Charlie "Crow Dog" Myers
I've been around music ever since I was a baby, listening to my Dad playing his guitar and singing for us in the living room. He has been the biggest musical inspiration in my life, and the times we get to play music together now are truly cherished. I grew up listing to mostly country music and "golden oldies"; my appreciation of music now includes everything from classical to classic rock and country to New Age and jazz, and ethnic, including chanting from Gregorian and Buddhist monks and the African groups such as Ladysmith Black Mambazo.
In junior high school, I learned to play alto saxophone in the band, which I continued through high school. Somewhere in there I also started to learn to play guitar so that I could play along with my Dad (I also heard it would impress the girls (grin)).
In 2002, my girlfriend Robin (who in 2003 would become my wife) came back from a trip to Sedona Arizona with a Blue Star Native American Flute. Having a love of music and a Cherokee and Choctaw ancestry, and always having an interest in the old ways, my curiosity was immediately peaked. I began to play with it a little bit, and soon bought my first flute - a 5-hole, Red Cedar flute in E minor. I fell in love with the sound, which ranged from slow and haunting to chirpy and energetic, and everything in between. Native American Flute music, from artists such as Mary Youngblood, Carlos Nakai and others immediately joined the list of music that I loved listening to. Soon after, a dear friend of ours invited us to the Native American Flute Circle of Louisiana, where we met others like ourselves, drawn to the Native American flute, and under the tutelage of Twohawks we learned more and improved.
Since then I have continued to be a part of the Native American Flute Circle of Louisiana. In 2005, knowing my desire to know how things work and my passion for "doing it myself", as an anniversary gift my wife enrolled me in a flute-making workshop with Raymond Redfeather at Musical Echoes, an annual Native American Flute festival in Ft. Walton Beach, Florida. With Raymond's guidance I made my first flute - a beautifully-sounding, 6-hole in G minor. I've also begun playing the djembe, an African drum, to accompany the flute players in our group when desired. Finally, in late 2004, my wife and I attended a workshop by Phil Jones on playing the Australian didgeridoo, and we each bought one on the spot. Since then, 2 more didgeridoos have joined my ever-growing collection of 4 flutes, a djembe, and a guitar.
In 2005, I was honored to participate on Twohawks' debut CD, "Sends A Voice", and then again in 2006 on his follow-up CD "Changes".
