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Pictures from a recent family concert performance of Mark Shepard’s DrumSongStory at Church Street School in White Plains, NY.

Program Theme: “Beyond The Borders: Drums, Songs and Stories Celebrating Cultural Collaboration”

Introducing the Frame Drums

Mark performs “Curiosity” a “DrumSongStory” where Mark plays the drum, sings and tells a story all at the same time.

Mark Shepard plays “Bob the Big Drum” with the assistance of a young audience volunteer

Mark Shepard demonstrates some cool Djembe techniques to a young audience volunteer

The Silkie is from Mark Shepard’s Breathing Underwater CD which is ow Available for Instant Digital Down Load
Regularly $15 |Get the Album of Drums, Songs & Stories about the Sea For A Limited Time Only: $5.00

The Silkie | April 10, 1998 | Song # 290

by Mark Shepard

Once there was a fisherman
On the salty sea
Who felt so very alone
That he dreamed of a wife
Who would keep him company
And give to him a child and a happy home

One northern summer day
He was paddling his way
Through the tiny islands not far from shore
When what did he espy
With his hunter’s practiced eye
But a maiden dancing on the rocks
So wild and pure

Well the sun was in her eyes
So he took her by surprise
After he had hidden her seal skin
She was a Silkie you see,
A magic creature of the sea
Who sometime come ashore
To walk in human form

Refrain:
Oh to be a Silkie of the Sea
Oh to be a wild creature swimming free
Oh to know the secrets of the foam
Oh to love the ocean and to call it home

She begged to be let free
But he said, “No, come with me
In seven years your skin I will return”
So sadly she obeyed,
Turned her back upon the waves
Took a path that led her towards an early grave

In the passing of the days
She gave birth to a babe
A human son with web between his toes
But she’d begun to fade
And to wither all away
A little more with every single passing day

But she told the child tales
Of seals and fish and whales
She taught him how to sing and play the drum
She told him of the times
When she was strong and fine
She told of other drier days that were to come

Refrain:

6 years she’d struggled on
Now she was almost gone
And the fisherman grew silent and grim
Yet still he did deny
The quiet pleading in her eyes
As he told himself that someday
She would change her mind

One night the child awoke
To a strange un-earthly note
A sound from deep beneath the moonlit sea
It was old grandfather seal
A legend now made real
Calling to his own to bring his daughter home

But the boy tripped in the sand
And reaching out his hand
Touched the softness of her lost seal skin
The man had thrown it to the deep
Hoping so his wife to keep
But the spirit of the sea had washed it in again

Refrain:

The took it to her and
She slipped in to it’s fur
Once again her eyes were full of life
She was a silkie y see
And would have died if not set free
She was never meant to be a human wife

Her son began to cry
As she slipped in to the tide
But he could not save her any other way
And on certain moonlit nights
He would sometimes catch her sight
And then they’d swim together
In the healing waves

Refrain:

He brew into a man
Who knew the way of land
As well as the secrets of the sea
And I met him one time
Though he was old and almost blind
He played the drum and sang this very story

Refrain:

Commentary: This is my all time favorite story. Folk singer Joan Baez did a traditional Silkie song that I heard as a kid and then I came across “Women Who Run With The Wolves” by Clarissa Pinkola Estes. also the movie, “the Secret of Roan Innish” draws from this body of Silkie Stories. So this song combines several different versions of the Silkie.

I used to only perform it for older children and adult audiences but one day a school principal who was somewhat clueless about developmental ages combined a group of kindergartners with a group of 5th graders in an assembly.

I knew I was in trouble. I can easily handle a group of kids from K-8 and connect with each age level all at the same time but to have only to two extremes was really tricky. Nothing was working. Finally I figured I would at least do something that would nourish me whether it reached the kids or not.

So I sang the Silkie. You could have heard a pin drop. So I tend to end my programs with this piece of it at all fits in with the theme I’m working with. It’s just a great way to end a program. Kind of on a thoughtful quiet note.

