Gaea Star Crystal Radio Hour #229

09-01-16  Gaea Star Crystal Radio Hour #229 features the Gaea Star Band with Mariam Massaro, Craig Harris and Bob Sherwood with special guest Amanda Potluck on vocals and percussion and Jay Lynch on hand drums.  We begin with a favorite medley, an extended piece that drifts mystically between Mariam’s “This Is The Way” and “Distant Star” with Mariam and Amanda on vocals, Craig on marimba, Bob on piano and Jay on drums and Mariam driving the rhythm on ukulele.  An epic with ever-evolving vocal interplay and ever-imaginative piano.  “The Silver Dragon Sailing” is a rapturous ballad with lush vocals from Mariam and Amanda as well as Mariam’s dancing, mysterious native flute.  A mysterious piano variation from Bob pushes and pulls at the song’s tonal center and adds a murky, twilight disquiet to this hazy summer masterpiece.  “Early In The Morning” finds Mariam picking up her Martin 12-sring acoustic as Jay Lynch plays the singing bowls and Craig sets up a stately groove on congas.  Bob shifts between blues and modal underpinnings for this hallucinatory prayer to the morning skies.  The sprawling “Unraveling In Freedom” is a multi-movement, 24-minute improvisation with stellar and sensitive contributions from today’s talented ensemble.  Mariam spins a lovely, nuanced melody above her solid, groovy 12-string, Amanda brings deep, evocative drama with her blues vocalisms and Bob and Craig unleash a series of deeply primeval figurations that push and pull at the fabric of the piece to the very end.