Culture Blogs

Diary of a Lokean mystic.

  • Home
    Home This is where you can find all the blog posts throughout the site.
  • Tags
    Tags Displays a list of tags that have been used in the blog.
  • Bloggers
    Bloggers Search for your favorite blogger from this site.
  • Login
    Login Login form

Mama Gina: From Solitaire to Full Circle

Today I’m chatting with Mama Gina LaMonte, Pagan musician, bard, and wise woman. She is well-known on the Pagan festival circuit, and her music is known for being bluesy and spirit-touched. From Tricksters to Fae to Kali Ma, Mama Gina’s never met a Muse that she couldn’t turn into music.

HF: How long have you been a musician?
MG: I started playing guitar and writing songs when I was in the 4th grade. I wouldn't exactly call that being a musician, but I always knew I was going to do this in some way. By the time I was 16, I was singing in a duo, and went on the road with a showband when I was 19. I'm 53 now. You do the math. It's been a while.

HF: You’ve definitely got a Janis Joplin if she were a Pagan goddess kind of vibe in your work. Who else do you consider an influence?
MG: Janis was definitely an influence. The first guy I played with in a duo introduced me to her music. I was hooked. So many influences ... it would be hard to list them all, but Melissa Etheridge, Chaka Khan (I wore out a tape and then a CD of "Rags to Rufus), Stevie Nicks. On the Pagan side, I love them all, but Damh the Bard and SJ Tucker are very high on my list for both their writing and their presentation.

HF: What made you decide to focus on Paganism and your spirituality in your music? MG: I stopped singing for a few years when Jesse (my son) became a teenager. In that silence, I began writing the true stories that fell into my head and heart. And they really are true. One of the first songs that came through was during Pagan Spirit Gathering 2009 - that was Flicker and Flame / The Firefly Song - written very softly one night in the Ozarks with hundreds of fireflies in my camp. It felt so good to write again. I didn't stop. Finally, I had enough material and pestered my friends so much playing around their fires, that they nudged me to do the first CD. And when Jesse turned 18, I knew I no longer had to be around 24/7, and made the transition from my day job to back on the road full time. I write true stories - my own, and the ones that the Gods and Goddesses and other tricky entities whisper to me ... I'm not sure they ever gave me a choice. That and the fact that, though we have amazing talent in the Pagan community, I felt there was room for at least one more Bard.

HF: Indeed we do. A lot of your music is very spirit-touched. Can you talk about what that process is like? Do you call on Them or do They come to you?
MG: A little bit of everything. Some of the most amazing pieces have come through while I am in my tent in the middle of a rainstorm. "Sisters Waiting", "Waking Panther". They just showed up in full bloom. I think I was simply a channel. Other songs came from personal stories - The Summer of the Fae came from me breaking down on the side of a North Georgia mountain. As soon as I got back on the road, I began to put the experience down on paper, and it took about 24 hours to write that. My newest song, "The Empress Down Rattlesnake Road" was a long time coming - I had a vision of meeting Kali Ma in the Southern Louisiana bayou - the first verse was in my head for months, and I finally found the silence I needed to hear the rest. "Freya's Lullabye" was a mixed process. I wanted to write a song about her, and did a lot of research over a couple of weeks - but I couldn't find the song, until she finally whispered to me - "Here is the song I sang to Baldur on the night he was born."

HF: In my own writing, I often find things like that downloaded in my head. I've had people ask me what I did to develop that. My writing practice has undoubtedly the most impact on my spiritual practice. How has your music impacted your spirituality?
MG: My spirituality and my writing/music are completely intertwined. Sometimes I don't fully understand a concept until I write or sing about it. I write about some pretty silly stuff, but I also write about the hard stuff. I don't hide from it. My primary study for the last 25 years has been Kaballah, and the self-examination that goes along with that study is so intense. Writing is an integral part of that process - I am in a constant state of self-revision - the writing helps me understand where I've been, who I am in the moment, and gives me clues about what lies ahead. And drumming! When I need to stop thinking and simply be, drumming is the perfect way. Also, learning to drum in my late 40s up to today, provides another way for me to find discipline in my life.

HF: Your new album is called “Solitaire.” Do you consider it a concept album, since it is a journey from solitary practice to “One Tribe?”
MG: “Solitaire” is a concept CD, and it's pretty darned funny that a CD titled "Solitaire" required the use of more outside musicians and community assistance than anything I've ever done. It was truly a wonderful journey creating this CD. It is a journey from perfectly happy solitaire to finding home within tribe. It's something I've long thought of - I am a solitary, and yet, there is a flavor of magic that I cannot obtain without community. And, I have found that I really do need community, and perhaps they need me. The Solitaire steps into the woods, sings down the Blood Moon, and sees herself as the Goddess Walking in this world. The next three songs, Weed, Old Snake Woman, and Mama Gaia's Goin' Through Menopause are about crisis, change and transformation. A Prayer to Morpheus provides healing sleep, Selah is a morning prayer, then Ravens of the Nine Worlds greet the day and find the bigger world. Old Ways is a reconnection to the tribe that was always there. And One Tribe is the perfect jam and message to bring it all home.

HF: Speaking of journeys, you have some touring ahead of you. Where can people see you in person?
MG: Folks can find my tour info at http://www.mamaginamusic.com. I play house concerts, book stores, festivals large and small, and I'm branching out this year (this is the year of stepping way outside my comfort zone) to play some non-Pagan events, i.e., public art spaces, Psychology conference, women's nature retreat. Someone described my music as a bridge, recently, meaning that one didn't have to be Pagan to understand and to feel the truth of what was being sung. I rather like that. Pretty darned exciting. I'll be traveling a LOT in the next few months - folks can catch me in FL, GA, TN, AL, OH, MO, CT, and IL.

HF: Where can people find and buy your music? Do you offer it digitally as well as on CD?
MG: I always have plenty of CDs with me - so folks can purchase my music wherever I am on tour. All my music is available at cdbaby.com/Artist/MamaGina, as well as iTunes, amazon.com, just about anywhere you can get digital downloads. There is one song that you can ONLY get via digital download, and that is "The Day the Pagans Came to Town." It just didn't fit the tone of the last couple of CDs, so it is a digital single.

HF: Where can people find you on the web?
MG: www.mamaginamusic.com
www.reverbnation.com/mamagina
www.facebook.com/mnemosyne7, https://twitter.com/GinaLaMonte, www.youtube.com/user/MamaGinainFlorida
For booking information, contact: mnemosyne7@hotmail.com

HF: Mama Gina, thanks so much for chatting with Witches & Pagans’ readers today.
MG: Thank you! I am so glad that we had a chance to chat.

Last modified on
Lokean nun, writer, swamp witch. Heather is a Pagan monastic, writer, editor, and mother. She has written and edited for a variety of publications and social media, including science journals, romance novels, and technology blogs. She also holds degrees in education and speech-language pathology, and has a passion for historical linguistics.

Comments

Additional information