About 8 months ago I was approached to score the music for a documentary. At the time, I knew very little about the film, and accepted mainly because the editor who contacted me, Thom Stromer, is such a high quality dude, I knew any project he was behind had to be worth while. Little did I know how amazing the experience was going to be.

The film, ‘Healing Neen’ documents the assent of Tonier ‘Neen’ Cain from a childhood of abuse, neglect, and violence, through a journey of drugs, prostitution, and prison, into a life-changing trauma-treatment program where she turned her past around. She is now a world-traveling mental health advocate, working to better the lives of the people she used to sleep with, under bridges. It’s a tale too dramatic to be made up, and Tonier herself is a character too full of life to be dreamed.

There were nights as I sat and recorded music for certain scenes when I was brought to tears, just realizing the power of this woman. She exudes a love and passion that can be felt through the screen. And the wisdom she has gained from traveling through the depths is the pearl of great price. There is no ‘after-school special’ moral to the film, instead it breaths and moves in a very human way. The scenes with her mother are some of the most heartbreaking I’ve seen. And the moments captured with her own daughter, now 6, make you nearly melt.

Probably one of the most meaningful compliments I’ve ever gotten came to me in an email late one night, returning from a gig. I sat down and opened up a message from Laura, the beautiful, insightful director of ‘Healing Neen’. She said that Tonier had just heard the end credit song I wrote for the film, and that Tonier was crying to her on the phone relaying how perfect the song was. She said she couldn’t believe she’d come to a point in her life where she now had a theme song! How amazing! It was wonderful that she liked it, ’cause it was sort of a big leap for me stylistically, but I just had this gut feeling that it was what the story was calling for. And it worked.

I know that the story is still unfolding for Tonier, and once you meet her, I’m sure you will agree with me when I say that she can go anywhere from here.

If you’re interested in seeing the film, please come out to the premier Thursday, April 29th at 7:00pm at The Creative Alliance. The website, Healingneen.com has info and will keep you up to date on future screenings. Also, The Signal just ran a feature on Tonier, and you can listen to it here.

Caleb Stine will be playing a set at the ’24 hours of music and camping!’ of Ram Jam, in beautiful Elkton MD. If you’re looking for a great way to spend Saturday, May 1, check out the Ram Jam website. There are some campfire sing-a-longs on deck for later in the evening. . .

Had a great weekend of small house concerts, and was it ever lovely. Sunday found me in Upperville Virginia on the most gorgeous day of the year. Fiddles, guitars, accordion, camp fire, chocolate cake, a dog named ‘Townes’. . . does it get any better?

Spurred on by a City Paper posting, a friend suggested on Sunday that we head over to the Easter Parade on Pennsylvania Avenue. According to the article, the parade was on a hiatus for over 20 years, and has been resurrected by the churches of the neighborhood as “[a]n opportunity for people who are leaving church to extend their Sunday finery by taking part in a tradition.”

And what a joyous tradition! The enthusiastic drumming of an all-woman Brazilian percussion group, Batala, lured us over to an elementary school playground where they warmed up and set the tone for the parade. The Baltimore Arrabers were well represented with their horses and buggies, and I felt a special kinship with the lone rider who had on the same cowboy hat as me. Several cheerleading troops and dance squads kept spirits high. And a slow rolling display of beautifully kept cars made me eye up a ride other than my Honda Accord for the first time in years.

It reminded me of so much that I love about Baltimore. The joy of life. The mix of traditions. Rhythmic, from-the-gut music. Vibrant crowds. Dance. Neighborhood pride. The elders and the young tussling in the same circles. A constant re-invention of the city in ways that brings out our own best strengths. Seeing people you know every where you go.

It was a beautiful Sunday, and I was so glad that my friend had pulled me out to a parade. Not having heard about it, I would have missed it otherwise.

Also, having just spent time in Toronto, the idea of ‘city’ is very much on my mind. I’ve been on heightened Baltimore-awareness-mode the past week. (Which is always one of my favorite parts about traveling: the perspective it gives you on your arrival home, seeing your everyday life as something that could be just as magical as the place you just left).

Here’s what I love about Baltimore — it’s American in all the best and worst ways possible, but it’s alive and fighting and struggling, and the stakes are high. People from so many diverse fields are attracted to this city because of the fight and the vibrancy, and the life-or-death stakes.

Hopkins; Baltimore Club; dealing drugs: political scrappiness; old-school corruption; hard hitting football players; television shows about The War On Drugs; “a long-time powerhouse in the world of college chess”; Wham City; men selling fruit and vegetables out of a horse-drawn buggy because it’s tradition and, hey, why not?!, let’s slow down to horse-and-buggy-speed every so often; Wye Oak; Healthcare For The Homeless; 2640 Space; still-standing warehouses and factories to remind us of the not-too-distant past when everything from complex machines (my newly acquired upright piano) to the clothes you wore (and they probably fit better) were made within 20 miles of where you slept; friends, friends, and always a new friend to be made around the corner; violence, threats of violence and allegations of violence hovering in the air; a history-making, visionary symphony orchestra director; good water; fox, cardinals, and squirrels all seen a few blocks from my row-house; John Waters; Billie Holiday; Tupac . . .

