BECCA MARTIN-BROWN
bmartin@nwaonline.com
It was December of 2023. John Two-Hawks had decided to return to his roots for a new album, No. 31 in his career as an Indigenous flute player. His wife, Peggy Hill, had suggested a title, “Eclipse” — without hearing one note, she insists.
Then the couple, married 31 years, got “hit by a bus” — not literally, but in the form of a diagnosis of cancer.
“I went in for an in-office surgical procedure, and it all devolved into a far more serious and traumatic experience than I could have ever imagined,” Two-Hawks says. “There are phases on this journey when life gives to us, and phases when life takes away. This was a time of taking away.”
“John likes to refer to the following days as being hit by several buses,” Hill explains. “The darkness fell on us, and still we only imagine and intend for the light to return. If you look at the song titles, they tell you a lot.
“There were many dark moments during this process, yet the worst by far is the cancer that now lays on John’s skull. He will begin radiation in seven weeks once the large scar on his head completely heals from surgery. We and the doctors feel that all will be completely well for him by the summer.”
“It is nice when the sun shines and things are comfortable and easy,” Two-Hawks adds. “But it is when you find yourself covered by a heavy blanket of shadows that our private world gets quiet, and things get real.
“But I like to say that I’m scrappy, so I just keep on getting back up,” he asserts. “Because life is worth it. And because when you find yourself in the quiet darkness, those are the moments when an infusion of deep wisdom becomes possible, and when love can reveal itself in unexpected ways.
“Thus, this music, which speaks of the alignment of darkness and light that happens when the sun disappears behind the moon, is profoundly personal and moving to me because of all that it symbolizes.”
With a flute in his hand — whether solo or joined by an ever-changing cadre of collaborators — Two-Hawks has always made music that echoes both his Lakota Sioux and Celtic heritage and goes deeper than entertainment. It both celebrates what he has overcome and seeks to help lift up those who listen.
“My last couple album releases were outside the box,” he says. “One (‘Of Mist and Stone’) was a fusion of Indigenous and Celtic sound, and the other (‘Offering’) was a collectible vinyl album with 11 of my top fan-favorite songs. Both were wonderful releases. It is so cool to finally have a vinyl record of my music. That was a lifelong dream fulfilled!
“But when I returned to the studio at the end of last year, it was my intention to return to my musical wheelhouse and get back to creating the brand of music that has carried me through all these decades,” Two-Hawks continues. “That was part of my inspiration. Also, this is album No. 31, and I am at a point where life has given me a lot to contemplate. I wanted to carry that internal reflection into this new music.
“I realize we now live in a streaming world, where songs are shuffled around and albums lose their flow and continuity,” he admits. “But if the listener starts with track 1, ‘Passage Into Shadow,’ and listens all the way to track 10, ‘Journey Into Light,’ they will have taken a musical journey through the eclipse of the soul. The opening four songs are intentionally dissident compositions and are leading to the title track, ‘Eclipse,’ which is in the center of the music at No. 5. The song ‘Eclipse’ is the moment of total shadow and self revelation, and the songs that follow are about the darkness sliding away and the light returning.”
“When I first heard the entire album, 10 songs, I was in love, and the individual song titles just lined up,” Hill enthuses. “Enter the shadow world, navigate and wait for the light.”
“With everything that happened right when the album was being finished, this new music has taken on an even deeper personal meaning for me, and it has been like a healing balm to listen to it,” Two-Hawks says.
“Our friends and family have lifted us up with cards, meals, flowers, prayers and love,” Hill adds. “Eureka Springs is a healing Mecca!”
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FYI
John Two-Hawks:
‘Eclipse’
John Two-Hawks’ new music is on all streaming platforms, with CDs available at johntwohawks.com, Amazon, and at Iris at the Basin Park in downtown Eureka Springs.
Two-Hawks will perform a few songs on April 8 at Lake Leatherwood in Eureka Springs, before and after the actual eclipse. He will also perform songs from the new album April 27 at the Unity Temple on the Plaza in Kansas City for a fundraiser for the Lakota Youth Camps on Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. Information at johntwohawks.com.
