The Band is now two-plus years old, and has its own story constantly unfolding, but the journey of Heartlanguage's evolution is a much longer story in time.
To use a butterfly analogy, the "egg" was a song presented by my Muse that I could hear and see, like a vivid dream, performed by a band the size and form of what Heartlanguage is today. That song was God of Love, and that year was 1978. I wrote it in pencil, and sang it, whistled and hummed it, for years. A writer of many forms, primarily poetry, the art of songwriting was not mine then-just one that I admired in many others. In 1996 the egg hatched. In a pivotal year in my life, song after song seemed to pour out of me.
Between February and December of that year, more than 50 songs seemed to write themselves through me, and I began to study the art and craft of songwriting. In the middle of that year, I conceded to my Muse"that expression through music was the Path choosing me, though it wasn't clear where that path was going-only that I had to follow.
It wasn't until 1999 that I first took one of 150-plus works from the pages to the recording stu
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That began my unusual path of musical creation as a songwriter–producer, rather than the singer–songwriter. I believed, and wanted to celebrate, that each song's story could perhaps be told best by the most authentic voice for it I could find.
With human empathy at the core of what compelled my songwriting, I began to cross into many genres. I'd grown up listening to, and appreciating, what Duke Ellington named, simply, "good music" as one of the only two real forms. I simply wanted to write what I believed were good songs to my own subjectivity, and hear them first as their executive producer.
Eight years of recording with multiple voices and genres, culminating with the release of a 6th and 7th CD, I was able to finally define what my artistic goal was, with the tag-line Many Voices/One Heart.
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That concept became the "cocoon" for the Band, Heartlanguage. The last two CD's were first released in February, 2007, and the Band to begin playing pieces from those CD's, rehearsed, in its structure shaped by the God of Love dream song mentioned above, in April of 2007. Out of the cocoon, new songs from my repertoire, with new arrangements, and new songs from the joy of collaboration with the many talented band members, continue the unfolding of this "butterfly's" wings.
As an ensemble structure of 15 pieces, not surprisingly, there has been an influx and outflow of personnel—eight original members remaining, several more for more than a year, and a sprinkle of new faces. What remains constant, are shining, talented people who love this Dream, and are making it Real.
What is the "Dream"? To say to the world, "We can make this a better place-together!" and to say it, through Music.
—Steven B.