvenwold, Beltana's home, Papa Joe shared this information with Beltana and Joe Credit III and the band decided to adopt the name SONA for themselves. (The use of all capital letters for SONA was to distinguish the band from the Buddhist lute player, and later, from other groups of the same name).

Musical Style

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SONA’s music is truly hard to classify because their songs drew from so many musical sources. The band was self-described as “Folkadelic” [7] —a combination of their modern folk acoustic style with psychedelic and ethereal vocals. However, the band also dipped into bluegrass, jazz, gospel-style, Celtic, rock and other genres and tempos to make their concerts a full earful of variety to listen to-- and also gave them a wide appeal.

Songs written by Beltana often expressed a psychedelic bent or a soft/hard rock sound. Joe Credit III preferences include grungy world music and jazz chord progressions, but also Paganized Gospel. Papa Joe showed a variety of singer-songwriter styles from Folk Rock to Caribbean to Texas Swing to Polka, adding some fun and humor to much of the music.

The contributions of Trickster (from Loke E. Coyote) in the studio should not be ignored when speaking of SONA’s musical style. Trickster recorded and produced SONA’s Spoonwalk CD (see below under Discography).

Pagan musical influences on SONA include: Green Crown, Emerald Rose, Loke E. Coyote, S.J. Tucker, Gaia Consort, Sede, Dreamtrybe, The Druids, The Raft, Spoonfed Tribe, Gretchen McMahon, Dana Davis, Michelle Mays, Burning Sage and others [8].

Tours

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After playing at the Festival at Tara, their next gigs were at the Austin and Houston Pagan Pride Day events in Texas in 2001. There they met Trickster of Wiccabilly studios who invited them to participate in the full stage Pagan rock opera “Druid Four Winds”.

SONA then began performing at a number of concert venues at Pagan gatherings: Pagan Spirit Gathering, Summerset, Heartland, Fire Festival, CMA Beltane 2001, Magickal Weekend at St. Louis, Spring Fire II in Indianapolis, Pagan Pride in Dallas, TX, Magickal Hibernation at Ozark Avalon and concerts at the DragonDance festival and other festivals at Beltana's home campground called Wolvenwold.

In 2003, SONA took a break due to personal needs of their performers. After a hiatus of three years, SONA came back together in 2006. A much hoped-for additional CD was not produced, but they began doing concerts again in 2007.

Reunion and Final Breakup

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A picture of SONA at their reunion concert in 2007 at Columbia, MO.

SONA reunited in February 2007 at the Magical Hibernation festival sponsored by Ozark Avalon and held at the Quality Inn in Columbia, MO. Fans welcomed them back with much pleasure and appreciation. Following this, they also appeared at Tara, Heartland, Wytchehaven and at Wolvenwold.

In 2009, after a debate among Wolvenwold members over campground rules, SONA members, being divided by the issue, split up. At this time all three SONA members embarked on separate musical projects. Joe Credit III decided to relocate to St Louis and involve himself in the music scene there. Beltana started a women's music group called Bellawyck (see below). The Joes played their instruments and backed up Bellawyck at Sacred Harvert Festival in August 2009, but that was the last time they were on stage together.

The possibility of a reunion concert always lingers. As the lyrics of one of SONA’s songs (“Little Song”) says:

“Before we make our exodus
remembrance my friend
The Joi De Vivre and Unity
And we will return again” [9]

Post-SONA years

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The three have gone on to personal projects with continued success.

Joe Credit III has played mandolin with many groups, including Pikin Likin’ and Skinny White Chick. Singer-songwriter S.J. Tucker (known as "Queen of the Bards") wrote a song about him and her band’s trip to Washington D.C. entitled “Mandolin Holy Man” [10] . He has done his share of street playing in Springfield and St Louis, MO. In Springfield he has sung and played guitar and mandolin with The Voodoo Lounge Gypsies. He has joined in with Greg Bucking as a part of the Vine Brothers in Brooklyn Cafe playing jazz. Joe Credit III has also the mandolin player for Opal Fly and the Swatters. And he was seen playing in Kansas City with both Greg Bucking and Opal Fly [11]. He has recently been seen playing in Western Automatic, a Kansas City swing band with Papa Joe and Scott Devouton. Since being in SONA, Joe Credit III has written new songs such as “Avocado” and “Sure Thing Myth”.

