Song list:

• Promontory - ©Trevor Jones, Dougie Maclean - a natural elevation....

  after many performances in 2008, which our opening song was promontory, we were asked which cd the opening song was on. well, none. finally I made the decision to incorporate promontory into ceremony as it's opening number. everyone involved has always loved this song. i felt the time was right for me to record it faithfully, yet, add a bit of my own heart to it. so, please ask again! we gotcha covered!
  performers & instruments:
  hand drums, pow wow drums, cymbals, acoustic guitar, Native American wood flute by michael searching bear - keyboards, string orchestrations by TJ Marlatt - violins by Jenny O'Connor

• Chilam Balam - ©michael searching bear - Mayan book of prophecy....

  i have always been fascinated with the Mayan and Aztec cultures. i have studied the music of the area through my flute making business and learned of their whistle and ocarina use. i also was mesmerized by their book of prophecy, chilam balam.
  performers & instruments:
  drum kit, rattles, Native wood flute, ocarina by michael searching bear

• Solstice - ©michael searching bear - sun standing ceremony....

  i have wanted to incorporate the wonderful sounds of the singing bowl into my music and felt because of their uses in ceremony, what better place. the song began to grow into something of many cultures being thrust together as one. what better title than something, a ceremony, that was used by many cultures. the solstices.
  performers & instruments:
  singing bowl, duduk, udu, finger cymbals, slovakian koncovka shepherd flutes, bamboo flute, ghaval, acoustic guitar, Native American wood flute, doumbek by michael searching bear

• The Booger Dance - ©michael searching bear, Brian Kerber - Cherokee ceremony....

  this song was written some time ago by a good friend and myself in a jam session. the idea was to bring together the australian didgeridoo and the native american flute - in a spooky and eerie way. the first two things we agreed on was devilish blue lights and stage fog! we are twisted like that! the song evolved quite a bit very quickly with other friends sharing great ideas. i had played this song in concert quite a bit and was originally recorded during the live sessions in 2006 for the Live In Concert dvd release in 2007. during these live recordings there were 8 musicians on stage doing their thing within this song. a wonderful thing to be involved with until it became my job to incorporate all of their ideas into one studio session with one person doing all of it, namely me. after much homework the final studio version represents a true creation of what we had envisioned the previous years. now, why call it the booger dance? first, it is pronounced boooooooger - not what comes out of your child's nose. in cherokee history we had a ceremony that was performed to scare off any evil spirits that may have entered the villages at a given time. the medicine men that performed this ceremony would have dancers come into the area that would wear masks made out of gourds which were called booger masks. most of the masks would have a phallic look to them and it is said the dancers liked the women. they would dance and gyrate in order to scare off the evil spirits. of course this is a brief overview of the ceremony. i wanted to write a song about this subject and attempt to capture the sounds of this night time ceremony. i felt the didgeridoo captured this feel and emotion and it became the booger dance. i received permission to perform this song and typically do so with the masks and fog! devilish blue lights if possible as well.
  performers & instruments:
  keyboards by TJ Marlatt - didgeridoo by Brian Kerber - gourd drum, shakers, rattles, guiro and gourd huiro, thunder tube, rain sticks, wooden frogs, Native American wood flute, paper bags by michael searching bear - vocables by Susie Theobald


© photos Susan Bookshar

• All Souls Night - written by Loreena McKennitt © 1991 Quinlan Road Ltd. published by Quinlan Road Music -from the Quinlan Road CD "The Visit" - Japanese & Celtic ceremony....

  i first became aware of Loreena McKennitt via the internet and fell in love with a song of hers. after finding this album, i fell in love with another song, all souls night. i had previously read about a Japanese ceremony that celebrated the 'sending off' of departed souls by floating lanterns off in the waters. the lantern festivals. Loreena talks of the Celtic celebration of all souls night also, which bonfires were lit to warm the departed souls during the mark of the new year. i'm not big on covering other artists songs and already had two i was doing on this project. i could not get this song out of my mind though. it would fit perfect within the context of 'ceremony' though.
  performers & instruments:
  tanpura, cello orchestration and keyboards by TJ Marlatt - violins by Jenny O'connor - vocals by Susie Theobald - Native American wood flute, drum kit, lap dulcimer, electric and bass guitars by michael searching bear

