Artist: Stairway
Title: Medicine Dance
File: New Age/Ambient
By contrast to his blues/psych/rock super-group Yardbirds, drummer Jim McCarty‘s band Stairway was a leap away.
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A relative step from his progressive bands Renaissance and Illusion, the act was a closer partner project for McCarty’s later New Age act, Pilgrim.
Stairway began in 1985, Jim McCarty (keyboards, percussion, vocals) bringing in guitarist Louis Cennamo (Steamhammer, Colosseum, Renaissance) when he discovered their shared interest in healing music.
From an idea by Malcolm Stern and Carmen Wilcox, 1992’s ‘Medicine Dance’ is a journey in the Shamanic tradition of the Native American Indians and their insight into the magic of animal archetypes in relation to medicine and healing. Accordingly, each track is titled for one of the spirit animals which the tribes ascribed different remedies.
Differing from typical New Age synthesiser fare, the album’s use of traditional instruments and electronica to carry its Shamanic messaging made it a top seller and highly popular with New Age workshops looking to generate appropriate atmosphere in their sessions.
Stairway’s four albums found a ready and eager audience in the 1990s with sales totalling over 100,000.
Tracks:
- Eagle
- Bear
- Deer
- Wolf
- Snake
- Lynx
- Buffalo
- Horse
- Dolphin