I’m excited.. coming up in March is the interview with Kelly and Donna aka Still on the Hill, Toucan Jam, and more.
The problem with introducing these marvelous folks is that we could write a book about them. If you are not familiar with their music, plan to have a sense of joy after their interview.
Crow:Did you know what you wanted to do for a living, for fun? 
later gardening.
Crow: With Covid touring is out of the question. Change is inevitable anyway. So we find other ways to share our gifts and express the urge to create. What have you been doing?
The next interview makes me smile as big as I can. She lives in NW Arkansas…but Austin, Texas, even had a day to celebrate her songs with musicians performing the gems that she’s written. Emily Kaitz has many skills and interests… and a clear idea about what she chooses to do. Her humor is brilliant and her heart is big.
I look forward to sharing her interview with you! Stay tuned.
Crow: Where were you raised? City, Country, region? If you migrated to NW Arkansas, what brought you here.? 
Madison: I was born in Topeka, Kansas on a USAF base, but raised for most of my life in south Louisiana where all of my family are from. It had been a lifelong dream of mine to live in the Rocky Mountains but settled in northwest Arkansas to stay within a day’s drive of family. My goal was to create a sustainable homestead life on our property, but that has been a much more difficult task to achieve than I thought it would be. My husband and I are just this year going to make significant progress towards that goal, but it took many years of working away from here to achieve it.
Crow: Your paintings of wildlife are wonderful. Have you studied or taught art? Have you used other creative expressions in different fields? Music? Sculpture?
Madison: Thank you. Wildlife and nature are what inspire pretty much everything about my life, and my art. I took some art lessons in grade school, but no professional classes. I did take piano lessons as a child, but the prospect of performing at a recital was enough to permanently end that endeavor, ha. For most of my life, I maintained that fear of public speaking or performing, but eventually set my mind to overcoming at least the public speaking fear. I have taught some workshops on making paints the way I do it, but not how to actually paint. The painting itself is still a mystery even to me. I don’t feel qualified to teach it.
Crow: When I heard that you are crushing rocks and making your own pigments, my mouth dropped open. What could be more representative of the here and now—the images and materials come from your home space. I respect your privacy. Will you describe your home life, nature, and inspirations.. (to the extent you are comfortable revealing these)
Madison: Since I remarried in 2013, I’ve had the blessing of being able to be at home to bask in the wilderness that surrounds us. We live on 160 acres in a very rural off-road area of Madison county. My days consist of a routine beginning and end which includes feeding the horses. In the mornings I do a morning mile jog and walk which carries me down the driveway to the mailbox and back. On that route, I cross the creek twice and there’s ample opportunity to encounter lots of inspiration. I bring my phone so I can stop at the creek on the way back to gather pigments and take photos. Other than that, I am either writing articles for my website, gathering pigment rocks for paints, making paint, painting, or creating derivative works from finished paintings (note cards, prints, etc.). I do all of my own marketing, via the website, so keeping up with that can get time-consuming if I want to stay on top of SEO best practices as suggested by Google. Aside from the creative part of the business, Wild Ozark is also the only ginseng nursery in Arkansas. So I spend time in the woods every fall planting seeds and propagating companion plants. In spring, I pot up the seedlings and offer them for sale.
Madison: When I’m not working on the Wild Ozark business part of my life, (or doom scrolling now on Twitter- which is taking up FAR too much time lately) I am trying to manage the tasks around the house that always need tending. This morning I trimmed branches from the cedars by the horses’ gate, and tomorrow I may use the tractor to rake the driveway or go out with the truck to pick up a load of firewood to get ready for cooler weather. I’ve let the weeds go because I’m allergic to ragweed, so once they’re done with all that pollen, I’ll start weed-eating again. We don’t have enough flat areas to actually ‘mow’ anything, so it’s all done with weed eaters. My husband has been working overseas for most of our marriage, but that will end this December. I’ve been kinda ‘holding down the fort’ in his absence. Actively building our sustainable life will begin in 2021. We have a solar array to install and a monolithic dome to build. We might be a lot older than most people trying to do this, but better late than never! When he’s home, we cut up our own firewood and I help him with things like that. My creative schedule will get some adjustments, I’m sure, but I will continue to take the time to make paint and art.