• Sha-Rum - ©michael searching bear - shamanic drum....

  this piece turned into something entirely on it's own. initially only a shamanic rhythm i learned years ago played on a hand drum. then i added a deep flanged set of bongos and congas. then i added a great drum kit rhythm i was messing around with. at that point all i could hear was more power. so the bass guitar was written, then the rhythm guitar, then the lead guitar. Shamanic Drum.
  performers & instruments:
  hand drum, bongos, congas, drum kit, bass guitar, electric guitars by michael searching bear

• Booger's Return - ©michael searching bear, Greg Holtz, Bill Hartzell

  because of a technical slip, i did not have the tracks required to perform the booger dance at a particular show a while back. we played around with some rhythm tracks recorded several years prior and the band started playing to it. since this piece was replacing the booger dance i wanted to use the same flute used in the booger dance and we came up with this track.
  performers & instruments:
  original shakers by Greg Holtz - frame drum, guiro, Native American wood flutes, udu, deer toe rattles by michael searching bear - keyboards, wood flute by TJ Marlatt

• Summer Wind - ©michael searching bear - post celebration ceremony....

  this was the last song written for the album. a pensive number that came to me after all the stress of attempting to put an album together. actually written after all the deadlines had come and gone, i pushed for an eleventh song. i had the opportunity to play several Japanese Taiko drums and loved it so i wanted to incorporate them into this album. not fitting into the songs i hoped they would, they found a home here.
  performers & instruments:
  classical guitar, Native american wood flute, bamboo rainstick, taiko, hira taiko, pande rattle, gongs by michael searching bear

• Indian Reservation - ©John D. Loudermilk - the lament of the Cherokee reservation Indian....

  this was by chance one of the first songs i ever listened to after moving away from the country music my father and mother always had playing in our home. i still have it on a 45 record. (what's a 45?) remembering someone saying to me, "ya know you're Cherokee," made this an important song for me and i always listened to it. i thought of covering it on the voice from within project, but was too orchestrated for that particular cd. then i was going to on the un earthed cd but we had so many tunes already and it just didn't come together then. this project felt like the place for it and i had the talent already involved with this project to pull it off and still be faithful to the original version that i remembered. i added two lyric lines from the original song, pre paul revere & the raiders, and added two new lyric lines i felt were appropriate. on the bridge section i felt it appropriate as well to use the new lyric 'we've' learned instead of 'they've' learned, which was on the previous release. I feel 'we all' have something to learn, indians included, before our nation returns to it's full potential.
  performers & instruments:
  keyboards, string orchestration, horn orchestration, flutes by TJ Marlatt - drum kit, pow wow drums, electric and bass guitars by michael searching bear - vocals by Eddie Tomecko

• DADgad - ©michael searching bear - Celtic modal drone tuning....

  i have always enjoyed playing guitar in different odd tunings. for me, it made playing easier. this celtic tuning has always been a favorite.
  performers & instruments:
  acoustic and electric guitars, bass, drum kit, rainstick, Native American wood flutes by michael searching bear

• Dawn's Gate - ©michael searching bear, TJ Marlatt - a place of beginning ceremony....

  this song was written so we would have another short poppy intro tune for my performances. this was captured during one of my live sets. originally called threshold i opted for dawn's gate. both titles are just a play on words. all three words mean the same thing, a place of beginning. I felt this worked within the context of many cultural ceremonies of beginning.
  performers & instruments:
  keyboards, bass drum by TJ Marlatt - timpani, pow wow drum, cymbals, windchimes, Native American wood flute by michael searching bear

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Lyrics:

All Souls Night

Bonfires dot the rolling hillsides
Figures dance around and around
To drums that pulse out echoes of darkness
Moving to the pagan sound.

Somewhere in a hidden memory
Images float before my eyes
Of fragrant nights of straw and of bonfires
And dancing till the next sunrise.

CHORUS:
I can see the lights in the distance
Trembling in the dark cloak of night
Candles and lanterns are dancing, dancing
A waltz on All Souls Night.

Figures of cornstalks bend in the shadows
Held up tall as the flames leap high
The green knight holds the holly bush
To mark where the old year passes by.

CHORUS

Bonfires dot the rolling hillsides
Figures dance around and around
To drums that pulse out echoes of darkness
And moving to the pagan sound.

