Rhythmic Rocketship: A Review of the Mickey Hart Band’s Latest Release Mysterium Tremendum

Article By Kara Wilbeck

Finally! All this talk about Mickey Hart and his cosmic beats from outer space has come to fruition in the Mickey Hart Band’s newest release: Mysterium Tremendum. The name itself is indicative of the true nature of the source of the sounds — the universe may be the most tremendous mystery any of us will ever encounter.

If you haven’t yet heard about what the former Grateful Dead percussionist is up to these days, here’s a recap. Hart, with the assistance of NASA, acquired a set of sound waves derived from light waves that are emitted by our solar system. The process used to create these noises out of the light waves is called “sonification.”   He then used the noises to create beats, which are the backbone of the songs on this album.

In keeping with the theme of deep space, the album features songs whose subjects are large, overbearing ideas, rather than more specific topics that may be found in other songs. For many of the lyrics, Hart turned to the indomitable Grateful Dead lyricist Robert Hunter. Titles like “Heartbeat of the Sun,” “Starlight Starbright,” and “Through Endless Skies” add to the idea of the massiveness of the universe.

The sound of the album is invariably massive as well. Hart’s assembly of musicians create a strong and relentless sound that expresses their ability to be a musical powerhouse.

Mysterium Tremendum doesn’t waste any time getting into the spacey stuff. The album opens with the ominous, trancey sound that anyone who has attended one of the band’s recent shows will recognize. The first track, “Heartbeat of the Sun,” opens the album with a sound that could only be described as eerie, calling to mind the psytrance duo Shpongle. This all-instrumental song is a fantastic introduction to the  album, driving home the idea of the intensity of the cosmos.

This creepiness subsides, however, when the tension is broken on the second track, “Slow Joe Rain,” by the raspy vocals of keyboardist and singer Tim Hockenberry, a music industry veteran who has worked with an incredibly diverse range of musicians. Hockenberry’s voice is less spacey and much more hard-rock than the sound of the album’s intro, creating an interesting clash of worlds. This dichotomy is a great metaphor for the human’s dual perceptions of the world: what they see in the everyday world, and the gigantic and intimidating mystery of the universe as a whole that is always hidden in the background.

“Slow Joe Rain,” begins laughably, with the introduction of a take-no-sh*t Lake Champlain redneck who likes his oysters raw, likes his women fat and mean, and openly disobeys the law. The lyrics of this song are really what makes it stand out — Slow Joe Rain turns out to be an incredible philosopher, preaching that, “if you can’t fix a busted heart, don’t try to save the earth.”

“Cut the Deck” is obviously a Hunter product, with lyrics that could be interpreted multiple ways. The sole variation from typical Hunter words is the clearly defined chorus to the song, which repeats the lyrics, “All I ever wanted was some of your love.” This song’s sound is a bit more like a traditional rock ballad, if traditional rock ballads were set to spacey beats.

The next song, “Starlight Starbright” is one of the album’s more standout songs. It’s the first track on Mysterium Tremendum that features the incredible voice of the Mickey Hart band’s second vocalist, Crystal Monee Hall. Hall’s voice is a distinct opposition to the raspy rockiness of Hockenberry’s — it’s clear, tribal and soaring.

“Who Stole the Show” is yet another unique song on this album. The lyrics were written by Hart and percussionist Sikiru Adepoju, and the music was written with the help of the likes of Steve Kimock and Dave Schools. Sung by Adepoju, a native of Nigeria, the song sounds straight out of an otherworldly tribal ceremony. The ominous feeling of the song is broken only at selective points, when a chant of “who stole the show” brings us back to earth.

Interestingly, the version of this song that is included on Mysterium Tremendum is not its first incarnation. The song was originally introduced in 2000, and included a long set of lyrics detailing the lightning-speed evolution of human culture in modern times.

“Djinn Djinn” features Hall and Hockenberry singing in unison, with both slightly holding back to create an almost etherial sound. In the background is a constant spacey sound that yet again is reminiscent of a component to a Shpongle song.

The next track is another departure from what a listener might expect from the album. Hall’s ever-morphing voice turns “This One Hour” into a soulful ode to blissful life reflection. This song also has a bit of history attached to it: In his songwriting process (which, at the time, was for the Rhythm Devils, Hart’s project with fellow Grateful Dead drummer and partner-in-crime Bill Kreutzmann), Hunter had written an entirely different set of lyrics. Upon realizing that his lyrics were negative, Hunter decided to write a whole new set, which (thankfully) turned into this beautiful song.

