John Two-Hawks' Grammy Nomination Speaks to the Heart of Music by Bill Webb
www.johntwohawks.com

The Oglala Lakota Sioux who has mystified audiences for years with his spirit-connected native flute virtuosity has secured this years Grammy nomination for his 2009 release, Wind Songs - Native American Flute Solos. He is up against the likes of two-time Grammy winner, Bill Miller in the Best Native American Music Album category. As John Two-Hawks puts it, "Of course I would like to win a Grammy, who wouldn't, but it is not about that. It is about creating music from the heart."

What makes this nomination amazing is that Wind Songs is John Two-Hawks' first entirely improvised album. And each song was done in only one take! There was no team of music experts organizing and creating a plan to put together an album that would make a hit or promote a career. There was simply John Two-Hawks, quietly connecting to Spirit, turning on the recording machine and playing what first came out.

"It was as if my mind was empty, no thoughts, only feeling and playing the flute."

This was not the first time John recorded the flute on the spur of the moment. In the 2007 Emmy winning HBO movie release, Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee, for which John Two-Hawks played the flute and received an Emmy nomination, director Yves Simoneau asked John to do a very unusual thing after he had recorded all the flute tracks. With no music or preparation, Simoneau had John watch the death scene near the end of the movie for the first time while spontaneously playing the flute. John began playing to a scene of dead bodies in the snow and was so moved that, at a certain point he had to stop playing. He just stopped, and after twenty seconds or so of silence he began to apologize to Simoneau who was standing in the control booth with two thumbs up saying, "That was exactly what I wanted!" In the movie, you can hear where the flute stops for a moment, then the piano takes over.

John feels that Wind Songs and his upcoming release, Earth, Fire, Water, Wind finally express what he has been trying to say musically for years. He tells his audiences, "Each CD is a messenger, the music that is created here and everything that has gone into it is a messenger, and I pray that for whoever takes them home it will bring blessings to those people. That it will make their paths more clear and their roles more meaningful."

John believes in the integrity of each person's role in life. And clarifying and living out that role is paramount. "Stay true to what your gifts are, what the Spirit has given you." He stays true to his gift of music. John is not a man who will create music only to make money. "But the business side of music is part of it." he says. "It is not inherently evil. It is when you sell your sole only for a buck that you lose yourself. As long as you stay true to yourself, the business side is just part of the process."

John sees his Grammy nomination as, "A collective nod not only to me, but to Spirit and to everyone who is on this road I travel and where music comes from." His view is that we are all connected and his music is just one part of that connection. He acknowledges not only all the people involved directly with him, from the roadies to the engineers, but also other musicians on similar paths, other segments of the music business, and all the people who participate and share in music. But he goes even further.

John Two-Hawks believes that looking into your own soul, discovering your own role, and learning to understand others is the key to peace and harmony. To this end, he has spearheaded an organization dedicated to bringing all peoples in the global community into harmony together. It is called the Circle of Nations Global Community. "We have people coming together from nations all over the world to share in a weekend of learning the old ways, the medicine wheel, connectedness." He says people come who, "want to connect and reach out to you over here and you over there. And realize that we are all connected and have a reason for this journey we are on."

He feels that "the saddest thing that can happen to a human being in this life is never coming into contact with a reason for your life; a vision for your life and a purpose for being. He sees the one true cause of all the conflict between peoples as, "Peoples' inability to accept others as they are, to throw away opinions and judgments and accept our differences with an open mind." The Circle of Nations is one step towards curing the conflicts.

John has been playing music since before he can remember. There seems no doubt he was called to be a musician. "From a very early age music's been going through my head." His family tells him how he sang and played even as a toddler. Recently he received a gift of an old recording of he and his mother and father singing together when he was five years old. John remembers, "When I was four years old, I was listening to music on the radio and had a flash of a thought that someday I am going to be one of those people on the other side of that speaker."

"When I go into my studio to create, it becomes a place of mystical mystery. It is like my brain is not part of the equation. I am going with what is coming out of the center of my being and I can actually feel what it is supposed to be. I can't settle until I know I have got what I am 'hearing'. I have always recorded my flutes improvisationally, but all the other instrumentation was recorded first leading the way. And I worked it out and played the flute parts more than one time to get it to where I wanted it. But on the Windsong CD, every single song was a first take improvisation."

John Two-hawks allows his life to be lead by visions, meditating on his calling, leadings of the Spirit. He draws from an unlimited wealth of personal resources he finds within his own heart and imagination. He passes on many stories of the old ways and how we are all connected through his music through the many educational performances he has given in schools. With his recent Emmy and Grammy nominations, the spirit of what he represents through his music is being introduced on a much grander scale furthering his dream for peace in the global community.

John's heart is full of compassion for others and his continued vision is that everything he does will help others get to know who they are, their purpose, and how they can come together in a spirit of goodwill. In a sense, he represents all musicians who put their musical calling first and create music from the heart, not to impress anyone, but to help make a difference. "Music is a language anyone can understand," he says, which puts music in the unique position of reaching out to all peoples, all cultures, as an unbiased messenger that can bless the world.

John and his wife Peggy will be at the Grammys this Sunday awaiting the results, as will all of us. Regardless of who wins, John intends to continue carrying the spirit of love and compassion and, through his music, spread a little more peace across the globe.