SONA (band)
Encyclopedia
SONA was a Neo-Pagan
music band that toured and performed at Neo-Pagan gatherings and other events throughout the Midwest during the first decade of the 21st century. SONA, with its three members, was popularly known as “the Peter, Paul and Mary of Pagan music”.
The three members of SONA were Bernadette “Beltana” Holzer, “Papa” Joe Credit and his son Joe Credit III. Beltana played the conga drums, Papa Joe played guitar and Joe Credit III played mandolin. All three sang, harmonizing with each other. All three also wrote songs for the group.
in New York as they attended the Sirius Rising
and Starwood
music festivals. Beltana reports having a dream about a mandolin player the night before meeting the Joes. The next day she saw Joe Credit III carrying his mandolin and introduced herself to him and his father. As soon as they started singing together they found the combination of their voices to be extraordinarily magical. The next day they were in the bardic pavilion show on the main stage performing one of their original songs, “Land of the Sidhe” together for the first time--- before 500 people. That night they also played again at the Tavern.
, and Joe Credit III told the story of the lute player and the Buddha. This parable describes how the Buddha taught a lute
player how using our energies to find enlightenment is like bringing the lute's strings to just the right tautness so that the instrument will be in tune, and so, as we keep our energies in balance we will be in tune and find enlightenment.
Not long after this discussion, Papa Joe found a book of Buddhist teaching which revealed that the lute player's name was Sona. When the three of them got together at Wolvenwold, Beltana's home, Papa Joe shared this information with Beltana and Joe Credit III and the band decided to adopt the name SONA for themselves. (The use of all capital letters for SONA was to distinguish the band from the Buddhist lute player, and later, from other groups of the same name).
Songs written by Beltana often expressed a psychedelic bent or a soft/hard rock sound. Joe Credit III preferences include grungy world music and jazz chord progressions, but also Paganized Gospel. Papa Joe showed a variety of singer-songwriter styles from Folk Rock
to Caribbean to Texas Swing to Polka, adding some fun and humor to much of the music.
The contributions of Trickster (from Loke E. Coyote) in the studio should not be ignored when speaking of SONA’s musical style. Trickster recorded and produced SONA’s Spoonwalk CD (see below under Discography).
Pagan musical influences on SONA include: Green Crown, Emerald Rose
, Loke E. Coyote, S.J. Tucker, Gaia Consort
, Sede, Dreamtrybe, The Druids, The Raft, Spoonfed Tribe, Gretchen McMahon, Dana Davis, Michelle Mays, Burning Sage and others.
SONA then began performing at a number of concert venues at Pagan gatherings: Pagan Spirit Gathering
, Summerset, Heartland
, Fire Festival, CMA
Beltane 2001, Magickal Weekend at St. Louis, Spring Fire II in Indianapolis, Pagan Pride in Dallas, TX, Magickal Hibernation at Ozark Avalon and concerts at the DragonDance festival and other festivals at Beltana's home campground called Wolvenwold.
In 2003, SONA took a break due to personal needs of their performers. After a hiatus of three years, SONA came back together in 2006. A much hoped-for additional CD was not produced, but they began doing concerts again in 2007.
, Wytchehaven and at Wolvenwold.
In 2009, after a debate among Wolvenwold members over campground rules, SONA members, being divided by the issue, split up. At this time all three SONA members embarked on separate musical projects. Joe Credit III decided to relocate to St Louis and involve himself in the music scene there. Beltana started a women's music group called Bellawyck (see below). On occasion the Joes have played their instruments and backed up Beltana's bands, Bellawyck and then Spellsinger.
The possibility of a reunion concert always lingers. As the lyrics of one of SONA’s songs (“Little Song”) say:
Joe Credit III has played mandolin with many groups, including Pikin Likin’ and Skinny White Chick. Singer-songwriter
S.J. Tucker (known as "Queen of the Bards") wrote a song about him and her band’s trip to Washington D.C. entitled “Mandolin Holy Man”. He has done his share of street playing in Springfield and St Louis, MO. In Springfield he has sung and played guitar and mandolin with The Voodoo Lounge Gypsies. He has joined in with Greg Bucking as a part of the Vine Brothers in Brooklyn Cafe playing jazz. Joe Credit III has also been the mandolin player for Opal Fly and the Swatters. And he was seen playing in Kansas City with both Greg Bucking and Opal Fly. He has recently been seen playing in Western Automatic, a Kansas City swing band with Papa Joe and Scott Devouton. Since being in SONA, Joe Credit III has written new songs such as “Avocado” and “Sure Thing Myth”.
