Yesterday, I was in a concert from Ramona (age 27), she is - according to my
subjective perception of reality - the Austrian version of Joni Mitchell.
Ramona is currently on her local winter tour in Vienna. One sad thing is
that Joni has never played a concert in Vienna (Austria) - I think she has
missed an important place in career. We really have some anachronistic
hippie veterans here in Austria, although they are younger than 30.
If Joni gets the opportunity to visit Vienna, then I would recommend her to
go to a concert from Ramona. I have seen every concert of Ramona's current
winter tour. She has studied philosophy and is an excellent
singer/songwriter. Some songs are establishing a strong bond of intimacy
between her and the listener. She allows her inner vibrations to become
open, so that the audience can sense and access a free flow of emotions. Her
voice is an ever evolving instrument setting free her energy that comes from
deep down inside. Her music mediates ambitious soundscapes and strongly
image-filled moods. Living in openness and harmony allows you to free
yourself from the mental disorder surrounding your imagination which is
important to sense her love flow. You have the optimal experience when you
are totally immersed in the flow state. On a technical level, her
performance sometimes mediates a musically and sonically ambitious opus that
combines a variety of different textures on a selected set of songs in a
consistent way. Some of her early acoustic stuff can be classified as
"folk", ranging from a simple instrumentation to a more complex harmonic
structure. Later on, Ramona brought in some jazz tunes with - in part - very
complex rhythms. Her explorations brought her into the folk-jazz and rock
world. Her songs continue to grow musically and thematically, and her band
helps her to better fill out the harmonic complexities. Her lyrics are very
sophisticated, many songs are comparable - in my opinion - to Joni
Mitchell's range. Her lyrics are primary dedicated to political issues,
philosophical issues, oceanic love feelings and intensive emotions of all
kinds. Although Ramona sings in English, she has absolutely no reach in
Austria, there is no public for such a kind of music. She has - until now -
no contract with a record label/company. She only plays small club-concerts.
Nevertheless, I hope and wish that things will change for Ramona, because
she deserves to become popular.
Yesterday, the last song of Ramona's show was her modified and extended
interpretation of Joni's Woodstock song. The crowd, mostly young, screamed
in turn. For a moment, it seemed like something, like a new beginning: We
have a whole new political hippie movement here... According to cosmology,
we are stardust, billion year old atoms. Except for hydrogen, all the atoms
that make each of us up -- the iron in our blood, the calcium in our bones,
the carbon in our brains -- were manufactured and synthesized in red giant
and supernoave stars thousands of light-years away in space and billions of
years ago in time. We are, as I like to say, stardust, starchildren,
starflowerchildren. Our loyalties are to the whole human species and the
planet earth. Our obligation to survive is owed not just to ourselves but
also to that universe, ancient and vast, from which we spring... And we've
got to get ourselves back to the garden, back to the stars, back to the
cosmos from where our matter came some billions of years ago...
Hand Joni a flower, wish her peace and love for Christmas.
There goes a wonderful woman who has kept on trucking while so
many others of her era have just sold out to the system.
Best wishes
Manhard Schlifni, Ph.D.
I wish I was on a sailboat with a hippie girl who played guitar for me
I wish I was as happy as happy as me
(Manhard Schlifni, 2000)
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