The Spinning Leaves

Folk 

Hello! We invite you to become magic yourself and spin up and whiz and glow and take everyone with you in a spinning society change, a heart reaching, a Love revolution! We love mutual empowerment.

We met on October the 15th, 2006 (Barbara's Birthday!) and have been making music ever since.

We are dreamers. We are builders! Musical spaces and far-out feelings and radiating beings in the sound moments of music! We reach around us like a plant and build a gazillion glowing castles all together.

It feels like a growing light, a ripping fire, a glowing LOVE. We try to spawn in people the burst they need to become their wildest most keen visions.

And in our dreams we see the Gypsy Queen and the Sent Ship peak over the horizons...

And we are blessed with many beautiful cohorts:
The genius Hezekiah Jones, Hoots and Hellmouth,Nicole Atkins and the Sea, O'death,Bill Kreutzman (Grateful Dead), The Great Unknown, Citizens Band Radio, Cowmuddy, Papertrees, Birdie Busch, Amos Lee, Griz, Norwalks, John Francis, Quintero, Joshua Heard Park, Andrew Lipke, Sisters 3,Oud Blues, and so many more. We ring in each other's ears and open up this Philadelphia of a flower.

We have a lot of interesting things going on right now. We are also working out some trips on the road all over. Keep your ears low to the ground for the vibration. We may just come near you if you live in the world! And we're always up for entertaining invitations...

MEMBERS:

Michael Baker

space, harmonica, guitar, singin' ringin'

Barbara Gettes

space, guitar, singin' ringin'

*The Spinning Leaves are constantly in flux and moving. Therefore we have an interchangeable band too! Some of the folks that share the stage with us are and have been:

* Carl Cheeseman - xylophone, guitar, sitar
* Phil D'Agostino - upright bass
* Andy Keenan - pedal steelness, singin' ringin'
* Shawn Hennessey - percussion
* Chris Griz Grunwald - bass, singin' ringin'
* Dean Gorfti - drums


On our record, there are more than 50 amazingly talented folks from the outstanding musical community of Philadelphia who lent their ears and skills! These folks include:

* Hezekiah Jones
* Carl Cheeseman (Boatload of Madmen, Joshua Park)
* Andy Keenan (Citizens Band Radio, Hezekiah Jones)
* Greg Morgan (Audible Eye)
* Jaron Olevsky (Amos Lee)
* Brian Nadav (Oudblues)
* Ryat (As Human)
* Jason Fraticelli (As Human, Oudblues, Matisyahu)
* Patrick Hughes (Melody Gardot, West Philadelphia Orchestra, Bobby Zenkel)
* Larry Toft (Philly trombone extraordinaire, WPO, Bobby Zenkel)
* Todd Henkin (The Great Unknown)
* Wes Mattheu (and the New Way Down)
* Bob Beach (Bob Beach trio, Harmonica extraordinaire)
* Alison Wadsworth (Unlikely Cowboy)
* Bevin Caulfield (Quintero)
* Annachristie (Sisters 3)
* Adrien Reju (The Lowlands)

* thanks also to those that we've unintentionally left out who were involved in the recording parties both at Michael's house and Ryat's house.

* Also, huge thanks to Rachel Russell for her crazy good energy and her immense tutelage and help in mixing. It made all the difference.

* and, of course, the bridges of love we walk out on and fall all over

The Spinning Leaves is a wavy ship ride on a mystical wind! We grow and shed sails every day, all together! Join and be part of it! We feel so blessed for the lovely people we have been meeting and have grown to love in the past months and hope that whoever you are, reading this 'bio' will please come in and join us as we continue to become and become.

BIG LOVE, Michael & Barbara

And people say nice things:

"Knowing the scraps of the story that we do know, Michael and Barbara's mix tape dedication is totally on course with their thing: big love and the movement of said superlative love. About mining joy, the celestial underpinnings of phenomenological events and all that gooey yummy stuff even the most cracked hearts glimpse before spackling on another level of defensiveness against such indulgent ideas.
Friends, hand me my net and goggles. They are to be captured, brought back to the lab and studied, these rare creatures that eschew the cynical comments that so often accumulate into something approximating a cynical personality for genuine, open expression...Idealists! In Philadelphia circa 2007, for chrissakes!"

Tara Murtha, PLAY Magazine


"...Besides the guys I already knew were awesome (O’Death, Chris Bathgate, Hezekiah Jones, Hoots and Hellmouth) I was blown away by some of the other bands on the bills - particularly the stunning The Spinning Leaves. Their song Bridges for Free is jaw-dropping, reminiscent of Desolation Row-Dylan and Return of the Grievous Angel-Gram Parsons with Emmylou. Besides this juggernaut of awesomeness, the song Marigolds is fantastic and a little Vetiver-y, Sad Maggie’s a melodic marvel and Transistor Radio is gorgeous pop ditty with Barbara Gettes on lead vocals..."

- Morgan King, Yer Bird Records
(for the full version, go to www.yerbird.com/blog)


"There's a lot of Kentucky in 'em. It had all the right moves to be Appalachian country--harmonies and harmonicas, deep drawl and bent notes. They've only been playing together since October, but are really finding an old and comfortable sound in their new songs."

- Brad Hoffman, from review of our Show at the Tea Bazaar in Charlottesville, VA