Gaea Star Crystal Radio Hour 514
Gaea Star Crystal Radio Hour 514 is an hour of improvised acoustic music played live at Singing Brook Studio in Worthington, Massachusetts by The Gaea Star Band with Mariam Massaro on vocals, shruti box, acoustic guitar, kalimba, ukulele and Native flute, Craig Harris on congas, Native drum and balaphone and Bob Sherwood on piano. Recorded in early December of 2022, today’s hour begins with the epic sound journey of “Snow Queen” which begins as a pretty, soulful ballad with a fine vocal from Mariam and shifting, rhythmic piano from Bob. The second section, “Rise Up To Meet It” finds Mariam moving to kalimba and Native flute to accompany a powerful vocal lifted higher by Craig’s Native drum heartbeat. Rising subtly like a sunrise from the final strands of the piece before is the celebratory, chiming “Sweet Home”, a compelling folk song with a gospel pull from Bob’s circular, rich piano and a gorgeous, swirling melody from Mariam. “Room Of Doubt” comes from the 2009 CD “Gaea Star Crystal: Awakening The Tribes Of Light” and the band gives it a powerful, confident reading with Mariam setting the tone on chiming acoustic guitar. “As Far As We Can See” is a beautiful, hypnotic, rhythmic ballad built on Craig’s fundamental Native drum work, low, angular piano figurations from Bob and an Eastern melody from Mariam as she plays her shruti box. “She Is The River” begins with an extended call-and-response between Native flute and piano to set up a deeply moving, elegiac melodic poem from Mariam as the song settles into a beautifully fragile, light, shifting mix of shade and brightness. We conclude today’s show with the bluesy “Reflecting The Setting Moon”, a clever blues rock song with a bending, sinuous melody from Mariam.