Crow: What made you think you’d like to make your own paints?
I’d been noticing how many colorful sandstones got cracked on the driveway under the truck tires. Since we moved here, it made me curious but I didn’t actually act on that curiosity until the summer of 2018. My first thought wasn’t to paint. I didn’t know what I wanted to do with it, but I wanted to see if the color from inside one of those cracked rocks would transfer onto paper. So I brought a sheet of paper outside, walked down the driveway, gathered up a pinch of the crumbs from one, and rubbed it onto a sheet of drawing paper. When I saw that it actually made a spot of color as surely as if I had used a pastel, I became obsessed with learning how to use it somehow.
Crow: Have you found others across the world doing similar work and experimentation?
Oh yes. There’s a whole community of us out there on Instagram, sharing and brainstorming with each other. Anyone interested in that can follow the hashtags #handmadewatercolors or #earthpigments and make connections.
Crow: How long have you been crushing or grinding? Does it require special equipment? 
Madison: I started crushing rocks in June 2018. Right now I’m still using larger rocks to break the pigment rocks into smaller pieces, and then a mortar and pestle to grind them into a powder. However, for my birthday/Christmas gift, my husband bought me a prospector’s crusher. So I’m eager to get that setup and see if it helps with the breaking. I’ll still have to grind them in the mortar/pestle to get the finer paints, but it ought to eliminate a lot of the muscle earlier in the process.
Crow: What propels you?
Madison: Curiosity is probably the biggest driver. Of course, there’s a strong love of nature, and an urge to share what I create.
Crow: Are there other techniques you look forward to exploring?
Madison: Yes, as soon as I have more room I want to make oil paints from these Ozark pigments, and learn to paint with them that way, too.
Crow: How can people see your work?
Madison: I have online galleries at www.PaleoPaints.com. Every year I start a new one, so if you want to see the first paintings, go to www.PaleoPaints./2018-gallery/. The links to later years are there, too. If someone wants to see a painting in real life before deciding on a purchase, I am always happy to schedule an appointment to bring it anywhere in northwest Arkansas. In fact, I’m happy to conduct an impromptu-exhibit and bring them all out!
Crow: Do you have highest and lowest moments in your life that you would share? And how did you find your way?
Madison: I think my lowest point(s) were at the point of realization that I didn’t want to continue my previous two marriages, and I couldn’t see a way forward and have happiness at the same time. Knowingly hurting someone is the hardest thing on earth for me to do. Ending a marriage is a tremendously difficult decision to make, but in each case, I still think it was the right thing to do, for me.
My method of dealing with life’s curveballs may be a little odd… I talk to the Universe a lot and make conscious connections to the future me I want to become.
That future me exists in the same time/space as current me, and is one of every single possible iterations that exist – all iterations exist, but I want to manifest the one that embodies the following: She is a successful, ‘able’ me, living a life that fulfills my purpose. She has a happy home, happy, healthy, and successfully able grown children, and grandchildren all staying true to the path to their own life purposes. That’s really what I want all wrapped up in a nutshell. At the end of every day, I want to know that I made the best choices I could with whatever information I had at the time. How I actually actualize that ‘future me’ isn’t the most important thing to me. While doing my art feels very important, and my love for nature and being creative is a basic part of who I am, the end goal is to reach the end of my life happy about where I am. And so I guess you could say that I’m living my present life while focusing on the end goal. I’m not attached to the specifics of how it gets done, but am staying as fully conscious as I can in the present moments so I can recognize the path.
