Gentle Thunder, born Lisa Carpenter, is an American player of

Native American flute The Native American flute is a musical instrument and flute that is held in front of the player, has open finger holes, and has two chambers: one for collecting the breath of the player and a second chamber which creates sound. The player breat ...

. She also plays the

hammered dulcimer The hammered dulcimer (also called the hammer dulcimer) is a percussion-string instrument which consists of String (music), strings typically stretched over a trapezoidal resonant sound board (music), sound board. The hammered dulcimer is set bef ...

and

percussion A percussion instrument is a musical instrument that is sounded by being struck or scraped by a percussion mallet, beater including attached or enclosed beaters or Rattle (percussion beater), rattles struck, scraped or rubbed by hand or ...

instruments. Gentle Thunder is from

Kirkland, Washington Kirkland is a city in King County, Washington, United States. A suburb east of Seattle, its population was 92,175 in the 2020 U.S. census which made it the sixth largest city in King County and the twelfth largest city in the state of Washington. ...

and has said she has Cree ancestry through her mother. In 2006 she released ''Beyond Words'' with Will Clipman and Amochip Dabney, two musicians who back R. Carlos Nakai. The album was a 2007

Grammy The Grammy Awards, stylized as GRAMMY, and often referred to as The Grammys, are awards presented by The Recording Academy of the United States to recognize outstanding achievements in music. They are regarded by many as the most prestigious a ...

nominee for Best New Age Album and was nominated at the 9th

Native American Music Awards The Native American Music Awards (also known as the NAMAs or "Nammys") are an awards program presented annually by Elbel Productions, Inc., The Native American Music Awards Inc., and The Native American Music Association, a 501(c)(3) non-profi ...

. She collaborated with singer-songwriter Mariee Siou on Siou's 2007 album, ''Faces in the Rocks''. Her fourth album, ''Opening the Gate'', was nominated for Best Native American album at the 2007 NAR Lifestyle Music Awards. She calls her flute "Blue Heron".

Discography

* * * *''Opening the Gate''

References

External links

Official website
Living people Year of birth missing (living people) 20th-century American musicians 20th-century American women musicians 21st-century American musicians 21st-century American women musicians American flautists American hammered dulcimer players American people who self-identify as being of Cree descent American women flautists Musicians from Kirkland, Washington {{Flautist-stub