Music
Press
When it came time for local Native American-meets-world-music trio Coyo to cut its new album, the band followed one of the oldest rules of entertainment: Give the people what they want.
In Coyo's case, people were clamoring for the group's more boisterous side -- the side that wasn't necessarily featured on its first album, "Listen to the Wind," said drummer Dale Largent.
"(The town albums) are distinct from one another in that the second one is more upbeat than the first," Largent said. "By no means will we ever be a rock band, but it is more upbeat. We play with some rhythms and tempos that are more dynamic and less serene.
"Coyo has always had both dimensions, but the first album happened to capture the more serene side, and this balances that out," he said. "We were playing a whole bunch of music live that people were liking and requesting but that we hadn't recorded, so we were trying to capture that."
The result is "The West," a new full length from Largent, guitarist Tim Moore and flutist Ron Laws that features all original tunes as well as several guests, including Julie Southwell on violin and Chris Sabo on didgeridoo.
"The West" was recorded over the last year at Largent's home studio, and the band is excited about the quality of the songwriting, performance and production, Largent said.
"Some of these songs we'd been playing for years," he said. "They've all been road-tested for a year or more, so we feel really solid with them." - The Bend Bulletin (September 2007)
When it came time for local Native American-meets-world-music trio Coyo to cut its new album, the band followed one of the oldest rules of entertainment: Give the people what they want.
In Coyo's case, people were clamoring for the group's more boisterous side -- the side that wasn't necessarily featured on its first album, "Listen to the Wind," said drummer Dale Largent.
"(The town albums) are distinct from one another in that the second one is more upbeat than the first," Largent said. "By no means will we ever be a rock band, but it is more upbeat. We play with some rhythms and tempos that are more dynamic and less serene.
"Coyo has always had both dimensions, but the first album happened to capture the more serene side, and this balances that out," he said. "We were playing a whole bunch of music live that people were liking and requesting but that we hadn't recorded, so we were trying to capture that."
The result is "The West," a new full length from Largent, guitarist Tim Moore and flutist Ron Laws that features all original tunes as well as several guests, including Julie Southwell on violin and Chris Sabo on didgeridoo.
"The West" was recorded over the last year at Largent's home studio, and the band is excited about the quality of the songwriting, performance and production, Largent said.
"Some of these songs we'd been playing for years," he said. "They've all been road-tested for a year or more, so we feel really solid with them." - The Bend Bulletin (September 2007)
You should have a conversation sometime with the members of Coyo. The sincere reverence and love for music the acoustic trio shares among its players - Dale Largent, Ron Laws and Tim Moore - could make even the most raring of Type A personalities slow down and take note. Hearing their music even more so. The three describe their sound as "acoustic, indigenous beat for a new age." The soundscapes Coyo creates could just as readily be described as "meditative, soothing and primal."
Hand drummer Largent, 36, describes the band's efforts as a mostly egoless endeavor, saying he'd "almost equally be happy to be in the audience as on the stage". "Almost," he stresses. "But the extra thrill of being one of the voices behind the unity - so much energy flows in that space. It is such an easy place. It is so beautiful and rich."
Guitarist Moore, 35, says Coyo's music strengthened his mother during a bout with cancer. "She had just gone through surgery, and she was in the hospital on morphine," Moore says. "She testifies today that it was the music that helped her to one, get off morphine a lot quicker than she would have and, two, it made her time in the room during that critical place, a peaceful environment." "In that way, I have a real emotional tie to the healing power of the group. It's directly related to the healing of my mother."
Coyo derives its name from 'coyote', as well as 'ka-o-tay', a Navajo word meaning "we are," says Laws. The group spent months laying down the 14 tracks on its debut disc, "Listen to the Wind," and will celebrate its release earlier this month with a performance Saturday in Bend.
- The Bend Bulletin (June 2004)
You should have a conversation sometime with the members of Coyo. The sincere reverence and love for music the acoustic trio shares among its players - Dale Largent, Ron Laws and Tim Moore - could make even the most raring of Type A personalities slow down and take note. Hearing their music even more so. The three describe their sound as "acoustic, indigenous beat for a new age." The soundscapes Coyo creates could just as readily be described as "meditative, soothing and primal."
Hand drummer Largent, 36, describes the band's efforts as a mostly egoless endeavor, saying he'd "almost equally be happy to be in the audience as on the stage". "Almost," he stresses. "But the extra thrill of being one of the voices behind the unity - so much energy flows in that space. It is such an easy place. It is so beautiful and rich."
