The stars are shining inside San Quentin, where residents are embracing the opportunity to write and stage music inspired by their challenges and past traumas. This with the generous musical support of resident and staff “house band” the Greater Good and award-winning bay area musician Essence Goldman.
A recently completed music-writing group led by Goldman has recorded 30 separate songs penned and performed by residents, many of whom had little or no previous experience in writing music.
“There is always a song, and always a lesson to be learned,” Goldman told the audience attending the Greater Good’s most recent Inspirational Music Night.
The group used its Americana themed concert as an opportunity to perform more than a dozen songs, including three created during the song-writing program.
The event also featured the Violins of San Quentin, resident violin students who joined the Greater Good for the concert’s opening Appalachian number, “The Coo Coo.” For many of these violinists, it was their firstever public performance.
An eager audience sang along with the band’s arrangement of “Guantanamera” before joining resident New Zealander Darren Maheno in singing his “San Quentin Blues” with resident “harmonicat” Harvey Brooks wailing on harmonica.
As part of their punk rock group the 115’s, Don Carrillo and Eduardo Arizmendez performed two of their own original songs, “Pray for Rain” and “Two Ton Tessi” before delivering a powerful performance of the Foo Fighters’ “Hero.”
Essence Goldman used the occasion to speak of the joy that comes with helping others process their traumas through song, inviting residents to join her next song-writing cohort. Goldman then launched into two songs from her upcoming release.
“Meet Me in the Stars,” she told the audience, was inspired by the final words her father had written to her before his death. An emotional Goldman attributed her second song to the recent end of a complicated and seemingly toxic ten-year relationship.
“This song is dedicated to any of you who, like me, stayed in a relationship that lasted far longer than served either party,” she said.
Residents stated her song “Free!” spoke to the personal experiences of many of those in the audience, a poignant example of how writing and performing music can help us process and move beyond traumas.
