I formed Spirit Village as a duo while working with a friend and percussionist, Eugene Smith in the fall of 1990. I had been playing solo shows in and around the southern interior of British Columbia for the previous couple of years. Eugene moved into town and I met him through the local Baha'i community in Penticton, BC Canada.
Eugene had an extensive background as a drummer and percussionist, playing across Canada in various musical projects. I invited him into the studio and we began exploring ways to integrate him into the songs I was then writing. We began playing local coffeehouses, folkclubs and outdoor concert venues, working out the ideas for our guitar and conga combination.
As Baha'is we also put together intimate "fireside" concerts where we were able to combine the songs with talks exploring the various themes found in the teachings of the Baha'i Faith. We traveled at the invitation of Baha'i communities to cities, towns and villages presenting these fireside concerts and meeting many interesting people at coffehouse gigs and other shows.
During this period, Eugene and I would often jam with musicians at coffehouses and other shows. By the summer of 1993, I was writing some new songs that called out for arrangements beyond our usual guitar and conga sound. That fall an opportunity arose to put on a larger concert in a 400 seat theater in Summerland, a nearby town. We decided to invite some of the musicians we had been jamming with over the past year or so to join us as guests in the concert.
So we got together an additional four musicians and brought them into the studio, introduced them to the arrangements we had worked out for the new tunes and practiced up the songs in preparation for this one-off show.
 | ||||||
Eugene Smith & Bob Ryan
| ||||||
One of the first musicians I invited to join the project was a fellow Baha'i and musician, Mike Ward, with whom I'd worked with while living in Kelowna, BC. Mike and I had played in previous groups and I knew that his solid bass playing and ability with multiple instruments would be a great asset. Mike and I had done some co-writing on songs back in the early eighties in a group we were in called, "Gawne Ryan & Ward." Some of those songs can be found amongst those on the "Songs" page of this site. To this day I try to work with Mike whenever the occasion arises.
Two others that immediately came to mind were two sisters who were a dynamite duo on their own, Auberte Campeau and Isabelle Charland. These two have such complimentary voices and brought a solid range of musiciality to the project.
| ||||||
Mike
Ward
Laurel DeWitt
| ||||||
| ||||||
Auberte
Isabelle
Laurel DeWitt was also on the list. Laurel, a singer-songwriter herself, brought to the project a number of songs that blended well with the new tunes I had been writing. Laurel also brought a wealth of experience in putting on shows in theater settings, co-producing a range of shows over the years in the very theater we would be using for this project.
The night of the show came and was a real success, impressing in all of us the potential surrounding our working together. After the show we consulted and decided to make this six person version of Spirit Village a more permanent arrangement.
The newly enriched Spirit Village began playing regularly throughout the southern interior of British Columbia, often doing service projects, raising funds for agencies such as the "Women In Need Society" and the "Canadian Mental Health Association." As we were all Baha'is, we continued touring "fireside" concerts, playing in many Baha'i communities throughout the area.
In the spring of 1994 we recorded an album, "On Similar Ground." This we recorded live-off-the-floor in the Summerland Center Stage Theater. During January and February of 1995 we went into the Lakewood Media Recording Studios and recorded the CD, "Before the Moon." In 1996, I expanded my own "Lightkeeper Music Recording Studios" and the band continued to record new songs there until it disbanded in 1999.
Since that time, various members of Spirit Village reunite ocassionally to do some performing and recording, keeping the flame and the idea of the band alive and kicking. Often after writing a new song, I'll want a little of the Spirit Village sound when I go to record it, calling whoever is available of the old crew to join me in the studio. And when someone has a new tune they've written I'll get the call to warm the studio up, get it recorded and do a few shows blending the old with the new.
Now when a new Spirit Village recording happens, it is added to the band's webpage at www.reverbnation.com/SpiritVillage, and it shows up here in the above player. So check back ocassionally, you never know when you'll hear a new Spirit Village song.....
| ||||||
Spirit Village