Guitarist Moore, 35, says Coyo's music strengthened his mother during a bout with cancer. "She had just gone through surgery, and she was in the hospital on morphine," Moore says. "She testifies today that it was the music that helped her to one, get off morphine a lot quicker than she would have and, two, it made her time in the room during that critical place, a peaceful environment." "In that way, I have a real emotional tie to the healing power of the group. It's directly related to the healing of my mother."
Coyo derives its name from 'coyote', as well as 'ka-o-tay', a Navajo word meaning "we are," says Laws. The group spent months laying down the 14 tracks on its debut disc, "Listen to the Wind," and will celebrate its release earlier this month with a performance Saturday in Bend.
- The Bend Bulletin (June 2004)
The three-person ensemble of Ron Laws on wooden flute, Tim Moore on acoustic guitar and Dale Largent on hand drums are Bend's COYO. According to the trio, "COYO means many things, coyote, ka-o-tay, our music is dedicated to the natural world and embraces the common ground we all share as human beings."
Laws and Moore initially started as a two-piece in the summer of 2002. They decided, while recording, that they would like to bring a session artist in to record some percussion tracks on their cd. They found Largent through a mutual friend in fall of 2002.
"When I first heard their draft recordings, I was very impressed with the quality of musicianship and recording," Largent explained. "I also immediately heard my 'style' of rhythms within their existing music. That suggested to all of us that we were on to something 'bigger' than we expected."
Coyo's first release, Listen to the Wind, is comprised of 14 original songs, which seek to raise a collective awareness of the natural world and the inherent biorhythms shared on planet Earth. "There is no question that Ron's melodies are deeply inspired by his conscious, meditative attempts to be unified with the natural world", Largent said.
The album's eleventh track, Tree, is an up-tempo cadence featuring Largent on hand drums. Tree seems to reveal an inner-heartbeat of the complex organism. As the tempo regresses from fast to slow, one may imagine the changing of seasons and activity in and around the tree. Its life pulse can be seen and felt through the changes in tempo and, essentially, Tree strives to demonstrate that organic entities are part of a greater whole that complete our natural and spiritual world.
Recorded live in 2003, Eagle Calling, Seven and Giveaway are special additions to the otherwise studio-recorded album. Giveaway communicates to the listener a sense of weightlessness, as if the burdens of our material world can be removed from our shoulders, if just for a minute. In the right mindset and atmosphere, one really believes that they can fly.
Laws, the threesome's flutist, began studying and playing music nearly 50 years ago in the great valleys and mountains of Oregon. "[Ron] chooses melodies that reflect his connection with the Earth and are, at some level, played as a return of thanks," Largent said.
"It was said," adds Laws in the album notes, "that in the old growth forests of Southern Oregon, if one were to listen to the wind late at night, there were stories to be heard." Through his music efforts, he seeks to share those stories.
Largent began studying western percussion in the Midwest at the age of seven. Since then, his passion for drumming has taken him to Interlochen Music Academy where he studied marimba and xylophone and to the Youth Symphony Orchestra of Greater Chicago. "When I choose rhythms, I am trying to tap into the same energies people with drums around the world have been tapping into for millennia," he says. "As a drummer, I have experienced the true voice of the drum, which is really the true pulse of that energy. The trick is to get out of the way and let it flow. That is the groove."
The trio's third member, Moore, on acoustic guitar and mandolin, contributes a breadth of experience in the rock, jazz and folk circuits. "Tim is sandwiched in between these two dimensions and he dances there beautifully," Largent adds. "He is so pure of spirit that he excels the more we allow ourselves to be led by these natural forces."
After years of study, COYO writes, Moore expanded his skills into the indigenous realm approaching the guitar as a percussion instrugment. Unique among other quitarists, this form of rhythmic guitar playing matches well the mood and philosophy of COYO's melodies.
In these times, which are both great and tumultuous, Listen to the Wind provides listeners with a solace from the storm, however temporary.
- Cascade Arts & Entertainment (January 2004)
The three-person ensemble of Ron Laws on wooden flute, Tim Moore on acoustic guitar and Dale Largent on hand drums are Bend's COYO. According to the trio, "COYO means many things, coyote, ka-o-tay, our music is dedicated to the natural world and embraces the common ground we all share as human beings."
