The following sets of descriptions correspond to the tunes on our first two CD releases (“Four Corners” and “New Pathways”) and were used to help enhance our live performances.
Four Corners (2004)
- Bandelier – The prehistoric stone structures at Bandelier have tumbled away to reveal a series of manmade caves carved into the chalky white cliffs of Frijoles Canyon.
- Mesa Verde – From small structures of tidy stone blocks to complex cliff dwellings of many linked rooms, Ancestral Puebloan ruins fill the high crevices edging the towering “green table” of Mesa Verde.
- Santa Fe – Santa Fe’s historical significance combines with its modern artistic culture to form a spicy, vibrant city epitomizing the contemporary Southwest.
- Grand Canyon – Timelessly carved by the winding Colorado River, the earth abruptly falls away to reveal the pastel depths of the immense Grand Canyon.
- Sedona – Set amid towering red mountains, Sedona’s popular hiking trails, lively shops and healing vortexes pulsate with activity and spirituality.
- Antelope Canyon – As sunlight filters down through the twisting slot overhead, it is easy to imagine the laughter of a young Navajo girl echoing among the narrow, colorful folds of Antelope Canyon.
- Cottonwood – The ancient Sinaguan hilltop ruin of Tuzigoot looms above Arizona’s fertile Verde Valley, where lies the small community of Cottonwood.
- Ganado – The small, isolated Arizona town of Ganado is home to the Hubbell Trading Post, a landmark respected as the oldest continuously operating trading post on the vast Navajo Reservation.
- Bryce Canyon – Row upon row of red and yellow pinnacles rise from the earth in a stony parade as Bryce Canyon’s “hoodoos” march tirelessly from cliff wall to valley floor.
- Cedar City – Nestled in the foothills of southwestern Utah, Cedar City weaves a variety of livelihoods and activities into a vibrant tapestry.
- Taos Pueblo – Following in the footsteps of their ancestors with a largely traditional lifestyle, the people who dwell in the square adobe buildings of Taos Pueblo represent one of the oldest continuously inhabited communities in the United States.
- Monument Valley – Rusty buttes and pillars jut starkly from a red desert to create Monument Valley’s distinctive backdrop of the archetypal American West.
- Hovenweep – Clustered at the head of a narrow canyon, the many stone ruins of Hovenweep whisper an ancient message of community and security.
- Dead Horse Point – A poignant legend of captured horses on a high mesa accompanies one of the most impressive canyon vistas in Utah at Dead Horse Point.
- Cortez – The unpretentious southwestern Colorado town of Cortez modestly plays host to the many visitors who pass through to admire nearby Mesa Verde National Park.
- Capitol Reef – The prehistoric Fremont culture etched petroglyphs into cliff faces where the earth’s buckled crust forms the rocky ridge of Capitol Reef.
- Grand Staircase-Escalante – Nearly two million acres of wildly contrasting cliffs, canyons, mesas and rocky formations are dramatically showcased in Utah’s Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument.
- Kodachrome Basin – Colorfully banded sandstone cliffs and pillars encircle Utah’s picturesque Kodachrome Basin.
- Arches – The curved portals of Arches National Park open like doorways to a sandstone world.
- Canyon de Chelly – The smooth sandstone walls of Canyon de Chelly may at first appear to be barren, but closer observation of seemingly inaccessible creases reveals the crumbling stone remnants of a hardy and ingenious people who still call this canyon “Tsegi” – home.
- Moab – Feisty and fun, the town of Moab in its setting of rocky, red sandstone is perfectly situated to entertain exuberant outdoor enthusiasts.
- Zion – Sheer peaks of bronze sandstone rise majestically from the swirling river and verdant valley of Zion Canyon.
- Sand Island – For centuries, prehistoric travelers marked their passage at Sand Island on a massive cliff face, leaving layers of pictures and symbols.
- Chaco Canyon – Evocative today as it was in ancient times, the community of sophisticated sandstone ruins in remote Chaco Canyon remains a spiritual center of the Southwest.
New Pathways (2008)
- Tucson – Rising from a Sonoran desert that is remarkably full of life, Tucson blends Hispanic, Native and Anglo influences into an urban abundance as colorful as its surroundings.
- Chiricahua – A mountainous “sky-island” teeming with plant and animal life rises from the dry, southeastern Arizona grasslands, where 27 million years of erosion has sculpted volcanic devastation into the whimsical standing stones of Chiricahua National Monument.
- Okefenagua – For thousands of years, the coffee-colored waters and moss-draped cypress trees of Okefenokee Swamp have been a refuge for alligator, otter, bear and man, including the Seminoles who call this wetland “Okefenagua – Land of Trembling Earth.”
- Clovis – Situated in the high grassland plains of eastern New Mexico, the community of Clovis lends its name to the stone weapons of certain Paleo-Indians, whose “Clovis points” were discovered near town in the remains of ice age animals.
- Point Loma – Rising 400 feet above the mouth of San Diego Bay, Point Loma offers a panoramic ocean view with a chance to glimpse Pacific grey whales during their annual 12,000 mile migration between Baja California and the Artic.
- Sand People – The southwestern Arizona Natives who call themselves “the Sand People” find abundance in a desert landscape that features the distinctive clustered columns of the Organ Pipe cactus.
- Patagonia Lake – A dozen miles north of the Arizona-Mexico border, Patagonia Lake provides a watery haven where a multitude of songbirds express their jubilation in a symphony of warbles, tweets and chirps.
- El Morro – Ruined remains of the once prosperous Atsinna Pueblo crown the immense sandstone bluff of El Morro, whose face bears inscriptions carved by ancient Puebloans, Spanish explorers and early Anglo pioneers.
- White Sands – Restless snow-white dunes of tiny gypsum particles create the vast glistening desert of White Sands National Monument.
- Farmington – Lying at the eastern edge of Navajoland, Farmington, New Mexico provides a Four Corners center for modern commerce and industry without losing its aura of history and tradition.
- Midwinter Snow – A long season of darkness is suddenly brightened by a feathery white coating of midwinter snow, which flocks the fir limbs and cedar boughs of the Pacific Northwest.
- Flaming Gorge – In addition to his early Colorado River exploration of the Grand Canyon, one-armed Major John Wesley Powell also braved the Green River, and it was he who named the remarkably rosy canyon near the border of Wyoming and Utah, Flaming Gorge.
- Manatee Cove – A gentle inhabitant of temperate coastal waters, the Florida Manatee winters in warm inlets like the one on central Florida’s Space Coast called “Manatee Cove.”
- Dine’ – While known to much of the world as skillful weavers, silversmiths, and sand painters, Navajos are known to themselves simply as “The People,” or in their language, “Dine’.”
- Rocky Springs – The frontier community of Rocky Springs thrived near the busy footpath of the Natchez Trace until fever, pestilence and the disruption of Civil War returned the Mississippi woods to silence.
- Portales – Thriving dairy and peanut industries combine with county government and an active university in Portales, New Mexico, where small town hospitality is alive and well.
- Desert Palms – The sparse, brittle Borrego Desert in south central California contains surprising pockets of palm trees where seeping springs offer a welcome oasis for plants, birds and beasts.
- Black Canyon of the Gunnison – Gothic black daggers of ancient crystalline rock edge Colorado’s Gunnison River, which has toiled two million years to carve the sheer, narrow gorge called Black Canyon of the Gunnison.
- Sego Canyon – Unearthly red figures painted on the walls of Sego Canyon by prehistoric hands seem to wait patiently for their people to return and join in ritual dance.