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SONA

Beltana Spellsinger

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SONA

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Burnin' Time in Texas

From the recording Spoonwalk

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The members of SONA met in 2000 as they attended the Starwood and Sirius Rising music festivals in New York. Beltana had a lucid a dream about meeting a mandolin player and a guitarist the night before meeting the Joes. The next day she, she went in search of them. She met up with Joe Credit III carrying his mandolin in a field, and introduced herself to him. (And eventually, his father, Pappa Joe.) As soon as they started singing and playing together they found the combination of their voices to be extraordinarily magical. The next day they were in the bardic pavilion show on the main stage performing one of their original songs, "Land of the Sidhe," together for the first time ever... before a crowd of over 500 people. That night they also played again at Tate's Tavern, a pub in the midst of the woods. It all happened quickly, and from the seed that was sprouted, a tree grew together.

Word spread quickly and the three were invited to perform at the Festival at Tara at Camp Gaia near Kansas City, Kansas. On the way to this concert the three discussed Buddhist philosophy, and Joe Credit III told the story of the lute player and the Buddha. This parable describes how the Buddha taught a lute player how using our energies to find enlightenment is like bringing the lute's strings to just the right tautness so that the instrument will be in tune, and so, as we keep our energies in balance we will be in tune and find enlightenment.

Not long after this discussion, Papa Joe found a book of Buddhist teaching which revealed that the lute player's name was Sona. When the three of them got together at Wolvenwold, Beltana's home, Papa Joe shared this information with Beltana and Joe Credit III and the band decided to adopt the name SONA for themselves. The use of all capital letters for SONA was to distinguish the band from the Buddhist lute player, and later, from other groups of the same name.

SONA's music is hard to classify because their songs drew from so many musical sources. The band was self-described as "Folkadelic" - a combination of their modern folk acoustic style with psychedelic and ethereal vocals. However, the band also dipped into bluegrass, jazz, rock, gospel-style, Celtic, and other genres and tempos which gave their concerts a sense of variety which led to a wider appeal among their listeners.

Songs written by Beltana often expressed a psychedelic bent or a soft to hard rock sound. Joe Credit III preferences include grungy world music and jazz chord progressions, but also Paganized Gospel. Papa Joe showed a variety of singer-songwriter styles from folk rock and Carribian music to Texas swing and polka, adding some fun and humor to much of the music.

The contributions of Trickster (from Loke E. Coyote) in the studio should not be ignored when speaking of SONA's musical style. Trickster recorded and produced SONA's Spoonwalk CD in 2002, in Texas. Their second CD, "acousticnakedladyland," was recorded the following year, in St. Louis, by Bel's husband Johnny, at Magyar Magick Studios.

Pagan musical influences on SONA include: Velvet Hammer/Dreamtrybe, Darwin Prophet, Ginger Doss and Lynda Millard, Green Crown, Emerald Rose, Loke E. Coyote, S J Tucker, Gaia Consort, Sede, The Druids, The Raft, Spoonfed Tribe, Gretchen McMahon, Michelle Mays, Burning Sage, and so many others that they crossed paths with while on the road together.

SONA is coming together once again, for the first time in well over a decade, to perform an exclusive reunion at STARWOOD FESTIVAL July 12-18, 2022 along with other special guests: Brian Henke, The Troubadoors of Divine Bliss, Lin Sanders of Burning Sage, Mama Gina Lamonte, Maevyn Stone, Michael Kelsey, Dreadlock Dave, Awen, Root & Branch, Phat Man Dee and the Social Justice Disco w/Liz Berlin, Rustbelt Ragtops, Guaracha, Milly Raccoon, Monkeystik, Djobe Ensemble, and a VERY special, (also rare) reunion, of their friends and one of their greatest inspirations, musically, the most beloved VELVET HAMMER!

SONA will be playing at happy hour on The GreenMan stage, on Saturday evening. Their music can be found in the music section of this website.

Don't miss this.

This will be a unique, once-in-a-lifetime event. We all hope to see you there.

https://www.starwoodfestival.com/

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