01-23-25 Gaea Star Crystal Radio Hour #604 is an hour of improvised visionary music played on a frozen, still January day in 2025 at Singing Brook Studio in Worthington, Massachusetts. The Gaea Star Band featuring Mariam Massaro on vocals, Native flute, kalimba, dulcimer, 4- and 8-string ukulele, mandolin, Celtic harp, harmonica and acoustic guitar, Bob Sherwood on piano and Craig Harris on congas and Native low drum begin this dynamic, inspired hour with the gentle, acoustic guitar-led minor ballad “I Am Spirit Manifest” before bringing in the varied, evocative “In The Full Moon”, a pulsing, jazzy composition featuring chiming Celtic harp, throbbing low drum and flights of majestic Native flute. “Let’s Slow Right Down” is a bittersweet, drifting coda to “In The Full Moon” with graceful, distant, echoing Native flute and gorgeous in-the-moment composition on the piano. “Grateful For The Memories” is a whimsical folk song with a fine vocal and tight, ringing 8-string ukulele from Mariam and hard blues piano from Bob. Mariam creates a wonderful elasticity on her ringing dulcimer that provides a framework for Bob’s chordal support on the gorgeous, mystical “Happy I Am” and mournful, unhurried kalimba ushers in the unusual, circular “There’s Only One Way”, a wonderfully melancholic, majestic moment of achingly pretty minimalism is held in frame by Bob’s Prokofiev-derived piano movements and Mariam’s powerful melody. “Oh Mother Earth” is the major-keyed analog to Mariam’s powerful song “I Am The Mother Earth” and in this expansive, joyful framework, driven along by Mariam’s crisp mandolin, becomes a piece of front-porch Americana. We finish today’s varied, inspired show with an upbeat version of Mariam’s island song “Lead Me Down”.
Learn more about Mariam here: http://www.mariammassaro.com
