Bell Hammer Song

 "This music is about the ancestors, and giving honor to those
who came before us. All great cultures
acknowledge and revere the old ones who led the way."

As an expression, music exists on many levels. The impetus to write a song may arise from feelings of personal love or loss, feelings of desire, excitement, or in the case of folk music, a way to socially commemorate and immortalize human concerns.

As a genre, folk music arouses our instinct toward a common humanity and our shared origins as people. 

Typically it protests the forces in our world based in greed, bent on dividing and enslaving humanity to the limited benefit of a few. Instead, folk music teaches that compassion and selflessness are integral to any sustainable society, a message also found in the myth and storytelling traditions of many indigenous peoples.

With a profound respect for those who came before him, Big Hand's music shows a deep appreciation of the power of music as a cultural force, and its magical ability to celebrate and preserve the best of the human spirit. The name of his music, Bell Hammer Song, is a hat-tip to the flagship song of the awakened social conscience movement of 1960's folk music, "If I Had a Hammer,"  and the freedom, justice and brotherly love which the song reverberated throughout the world.

Bells have always been used to herald important news, and bell towers were centrally located in communities to ensure that everyone got the message. Bell Hammer Song is also a re-creation of the bell ringing traditions of old, only now Big Hand uses his hand (the hammer) to strike the chords of the guitar (the bell) and ring out the songs for all to hear.

For over forty years, Big Hand has played and listened to traditional folk music as well as a multitude of other genres including blues, rock and roll, jazz, classical, and various instrumental works. He has deeply explored indigenous music including (among many others) the Tuva of Siberia, Zen shakuhachi flute, slack key guitar of Hawai'i and Native American drum and flute playing, always drawn back to American guitar-based folk music as his spiritual home.

As the years passed, his own impetus to create began to manifest in a mysterious architecture of song cycles, each centered on an aspect of the original cultures and human inhabitants of the continent we call North America. As as native of North America, born in Fort Worth, descended from ancestors of both European and Cherokee lineage, Big Hand gradually awakened to his own cultural traditions, and found the great mentors who inspired and guided him on his own creative journey.

The result of this journey is a collection of songs which, like the great traditions before him, magically captures and expresses the liberating spirit of the human cultures of North America. Each song cycle is a beautiful collection of vivid images and feelings which together paint a musical picture of the rich traditions from which we all derive our common humanity as North Americans.

This is not ordinary music, and Big Hand is no ordinary composer or performer. To listen to these songs is to travel to another time and space, to remember and reconsider who we are as human beings. As Big Hand says, "This music is about the ancestors, and giving honor to those who came before us. All great cultures acknowledge and revere the old ones who led the way."

So Big Hand now offers a powerful and unique experience: Travel with him through the great ancestral cultures of our common North American heritage, remember the mythical and magical icons that led our ancestors through their own daily lives- the blessings of the corn spirit, the great migrations of salmon, whale and swan, the daring exploration of new worlds by fearless men and women, the strong bonds of kinship and tradition created as the continent of North American was peopled over the last 10,000 years.

Miss Ylse Bering
Mill Valley, 2014