What helps me find my way is taking the time to talk to the Universe (which is my way of relating to ‘God’). The realization that every possible future configuration exists at every present moment is the key. Actions can only take place in the ‘now’, and the choices and connections I make now influence which iteration of ‘future me’ is manifested. So I make a point to forge that connection to the iteration of me I have chosen to connect with, knowing that ‘future version of me’ exists on the here an
0d now time continuum at the same time and place as the ‘present me’.
It’s kind of hard to explain, and I’m not sure I’ve made any sense of it. Some people want to manifest certain things or situations they think will make them happy. I am manifesting a certain state of being instead, and the things I have or the things I do aren’t the highest priority. The connection is.
Crow: Do you have a favorite recipe? Musicians? Artists? Authors? Fiber Artists?
Madison: I do have a favorite dish and it is something I haven’t eaten in decades. Crawfish bisque. I do know how to make it, but don’t have a recipe. I go about cooking, in the same way, I go about making almost anything else creative – intuitively, with some guidelines. After gathering the ingredients, I just start adding them together and doing the things that need to be done for each step. Along the way, while making it, I’ll smell and taste it to see if it’s right. To make the bisque, you need boiled, peeled, and de-veined crawfish tails, green onions, bread crumbs, eggs. Use a sausage grinder or processor to make a mush out of the tails. Mix the other ingredients in to make a sort of dough, much the same as a meatloaf mix. This is the ‘bisque’. Then you’ll need crawfish heads cleaned out
and washed so that you just have a shell that makes a sort of oblong ‘cup’. Stuff the heads with this bisque. Then make a crawfish stew (the stew is a different recipe) and add the stuffed heads to the gravy and cook until the egg in the mixture is done. This is a very labor-intensive dish but omg it is the most delicious thing I’ve ever eaten. I learned how to make it at the after-funeral meal when one of my cousins in south Louisiana died a long time ago. I haven’t made it since moving up here to Arkansas because crawfish are not so easy to come by or are expensive. We could buy them live by the sack down-home and crawfish boils were common.
My favorite musician is Stevie Nicks, the author was Marion Zimmer Bradley. I’ve only seen the fiber artistry of Barbara Worth, and I do love hers. I think I need to see the art of a few more fiber artists!
Crow: What was the highest point of your life so far?
Madison: Apart from the usual highs of life events to do with love and family, I have to say that discovering I could make paint AND actually make good paintings with rocks from our very own driveway and creek was probably the highest high point in my creative life. That was a life-changing, pivotal high point. It led to a complete change in self-identity as an ‘artist’, in that I felt the tag finally fit properly.
Crow: Is there a question you’ve never been asked that you would love to answer?
Madison: I don’t think so – you asked some questions no one else has ever asked before already! Thank you for interviewing me. After the previous question, your ‘Crow Spun’ name makes me remember that someone told me you spin more than literary yarns. I should go check it out to see if you have some fiber arts to see somewhere
Have you ever met someone you simply want to share with the world? One of those persons for me is Tom Prasada-Rao
Crow: Tom, your willingness to provide information that I can share with others is a gift. I talked bluntly about my cancer. How 
have you chosen?
TPR: I have not been bashful about talking about cancer, I feel like it’s a normal part of life, or at least my life – doesn’t make me special, but might explain a few things along the way: Stage four cancer of the parotid (salivary) gland, spreading to the lymph nodes, subsequent surgery and radiation, followed by metastasis in the left lung for which I recently completed six rounds of chemo.
Crow: I confess that my wonderful experiences visiting India made me notice you. And then you sang and my heart melted. At what point in your life did you realize that you had the gift of translating love to music?
TPR: I guess that’s the aspirational goal of any musician. And when does one reach the point of saying “I have achieved my goal?” I certainly haven’t, but I do feel the energy of the creator flowing through me at times, and I am grateful when that happens.
Crow: Did you try to deny your gifts?
