I had the chance to call Mary Youngblood last week and chat about her upcoming performance at the Yosemite Flute Festival. The festival starts on Friday, Sept 21 and runs through the weekend. Mary is excited to be coming back to the festival this year and she is especially thrilled because she is bringing her guitarist, Sana Christian, along with her to the festival this year. While Mary couldn't coordinate bringing the whole Sisters of the Earth band with her, Sana and Mary are sure to delight the crowd this year. Mary and Sana will perform Saturday night, Sept 22, the evening concert starts at 7 PM.
I chatted with Mary about what's going on in her music career right now, and she was beaming with excitement about the fact that she is busy composing songs for her next album. She has already been in the studio laying down the first couple of tracks and the rest of the tracks aren't far behind. This next album will be an independently produced album and she is working with talented local producer Eric Chun of Creative Music Services. The theme of the album will play around with the idea of "Coming Home" or "Going Home". But the most exciting idea, especially for all of the Native American Flute players out there, is that Mary is planning to include some bonus backing tracks on the CD which will include the backing music for some of her most popular songs, but with the flute track removed so that you can jam with the track, playing the flute part! Mary even hinted that we might get a chance to hear her perform an early version of one or two of the songs from the new album at the concert on Saturday night.
In addition to performing on Saturday evening, Mary and Sana will offer a workshop at the Yosemite Flute Festival titled "Fluting with Accompaniment" on Friday, September 21, from 3-5 PM. In this workshop, Mary Youngblood and Sana Christian share the dynamics of working with a partner. You can pick up tips on playing flute with guitar, adding vocals to your performance, and writings songs with a partner. Mary is also presenting a "Flute Embellishments" workshop on Sunday, Sept 23, where you can learn all of the secrets of how Mary makes those wonderful sounds on her flutes.
I hope to see all of you at the Yosemite Flute Festival this year. I'll be working sound for the open mic stage so please stop by and say hi.
