Host: Scott Carrier of Hearing Voices

The places we live and the people who live there; a desert, a city, two small towns, and another country:

Host Scott Carrier has a cultural history of the Great Salt Lake's "West Desert," a land of polygymists, bombing ranges, and toxic waste incinerators. There's chlorine gas in the air, anthrax stored underground, and people who call the place home.

Sarah Vowell's childhood move from rural Oklahoma to small-town Montana was, for her, a change from the middle ages to a modern metropolis.

Also, two Stories from the Heart of the Land: NYC native Natalie Edwards hates grass, bugs, dirt, and trees, but attempts a walk thru Brooklyn's Prospect Park; and Carmen Delzell tells why she moved to and has stayed in Mexico.

I've been interested in Maori culture since I saw my first Tiki jade pendant and wondered about the story behind the symbolic carving. The movie "Whale Rider" further sharpened my desire to visit New Zealand and learn more about the Maoris. In 2003, I spent a month in beautiful Aotearoa (the Maori name for New Zealand means "land of the long white cloud"). I toured Maori towns and went to traditional performances and concerts. What stood out was the palpable sense of pride felt by both performers and audiences. It seemed a new pride, fresh and hopeful. And in fact I learned that it was new, having emerged largely after the Maori language became "official" in 1987. It is against that backdrop that I discovered WAI. The name means "water" in Maori. Many contemporary New Zealand groups sing in Maori, but WAI does it expressly with the mission of passing on the language on to the young. I heard their CD and knew I had to contact them. Mina Ripia and Maaka McGregor of Wai welcomed me into their home on Titahi Bay near Wellington, the capital of New Zealand. They told me that they'd only learned to speak Maori in college. They had been part of the English-language music scene before they decided to sing strictly in the language of their ancestors. When I asked Mina to identify herself she launched into a long recitation of the names of those ancestors, ending with her own name as the latest descendent. Maaka took a 200-year-old conch shell that had been soaking in the bathtub and played it like a trumpet. They use the shell to begin their shows. Then comes the electronica, which seems to grow organically from beats of the poi?balls on strings that they swing so they hit each other in rhythmic patterns. This piece is a collage explaining their music as they perform. A shorter piece originally aired on as part of of Homelands Productions' Worlds of Difference series on NPR's Day To Day.

At the start of the semester at Salt, we start big, really big.

After listening to a few radio pieces and introducing ourselves, we talk about sound. The power of sound. The conversation ranges from the practical to the spiritual. It’s poetic..

Here are a few thoughts I have on the power of sound. Studs Terkel offers his take on the human voice. And, Salt radio grad Natasha Haverty talks about sound at death.

Allison Swaim gets sound. Pun intended.

She understands it and she knows how to record it to tell a story.

In the fall of 2008, Allison produced a piece about a guerrilla gardener — a guy named Cody who illegally plants trees on an island off the coast of Maine. Allison had a knack for getting her mic in all the right places. She collected great sound of Cody canoeing, hiking, planting trees, and getting dirty. Then, she used the recordings to paint a vivid picture of his work.

Producer Robert Krulwich once said “In radio, the listener is a co-author.”  What he means is that because there are no pictures, listeners are free to create their own images when they listen to the radio.

One of the ways good radio stories paint pictures is with ambient sound and active tape. Ambient sound is the general, background sound of a place. Active tape is a recording of someone doing something. Put those two together creatively and radio becomes cinematic.

See for yourself. Take a listen to Allison Swaim’s “Cody Appleseed.”

I talk every single day and I sound natural when I do. So, why, when I read narration, does “natural Rob” disappear?

Makes no sense, right? I should be able to just open my mouth, speak, and sound like I always do — a coherent, engaged version of myself, but me. Instead, I have to work really hard to sound something close to natural when I read aloud.

On this Saltcast, it’s all about narration. I offer a few tips for improving narration and we listen to two pieces. The first is the opening scene to “Malaga Island: A Story Best Left Untold.” The second is “Blind Dog” by Scott Carrier.

In 1983 David Bowie was enjoying the biggest success of his career… The album “Let Dance” had gone to number one around the world and the subsequent “Serious Moonlight” tour was playing to huge, record breaking audiences. The show finally travelled down the South Pacific, reaching New Zealand in November 1983. Shortly before his first concert in Wellington, Bowie was invited to visit Takapuwahia Marae in Porirua (a sacred meeting place of the native Maori's). Becoming the first bonafide rock star to be officially welcomed onto a Maori Marae. 25 years later – members of the Ngati Toa tribe and professionals involved in the tour look back on the event that Bowie himself called…  “One of the most hospitable experiences of my life”… This documentary features a short exclusive song that Bowie wrote especially for the occasion entitled “Waiata” (a previously unheard original Bowie composition!) – as well as the reaction of Bowie backing singer Frank Simms after hearing a recording of the song played back to him for the first time in 25 years. Other contributors include legendary NZ music promoter Hugh Lynn, as well as Lenny Pickett, the musical director of “Saturday Night Live” in New York, who played saxophone on the Serious Moonlight tour. (Additional music written and recorded by Joff Winks www.joffwinksband.com )

Every week the Tribal Beat brings news from around Indian Country about things that affect the lives of Native Americans. We also have Notes from Indian Country, a Ute word for the week and the Hoopla, an entertainment and events calendar.