Song of the Soul

Regina Gallero was born and raised in Chile, coming to the USA for graduate school. Though she played guitar in her youth, she didn't start writing songs until her later 50's. Her spiritual path started with Catholicism, wended its way widely, and she has been attending Milwaukee Friends Meeting for the past year, where she gave a concert recently on "The Experience of Oppression and the Quest for...

Julie and Bruce Hecksel are Patchouli and 'Fast Forward Folk' is what it says on their website. Julie caught the guitar bug seeing Taj Mahal while in her teens.

Dhaivyd Hilgendorf teaches at Friends School of Minnesota, a Quaker school which fits Dhaivyd's inclinations very well. He's made a wide variety of music in a wide variety of places and with a wide variety of musicians.

Julie Rust started out her life in Wisconsin, including college in Eau Claire, but she's lived out in Nashville for about 15 years now. Music has been our calling from her youth on, and the keyboard is her passionate home. Born Lutheran, she met the teachings of Meher Baba through her husband, Rusty.

Paulette Meier is a singer/songwriter and a school-based trainer in violence prevention and social emotional learning. Based in Cincinnati, she performs as part of Just Earth, along with Jamie Fota and Len Webb. Jamie performed with Paulette for this Song of this Soul interview.

Susan Stark is a spiritually deep and musically powerful musician. She has 4 albums behind her and one in the near future. She grew up a "preacher's kid", attended Earlham School of Religion, is the mother of 2 and the piano is her preferred instrument. Raised UCC, she's been Quaker most of her adult life.

Mark Holdaway has many facets to his life including his work as a scientist and currently as a musician whose passion is centered on the Kalimba, the African Thumb Piano. From generic Christian to Born Again to Quaker, Mark's life is a tapistry of spirit and music.

Mark Holdaway has many facets to his life including his work as a scientist and currently as a musician whose passion is centered on the Kalimba, the African Thumb Piano. From generic Christian to Born Again to Quaker, Mark's life is a tapestry of spirit and music.

Singer/songwriter Dennis Warner has 8 recordings under his belt and just one children's book, Beads On One String, named for one of his songs. Dennis joined us from Chicago's Dominican University where he was invited as a performer for a New Thought conference.

Derek Lamson is a bluesy, spiritual, free-wheelin' kind of guy with a sure sense of the ministry he's been called to. His music talks of the joy he's attained, but also of his struggles, like those with addiction and divorce.

Charlie King has been performing music since he was four, eventually finding a home with folk music. A lifelong Roman (or roaming) Catholic, he morphed from a Goldwater supporter in 1964 to an anti-war protester by 1967, and he's been an outspoken voice for peace and justice ever since.

The main stage music from Eau Claire's 2009 Earth Day celebration, including performances by Quinn Elizabeth, Jeff White, Billy Krause & Chuck Roll, Patchouli.

Jonathan Lutz is a musician and choir leader of diverse talents and with deep spiritual reflection. Born in Eau Claire, Wisconsin, he's lived in Finland, at Europe's northern rim, for the past 30 years where he's part of a very small Quaker meeting.

Chris Pfeiffer is a singer/songwriter from Southern Texas who found his career as a songwriter for the country music market interrupted by a spiritual awakening to the universal presence and blessing of God.

David Rovics is a singer/songwriter with a cause - actually many of them. His music takes him wherever there are listeners for his activist selection, with concern for peace, social justice and much, much more.

Scott Beck has been in a wide assortment of bands since high school, from folk to rock to blues and cycling back, now to acoustic guitar. Raised Catholic, disaffected from religion for many years, he's now found a spiritual home with enough heart and wide enough walls to include his beliefs in New Thought churches.

Claudia Schmidt has been producing music, poetry and theater for over 30 years. Folk and jazz are some of her musical styles, the Midwest is her home, but the world is her audience!

Bob Franke has decades of experience writing songs that vividly capture the experience of the human heart and spirit, enough so that at least one of his songs made it into the Friends Hymnal that came out in 1996. His latest CD, The Other Evening In Chicago is available at the waterbug.com site.

Sara Hickman is an artist with a passionate and activist soul. From the work that earned her an honorary degree as a music therapist to her work on behalf of Romanian orphans, whether performing in a church fund-raiser for a shelter or on the stage of Austin City Limits, Sara brings heart and deep listening to Spirit to her music.

Singer/songwriter Kate MacLeod was a Utah violin-maker, but became a performer when push came to shove. The fiddle/violin is her special instrument among the other instruments she plays, but my favorite is her voice. Catholic raised, Quaker at present, she’s a story-teller, a folk singer, a blue grass virtuoso.

Sara Thomsen lives amongst the woods of Northwestern Wisconsin, making music and leading a choir. She's released 3 solo albums plus one with the group called Three Altos. Raised ELCA Lutheran and an occasional UU attender now, her music is deeply spiritual with a lively concern for the world.

Carlton has spent the past 2 years at an ashram in California, finding his way forward in his spiritual life. He's produced a CD Love Is The Cure that shares music he's been given, freeing him to skip past the ego battles that were such a part of his work as a counselor.

Annie Patterson is a thorough music lover, maker and sharer, with many years experience performing music in coffeehouses, clubs and festivals and with a swing group called Big Nite Out and Girls From Mars. Annie was raised Methodist, but felt, even in her teens, a tug toward the Divine presence available in silence, an attraction that led her to Quakers as an adult.

During nearly 30 years of driving trucks Annabella was pulled into deep spiritual introspection. One of the outcroppings of this was prolific songwriting on spiritual matters. With her partner at the time, Bobbie Bush, she formed the singing duo "Sweet Spirit". Annabella continues singing solo now delving into the challenge of balancing physical life with spiritual being.

Sally Rogers has been sharing her music with the world for at least 3 decades, has more than a dozen recordings, and some of her songs have been included in both the Unitarian and Quaker hymnals. She teaches music in Connecticut and is a singer/songwriter on weekends and in the summer.