I use it as part of several programs:

• Breathing Underwater
• Beyond The Borders
• Mysts & Magick
  
• DrumSongStory
• Beneath the Northern Star

The Silkie by Mark Shepard is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.

http://DrumSongStory.com/TheSilkie

To book this program now call 1-888-598-7709 or e-mail mark[at]markshepard.com

See what other DrumSongStory Programs are available for:

• Schools, Family Concerts
• Colleges, Universities
• Corporations, Non Profits, Conferences

Drums, Songs & Stories From Ireland

Stories and Story Songs:

• The Silkie

• Eileen McGillicuddy And The Fairy King
• Grace O’Malley The Irish Pirate Queen
• Quit That Racket!
• Arthur MacBride
  and more!

Instruments:

• The Bodhran
• The Bones
• The Spoons
• The Tin and Wooden whistles

Sound Effects: (played by the audience)

• Fairy Bells
• Thunder Tubes
• Wind Wands
• Banshee Pipes
• Rainsticks
• Ocean Drum
• and more

To book this program now call 1-800-378-4971 or e-mail mark[at]markshepard.com

See what other DrumSongStory Programs are available for:

• Schools, Family Concerts
• Colleges, Universities
• Corporations, Non Profits, Conferences

Abi yo yo was as big as a house...

An Annoyingly Dysfunctional Family Saves a Dysfunctional Town From a Giant with a BIG Personal Hygiene Problem!

This is the first story I ever told. I learned it as a kid off of a Pete Seeger record. Seeger’s original version takes about 8 minutes. Mine takes about 45 minutes! Let’s just say I’ve had a lot of fun with my adaptation techniques!

In Pete’s original the boy plays a ukulele. Since I’m always getting in trouble for playing the drums I had him be a drummer…

To summarize the story, Abi Yo Yo comes into this town every once in a while eating everything in site, cows, horses, whole flocks of sheep. By the time he gets to the edge of town he is usually ready for dessert. (“Yum! Pee-pull! Goood!”)
Now in the town they usually ostracize any body who can’t follow all the rules perfectly. And the edge of town is where those people live. It’s a simple way to get rid of trouble makers. But then Abi Yo Yo doesn’t show up for such a long time that people start flaunting the rules and getting on each others nerves.

• Children refuse to eat broccoli.
• Drivers stop stopping at stop signs.
• People throw their garbage all over etc.

Eventually three members of one family start to get so out of line that it begins to really bug the other residents!.

Suffice it to say that the main characters are a trio of “creative” types:

• We have a drummer who practices ALL THE TIME!.

• We have his sister, a painter who uses public buildings for her “canvases”. And,

• We have their father, a magician who is constantly making stuff disappear.

Eventually they get ostracized. Of course Abi Yo Yo shows up and it is the outcasts that save everyone else from becoming “dessert”
Program Length: 45-60 minutes

Age Appropriate: K-12
Note: Can be easily adapted to support the “Pillars of Character” Program or any other “character” education themes.

Drums:

• Irish Bodhran
• Siberian Shaman Drum
• African Djembe
• African Djun-djun
• and more

Sound effects:

• “The Wooo Sound”
• Thunder Tubes
• Palm Nut Shakers,
• Wrench Chimes
• and more

To book this program now call 1-888-598-7709 or e-mail mark[at]markshepard.com

See what other DrumSongStory Programs are available for:

• Schools, Family Concerts
• Colleges, Universities
• Corporations, Non Profits, Conferences

Elementary school children transfixed by a DrumSongStory program

How To Book A Great Cultural Enrichment Assembly Program for Your School and…

• Lower your stress level
• Save your school money
• Eliminate the risk of a “dud”
• Make a positive difference in the lives of your students & teachers

With One Phone Call!