Standing on the bridge that crosses
The river that goes out to the sea
The wind is full of a thousand voices
They pass by the bridge and me.
CHORUS
repeat

Indian Reservation

They took the whole Cherokee nation
Put us on this reservation
Took away our ways of life
The tomahawk and the bow and knife
Took away our native tongue
And taught their English to our young
And all the beads we made by hand
Are nowadays made in Japan

Cherokee people, Cherokee tribe
So proud to live, so proud to die

They took the whole Indian nation
Locked us on this reservation
Though they changed our ways of old
Never changed our heart and soul
Though I wear a shirt and tie
I'm still part redman deep inside
*The smoke still lifts our prayers up high
*Cherokee spirit will never die

Cherokee people, Cherokee tribe
So proud to live, so proud to die

*Maybe someday when we've learned
Cherokee nation will return, will return,
will return, will return, will return

*additional lyrics by TJ Marlatt and michael searching bear

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Reviews:

Promontory: It was a strongly evocative piece with a satisfying
and original combination of Native American and Irish flavors.
The blend of those flavors was well balanced, with the underlying
percussion groove and flute sound leaning more towards the Native American
and the flute playing and scale used sounding more Irish. The flute work was the
most distinctive aspect of the arrangement. The piece had a nice dynamic build to it,
subtly adding layers at a time and ramping up the intensity. Great job on this, Michael!!
Craig Streaman, Manager, A&R, TAXI

Michael Searching Bear has brought forth his best work to date! His artistic talent,
ingenuity and passion for detail speaks for itself in his new work titled "Ceremony".
Michael has always had a gift for bridging cultures together to unite in harmony
the common whole; the human race. Today the real purity lies in your heart, intention and actions.
It is for this that Michael's compassion exemplifies the true noble character of the "Good Red Road".
Thank you Michael for such extraordinary work...
Eric Wolf-Windseeker

Indian Reservation: This song has a good rock beat to it, with a nice, balanced integration of vocals and steady guitar and drums. I think it 's a hit. It has a classic rock feel, with a catchy tune. Production levels are good. Overall, nice job. -Reverbnation Crowd Review

Indian Reservation: This is a great upbeat tune. Ican definitely see this band going far. Its on trend with the charts. A more chilled version of the queens of the stone age. A young version. Hope this band does well looking forward to hearing more from them -Reverbnation Crowd Review

Indian Reservation: The introduction is unique and catchy. The lyrics are very unique and presents a bit of history for the listener. The melody is catchy and addictive. This is something I would definitely enjoy listening to in the car. I love it! -Reverbnation Crowd Review

Indian Reservation: An 80's feel. Right off the bat. Very David Bowie. Mellow and youthful keyboard, drums, and a few other eccentric instruments definitely add to its feeling. Later on, brass or synthesized brass come to play as well. Open hi hats.. splashy symbols... a beautiful build with toms? Oh yeah. This is one of those songs that you could swear you've heard before but you haven't. Definitely for a niche audience. -Reverbnation Crowd Review

Indian Reservation: Dark vocals with a clear blues influence, the piano and other various instruments such as drums create a rather tense and gripping feel to this song, the song works well and the few changes in BPM help to keep it gripping and rather exciting to listen to... This song really reflect what the artist is singing about, great song, worth a listen -Reverbnation Crowd Review

Indian Reservation: What can I say but good and then some. This song does not need any improvment. This is a perfect song. the raiders did this song. on this one I love the ending. Every thing was balanced to the note. You made the song a story and the story a song. -Reverbnation Crowd Review

Indian Reservation: Oh yes. This is more like it! Got me tapping the hands from the off. Upbeat vocals, percussion and guitars. This will definately sound good out live at a concert. That bassline really helps this track along very nicely indeed! -Reverbnation Crowd Review

Indian Reservation: The introduction is very melodious and memorable. I know this song from the '70's, I believe it is by Paul Revere and the Raiders or Electric Light Orchestra. The melodies are not overly complex but still strong nonetheless. The vocals are distinctive and expressive and make for a dynamic, consistent song. I like the song alot but it 's a bit safe. I think this song could benefit from a more origianl mix but it 's obvious the songwriters are accomplished, professional musicians. -Reverbnation Crowd Review

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