Beltana continued to write songs, such as “Eorthe's Song” which she recorded in 2003 and “Sonorous Sanctum” which was #1 on the mp3.com.au acoustic charts in March 2004. In the summer of 2007, Beltana formed a band of women called BellaWyck (i.e., meaning “beautiful witch” ) made up of her sister Kittin, Holly (aka "Boom Boom Valhalla") and their friend Jennie from Columbia, Missouri. Their first concert was at Ozark Avalon’s Harvest Homecoming on August 31, 2007. BellaWyck produced a self-titled EP and the group toured for three years before breaking up. During this time Beltana began incorporating Hindu chants
into her repertoire. Following Bellawyck, she made herself the front person in a Pagan rock
band she named Spellsinger which is currently touring. She now prefers to go by her mundane name, Bernadette, and tends to reserve the name Beltana for sacred circles.
Papa Joe continues to play rhythm guitar solo and with different groups, backing up his son Joe Credit III whenever possible. In the mundane world he has been teaching youngsters what to do with algorithms.
Joe Credit III— under his own label “Mandolinsanity” Joe Credit III produced the CD “Everyone Wants to Eat My Mando” which is noted for the song “Sand Dollar Slot Machine” (aka, the “Star Trek” song) and for an extended live version of “Spoon” with saxophone.
Papa Joe— unrecorded and new songs include: “Wedding at Wildwood”, “the Gift”, “A Year and a Day” and others.
Neopaganism in the United States
Neopaganism in the United States is represented by widely different movements and organizations. The largest Neopagan religion is Wicca, followed by Neodruidism. Both of these religions were introduced during the 1950s from Great Britain. Germanic Neopaganism and Kemetism appeared in the US in...
music band that toured and performed at Neo-Pagan gatherings and other events throughout the Midwest during the first decade of the 21st century. SONA, with its three members, was popularly known as “the Peter, Paul and Mary of Pagan music”.
The three members of SONA were Bernadette “Beltana” Holzer, “Papa” Joe Credit and his son Joe Credit III. Beltana played the conga drums, Papa Joe played guitar and Joe Credit III played mandolin. All three sang, harmonizing with each other. All three also wrote songs for the group.
Formation
The members of SONA met in 2000 at Brushwood Folklore CenterBrushwood Folklore Center
Brushwood Folklore Center L.L.C. is a family-operated spiritual center that runs events such as festivals, concerts and seminars, and hosts such events held by other organizations. It is a campground which accepts day passes, night passes, and seasonal camping sites. The facility is located in...
in New York as they attended the Sirius Rising
Sirius Rising
Sirius Rising is a seven day festival at Brushwood Folklore Center in Sherman, New York. Beginning in 1994, the festival has been a community and family oriented event with varied workshops daily and one elemental themed workshop each day. Each night begins with elemental rituals honoring one of...
and Starwood
Starwood Festival
The Starwood Festival is a seven-day Neo-Pagan, New Age, multi-cultural and world music festival presented in mid- to late July. Approximately 1,500 people attend including staff, speakers and entertainers. The Starwood Festival is a camping event which holds workshops on a variety of subjects...
music festivals. Beltana reports having a dream about a mandolin player the night before meeting the Joes. The next day she saw Joe Credit III carrying his mandolin and introduced herself to him and his father. As soon as they started singing together they found the combination of their voices to be extraordinarily magical. The next day they were in the bardic pavilion show on the main stage performing one of their original songs, “Land of the Sidhe” together for the first time--- before 500 people. That night they also played again at the Tavern.
Name of the Band
Word spread quickly and the three were invited to perform at the Festival at Tara at Camp Gaia near Kansas City, Kansas. On the way to this concert the three discussed Buddhist philosophyBuddhist philosophy
Buddhist philosophy deals extensively with problems in metaphysics, phenomenology, ethics, and epistemology.Some scholars assert that early Buddhist philosophy did not engage in ontological or metaphysical speculation, but was based instead on empirical evidence gained by the sense organs...
, and Joe Credit III told the story of the lute player and the Buddha. This parable describes how the Buddha taught a lute
Veena
Veena may refer to one of several Indian plucked instruments:With frets*Rudra veena, plucked string instrument used in Hindustani music*Saraswati veena, plucked string instrument used in Carnatic musicFretless...
player how using our energies to find enlightenment is like bringing the lute's strings to just the right tautness so that the instrument will be in tune, and so, as we keep our energies in balance we will be in tune and find enlightenment.
Not long after this discussion, Papa Joe found a book of Buddhist teaching which revealed that the lute player's name was Sona. When the three of them got together at Wolvenwold, Beltana's home, Papa Joe shared this information with Beltana and Joe Credit III and the band decided to adopt the name SONA for themselves. (The use of all capital letters for SONA was to distinguish the band from the Buddhist lute player, and later, from other groups of the same name).