The only way to describe the next song, “Supersonic Vision” is as a powerhouse. Its sound and lyrics are driving and intense, and the song itself seems as if it should be the theme song to an action-loaded sci-fi television show.

“Time Never Ends” tackles the difficult and mysterious topic of the infinite nature of the universe. This is another song with lyrics written by Mickey Hart, and is sung in unison by Hall and Hockenberry, a strategy that has proven itself to create a certain eerie and far-away sound. If “Time Never Ends” sounds familiar, it’s because it’s another reworked older song. It made its debut with somewhat different lyrics in 2000, and then a version closer to the present one was played by the Dead in 2004.

“Let There Be Light” also features both vocalists, but in quite a different manner. Hall and Hockenberry trade-off lines during the verses of the song, only coming together to create a powerful chant during the chorus.

The second-to-last track on the album, “Ticket to Nowhere,” is another updated throwback to the 2000 incarnation of the Mickey Hart Band. It’s another that has a soulful sound, with far-away vocals that even approach gospel.

Rounding out the end of the album is “Through Endless Skies,” a love song that leaves the listener with the idea that the universe is, in fact, unending. The song was written by Hart for his wife on Valentine’s Day in 1998, and has also been in the Mickey Hart Band repertoire since 2000.

Mysterium Tremendum is yet another example of the versatility of Mickey Hart — every album released by him on his own is entirely different from any others. Continually devoted to creating sounds that have never been heard before, Hart manages to create a unique product with every project he begins.

Mickey Hart’s newest release makes it very clear that if you’re expecting the Grateful Dead, you probably should not buy this album. Hart has left the Grateful Dead in the dust.

Track Listing:

1. Heartbeat of the Sun

2. Slow Joe Rain

3. Cut the Deck

4. Starlight Starbright

5. Who Stole the Show

6. Djinn Djinn

7. This One Hour

8. Supersonic Vision

9. Time Never Ends

10. Let There Be Light

11. Ticket to Nowhere

12. Through Endless Skies

By:  Steve Kennedy-Williams, reader submitted.

Last fall when we heard that Mickey Hart had a new band and was playing a small club in Seattle called the Tractor Tavern, we jumped on it, got our tickets early and enjoyed a sold out show. The band played well, my recording of the night is one of my favorites and I still listen to it often. Until now. Flash forward to May 2012, the band has been together for over 6 months with a strong touring schedule. They’ve grown. They’ve learned more about each other, and it shows.

Last night’s show at the Neptune Theater was brilliant. From the first guitar lead of Samson and Delilah I knew it was going to be a rocking show. The Tractor show focused heavily on the new material and had a more trance vibe. Last night Gawain showed a strength and confidence in the material that was hinted at last December.

The second set kicked it into overdrive, starting with Heartbeat of The Sun. Mickey has been taking astronomy data and turning it into sonic representations, these textures were used throughout the show. This set is when Schools took off. The Other One was a facemelting rhythmfest. On the setlist the previous night but not played, Vancouver’s loss was our gain. The transition into Slow Joe Rain had a sweet pulse and groove. Groove, the classic Buddy Holly song Not Fade Away ended the set with the traditional Deadhead pulses of chant and clap until the band came back, and continued the groove with West LA Fadeaway flowing into a Friend of the Devil with Gawain picking up a Mandolin for the tune.

Groove, Tim and Crystal’s vocals of Hunter lyrics on top, add in great keyboard textures and a guitarist that isn’t afraid to let his Gilmour influences shine through, and you’ve got a great vehicle for Mickey’s concepts. The new record Mysterium Tremendum is on iTunes as well in local record stores. Vinyl too.

By: Jordan Blum, Philadelphia Rock Music Examiner

Percussionist Mickey Hart is quite the adored musician. As the drummer for the Grateful Dead ever since their heyday (the late 1960s), he played an integral part in helping the group become one of the most beloved bands of all time (in terms of devotees. There’s even a term – “Dead Heads”). To associate him solely within that group would be disservice, though, as Hart has also released plenty of solo material. His newest release (as the Mickey Hart Band) is Mysterium Tremendum, and it’s quite a cosmic, catchy, eclectic, and fun ride.

