SONA was a

neopagan Modern paganism, also known as contemporary paganism and neopaganism, spans a range of new religious movements variously influenced by the beliefs of pre-modern peoples across Europe, North Africa, and the Near East. Despite some common simila ...

music band that toured and performed at

gatherings and other events throughout the

Midwestern United States The Midwestern United States (also referred to as the Midwest, the Heartland or the American Midwest) is one of the four census regions defined by the United States Census Bureau. It occupies the northern central part of the United States. It ...

during the early 2000's. SONA consisted of three members Beltana Spellsinger, "Papa" Joe Credit and his son Joe Credit III. They were sometimes referred to as "the Peter, Paul and Mary of Pagan music." Beltana played the

conga The conga, also known as tumbadora, is a tall, narrow, single-headed drum from Cuba. Congas are staved like barrels and classified into three types: quinto (lead drum, highest), tres dos or tres golpes (middle), and tumba or salidor (lowest ...

drums, Papa Joe played guitar and Joe Credit III played

mandolin A mandolin (, ; literally "small mandola") is a Chordophone, stringed musical instrument in the lute family and is generally Plucked string instrument, plucked with a plectrum, pick. It most commonly has four Course (music), courses of doubled St ...

. Each member also contributed to songwriting for the group.

Formation

The members of SONA met in 2000 at

Brushwood Folklore Center Brushwood can mean: * Brian Brushwood, American magician, podcaster, author and comedian known for ''Scam School'' * Brushwood, New South Wales, a rural community in the central east part of the Riverina region of New South Wales, Australia * Br ...

in New York City as they attended the

Sirius Rising Sirius is the brightest star in the night sky. Its name is derived from the Greek word (Latin script: ), meaning 'glowing' or 'scorching'. The star is designated Canis Majoris, Latinized to Alpha Canis Majoris, and abbrev ...

and Starwood music festivals. Beltana reports having a dream about a mandolin player the night before meeting the two Joes.Interview with SONA
January 29, 2007 The next day she saw Joe Credit III carrying his mandolin and introduced herself to him and his father. They held their first performance together to a crowd of 500 the day after.

Name of the band

Shortly after their first performance, SONA was invited to perform at the Festival at Tara at Camp Gaia near

Kansas City, Kansas Kansas City (commonly known as KCK) is the third-most populous city in the U.S. state of Kansas and the county seat of Wyandotte County. It is an inner suburb of the older and more populous Kansas City, Missouri, after which it is named. As ...

. On the way to this concert the three discussed

Buddhist philosophy Buddhist philosophy is the ancient Indian Indian philosophy, philosophical system that developed within the religio-philosophical tradition of Buddhism. It comprises all the Philosophy, philosophical investigations and Buddhist logico-episte ...

, and Joe Credit III told the story of the lute player and the

Buddha Siddhartha Gautama, most commonly referred to as the Buddha (),* * * was a wandering ascetic and religious teacher who lived in South Asia during the 6th or 5th century BCE and founded Buddhism. According to Buddhist legends, he was ...

. This parable describes how the Buddha taught a

lute A lute ( or ) is any plucked string instrument with a neck (music), neck and a deep round back enclosing a hollow cavity, usually with a sound hole or opening in the body. It may be either fretted or unfretted. More specifically, the term "lu ...

player how using our energies to find enlightenment is like bringing the lute's strings to just the right tautness so that the instrument will be in tune, and so, as we keep our energies in balance we will be in tune and find enlightenment. Not long after this discussion, Papa Joe found a book of Buddhist teaching which revealed that the lute player's name was ''Sona''. When the three of them got together at Wolvenwold, Beltana's home, Papa Joe shared this information with Beltana and Joe Credit III and the band decided to adopt the name SONA for themselves. The use of all capital letters for SONA was to distinguish the band from the Buddhist lute player, and later, from other groups of the same name.

Musical style

The band was self-described as Folkadelic, a combination of their modern

folk Folk or Folks may refer to: Sociology *Nation *People * Folklore ** Folk art ** Folk dance ** Folk hero ** Folk horror ** Folk music *** Folk metal *** Folk punk *** Folk rock ** Folk religion * Folk taxonomy Arts, entertainment, and media * Fo ...

acoustic style with

psychedelic Psychedelics are a subclass of hallucinogenic drugs whose primary effect is to trigger non-ordinary mental states (known as psychedelic experiences or "trips") and a perceived "expansion of consciousness". Also referred to as classic halluci ...

vocals. Songs written by Beltana often expressed a psychedelic bent or a soft/

hard rock Hard rock or heavy rock is a heavier subgenre of rock music typified by aggressive vocals and Distortion (music), distorted electric guitars. Hard rock began in the mid-1960s with the Garage rock, garage, Psychedelic rock, psychedelic and blues ...

