I have always been influenced by many voices; different languages, cultures and genres of music all speak to me. Even though this cd is about one place – a rather remote one - it is about anywhere, about finding a home in your heart. There has been an odd collection of voices in my head inspiring the songs. Imagine Billie Holliday, Kate Wolf, Norah Jones, Bob Dylan, Bonnie Raitt, Andrés Segovia, Jimmy Hendrix, James Taylor, Buddy Hollie, Mississippi John Hurt, Led Zeppelin, Judy Collins, Carlos Santana, Van Morrison, Tom Rush, Carrie Newcomer, Neil Young and many, many others in a room together. Yet it is not a room, but the remote high country of the Colorado Rockies, “where the air is thin, where the mountains sigh and the rivers begin…” This is where a diverse group of people finds community and where my songs find me. With the backdrop of the “mystical sound of silence on high” and the undeveloped open space “where untamed songs run free”, the voices in my head settle and listen and the stories come to life. I am eternally indebted to all the music out there and grateful for places like Badger Creek where the music in here can find its way out. Past musical projects have been somewhat random and free floating. Years of casual folk, classical guitar, love for the blues, occasional trysts with jazz, passion for Latin music and dance, world music and an easily moved heart have all contributed to wherever I land next. I’ve been lucky to have some fine musicians join me along the way. Some recent projects have been 2010 Kantika nobo – a cd about my experiences on Curaçao, an island in the southern Caribbean, and its Creole language, Papiamentu. The songs are in Papiamentu (with one in English and one in Portuguese) and are dedicated to promoting that language. 2012 Kathy Taylor –Dreams (Sueños) – a short video by Wilmer Chavarría of a song I wrote with the words of a poem by Pablo Neruda. (YouTube) (Poem LVIII by Pablo Neruda, El libro de las preguntas, music and translation by Kathy Taylor) 2013 Babelegría - another video by Wilmer Chavarría of a song I wrote in 5 languages, performed with some of my students at Earlham College. (YouTube) 2 videos on YouTube ("Badger Creek" and "House on the Hill") from my new cd. For my day job I teach language at Earlham College in Richmond, Indiana.