Laws and Moore initially started as a two-piece in the summer of 2002. They decided, while recording, that they would like to bring a session artist in to record some percussion tracks on their cd. They found Largent through a mutual friend in fall of 2002.
"When I first heard their draft recordings, I was very impressed with the quality of musicianship and recording," Largent explained. "I also immediately heard my 'style' of rhythms within their existing music. That suggested to all of us that we were on to something 'bigger' than we expected."
Coyo's first release, Listen to the Wind, is comprised of 14 original songs, which seek to raise a collective awareness of the natural world and the inherent biorhythms shared on planet Earth. "There is no question that Ron's melodies are deeply inspired by his conscious, meditative attempts to be unified with the natural world", Largent said.
The album's eleventh track, Tree, is an up-tempo cadence featuring Largent on hand drums. Tree seems to reveal an inner-heartbeat of the complex organism. As the tempo regresses from fast to slow, one may imagine the changing of seasons and activity in and around the tree. Its life pulse can be seen and felt through the changes in tempo and, essentially, Tree strives to demonstrate that organic entities are part of a greater whole that complete our natural and spiritual world.
Recorded live in 2003, Eagle Calling, Seven and Giveaway are special additions to the otherwise studio-recorded album. Giveaway communicates to the listener a sense of weightlessness, as if the burdens of our material world can be removed from our shoulders, if just for a minute. In the right mindset and atmosphere, one really believes that they can fly.
Laws, the threesome's flutist, began studying and playing music nearly 50 years ago in the great valleys and mountains of Oregon. "[Ron] chooses melodies that reflect his connection with the Earth and are, at some level, played as a return of thanks," Largent said.
"It was said," adds Laws in the album notes, "that in the old growth forests of Southern Oregon, if one were to listen to the wind late at night, there were stories to be heard." Through his music efforts, he seeks to share those stories.
Largent began studying western percussion in the Midwest at the age of seven. Since then, his passion for drumming has taken him to Interlochen Music Academy where he studied marimba and xylophone and to the Youth Symphony Orchestra of Greater Chicago. "When I choose rhythms, I am trying to tap into the same energies people with drums around the world have been tapping into for millennia," he says. "As a drummer, I have experienced the true voice of the drum, which is really the true pulse of that energy. The trick is to get out of the way and let it flow. That is the groove."
The trio's third member, Moore, on acoustic guitar and mandolin, contributes a breadth of experience in the rock, jazz and folk circuits. "Tim is sandwiched in between these two dimensions and he dances there beautifully," Largent adds. "He is so pure of spirit that he excels the more we allow ourselves to be led by these natural forces."
After years of study, COYO writes, Moore expanded his skills into the indigenous realm approaching the guitar as a percussion instrugment. Unique among other quitarists, this form of rhythmic guitar playing matches well the mood and philosophy of COYO's melodies.
In these times, which are both great and tumultuous, Listen to the Wind provides listeners with a solace from the storm, however temporary.
- Cascade Arts & Entertainment (January 2004)
Discography
Our new CD, "The West" was released in September, 2007. Listen to sample cuts on this EPK or our website. Our first CD "Listen to the Wind" was released in 2003. Both are available at CDBaby or via our website.
Photos
Bio
Coyo's magical rhythms of the hand drums, melodic voice of the acoustic guitar and penetrating ethereal callings of the wood flute are captivating audiences young and old alike. Join us in creating a world removed from the stress of human achieving - Come listen & dance... Your Spirit is Free!
Ron Laws: Ron began studying and playing music over 50 years ago as a teen living and playing in the valleys and mountains of Southern Oregon. He chooses to channel his creative life energies into creating and playing Native American style wooden flutes honoring the natural world with his music. Ron is known for his provocative and spirit filled stories & melodies which infuse Coyo with the sound and spirit of nature.
Tim Moore: Tim’s guitar career has centered on rock, jazz and folk music. After several years fo study Tim expanded his skills into the indigenous realm, approaching the guitar as a percussion instrument. His style invites all to be in the moment.
Dale Largent: Grade school introduced Dale to percussion over 30 years ago and he has been drumming ever since. Dale experienced the true voice of the drum when he discovered hand drums… the wonder of a stretched hide and world rhythms. Dale brings the mystical experience of these rhythms to those seeking transcendence, joy and the opportunity to dance.
Links