Risk. Passion. Uncertainty. Heart. Challenge. Baltimore has it.

And on a beautiful Sunday afternoon at the beginning of April, Baltimore was just boiled down to a fun neighborhood parade, laughing with a friend, and soaking the perfect feeling of the air into my skin (knowing that the humidity is coming, so I better enjoy every semi-non-sticky day while I have it!).

I just spent a wonderful few days in Toronto with a lot of great new friends. My best bud Gabriel and I were treated like kings by our hosts Marco and Nancy, a musician and poet who have a wonderfully vibrant and connected life in Toronto.

Marco has recently released a solo album of soulful ambient music. Here is the fantastical, hand-drawn animated video to one of his songs:

Our first night we ended up at the Dakota Tavern, an inviting Country themed venue. The act who was playing, Andrew Penner, created an immense sound blanket covering the whole room with passion and warmth. With only an acoustic guitar, one foot on a bass drum, and one on a pedal keyboard, he sounded like an orchestra. His band, The Sunparlour Players has just released an album called Wave North. It’s lovely. I’m sitting here listening to it on my record player right now. Perfect combination of the Canadian sense of wide-open space, and his own very personal fire in the belly.

We also spent an evening bopping around and caught a Punk revival act (I haven’t seen it pulled off this well before, and these guys brought such joy and energy to the songs that it really felt like a barn dance or a real deal folk show) called The Screwed. Leather-clad, Middle-aged women were dancing like they were 19 again. All of us dudes bopped our heads and played air guitar along with the best riffs. The drummer looked like he was having more fun than anyone in the room, and when he broke a stick mid song and kept on going, you could feel the energy in the place shoot through the ceiling.

That night we also caught J. J. Ipsen, a writer of intricate, baroque-pop who was accompanied by a tasteful piano player. And Ray from Pink Moth, who was the nicest guy, and played his own take on indie melancholia. I felt bad when we slipped out after a couple songs to get to a party that had been set up for us, but if was great to catch what we could. Ray recorded his last ep in a church, which resonates with me because of the recording of ‘October 29th’.

The last night we had an all out beatnick hang with the 80 year old poet/songwriter/literary scholar Hugh Oliver. He’s a good friend of Nancy and Marco’s, and we spent the evening playing old folk songs (Marco, giving us Italian pearls from his childhood and Hugh offering aching British love-lorn ballads and uproarious Wine/Women cautionary tales), riffing on Shakespeare, downing red wine, learning about Greece from Nancy, discussing the nuances of documentary film with Gabriel, and generally having the kind of night I dreamed my adult life would look like when I was 12.

Like the whole trip, and Toronto itself, that night was filled with the traditions of various cultures, bonded and celebrated by music and friendship and love and humor and acceptance. We did it. No one can erase it. That’s life. Toronto style.

On March 4, a mural based on the song ‘Baltimore’ by Caleb Stine and Saleem Heggins was put on display at Penn Station. Painted by students from UB and MICA, the mural offers funky and philosophical interpretations of the city and song. It’s on wheels, and is designed to show up in other city locales for the rest of the year. More information is here in a Baltimore Sun article.

‘Heads Together For Haiti’ on Friday, March 19, at 7pm

Baltimore—The local Holistic Living and Learning Center will be co-sponsoring, “Heads Together for Haiti”, a benefit on Friday, March 19 at The Metro Gallery to raise money for the recently earthquake-struck country.  The event, organized by Holistic Living member Rachael Tanner, will feature live, local music from Caleb Stine & The Brakemen, The Fearsome Creatures, The Matrimonials, and Bobby E. Lee and the Sympathizers, a silent auction, and a 50/50 raffle.

All proceeds will benefit Heads Together, an organization based in Port-Au-Prince, and will be used to rebuild the Jean Jacques Dessaline school, which was founded in part by Heads Together facilitator Gerard Lumarque.

Baltimore native Rachael Tanner lived and worked in Haiti from 2002-2003 with Heads Together. Heads Together is a democratically, consensus run grassroots organization that works in areas of need for the people of their community. Their work includes adult literacy centers, various environmental projects, and the elementary school, Jean Jacques Dessaline for those children in the community who would be unable to attend school otherwise because of high costs.

The facilitator of Heads Together, Gerard Lumarque, and a team of Haitian teachers founded the school, Jean Jacques Dessaline, in 2006. The dynamic pedagogical philosophy, educational approach, and curriculum design make the school unique to the region. This is due to the dedication of the teaching staff. For example, after the first school year, when they lost their building contract and the budget was too low on funds, the team of teachers worked all summer under the hot Caribbean sun to build a new building, without pay.

Sadly, like so many other buildings in the recent earthquake, the school collapsed. Even though many of them are dealing with lost family members and homes, the teachers are still making the daily trek to the school site and holding classes in the schoolyard under tarps.

Tanner hopes that the benefit will help to rebuild the school and is excited about her local Baltimore community helping her cherished Haitian community! If we put our Heads Together all things can be accomplished!

Heads Together for Haiti

Friday, March 19, 2010

7 pm.

The Metro Gallery is located at 1700 North Charles Street

(on the corner of Lanvale and Charles Streets.)

For press inquiries, contact Rachael Tanner.

rachaeltanner02@yahoo.com

443-418-6165

Photos