Of the album, Hart says,

[I've] always thought of life, the world at large, as music… I have combined sonic images of the formation of our universe with sounds drawn from musical instruments… These musical excursions transport me to wonderful and strange new places filled with rhythms for a new day. The combination of music from the whole earth and the sounds of the planets, the stars, the events that formed our universe is intoxicating and points toward an awareness of what music is, could be, and where it comes from.

As usual, Hart employees the talents of several well-known artists, including bassist Dave Schools, percussionist Sikiru Adepoju, vocalist Crystal Monee Hall, singer Tim Hockenberry, drummer Ian “Inx” Herman, guitarist Gawain Matthews, and keyboardist, Ben Yonas. He’s also involved Grateful Dead lyricist Robert Hunter, saying, “Hunter is a bold visionary writer who knows where I am going with this music…He is indispensable to the weave of this story. The way he writes, the imagery and mythology, are perfect for this project…” All in all, Mysterium Tremendum feels like a funky, calmer, and more commercial take on a mid-period Ayreon record.

“Heartbeat of the Sun” opens the album, and it’s quite mystical. In fact, its rhythmic tendencies, chanting, and spacey atmosphere convey the sense of traveling through the universe with an African percussion band. It segues into one of the album’s more direct and catchy tunes, “Slow Joe Rain,” seamlessly. Here, Hockenberry’s raspy timbre combines with heavy guitar riffs and horns to form a bold, involving, and accessible track. On the other hand, “Cut the Deck” is a peaceful, likeable ballad with gospel influences. It’d be a perfect choice for a radio single.

Coming almost out of left field is “Who Stole the Show?” Focused around tribal, almost incoherent verses, its relatively abstract arrangement helps it stand out from the pack and make the record more diverse. The female choir brings Pink Floyd’s most famous works to mind. “This One Hour” builds wonderfully from mellow reflection to an eruption of passion, and Hall definitely demonstrates her prowess. If Stevie Wonder took LSD and let loose, it’d sound something like “Supersonic Vision,” and “Let There Be Light” features some of the album’s most complex musicianship (especially the percussion). It’s a great showcase for both singers.

Mysterium Tremendum is a fairly unique record, and Hart certainly proves that even after decades in the business, he’s still got the chops to construct and perform vigorously. Best of all, it shows just how varied Hart’s influences and ambitions are, as it’s quite different from anything else he has done.  If you’re in the mood for some trippy soundscapes mixed with powerful vocals and intricate yet massively appealing music, this album should suffice just fine.

For a sample of what to expect, check out this video previewfor the album.

By: Michael Heinbach

If there’s anyone on the planet in tune with the cosmic balance, it’s probably Mickey Hart.

Yes, Hart was on a brief hiatus from playing percussion in the 40-year traveling circus that was the Grateful Dead when the band made its lone appearance in Missoula.

But with his current endeavor, the Mickey Hart Band, the 68-year-old visits Missoula’s Wilma Theatre on Monday. That just happens to be the 38th anniversary of the Grateful Dead’s storied visit to the what was known in 1974 as the Adams Field House.

Still, Hart wasn’t buying into the hippy-dippy kismet of it all when asked if the date of his band’s Missoula show was more than just a coincidence.

“Absolutely not,” he said. “It has nothing to do with anything. We’re just coming to play music in your wonderful city and it has nothing to do with anything else but that.”

The Mickey Hart Band is now touring in support of its album “Mysterium Tremendum,” released last month.

It features longtime Hart collaborator Sikiru Adepoju, whom Hart refers to as “the Mozart of the talking drum,” Transiberian Orchestra’s Tim Hockenberry, renowned guitarist Gawain Mathews, bluesy vocalist Crystal Monee Hall and Widespread Panic bassist Dave Schools among others.

Though several tracks on “Mysterium Tremendum” boast vocals penned by Grateful Dead lyricist Robert Hunter, that’s about the end of any similarities to Grateful Dead music on it. And it certainly isn’t 12 tracks of drum circles endlessly noodling away into the night.

With the help of scientists at Penn State, the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and Meyer Sound, Hart was able to channel what he considers the vibrations of life and incorporated them into music that defies definition.

“Basically I’m taking the sounds from the epic events of the universe and changing that radiation we get from its movement – the light – into sound. And taking that sound and using that sound as part of a musical entity,” Hart said. “Robert Hunter added the words to it, so it’s rock ’n’ roll music. But embedded in the music are these amazing sounds of the universe.”

