Campfire Chronicles

Campfire Chronicles

By Mark Pearson MusicArtsMusicPerforming ArtsVisual Arts
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Campfire Chronicles episodes

  • Campfire 49:
    By the time you read this, we will have celebrated lighting the 49th and final
    campfire of this particular journey, this Pilgrimage, with a concert and
    the release of an album of fifteen new songs. I am filled with gratitude,
    thankful to discover I had the grit, and thankful for the grace given and
    received. I look forward to the next adventure(s), but not before taking
    some time to truly appreciate this one.Thank you to all those who have shared
    the journey and have helped make it possible.
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  • Campfire 48:
    As I reach this moment in the journey I am reminded again how long life takes
    and the fact that it is over in an instant. I am surprised that the last
    three stages of life turned out to each be ten year long. It was certainly
    not planned that way. While I’m too close to it to judge the quality
    of it, telling my story around forty-nine campfires has certainly been the
    most important and satisfying work that I have ever done.
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  • Campfire 47:
    There were a lot of significant benchmarks in the summer and fall of 2015.
    There was my 50th high school reunion and 50 years of friendship and musical
    partnership with Mike McCoy. My older brother celebrated his 70th birthday
    and my younger brother retired. Those moments combined with others involving
    lifelong connections or friendships made me realize that, in my own way,
    I was arriving where I started and able to see things with new eyes and as
    if for the first time. 
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  • Campfire 46:
    As the pace of lighting these campfires increases—and the goal of
    lighting the “last campfire” on May 13th approaches--I
    realize what a luxury it has been to meander slowly through the memories
    and discoveries of a lifetime.At this campfire I talk about becoming part
    of a Civil Rights Pilgrimage in the fall of 2014. Preparing for those nine
    days on the bus awakened countless memories and connected me in new ways
    to who I had been and what I had thought and believed in 1968 and 1969. Looking
    back I realized how much faith I had in March of 1968. When I turned twenty-one
    that first day of spring I believed that Robert Kennedy would become the
    President, that Martin Luther King, Jr. would live long and eloquently. The
    recently released Kerner Report, looking at the Detroit riots of a year earlier,
    offered a road map to racial reconciliation. I also believed that the Viet
    Nam War would soon be over. I mean, even Presidential candidate, Richard
    Nixon, tapped his coat pocket and talked of a secret plan for peace. Twelve
    months later so much had changed. I also learned during that time that my
    father had been in a mental institution when I was born and much of what
    I believed was suddenly in doubt.To be able to see that time from this place
    is enlightening for me both from a perspective of where I was and we were
    then as well as shining a different light on where we are now.Understanding
    what it means to be part of a larger Pilgrimage has also helped transformed
    my personal journey into a Pilgrimage. That realization fills me with gratitude. 
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  • Campfire 45:
    When I started this journey of Gratitude, Grit, and Grace I thought it would
    be mostly one of awakening and recording memories. I continue to be surprised—pleasantly
    for the most part--at how much of it is about discovering and discoveries.
    By shining light into dark corners I am seeing things differently or for
    the first time. By opening long doors long shut I am able to make connections
    and see pathways. All of it has proven harder and more satisfying that I
    could have ever imagined.
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  • Campfire 44:
    A few things became clear as I got ready to share my songs and stories in a
    series of virtual campfires. I would need a team of people to help me. It
    was going to take a lot longer than I first imagined. What I thought was
    going to be simply a journey of memory quickly became one of discovery as
    well. I also quickly realized that the exploration allowed for and demanded
    that I open “doors” long shut and often locked. To do
    that was more difficult and more satisfying than I could have ever imagined.
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  • Campfire 43:
    In the summer of 2007 I began what became the 7th and final stage of my personal
    and professional journey, “One of Those Times in a Life.”
    I realized I had finally faced long hidden fears in a way that I was able
    to live with them instead of in them. One of the ways the change appeared
    to show itself was in my songwriting. A process that was often anxiety producing
    more and more became something that brought feelings of joy and a sense of
    fulfillment.Due to a combination of choice and chance and circumstance in
    the fall of 2010 I had new albums that represented all of my professional
    careers: songwriter, solo artist, member of The Brothers Four, and with Mike
    McCoy. Looking and listening to those recordings I realized I had arrived
    at a new appreciation for each of them. I had also spent a season writing
    about my family’s history. The time had arrived to take a lifetime
    of stories and try to tell the story of a lifetime.
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  • Campfire 42:
    It has been a while since we lit the 41st campfire. In the interim I have written
    a number of new songs and recorded a 15 song CD. I am also getting ready
    for a concert to celebrate the release of the new album and the lighting
    of the 49th and final Campfire on this amazing journey, One of Those Times
    in a Life.I had promised myself when I began this journey more than six years
    ago I would only work to living lines and no longer work to deadlines. Setting
    the concert date of May 13th months in advance has changed things a bit.
    The remaining eight Campfires will not have an oral Chronicle but a written
    one. My plan is to return in time to these Campfires and add a spoken Chronicle
    to what we are sharing now.
    0 min
  • Our Gear

    This is a companion podcast to a side video on our Youtube channel that goes through all of the gear we use when on an adventure.  Here, we talk a bit more in depth about the gear that we use, what we do and don't like about it, and more.

    1 hr 25 min

About Campfire Chronicles

From the publisher's feed

Welcome to the Weekly Campfire Chronicles for One of Those Times in a Life where