Musical Style
SONA’s music is truly hard to classify because their songs drew from so many musical sources. The band was self-described as “Folkadelic” —a combination of their modern folk acoustic style with psychedelic and ethereal vocals. However, the band also dipped into bluegrass, jazz, gospel-style, Celtic, rock and other genres and tempos which gave their concerts a sense of variety which lead to a wider appeal among their listeners.Songs written by Beltana often expressed a psychedelic bent or a soft/hard rock sound. Joe Credit III preferences include grungy world music and jazz chord progressions, but also Paganized Gospel. Papa Joe showed a variety of singer-songwriter styles from Folk Rock
Folk rock
Folk rock is a musical genre combining elements of folk music and rock music. In its earliest and narrowest sense, the term referred to a genre that arose in the United States and the UK around the mid-1960s...
to Caribbean to Texas Swing to Polka, adding some fun and humor to much of the music.
The contributions of Trickster (from Loke E. Coyote) in the studio should not be ignored when speaking of SONA’s musical style. Trickster recorded and produced SONA’s Spoonwalk CD (see below under Discography).
Pagan musical influences on SONA include: Green Crown, Emerald Rose
Emerald Rose
Emerald Rose is a Celtic folk rock band from Georgia of the United States. The band consists of four members: Brian Sullivan , Larry Morris, Arthur Hinds and Clyde Gilbert. Emerald Rose plays a mix of Celtic, folk, and Pagan tunes.- Biography :...
, Loke E. Coyote, S.J. Tucker, Gaia Consort
Gaia consort
Gaia Consort is the original incarnation of Seattle-based folk rock music-group Bone Poets Orchestra. The group, popular in the Pacific Northwest of the United States, was founded as Gaia Consort by Chistopher Bingham and Sue Tinney in 1997. Their first performance was at Nudestock 97...
, Sede, Dreamtrybe, The Druids, The Raft, Spoonfed Tribe, Gretchen McMahon, Dana Davis, Michelle Mays, Burning Sage and others.
Tours
After playing at the Festival at Tara, their next gigs were at the Austin and Houston Pagan Pride Day events in Texas in 2001. There they met Trickster of Wiccabilly studios who invited them to participate in the full stage Pagan rock opera “Druid Four Winds”.SONA then began performing at a number of concert venues at Pagan gatherings: Pagan Spirit Gathering
Pagan Spirit Gathering
The Pagan Spirit Gathering is one of the United States's oldest and largest nature spirituality festivals, organized by Circle Sanctuary...
, Summerset, Heartland
Heartland Pagan Festival
The Heartland Pagan Festival is a yearly pagan festival held every Memorial Day weekend near the Kansas City area, on private land near McLouth, Kansas. The festival was started by the Council of the South Winds which hosted their first festival on June 27-29th, 1986...
, Fire Festival, CMA
Council of Magickal Arts
The Council of Magickal Arts or CMA, Inc. is the largest Neo-pagan organization in Texas, and runs one of the USA's largest bi-annual Neo-pagan festivals...
Beltane 2001, Magickal Weekend at St. Louis, Spring Fire II in Indianapolis, Pagan Pride in Dallas, TX, Magickal Hibernation at Ozark Avalon and concerts at the DragonDance festival and other festivals at Beltana's home campground called Wolvenwold.
In 2003, SONA took a break due to personal needs of their performers. After a hiatus of three years, SONA came back together in 2006. A much hoped-for additional CD was not produced, but they began doing concerts again in 2007.
Reunion and Final Breakup
SONA reunited in February 2007 at the Magical Hibernation festival sponsored by Ozark Avalon and held at the Quality Inn in Columbia, MO. Fans welcomed them back with much pleasure and appreciation. Following this, they also appeared at Tara, HeartlandHeartland Pagan Festival
The Heartland Pagan Festival is a yearly pagan festival held every Memorial Day weekend near the Kansas City area, on private land near McLouth, Kansas. The festival was started by the Council of the South Winds which hosted their first festival on June 27-29th, 1986...
, Wytchehaven and at Wolvenwold.
In 2009, after a debate among Wolvenwold members over campground rules, SONA members, being divided by the issue, split up. At this time all three SONA members embarked on separate musical projects. Joe Credit III decided to relocate to St Louis and involve himself in the music scene there. Beltana started a women's music group called Bellawyck (see below). On occasion the Joes have played their instruments and backed up Beltana's bands, Bellawyck and then Spellsinger.