The result is dance music that will surely bring the crowd at the Wilma to its feet for two sets that Hart confirmed will include a few numbers from the Grateful Dead’s vast repertoire.

But taking his work from the album and translating that into a live concert proved to be no easy task for Hart and his bandmates.

“That was the challenge – how to take all this complex information and make it fun each night and not turn it into a science project,” Hart said. “So it took 2 1/2 years to figure all that out and find the musicians, the marvelous musicians that are interpreting all this. This band is really an amazing band.”

Currently, Hart is as inspired to create as he’s been at any time in his life. With the Mickey Hart Band, he feels like he’s reached a new beginning in his musical career. It’s a road that Hart has no idea where it will take him or when it will end.

“When the Grateful Dead stopped touring, my life didn’t stop,” he said. “I’m a working musician, that’s what I do. I’m an artist, even though I was an artist in the Grateful Dead, still I’m an artist. You don’t stop because the band stops playing. There’s a lot inside of me that still wants to get out and I’m scratching a lot of itches I’ve wanted to over the years and haven’t had time to because being in the Grateful Dead is a pretty full-time job. What I’m doing now has been very fruitful. Artistically, this feels like a renaissance for me.”

Reporter Michael Heinbach can be reached at 523-5209 or at michael.heinbach@lee.net.

Read more: http://missoulian.com/entertainment/music/mickey-hart-band-bringing-sounds-of-universe-to-wilma/article_093ff6e4-9b26-11e1-a10c-001a4bcf887a.html#ixzz1uumEx1UD

produced by Hart and Ben Yonas (360˚)

While Phil Lesh and Bob Weir, both of whom were songwriters with the Grateful Dead, spend their post-Dead years putting new spins on Dead material, Mickey Hart — who was a drummer, not a songwriter, with the Dead — searches out truly new musical landscapes. On “Mysterium Tremendum,” the marvelous debut by his new Mickey Hart Band, Hart looks to space for inspiration — not “Space,” the term given to the amorphous jams the Dead played each concert, but outer space. More specifically, the sound and energy from the Big Bang that still reverberates through the cosmos; Hart says the songs on “Mysterium Tremendum” were built around the cosmic microwave background radiation — the fallout from the creation of the universe — that were measured a few years ago by Nobel-winning astrophysicist George Smoot.

“Mysterium Tremendum” doesn’t require an interest in astrophysics. Nor does it require any affection for the Grateful Dead. Hart and his mates — the eight-piece Mickey Hart Band, which includes two vocalists (Crystal Monee Hall and Tim Hockenberry) and Widespread Panic bassist Dave Schools; plus a slew of guest drummers, including Zakir Hussain and Babatunde Olatunji — make groove-based songs that touch on jazz fusion, gospel and African polyrhythm. Not surprisingly, the songs, with titles like “Time Never Ends” and “Through Endless Skies,” address the big-question mysteries — but the words are provided by Dead lyricist Robert Hunter, which should ease any concerns that these subjects are treated with a heavy hand.

While the music rarely put me in mind of the Dead, it sounded, at least when Hockenberry was at the mic, akin to the solo work of the Band’s Robbie Robertson. Not a bad path to follow. It also has a strong connection to the 1996 album “Mickey Hart’s Mystery Box” — an indication that Hart has a strong musical vision outside of the rhythms he laid down under the Grateful Dead.

Published: 2012/05/09
by Kevin Long

Mickey Hart Band, New Daisy, Memphis, TN – 4/29

Photo by Ellis Jones

While his fellow ex-band mates are off pursuing other endeavors, Grateful Dead drummer Mickey Hart is doing what comes natural to him. Creating and playing music. His latest tour is in support of his new cosmic release Mysterium Tremendum. As usual he has assembled a variety of accomplished musicians to share the stage with. The current lineup is no exception and features Dave Schools on bass.

