These ballads are for Anna…with all my love and devotion…Gary Bedford Dionysus…who can move on the water between heaven and earth, on the surface of the deep, in search of truth or a lost poet, for the middle world of the heart, the quiet mind, or the goddess who rescues human justice, who finds the child’s dream of the beanstalk – “…imagine this hidden world where only the blind and the images can see…” Geronimo…a ballad for the great native warrior, whose family was brutally murdered by Mexican soldiers, and whose band of brothers then roamed the great American West in resistance to the inevitable onslaught of modernity – “…ponies on the run, ride on, ride on…!” Running Water…the music first disappears, only to be re-born in the voices of children, and gives new song to the canyon, the moon and the stars, and to “…sons and daughters going free…running water, flowing to the sea.” (…for Anna) The Wilderness of Love…a prayer to the spirits of all mothers from time eternal, giving birth by the fire, perhaps surviving, perhaps not, who then raise and then let go their children, only to sit by the river, listening for “…the wisdom of the motherhood of souls.” Cowboy Magic (for Ralph Easter)…at age 15 my great uncle left his family’s Nebraska homestead and set out on his own to became one of the quiet and gracefully humble wandering souls of the American West, riding cattle drives until the plains were fenced up, who more than once rode from Colorado to California to work the Central Valley, who seemed to live his life “…smoking cigarettes and dreaming…rolling like a tumbleweed beneath the Rocky Mountain sky.” Cold Windy Beach…on June 7th, 1944, 19 young men from the small town of Bedford, Virginia, perished together during the initial assault on the beaches of Normandy. This ballad is dedicated to their memory, and to the all the known and anonymous souls who have fought for freedom, and whose “…bodies in the sand are the statues of our liberty.” Old Man…a quiet musical prayer about old souls who we now remember like old trees silhouetted against the sun – a sailor, a soldier, a cowboy, Old Crazy Horse and Sitting Bull – “…sundown painted on our souls…sunrise warning on our road.” The Call of the Wild…what force, what spirit, moves the human soul along life’s great adventure, like the river flowing down a blind canyon – it’s the call of the wild, the child seeking a new start, and it asks the listener “…can you climb with the redwood higher and then light a sacred fire, …can you swim with the salmon home?” A Love Song of Life…we sit in awe and wonder of the universal feminine spirit, where “...in the stillness of the morning, when the sun is gently rising and the heart bids farewell to night, she sings her love song of life.” California…song of a childhood home, the redwoods and west wind, sailing on the sundown, will her mountains bring us ‘round? Her earth will hold ya’, her surf will rock and roll ya’, and with the 49’er will we find her, or is our freedom like the gold? “…Oh Mother Lode, taking us home…are you going to California? The Angels of Love & Hate…on life’s rocky edges, an invitation to let the angels sing our song for us, a song of love and hate and so good and evil sung to a raging sea, with Jesus on the cross singing to Elohim, but in the end “…all the angels will be dancing together when the battle is won.” Firefly…a post-modern, contrarian meditation, an invitation to sit down in the storm, in the flood, and listen to a story of stories, about creation and the mystery of its thought, where “…the firefly chases night.”