TPR: Yes, I fought it for a long time. I didn’t even decide to devote myself to music until I turned 30. And even then I gave myself five years after which I would turn back to a straight job if it didn’t turn out. Sometimes I think the only artistic struggle is one of self-worth, and I certainly have had my battles. I’m not sure I have anything helpful to say, other than – take a breath, go to sleep, wake up in the morning, and walk outside.
Crow: How did you learn that your creativity is beyond ego… something to share with joy?
TPR: That’s a lesson I am still learning. Why is it that our ego as songwriters is often tied to the things that songs are really bad at? We could never be Dylan Thomas, or Eddie Van Halen, nor should we strive to be. At some point, hopefully, we realize that’s the writers’ kryptonite.
The point is stopping the listener dead in their tracks upon hearing the one line you want them to hear, to bring them to tears, or shake their booty. That is your sacred duty as a songwriter, and when you achieve that you will find joy.
As Mary Gauthier would say “sing the song that only you can sing” (Here’s the contact for her homepage. https://www.marygauthier.com)
Crow: Did you have one vision of your contribution?
TPR: Ha, I will confess to starting a write this way “I’d like to thank the members of the Academy”. We all have dreams, I don’t know if mine were ever codified, but I can say whatever dreams I had were exceeded by my life the last several years.
Crow: How have your health challenges changed your trajectory?
TPR: One of my pet theories about musical arrangements, as well as composition, is that limitations are gifts. They are opportunities to find another way, the Universe saying it’s time for a different path. I find with my diminishing physical capabilities, I have more of a reliance on my voice, and saying what I want to say, rather than playing what I want to play. Also because I don’t have much energy, I have less time to waste. I have to make my time count when I’m writing, and that leads to letting go of a lot of unnecessary equivocation – to trust my instincts.
Crow: My sense of time and awareness changed drastically. Have you experienced shifts in your perception? How have you kept being so creative?
TPR: The weird thing about chemotherapy is the three-week cycle, during which I had one good week which I had to make count. It was like something I looked forward to every cycle to say to myself – OK, if you’re going to do it, do it now. I didn’t view it as a barrier; I looked at it as an opportunity, as a gift that I would most likely not have accepted but for the cancer. Time and the future quickly became here and now instead.
Crow: When did you first realize that music was a special language? Was Christianity the door that opened your heart? As a person of Indian heritage born in Ethiopia, how did you find grounding in this wide world?
TPR: Despite growing up a brown kid in a white world, I had the gift of not looking at myself as something different. I owe that to my parents and I owe that to the community that I grew up in which was indeed a very devout Christian. I felt protected and insulated growing up, and I’m supremely grateful for that childhood dirt which still clings to me. I have a cross to bear, however, and that was being the fat kid. And that continues to shape my life (so to speak). I fear sometimes that it’s in every song that I write.
I purposely don’t have a specific faith perspective anymore, though I have a special fondness for the words in red. Instead, I take great pride in calling myself a spiritual mongrel. If I had a Bible it would be Hafiz and Mary Oliver – that’s my holiest ground.
Crow: Your part in the Sherpa’s trio (
www.thesherpas.net) of course, blew me away.
How did that meeting of minds create so much magic? (one of my favorites is
“Honor Among Thieves” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iif9qRvfA-A)
TPR: I consider my relationship with Tom Kimmel and Michael Lille divinely ordained. I had no idea when I went to the Kerrville Folk Festival in 1993 to be part of the new folk song competition that I would meet these two beautiful souls who would be such a big part of my life for the next 25 years. We were drawn together by our common values, even though our backgrounds couldn’t be more diverse. The songs we wrote together, and the harmonies we created were born out of our admiration for each other. I have come to love them more than I can say, and I can’t imagine my life without them.
Crow: When did you have your lowest point… and how did you find your way out of it? What did you gain by the journey?
TPR: The lowest points in my life were the break-ups of my two marriages, having nothing to do with music but just epic failures to do what was necessary to tend the garden of love. My advice to young songwriters is to take great care in watering your garden. You have to go to greater lengths to honor the thing that is most important to you – and trust me it is (or will be) more important to you than music.