The small club was abuzz in anticipation of sharing an intimate night with Mr. Hart. This being a Sunday night, Mickey stuck with tradition and opened the show with the staple, “Samson and Delilah.” It also gave the rhythm section an early opportunity to flex their muscles. South African drummer, Ian Herman introduced himself quickly from behind his kit along with longtime Hart collaborator, Sikiru Adepoju on the talking drum. As Mickey led the madness from behind his prominent drum display, soulful singer Crystal Hall could not be ignored with her passionate take on this classic. The band sounded outstanding and a thrill rippled throughout the dedicated fans. “Let There Be Light” was the beginning of four new songs in a row, all off the new release. It was refreshing to hear so much new material. The songs were mostly upbeat with vocal duties shared between Crystal and keyboardist, Tim Hockenberry. The material was less spacey yet easier to dance to than previous Mickey’s projects, like Planet Drum. They closed out the first set with a rousing cover of “Papa Was a Rolling Stone” and a heartfelt “Franklin’s Tower.” The latter of the two gave lead guitarist, Gawain Mathews plenty of space to show off his chops. He was much more calculated and less busy than most guitarists put in his situation. He approached the notes delicately and by the response of the crowd, it was effective.

The second set began in familiar territory with Mickey’s oddity, “Heartbeat.” The melodic number gave the all-star rhythm section room to communicate and explore. This worldly jam had the heads dancing in a tribal fashion. After an inspired “Endless Skies,” we got what we all hoped for when this lineup was released: Dave Schools dropping the famous bass bombs that led into “The Other One.” He did not disappoint as he led the band though a cracking rendition. A spirited Fire on the Mountain closed the second set on a high note, but the best lay ahead.

After receiving a well-deserved applause the band struck a perfect balance with the encore. First up was the fragile Jerry ballad, “Stella Blue” and Chrystal handled the lyrics tastefully, giving it a gospel feel. Then, the band turned the heavy hearts around with a fitting “Goin’ Down the Road Feeling Bad” before ending the night with the coveted “We Bid You Goodnight.”

Mickey Hart manages to combine his two passions with this latest project – a jam band, with aspects of his world music. The result is nothing short of astonishing. Spacing out the Grateful Dead classics amongst new material gives the songs more gravity, therefore packing a more spiritual punch. If you are a Deadhead that’s looking for something different, do yourself a favor and see this band.

By Sue Zalokar, Contributing Writer

Grateful Dead backbeat Mickey Hart has been studying the social and cultural aspects of music for decades from his perch inside the drum set. He came by this interest in instruments of percussion by heritage: His father was drummer and owned and operated a music store.  But it was just after high school when Hart’s discovered the music of Nigerian drummer, educator and social activist, Babatunde Olatunji, and it opened up the world of possibilities for Hart. He would later study with Olatunji, bringing the unique rhythms of world beat music to the both the Grateful Dead’s music and his own.

Hart’s 1991 album, “Planet Drum,” hit number one on Billboard’s World Music chart that year, and won the first-ever Grammy for Best World Music Album. He is the author of four books, has testified before a congressional subcommittee on the healing power of music, and has worked with both the Library of Congress and the Smithsonian to digitize and preserve recordings of his own and others.

This month, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame features a Grateful Dead exhibition: The Long Strange Trip. And at 67 years old, Hart has set out on tour with his band this month promoting his newest album, “Mysterium Tremendum.” Hart captured the sounds of the universe and converted the raw data into samples that he uses on stage every night as the backdrop for his latest musical exploration.

The Mickey Hart Band comes to town May 10 at the Crystal Ballroom featuring a world-class, eight-piece ensemble; Mickey Hart, Dave Schools, Gawin Matthews, Tim Hockenberry, Crystal Monee Hall, Sikiru Adepoju, Ben Yonas, Ian Inkx Herman — not including the universe.

“I’m taking light waves from the universe and transferring them into sound waves and using them as part of the composition on space as part of the music,” Hart said when we caught up with him on tour. “It’s a rock-n-roll format with beautiful songs and these amazing space sounds from 13 billion years ago. It’s a wonderful adventure.”

Sue Zalokar: For those of us who haven’t heard the raw data, What does the universe sound like?

Mickey Hart: That’s a good question.  There are a lot of collisions.  There is also a lot of chirping, a lot of thumping, pulsing. It’s not what you would call music.  It’s what you would call noise. So what I do is I take that data and I bring it from the form of light, or radiation, into sound waves and bring into our very limited spectrum.  And then I make it so that it’s not noise, it’s music.  I sound design it.  I take the raw data and I make it so we humans can make it music and dance to it and enjoy it.  But it comes from those original ‘seed sounds’ that created the universe. It’s the trip of a lifetime.

S.Z.: What is the significance of, or what are you saying to your listeners with “Mysterium Tremendum,” your most recent album?