Dear PTA/PTO Cultural Enrichment Chair, Principal, Teacher, Librarian,

Somehow it happened. You “volunteered” to book the cultural enrichment assembly programs.

You’ve been handed the “FOLDER.”

It’s bulging with brochures, fliers, catalogs, and postcards trumpeting a dizzying array of cultural arts programs. You know the one right?

• Where to start?
• How do you know what’s good and what’s not (or even available)?
• How do you avoid hours and hours of research and telephone tag?

If you give me a few moments of your attention, I can help you save time, hassle & money.

My name is Mark Shepard.

You may find some of my “DrumSongStory” K-12 School Programs in the “Folder”. Since 1993 I have dedicated my life to creating and performing the very best multi-disciplinary, multi-cultural enrichment programs for schools.

Over the course of thousands of performances throughout CT, RI, MA, NH, VT, ME, NY, NJ, PA I’ve learned how to make your job of booking cultural enrichment programs easy and hassle free.

Listen. I know you’re a volunteer. If you are like most of the PTA / PTO folks I work with, you have

• 2.5 kids
• 2 cats
• a Labrador Retriever
• a stressed out spouse
• and are also holding down a full time job.

The way I see it, the last thing you need is a hassle. Right?

Once you get a feel for my programs you’ll find they are extremely valuable. In some ways however, the content of the program may be less important than the essential factors that can make your life easy or hard.

As you think about your programming for this coming programming season, please consider the following:

• My proven, kid and teacher tested assembly programs support school themes and curriculum areas, inspire love of learning, even help teachers teach better.

• I’m dependable and “compulsively” early. Since 1993 and thousands of shows I’ve never canceled and only postponed 3. I usually arrive at least an hour and a half before show time. You don’t have to wait around wondering if I’m going to show up or not. This saves you stress and possible embarrassment.

• I’m easy to work with. I’ve heard plenty of stories about other performers who didn’t know how to deal with special-ed kids or with the tight time constraints of a school schedule. It’s no accident that I get compliments all the time about how well I handle mid-program distractions. That reflects positively on you.

• I’m on the CT Commission of the Arts which means I’m eligible for CT grants and NEFA touring funds. It also means I’ve been checked out and trained by some of the best Arts In Education specialists in the country.

• I come prepared. I bring a trailer full of state of the art sound system, drums from all over the world and a HUGE drum I carved out of a tree trunk that lights up from inside. So you don’t need to worry about whether it will sound and look good. It will.

• I’m easy to set up for. All I usually need from you is 3 armless chairs. It’s that simple.

• I do my own booking. This means you don’t have to deal with a middle man. When you call to find out if a date is available, you don’t have to wait for my booking agent to call me and me to call my agent back and then the agent give you a return call. I’m reachable directly. I give you my e-mail and cell phone. I usually return my calls within the same day. Less “Phone Tag” for you. Even better, my operations manager, Karen Clark, makes sure that all the details are handled. She brings years of experience to DrumSongStory as a school secretary and personal assistant to superintendents of schools. She also has two young children so she “gets” what you are dealing with.

• I can handle a wide age and developmental range. Because what I do works on so many levels I frequently do shows for audiences of K-8 as well as family concerts. Not many other artists can handle that age range successfully. What’s that worth?

• My programs are affordable. If you divide my single show fee by the typical audience size of 300 it works out to about $3.33 per child. For a large school where three performances are needed, the price often works out more like $1.83 per child.

Time is running out. Dates are limited and are booking fast. So call today!

I look forward to positively touching the hearts & minds of your students and bringing vibrant, enriching programs to your school. All this while making your life easier and saving your school money.

Yours truly,

Mark Shepard
www.DrumSongStory.com

For Booking Call: 1-888-598-7709 or E-mail: Mark [at] MarkShepard.com

See what DrumSongStory Programs are available for:

• K-12 Schools, Family Concerts, Fundraising Events
• Colleges, Universities
• Corporations, Non Profits, Conferences