Both times, it was The Muse who called to me, and brought me back to myself. It was songwriting that made me realize I had something left.
Crow: How have you memorialized in song your highest moments in this life?
I’m not sure that I have – at the very least I’m not sure how to answer this question. The highest moments of my life are filled with tears and laughter that are not marked by my creativity, but elsewhere – by this palpable sense of touching the garment of the divine. Sometimes I think the highest moment in my life was the first time I heard Donny Hathaway sing “A Song for You”.
Crow: Which mistakes personally and professionally have shaped your journey?
TPR: My personal mistakes are also my professional ones, it is all about overcoming self-doubt. Courage is not always rewarded, but it is inevitably rewarding. I wish I had overcome more of those doubts in my life, but I’m grateful for the ones that I have worked through, and hopefully I still have time for some of the others.
Crow: If you do have limited years ahead, what would you hope to be remembered for? This is the kind of stuff I’ve contemplated myself without finding an answer, except maybe loving people unconditionally.
TPR: I wrote a song a few years back, actually a spoken word piece put to music called “Tenderness”. As I look at it now it’s kind of a closing statement – an epitaph if you will. When my time comes I am ready to go regardless of what people think. I will leave grateful for this life, sorry for the things I didn’t get right, and resolved to do it better next time
Most of us carefully decide what we will share with the world ‘out there’. Tom’s responds to my questions as few could– with wisdom, humility, and honesty. (Tell him you appreciate) at www.tomprasadarao.com or https://www.facebook.com/iamTPR
Do you have people you just love and admire so much, (I mean so much…) that you wish you could share them with everyone you care about?
I used to publish a newsprint fanzine about performing Singer/Songwriters (Zassafras Music News). ZMN came to a natural end as the Internet spread its enormous wings. Shazham! Any information we desired, seemed instantly just a click away.
Neither blogging nor podcasting has tapped me on the shoulder, until now. My creative life spent songwriting, performing, teaching, learning watercolors, writing books, spinning wool, weaving, travelling, and reading– has enlarged my ability to marvel at the lives and talents of the others who’ve graced my life.
Tom Prasada-Rao (TPR) is the first of many features I plan to do on topics from art to music to cooking to hiking.,. to lily growing.. to who knows what?.`
When I researched “how to do a good interview” I learned that I should ask Tom about his favorite color and who was his celebrity crush! Aggggg. No. Someone else can ask those questions.
Tom has been a good friend for over 20 years conspiring to making entertaining and meaningful music. There will be no softball questions from me—‘cause I love this man. He played and sang on “One Wave” on my Hearsay Album. [https://open.spotify.com/search/Crow%20Johnson%20One%20Wave%20in%20the%20ocean] He is an astounding songwriter, singer, musician, and funny soulful human.
There is always more to a person’s story than we can get at first glance. Born in Ethiopia to parents from India, he was raised in the good ole USA. Do you think you have a feel for who he might be?
Okay, now hold that image and add to it–a compassionate human being, amazing cook, dedicated stepfather, monster guitarist, cool friend, and—–(wait for it) a warrior battling cancer.
In 1990s when I had breast cancer, chemo, and surgery, it screwed up my world. My song “Holdin’ Down the Couch” [https://open.spotify.com/album/35GtjoPQfFa1TnQIJ8JWgY?highlight=spotify:track:2J0OCzCLiq4y69Hwyfmh7a]
was the most I could create positive out of the year and a half. Thirty years ago I was told I’d be lucky to live five more years.
In between his chemo and surgery weeks, Tom wrote “Twenty Dollar Bill” (for George Floyd). [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IEXwcz9dm2k] The song is now a classic recorded by over 100 people and featured on NPR.
Most of us carefully decide what we will share with the world ‘out there’. Tom’s responds to my questions as few could– with wisdom, humility, and honesty. (Tell him you appreciate) at www.tomprasadarao.com or https://www.facebook.com/iamTPR