M.H.: It addresses the giant mysteries of the universe. Where did we come from?  When did we become human? Where are we in the chain of evolution? My books in the ‘90s (Drumming at the Edge of Magic and Planet Drum) both were in search of where the groove came from. Eventually it led me to the birth of the universe, the beginning of space and time, from creation. Back in 1991 there were no machines or instruments to read that data, but now we have them. It kind of gives you your place in the universe because this is kind of an ancestral thing. These are the sounds that created the sun, the moon, the earth, us.  So it’s really a family tree in a way, hearing what the universe actually sounds like.  Each star, each planet sings its own tune.  I’m just listening in on the conversation. It remains to be seen what the relevance  and the significance is except that you know that you are dancing with the infinite universe and that’s what music is supposed to be.  You are vibrating with the Gaia of vibrations.  Everything is interconnected in some way and this is a real scientific way of understanding that principle that we all are in this kind of celestial clockwork.  And we are just this very small piece at the end of the chain.

S.Z.: Explain, in your experience, the relationship between science and art?

M.H.:  Art is conceptual. Science is absolute. When we play music, we are postulating.  Music is just a miniature of what is going on in the heavens. And that’s why we play music, every culture. Because it emulates what is going on vibrationally speaking in the heavens.  Music is just controlled vibrations. We aren’t just drumming. We are using computers on the stage, we’re using sounds from billions of years ago that we bring up and recall every night. The musician of the future will be the musician scientist. The days of just being someone on your instrument are drawing to a close. The idea of enhancing it and taking music to a new place with new colors and sounds, new feelings it’s all about science.  I like to play, so I use machines in my work and my art.  Some people just press a button.  It’s not like that here. Mine is more like an improvisational performance as opposed to a beat box.

S.Z.: In 1991 you testified with Oliver Sacks (a British neurologist whose 1973 book “Awakeings” was later made into the film by the same name) before the U.S. Senate about the healing power of music on the aged. What, in your experience, is the connection between music, healing and aging?

M.H.: It’s the vibrations. What happens is when you get older the connections, your neural pathways, the way your brain feels vibrations, those connections are lost sometimes like (people who have) dementia, Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, they’re cut — broken. And vibration creates a synthesis inside the cells and kind of reconnects them while the music and the vibrations are playing, so it becomes medicinal. It becomes life enhancing and a remedy.  At least for while the music is playing. We don’t know how to really make it into a longer lasting experience, but that’s what science can tell us. We’re about to break the rhythmic code of DNA about which music does what to which part of the brain. That’s just a few years away.  So we’re learning more and more about what part of the brain is activated by what rhythms, what amplitude.  Music is really becoming quite a science in the field of neuroimaging, neurology and the motor diseases.

S.Z.:. Many people who live on the street are dealing with a mental health and/or addiction issues. Do you think that music therapy could be successfully applied to addiction or harm reduction therapy?

M.H.: Of course. Music is a focus. Music is a tuning system, not just to bring people together to dance and make love, which are two of it’s functions as a ritual. It brings the vibratory essence of the body together and it tunes it, like a tuning fork. That’s what music does.  It can make you happy, it can make you melancholy, it can energize you, it can put you to sleep.  There are a lot of things that music can do that we don’t know about yet. We’ve only been recording music for a little over a hundred years. Of course, we have been playing music since the beginning of time. Our earliest records show that as we became civilized, we used music as a way of expanding and developing our brains and coming together as a people.  Every culture on the planet has music.  There is not one culture that does not have music. That should say something to you.

S.Z.: You have said that music “reconnects” the damaged mind. What then, is the impact on a vibrant mind?

M.H.: It enhances. It exhausts the consciousness. When everything is working right and you add this to the mix, you have a great time, right?  You’re elated, you feel good. It’s a healthy experience, a life-giving thing. That’s what music is about. If you are doing great, music makes you even more powerful.

S.Z.: Music programs in public schools continue to be on the chopping block in many schools’ budgets across the nation.  You have talked about music being a key component to learning. What was your experience, in your youth, with music in the educational system?

M.H.: When you have a healthy organism, you learn. Music stimulates and focuses. Music also allows us to go into the spiritual domain where the important things are to us.

I had a great music teacher in high school, which saved my life and guided me to where I am now. Back then there were a lot of music programs and it allowed me to be who I am. Unfortunately now they’re being ripped away from the schools which is Draconian. It is like a throwback to a civilization that has forgotten what music does and is bankrupt basically.  We’ve become morally and spiritually bankrupt.