Beltana continued to write songs, such as “Eorthe's Song” which she recorded in 2003 and “Sonorous Sanctum” which was #1 on the mp3.com.au acoustic charts in March 2004 [12] [13] . In the summer of 2007, Beltana formed a band of women called BellaWyck (ie, meaning “beautiful witch” [14] ) made up of her sister Kittin, Holly (aka "Boom Boom Valhalla") and their friend Jennie from Columbia, Missouri. Their first concert was at Ozark Avalon’s Harvest Homecoming on August 31, 2007. BellaWyck produced a self-titled 5 song EP and the group toured for three years before breaking up. During this time Beltana began incorporating Hindu chants into her repertoire. Following Bellawyck, she created thePagan rock band Spellsinger [15] [16] which is currently touring the US. Spellsinger is currently doing a midwestern tour during the spring and summer months of 2011, and will be performing at various festivals around the country. The music of Spellsinger is Bel's original creation, and focuses on her solo work as a singer/songwriter. Beltana also manages her family's land sanctuary in the Southern MO Ozarks called Wolvenwold, www.wolvenwold.com and creates gourd musical instruments. She is studying earth homes building using cob and strawbale, and plans to teach the techniques to others at the land sanctuary in the future.

Papa Joe continues to play rhythm guitar solo and with different groups, backing up his son Joe Credit III whenever possible. In the mundane world he has been teaching youngsters what to do with algorithms.

Discography

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SONA produced three CDs:

  1. MeGaPaGaTeXaPaLooZa recorded live in April 2001 and co-created with Trickster (who had 8 songs on the CD). SONAs recordings on this CD are:
    1. Mary's Blue
    2. Blessed Be
    3. Pagan Polka
    4. Land of the Sidhe
    5. A Paean to Mead
    6. Snails Ho
    7. Burning Time in Texas
  2. Spoonwalk recorded in 2001, Wiccabilly studios
    1. The Well
    2. Tuesday
    3. Meditation
    4. Little Song
    5. Pagan Polka
    6. Blues River
    7. Burnin' Time in Texas
    8. Burn in Hell
    9. Paper Floor
    10. Land of the Sidhe
    11. Tate's Dream
    12. Spoon (First sung in concert at CMA Beltane 2001).
    13. (Hidden Track: “I’ll Kill You” from the “Druid Four Winds” rock opera written by Trickster.)
  3. Acousticnakedladyland produced in July of 2002, Magyar Magick
    1. Gypsy Song
    2. Bliss Comes From the Realization of Impermanence
    3. Buncha Lady
    4. Merry Meet
    5. Snails Ho!
    6. Millay-D: (From poetry written by Edna St. Vincent Millay)
    7. Patience Isn't About Things
    8. Valkyrie
    9. Blessed Be
    10. All Naked Women Are Beautiful
    11. Rainbow
    12. Dance With a Dragon
    13. She Xing
    14. (Hidden Track)

Solo Projects and Songs by SONA members

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Beltana— the Beltana CD, which included the songs she performed with SONA and several new original songs. She has written additional new songs such as “The Secret”, “Ozark Mountain Fire”, “blue” and others.

Joe Credit III— under his own label “Mandolinsanity” Joe Credit III produced the CD “Everyone Wants to Eat My Mando” which is noted for the song “Sand Dollar Slot Machine” (aka, the “Star Trek” song) and for an extended live version of “Spoon” with saxophone.

Papa Joe— unrecorded and new songs include: “Wedding at Wildwood”, “the Gift”, “A Year and a Day” and others.

References

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  1. ^ http://launch.groups.yahoo.com/group/Sonafans/message/4 a yahoo group message that includes a review of one of SONA's concerts
  2. ^ http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/sona1 see section under “Album Notes”
  3. ^ http://www.wolvenwold.drak.net/sona/ The SONA Homepage
  4. ^ http://www.cernowain.com/pagansongbook/sona/sonainterview07.html Interview with SONA 01/29/07
  5. ^ http://www.sacred-texts.com/bud/sbe17/sbe17002.htm The Mahâvagga, Fifth Khandhaka 1.15-17
  6. ^ http://www.sacred-texts.com/bud/sbe17/sbe17002.htm The Mahâvagga, Fifth Khandhaka 1.15-17
  7. ^ http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/sona1 Artist’s description, see left panel
  8. ^ http://www.cernowain.com/pagansongbook/sona/sonainterview07.html interview with SONA 01/29/07
  9. ^ http://www.wiccabilly.com/sona-littlesong.shtml Lyrics to "Little Song" by Beltana Spellsinger
  10. ^ http://music.skinnywhitechick.com/track/mandolin-holy-man hear the song, read the story behind the song and read the lyrics here
  11. ^ http://www.myspace.com/gregbucking
  12. ^ http://www.mp3.com.au/charts/
  13. ^ http://www.soundclick.com/bands/default.cfm?bandID=145647 Beltana's Soundclick page
  14. ^ http://www.cernowain.com/pagansongbook/bw/bwinterview08.html interview with BellaWyck 02/03/08
  15. ^ http://www.spellsinger.us
  16. ^ http://www.reverbnation.com/spellsinger
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