The possibility of a reunion concert always lingers. As the lyrics of one of SONA’s songs (“Little Song”) say:
-
-
- “Before we make our exodus
- remembrance my friend
- The Joi De VivreJoie de vivreJoie de vivre is a French phrase often used in English to express a cheerful enjoyment of life; an exultation of spirit. Joie de vivre"can be a joy of conversation, joy of eating, joy of anything one might do… And joie de vivre may be seen as a joy of everything, a comprehensive joy, a philosophy...
and Unity - And we will return again”
-
Post-SONA years
The three have gone on to personal projects with continued success.Joe Credit III has played mandolin with many groups, including Pikin Likin’ and Skinny White Chick. Singer-songwriter
Singer-songwriter
Singer-songwriters are musicians who write, compose and sing their own musical material including lyrics and melodies. As opposed to contemporary popular music singers who write their own songs, the term singer-songwriter describes a distinct form of artistry, closely associated with the...
S.J. Tucker (known as "Queen of the Bards") wrote a song about him and her band’s trip to Washington D.C. entitled “Mandolin Holy Man”. He has done his share of street playing in Springfield and St Louis, MO. In Springfield he has sung and played guitar and mandolin with The Voodoo Lounge Gypsies. He has joined in with Greg Bucking as a part of the Vine Brothers in Brooklyn Cafe playing jazz. Joe Credit III has also been the mandolin player for Opal Fly and the Swatters. And he was seen playing in Kansas City with both Greg Bucking and Opal Fly. He has recently been seen playing in Western Automatic, a Kansas City swing band with Papa Joe and Scott Devouton. Since being in SONA, Joe Credit III has written new songs such as “Avocado” and “Sure Thing Myth”.
Beltana continued to write songs, such as “Eorthe's Song” which she recorded in 2003 and “Sonorous Sanctum” which was #1 on the mp3.com.au acoustic charts in March 2004. In the summer of 2007, Beltana formed a band of women called BellaWyck (i.e., meaning “beautiful witch” ) made up of her sister Kittin, Holly (aka "Boom Boom Valhalla") and their friend Jennie from Columbia, Missouri. Their first concert was at Ozark Avalon’s Harvest Homecoming on August 31, 2007. BellaWyck produced a self-titled EP and the group toured for three years before breaking up. During this time Beltana began incorporating Hindu chants
Mantra
A mantra is a sound, syllable, word, or group of words that is considered capable of "creating transformation"...
into her repertoire. Following Bellawyck, she made herself the front person in a Pagan rock
Pagan rock
Pagan rock is music created by adherents of one of the many Neopagan and occult traditions that emerged in the middle to late 20th century. In some cases this definition is stretched to include bands embraced by modern Pagans and occult practitioners...
band she named Spellsinger which is currently touring. She now prefers to go by her mundane name, Bernadette, and tends to reserve the name Beltana for sacred circles.
Papa Joe continues to play rhythm guitar solo and with different groups, backing up his son Joe Credit III whenever possible. In the mundane world he has been teaching youngsters what to do with algorithms.
Discography
SONA produced three CDs:- MeGaPaGaTeXaPaLooZa recorded live in April 2001 and co-created with Trickster (who had 8 songs on the CD). SONAs recordings on this CD are:
- Mary's Blue
- Blessed Be
- Pagan Polka
- Land of the Sidhe
- A Paean to Mead
- Snails Ho
- Burning Time in Texas
- Spoonwalk recorded in 2001, Wiccabilly studios
- The Well
- Tuesday
- Meditation
- Little Song
- Pagan Polka
- Blues River
- Burnin' Time in Texas
- Burn in Hell
- Paper Floor
- Land of the Sidhe
- Tate's Dream
- Spoon (First sung in concert at CMACouncil of Magickal ArtsThe Council of Magickal Arts or CMA, Inc. is the largest Neo-pagan organization in Texas, and runs one of the USA's largest bi-annual Neo-pagan festivals...
Beltane 2001). - (Hidden Track: “I’ll Kill You” from the “Druid Four Winds” rock opera written by Trickster.)
- Acousticnakedladyland produced in July 2002, Magyar Magick
- Gypsy Song
- Bliss Comes From the Realization of Impermanence
- Buncha Lady
- Merry Meet
- Snails Ho!
- Millay-D: (From poetry written by Edna St. Vincent Millay)
- Patience Isn't About Things
- Valkyrie
- Blessed Be
- All Naked Women Are Beautiful
- Rainbow
- Dance With a Dragon
- She Xing
- (Hidden Track)
Solo Projects and Songs by SONA members
Beltana— the Beltana CD, which included the songs she performed with SONA and several new original songs. She has written additional new songs such as “The Secret”, “Ozark Mountain Fire”, “blue” and others.Joe Credit III— under his own label “Mandolinsanity” Joe Credit III produced the CD “Everyone Wants to Eat My Mando” which is noted for the song “Sand Dollar Slot Machine” (aka, the “Star Trek” song) and for an extended live version of “Spoon” with saxophone.
Papa Joe— unrecorded and new songs include: “Wedding at Wildwood”, “the Gift”, “A Year and a Day” and others.