JOANNA

I returned from India right before Christmas 2006. I treaded softly upon my Native New Mexican tierra. In the crisp, cedar smoky winter air I drove up to the University area to greet my old stomping grounds. I was three months behind—had unplugged from the creative culture I regularly was tuned in to.

I felt very soft, like a baby with a skull still un-hardened. It was like being born again, when you remove yourself for three months from the norm and then re-enter. There is great merit in purifying and cleansing your expectations and habits. Suddenly everything was in contrast to the great country I had just been a guest in.

Before I left I’d seen Joanna Newsom would release her second album while I was traveling. That second day back in America that was my first intrigue, to go listen to the cd. I was so patient, so relaxed, so drained of all aggression, after being trapped in the ashrams and the starkness of who we are in every moment, felt beat into submission by the challenging logistics of traveling and the ups and downs. I was so grateful just to have taken a warm shower and be able to drink water from the tap. To be back at Natural Sound, with all the possibilities of all the great albums there, was Heaven. And Joanna Newsom’s “Ys” was my monumental Angelic Soundtrack.

I asked for a listening copy of the cd and sat on a wood stool in the corner of the store and gazed out like a Buddha statue at the asphalt tinted day while Joanna plucked and swirled her warm golden harp and chanted her spirit songs.

I was open, receptive, prepared to take in and I absorbed that whole album. It was like watching an opera, something you just experience once and it changes you. I had heard about Terry Riley the classical musician arranging the strings for the album. It was exquisite. I was a sailor back on land after months at sea, taking in the pleasures well worth waiting for.

I watched families pass with shopping bags of Christmas gifts. Hands walked dogs on leashes and held paper coffee cups. I was comforted by the familiarity like the warm smell of pine fireplaces in the air. It’s amazing what a retreat from the normal will do to heighten your senses to life’s exquisiteness.