EXCERPT
FROM THE EXCLUSIVE E-BOOK
The Story
Behind the Songs
1. Thunder Healing
I had bought a digital voice recorder and a
song was coming through. When that happens for
me, I try to record it right away as it comes.
I had tried twice to record this song and both
times there was noise in my way. I had opened
my window to capture the sound of the rainfall.
A third time I started to sing, and I got goosebumps
as the thunder began to respond to my singing
and drumming. It was literally orchestrating
itself into the song at just the right moments.
And the birds were singing! I couldn't believe
it and I just kept on singing as the song continued
to complete itself. The clincher is at the very
end of the song when I stop drumming and continue
singing. I reached a crescendo with my voice,
sang a really long note, and the thunder crackled
just then, continued rolling and faded out at
the end of the song. Amazing.
2. Grandmother's Light
One of the women spirit helpers who walks with
me likes to hang out with me in the kitchen.
That is where I get a lot of my songs as I wash
dishes. So of course, I was washing dishes as
this song came to me. This grandmother of mine,
she was right by my stove when she started to
give me this song and urge me to sing it. And
what I saw in my mind when I sang it was light,
pure white light... thus, the title "Grandmother's
Light."
3. Blood Memory
*Blood Memory (full length song) is featured
on DigYourRoots.ca.
Before I opened for Gregg Braden in November
2005, I was praying for a song. This was two
days before I recorded the Thunder Mountain
CD. Ironically I couldn't remember it to sing
at that event, but it was all about blood memory.
And not just the blood memory that Native people
are supposed to have, but the blood memory we
ALL have.
4. Water From the Sky
I get migraines and tension headaches. I've
gotten them all my life. In 2005, I found out
that if I stand in the rain, my headaches will
either improve or disappear. I was standing
in the rain healing from a headache when this
song came through the top of my head, as if
the rain itself gave it to me. I cried out of
sheer gratitude and my tears joined the raindrops
on my face. And that's when this line in the
song came: "Lift your head, let the rain
touch your tears."
MUSIC REVIEW BY POPJOURNALISM.CA:
"The worlds of house and Aboriginal
music collide in an innovative single
by DJ Kwe and Juno Award-winning singer-songwriter
Brenda MacIntyre. "My Spirit is Rising"
features traditional chants by MacIntyre
and DJ Kwe's sultry spoken vocals over
warm instrumentation and a heavy, heartbeat-like
kick beat." -- Reviewed by Robert
Ballantyne
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I am honoured to know DJ
Kwe and DJ Kwest of Urban Indian Productions.
DJ Kwe asked my permission to sample one of
my songs from Spirit Wind's Awakening CD and
I was happy to say yes. DJ Kwe's debut CD is
called The
Electronic Drum. The CD is amazing! It's
Aboriginal house music that features Aboriginal
drumming on it. Wow, is all I can say. If you
like dance music, positive and inspiring music,
Aboriginal drumming and originality, you'll
be insanely happy with what this CD provides.
Visit Urban
Indian Productions to buy The Electronic Drum.
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From Brenda's Original
Journal written August 20, 2005 about
her trip to Thunder Mountain (in Ontario
Canada) from August 15-19, 2005
Visions on my last day at the mountain
August 18...
The last we were there, packing up, I
saw down on the Earth because I realized
I had not once actually sat on the Earth
directly - well now that I think of it,
I saw on many rocks, but not on the actual
earth-soil. I closed my eyes and began
to see a glowing light over everything,
and I could see trees and leaves and then
a big long tunnel that was spiraling ahead
(was this the funnel clouds from Friday?)
I kept seeing all kinds of visions when
I would close my eyes for any length of
time. Spirals, flowers, and at one point
I saw bear paws and an eagle.
The blue woman spirit I've seen in the
sweat lodge before was with me twice here
on the mountain. Then later when I was
singing and drumming, this song just sort
of came out of me because these three
women spirits were telling me to sing
it and singing it with me. The blue woman
was one of them. I could hear five voices
in my voice. I don't remember that song
now. I got seven songs I think, including
the one I went into the forest to get,
this one here, and "Water From the
Sky."
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Thunder Beings and Twisters
in the Sky on August 19...
After running some errands later in the
day, the sky was looking pretty weird.
So I took my daughter into a store to
look around. Still no rain and the sky
was still looking really weird and dark.
I knew it was tornado weather. Still,
because it was progressing but still not
raining and there was nowhere to go, I
took us home. On the way to the bus stop,
I saw literally an eye, like an eagle
eye, in a cloud. Then at almost the same
time, I saw what must've been an actual
eagle way up there, really high up. Then
it was gone.
We kept walking and I kept
watching the sky. I noticed a thin line
of blue sky between what looked like normal
cumulus clouds that blended into really
dark clouds, and this rolling tube of
grey-white cloud that extended like a
twisting snake for miles of sky. It was
twisting and growing and going north,
but it was actually going in a circle
above us. But as we were walking, I had
the distinct sense-feeling that the thunder
beings were telling me it's OK, they were
not going to come down (tornadoes) and
what they were doing was cleaning up down
here. I have never seen clouds move like
this in my life.
Since I came home from
the mountain, there was a surge of gifts
and teachings that came to me.
It felt like I was standing
underneath a waterfall filled with light
at times for months afterward.
One of the gifts is that
I suddenly got the opportunity to produce
the Thunder Mountain Healing Songs CD,
and more songs came just for this CD.
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Medicine songs to soothe your soul and release
stress.