Take Einstein. He was really a good musician, you know. He said that (music) was really his first love. He would  play on his violin or piano and then run into his studio and write down a few formulas. Then back to the violin. He used the violin as a way into thinking about the theories, the BIG ones. The big mysterium tremendum:  relativity, time-space, and the matter that we are embedded in.  He used music.

S.Z.: What are your thoughts about the effect that disappearing art and music programs in our schools has on the future of our collective musical consciousness?

M.H.: Yeah. It’s terrible. I mean, you’re nurturing a society that doesn’t really have a way of becoming spiritual and accessing those very important areas of humanity. Music is one of the only things that does it. Taking away music. Many studies show that music increases skill in math, science, technology, engineering, all kinds of skills.  Music is an enhancer of that.  You take music away, you lose the spiritual side and then you also lose everything else that music allows for which is higher learning, advancements in science. Also music stirs the imagination which is really an important thing for the development of any species.  Without imagination, you just dry up and die. You become a thing of the past and you become irrelevant and eventually you will no longer be. So, if you’re talking about a long range view of humanity, I see a very bleak future when you don’t have the arts.  Not just music, but all kinds of arts. Because we were given those arts to become human and stay human and advance as a species.  This takes us back to the Stone Age.

S.Z.: The Grateful Dead were part of the soundtrack to the ‘60s revolution – protests against an overseas lost war and the general disgust with the leadership and war machine overriding the best interest of the people. What do you think of the Occupy movement?

M.H.: Yeah, well they’re just crying out.  They’re screaming, just like we were screaming. Screaming to understand what they stand for and people get desperate. It’s another evolution in the protest. Power to the people. More power to them. If they ever got organized, they could be dangerous. I hope someday that more of those kind of things will happen.

S.Z.: What did the ‘60s and early ‘70s teach this generation in terms of speaking out and changing establishment?

M.H.: You always learn something from something that came before. That’s why you preserve music, that’s why you have history books. When people see other people doing what they might feel, it empowers them. Wow! There’s more of us than I ever thought. That’s the way it was for me in the ‘60s. Once I started seeing the crowds, I said, “Wow it’s not just the five of us.”

There are a whole bunch of people out there that are dancing to our music and believing in some of the things we were trying to say with our music. So it’s important for other people to witness what happened before them and draw their own conclusions on a personal and group level.

S.Z.: Who or what has influenced you most greatly as a musician?

M.H.: I would have to say Pythagoras.  About 400 B.C. he was the father of the science of music. He discovered the octave. And he also gave numerical notations to all of the planets. He saw the planets and the whole universe as the world of sound. The world as a musical instrument. He called it the music of the spheres, or musica universalis. Which is music universe. I would have to say that would be the biggest influence, on a larger level. You know, I’ve had musicians who have influenced me, but Pythagoras is the biggie.

S.Z.: Tell us about the work you have done for the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress and more recently, with The Smithsonian Institution’s nonprofit record label, Smithsonian Folkways.

M.H.: There are precious recordings that are housed at the Library (of Congress) and the Smithsonian Folkways.  These recordings are endangered.  The discs and different mediums  we have used to record sounds since 1890 are decomposing.  They’re rotting. So it’s a race against time to get these collections and digitize them for the future, forever. This music is not just songs, they’re histories of thousands of years of cultures. The next generation needs some body of work to start their musical career.  Everybody bases their music on somebody that has come before them.  In this case, bodies of work, whether it be the blues, punk, Led Zepplin, Tibetan music, whatever it is. You base it on something that came before you and then eventually if you stay with it the rest for your life, your own skill becomes your own music.

S.Z.: I’ve heard you say that you are “playing with the beginning of time and space now, dancing with the infinite, vibratory universe.” What is that like?

M.H.: You have the feeling that you know what that first vibration was, the thing that created it all. You know when it was and you know where it was. So it gives you a kind of spiritual connection to the whole chain of being, of life, of the universe. And that you’re a part of it. And this is the sound that started it all. Some people might say I’m having a conversation with the creator. I’m having a conversation with a creational moment. If there is a god, its got to be a vibration. It’s a very spiritual experience to be able to interact with the energies that created everything — everything. It’s a very powerful thought, so you just ponder that for a while and you play with it. And somehow it brings you deeper into the heart of music.

sue@streetroots.org