sound. Joe Credit III preferences include grungy

world music "World music" is an English phrase for styles of music from non-English speaking countries, including quasi-traditional, Cross-cultural communication, intercultural, and traditional music. World music's broad nature and elasticity as a musical ...

and jazz chord progressions, but also Paganized Gospel. Papa Joe showed a variety of singer-songwriter styles from

folk rock Folk rock is a fusion genre of rock music with heavy influences from pop, English and American folk music. It arose in the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom in the mid-1960s. In the U.S., folk rock emerged from the folk music re ...

and

Caribbean music Caribbean music genres are very diverse. They are each synthesis of African, European, Asian and Indigenous influences, largely created by descendants of African enslaved people (see Afro-Caribbean music), along with contributions from other c ...

to Texas swing and

polka Polka is a dance style and genre of dance music in originating in nineteenth-century Bohemia, now part of the Czech Republic. Though generally associated with Czech and Central European culture, polka is popular throughout Europe and the ...

, adding some fun and humor to much of the music. The contributions of

Trickster In mythology and the study of folklore and religion, a trickster is a character in a story (god, goddess, spirit, human or anthropomorphisation) who exhibits a great degree of intellect or secret knowledge and uses it to play tricks or otherw ...

(from Loke E. Coyote) in the studio should not be ignored when speaking of SONA's musical style. Trickster recorded and produced SONA's ''Spoonwalk'' CD in 2002. Pagan musical influences on SONA include: Green Crown, Emerald Rose, Loke E. Coyote,

S.J. Tucker S. J. Tucker (born February 22, 1980) is an Arkansas-born North American female singer-songwriter. Originally inspired by alternative folk rock artists like Joni Mitchell, Jeff Buckley and Ani DiFranco, Tucker – also called "Sooj" or "Skinny W ...

Gaia Consort Gaia Consort is the original incarnation of Seattle-based folk rock music-group Bone Poets Orchestra.Gaia Consort http://www.gaiaconsort.com The group, popular in the Pacific Northwest of the United States, was founded as Gaia Consort by Chri ...

, Sede, Dreamtrybe, The Druids, The Raft, Spoonfed Tribe, Gretchen McMahon, Dana Davis, Michelle Mays, Burning Sage, and others.

Tours

After playing at the Festival at Tara, their next gigs were at the

Austin Austin refers to: Common meanings * Austin, Texas, United States, a city * Austin (given name), a list of people and fictional characters * Austin (surname), a list of people and fictional characters * Austin Motor Company, a British car manufac ...

and

Houston Houston ( ) is the List of cities in Texas by population, most populous city in the U.S. state of Texas and in the Southern United States. Located in Southeast Texas near Galveston Bay and the Gulf of Mexico, it is the county seat, seat of ...

Pagan Pride Day events in

Texas Texas ( , ; or ) is the most populous U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. It borders Louisiana to the east, Arkansas to the northeast, Oklahoma to the north, New Mexico to the we ...

in 2001. There they met Trickster of Wiccabilly studios who invited them to participate in the full stage Pagan rock opera ''Druid Four Winds''. SONA then began performing at a number of concert venues at Pagan gatherings: Pagan Spirit Gathering, Summerset, Heartland, Fire Festival, CMA Beltane 2001, Magickal Weekend at

St. Louis St. Louis ( , sometimes referred to as St. Louis City, Saint Louis or STL) is an independent city in the U.S. state of Missouri. It lies near the confluence of the Mississippi and the Missouri rivers. In 2020, the city proper had a populatio ...

, Spring Fire II in

Indianapolis Indianapolis ( ), colloquially known as Indy, is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of municipalities in Indiana, most populous city of the U.S. state of Indiana and the county seat of Marion County, Indiana, Marion ...

, Pagan Pride in

Dallas Dallas () is a city in the U.S. state of Texas and the most populous city in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, the List of Texas metropolitan areas, most populous metropolitan area in Texas and the Metropolitan statistical area, fourth-most ...

, Magickal Hibernation at Ozark Avalon, and concerts at the DragonDance festival and other festivals at Beltana's home campground called Wolvenwold. In 2003, SONA took a break due to personal needs of their performers. After a hiatus of three years, SONA came back together in 2006. A much hoped-for additional CD was not produced, but they began doing concerts again in 2007.

