Musical do-gooders

by Aaron Epp, with files from Jenni Berkel and Bucky Driedger

Community supported music
Joining Bryan Moyer Suderman’s Community Supported Music program is like joining a Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) farm. In the case of a CSA, you pay an annual fee and receive regular deliveries of fresh, local, organic produce throughout the growing season, straight from the producer. Similarly, members of Suderman’s enterprise, smallTall Music, pay an annual fee and receive regular deliveries of “fresh, home-grown, organic music – new ‘songs of faith for small and tall’” from the southern Ontario singersongwriter.

The songs are recorded at home and delivered four times a year, accompanied by lyrics, musical notation, reflections by Suderman on what the songs are about, and ideas on how to use them in worship and elsewhere.

“Membership in smallTall Music is much more than making a consumer choice to receive a certain kind of product,” Suderman told Canadian Mennonite magazine last year. “[It’s] an opportunity to be an active participant and partner in the process of creating, testing and sharing new music for the church and for families of the church.”

Although most people purchase their memberships, some have exchanged oil changes, painting around the house, website assistance, pies and photography for Suderman’s songs. Jonathan Reuel, a singer-songwriter, and Christa Reuel, a visual artist, both from Charlottesville, Virginia, have gotten in on the act too, selling their work in an identical manner. See www.communitysupportedarts.com and www.smalltallmusic.com

Jeremy Fisher bikes across Canada
During his 2002 “One Less Tourbus Tour,” Vancouver-based singer-songwriter Jeremy Fisher biked across the entire continent, from Seattle, Washington to Halifax, Nova Scotia, to promote his first album, Back Porch Spirituals. Fisher performed 30 official shows during the six-month, 7,500-kilometre (4,660-mile) trek, and worked with the Institute for Transportation and Development Policy to raise funds for promoting access to bicycle transport. He travelled with his guitar, a case for his harmonicas and CDs, and a bike trailer for his camping gear and clothes.

“It’s like anybody who rides to work, really,” Fisher said to a British Columbia radio station about his commitment to biking everywhere. “It’s just a way of getting around that actually enhances my lifestyle.”

While he says that six months was a long time to be on the road, he adds that “it was also a lot of fun.”

Comment

1. Thanks for these musical discoveries….great work on this site, I really enjoy it.

   — Chantal · Oct 4, 03:07 PM · #

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