Susan Cypher, The Nightbird
HISTORY: I am called and call myself a modern-day Bard (an old term for singer/storyteller/ songwriter:). I took the name The Nightbird after I began writing my own music. I had performed as the Traveling Troubador for a long time, but I left that behind as I began performing original music and telling my own tales, while drawing on magical folk stories, legends, and myths from all over the world. Some of my songs are influenced by my own life experiences, as well. Some are simply drawn from some deep well-spring of imagination.
MUSIC: As the Nightbird, I began to shape a new reality, one filled with magic (which I believe in whole heartedly, by the way). After all, as my husband said to me one time, Jesus Christ did magic after all--think about his water-to-wine miracle. We call magic miracles and very few of us can touch it, truly touch it. It comes as miracles, small ones every day, as healing when there should be none, rising from our belief that it can be so. So I write about heroes, new and old, and my songs breathe with passion, sensuality, and a taste of flamenco. My husband, now my drummer, adds in the magical sound of the Djembe, bongos, and various other hand instruments. My songs are not about booty, but about beauty. Many of them, like tales of old, often have a point, seeking to remind us of basic values, of treating others with respect, but most seek to celebrate a moment, often one of dancing with the elements--the rain, the earth, the wind, the fire, along with the the unseen element, the spirit/the soul. This is something that runs through everything I write. People have called it spiritual, yet it is also sensual (sensuality, for me, is spiritual), tantric at times, tasty.
When I write I start with the poetry of the words, they lead you to the song, seeking to capture a moment in time, like in the Siren Song, "Sirens sing in the cold velvet morning, crying out to me. What's their song in the cold velvet morning? Clouds, mountains, and sea." My songs and stories have been designed to make your soul dance, allowing you to taste a rainbow with your tongue, as colors burst in your mind.
In the bardic tradition, I write my own music and songs (as in Mercedes Lackey's harper series), reaching back into the past as with the "Knight in Dented Green Armor" from In the Moments Between Dreaming, as I speak of a modern Knight, her husband :), remembering those knights who have come before, like the Black Knight, or the original Green Knight. I tell tales to go with these songs, stories that dance as one, completing or complementing each other.
AWARDS: She has won New Artist Radio's "Arisen Female Artist of the Year 2002" at their Park City, Utah award show March 30, 2002. She was also nominated for "Best Female Folk/Pop Artist of the Year 2002." The nominees for these 2 awards were taken from the top 5 in their selected fields. I was in great company in both, such amazing artists. I met some of the artists at the award show and actually got to perform at the show in 3 different slots, with the most wonderful opportunity of singing backup for Joe Houck when he performed at the selfsame award show. I also won New Artist Radio's Best Folk Singer award in 2004 and performed at that show, again with a lot of amazing talent in attendance.
RECENT PERFORMANCES AND PLANS: Recently, I performed for the Mesa State College's Pagan Festival in September, 2007; performed for Grand Junction's 125th birthday celebration, a real treat. I got to perform in the youth section, using my storytelling talents. All the stories I tell these days are ones I write. I am looking forward to seeking publishing for these at sometime in the near future, sooner now I believe now than later, and want to put them on CDs--or possibly DVD.
I have been occasionally exploring my other artistry as well, and you will find on the website both pictures I have drawn, and pictures I has taken--my husband and I both take pictures and I have been thinking of putting together calendars of our work to sell. I am looking forward to putting together a show combining these various aspects of my music and art.
EDUCATION BACKGROUND: I hold two Bachelor Degrees (I also have one just in education, crazy school, something you had to get in Colorado at that point), in Music, on in Music Education and one in Music Performance. I play several musical instruments, including piano (not much in the last several years, too hard to carry HA!), guitar, French Horn, previously trumpet, and am a founding member of a group called Autumn Winds that plays occasionally for various events. My newest instrument, the Native American flute, I was privileged to play with my friend, Theresa Joseph, when we performed in March 2006 as soloists for a piece called "Mesa Verde Suite," being the only two flute players backed by a group of the best brass players in the Grand Valley.
INFLUENCES: My musical has been influenced by many players and styles. I have played, sung, and been interested in the folk style, celtic mainly, but old cowboy ballads also are in their because of my mother singing to me and with me as a child. I found myself drawn to the genre by its emphasis on lyrics and stories. I have played everything from classical music, country music, rock and roll, blues, and jazz and jazz fusion thrown in for flavor. I have noticed that little bits of these differing styles creep into my music. When singing classical music, I got into the old Spanish, flamenco style music, and those amazing Latin rhythms creep in all the time. That feeling, with the salsa, rhumba, as well as other world beats, often creep in, as well. You will find a lot of minor (dark, mysterious) and almost modal type writing in my music, as well. This comes directly from playing Ren Faires growing up, cutting my guitar chops on this. When I started playing Ren, I found that a lot of the changes we were using when I played with the whole group, were the changes I heard as I started writing. My style of guitar is strong rhythm, not a lot of lead, but my main focus is the voice--again because it is what I love to do best--sing. Playing anything other instrument is secondary. My voice is my main instrument.
Some of my heroes (and, therefore I guess, influences) were Peter Gabriel, Mercedes Lackey (singer/songwriter/author), Enya, Lorene McKennit, Sting, Fleetwood Mac, Don Henley, Steeleye Span, The Fairport Convention, and Jethro Tull, along with Janis Ian, Neil Diamond, The Mamas and the Papas, Peter, Paul, and Mary, and so on.
PAST PERFORMANCES: I am lucky to know and have performed twice with Petrella, the reknowned first lady of Country Soul. She has kindly said that, "No bird has a voice like yours," and is a great and gracious performer who has given much of her earnings to charity.
In the past, I played at the Avalon Theatre in Grand Junction at The Big Break in the summer of 2001. I was selected from a field of thousands as one of the top 20 acts, most of the others were bands, only a few of us single performers made it to this end group. I have to say it was fun and frightening. I got to perform also at the Unity Walk in 1999; writing a new story for the occasion, the 1999, 2000, 2003, and finally this year, 2008, Earth Day Celebrations in Grand Junction (way fun this year, as we were on the main stage). I have performed, and perform now, at coffee shops, for public events, private parties, and many fairs and festivals. I have been a regular at Larkspur Renaissance Faire in Larkspur, Colorado, and at our local Grand Valley Renaissance Faire, as well. She has been the featured performer at The Planet Earth Gallery for the Dark Show in 1999, at several gallery events since then, including the Christmas performance in 2007 and most recently at The Gifts for the Goddess show in 2008.
Her song "Loss," (which will be a on an upcoming CD) was inspired by a performance in Loveland, Colorado, (the only representative from the Western Slope) at a benefit concert that raised money for a small boy who was born without ears.
Some other groups I have performed with are The Centennial Band, The Western Colorado Chorale, Patchwork, The Mesa State Jazz Band, The Early Music Society, and many others. I have played keyboards in a backup band for Darlene Austin (out of Nashville) and sang as a guest musician with Windfield (out of Denver).
In 2006, I also got to stretch my thespianic wings (not a word probably HA!) and performed with The Grand Valley Children's Theatre, a new group, as the storyteller in an original version (written by the director) of "The Velveteen Rabbit." This reminded me how much I love a show, complete with backdrops and so on. That is what I want to do with my own music, add in the extras, put together the show that is in my head.
More than anything I love to write and perform. Music is the magic that makes my life complete.
thenightbird.com was founded by Susan Cypher in 2001 and is located in Grand Junction, CO.