Reunion and final breakup

SONA reunited in February 2007 at the Magical Hibernation festival, sponsored by Ozark Avalon and held at the

Quality Inn Quality Inn is an American multinational chain of hotels based in Rockville, Maryland. It is a subsidiary of Choice Hotels which has operations in more than 40 countries. Quality Inn is the founding brand of Choice Hotels International with mor ...

in Columbia. Fans welcomed them back with much pleasure and appreciation. Following this, they also appeared at Tara, Heartland, Wytchehaven and at Wolvenwold. In 2009, after a debate among Wolvenwold members over campground rules, SONA members, being divided by the issue, split up. At this time all three SONA members embarked on separate musical projects. Joe Credit III decided to relocate to St. Louis and involve himself in the music scene there. Beltana started a women's music group called Bellawyck. On occasion the Joes have played their instruments and backed up Beltana's bands, Bellawyck and then Spellsinger. The possibility of a reunion concert always lingers. As the lyrics of one of SONA's songs ("Little Song") say: :“Before we make our exodus
remembrance my friend
The Joi De Vivre and Unity
And we will return again"

Post-SONA years

The three have gone on to personal projects with continued success. Joe Credit III has played mandolin with many groups, including Pikin Likin’ and Skinny White Chick. Singer-songwriter

(known as "Queen of the Bards") wrote a song about him and her band's trip to Washington, D.C. entitled "Mandolin Holy Man". He has done his share of street playing in Springfield and St. Louis, MO. In Springfield he has sung and played guitar and mandolin with The Voodoo Lounge Gypsies. He has joined in with Greg Bucking as a part of the Vine Brothers in Brooklyn Cafe playing jazz. Joe Credit III has also been the mandolin player for Opal Fly and the Swatters. And he was seen playing in Kansas City with both Greg Bucking and Opal Fly. He has recently been seen playing in Western Automatic, a Kansas City swing band with Papa Joe and Scott Devouton. Since being in SONA, Joe Credit III has written new songs such as "Avocado" and "Sure Thing Myth". Beltana continued to write songs, such as "Eorthe's Song" which she recorded in 2003 and "Sonorous Sanctum" which was No. 1 on the mp3.com.au acoustic charts in March 2004. In the summer of 2007, Beltana formed a band of women called BellaWyck (i.e., meaning "beautiful witch") made up of her sister Kittin, Holly (a.k.a. "Boom Boom Valhalla") and their friend Jennie from Columbia, Missouri. Their first concert was at Ozark Avalon's Harvest Homecoming on August 31, 2007. BellaWyck produced a self-titled EP and the group toured for three years before breaking up. During this time Beltana began incorporating Hindu chants into her repertoire. Following Bellawyck, she made herself the front person in a

Pagan rock Pagan rock is a genre of rock music created by adherents of neopagan traditions. It emerged as a distinct genre from gothic rock in the 1980s. Bands in this genre will often use pagan and occult imagery and deal with pagan themes. In some cases ...

band she named Spellsinger, which is currently touring. She now prefers to go by her mundane name, Bernadette, and tends to reserve the name Beltana for sacred circles. Papa Joe continues to play rhythm guitar solo and with different groups, backing up his son Joe Credit III whenever possible. In the mundane world he has been teaching youngsters what to do with algorithms.

Discography

SONA released three CDs: ''MeGaPaGaTeXaPaLooZa''
Recorded live in April 2001 and co-created with Trickster (who had 8 songs on the CD). SONAs recordings on this CD are: # "Mary's Blue" # "Blessed Be" # "Pagan Polka" # "Land of the Sidhe" # "A Paean to Mead" # "Snails Ho" # "Burning Time in Texas" ''Spoonwalk''
Recorded in 2001 at Wiccabilly studios # "The Well" # "Tuesday" # "Meditation" # "Little Song" # "Pagan Polka" # "Blues River" # "Burnin' Time in Texas" # "Burn in Hell" # "Paper Floor" # "Land of the Sidhe" # "Tate's Dream" # "Spoon" (First sung in concert at CMA Beltane 2001). # (Hidden Track: "I’ll Kill You" from the ''Druid Four Winds'' rock opera written by Trickster.) ''Acousticnakedladyland''
Produced in July 2002, Magyar Magick # "Gypsy Song" # "Bliss Comes from the Realization of Impermanence" # "Buncha Lady" # "Merry Meet" # "Snails Ho!" # "Millay-D:" (From poetry written by Edna St. Vincent Millay) # "Patience Isn't About Things" # "Valkyrie" # "Blessed Be" # "All Naked Women Are Beautiful" # "Rainbow" # "Dance With a Dragon" # "She Xing" # (Hidden Track)

Solo projects and songs by SONA members

''Beltana'' included the songs Beltana performed with SONA and several new original songs. She has written additional new songs such as "The Secret", "Ozark Mountain Fire", "Blue", and others. Joe Credit III, under his own label, Mandolinsanity, produced the CD ''Everyone Wants to Eat My Mando'', which is noted for the song "Sand Dollar Slot Machine" (a.k.a. the "Star Trek" song) and for an extended live version of "Spoon" with saxophone. Papa Joe's unrecorded and new songs include: "Wedding at Wildwood", "the Gift", "A Year and a Day", and others.

References

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