We’ve come late to the story of Beverly Glenn-Copeland. However, like countless others, we’ve fallen head-over-heels in love with it. Glenn released two self-titled albums 50 years ago and then vanished from the public eye until 1986 when he released Keyboard Fantasies (just a few hundred copies on cassette) Thirty years later, revered Japanese record-collector Ryota Masuko came across one of those cassettes and went on a mission to turn other audiophiles onto Glenn-Copeland’s work and to find the artist himself. We are truly smitten and had the privilege of seeing Glenn perform in Bristol last year. While plans for further tours are currently on hiatus, Transgressive Records will release Transmissions: The Music of Beverly Glenn-Copeland this September (2020). We implore you to introduce yourself to this transcendental, transgender, sonic pioneer.

Photo of Glenn by Alexander Sturrock

Glenn nominated Evelyn Wolff, “a dear friend for more than forty years” who also happens to be a healer and stained glass designer. Her work is featured on the cover of Transmissions.

Evelyn is a healer - a now retired M.D. who practiced holistic medicine, exploring and combining the very best of allopathic medicine as well as the best practices from many other ancient cultures. Even while in Medical School from which she graduated at the top of her class, she was exploring ancient Chinese medicine. She opened a general practice in a Canadian town a few years after finishing her studies. However, after seven years, she felt called to other aspects of medicine, and closed her practice. Her patients signed a huge petition begging her to stay because she was so loved and so good at what she did. But she moved on. She studied to become a MD psychotherapist, and for many years provided a community anchor for the most marginalized populations in the Toronto area. By the time she retired from active medical practice, she had studied and incorporated many different aspects of the healing profession. She offered effective solutions for both physical and emotional problems that many of her patients had not found in years of searching. She was, and still is, a consummate healer, understanding that ultimately a healer's real mission is to help us heal ourselves.

Evelyn Wolff is a visual artist in stained glass. While practicing medicine as a young person she began painting which she later realized were meant to be rendered in stained glass. So sought out and studied with a well known stained glass artist. Within several months she was producing some of the most beautiful pieces I have ever seen. Her works, many of which are in three dimensions, are hanging on the walls of people all over Canada, the U.S., and Mexico. They are stunning. They are spirit pieces. Personally, I have three of her works, and have featured her work as part of screen projections during my concerts. 

Evelyn Wolff is a writer. Her first published book entitled Moments of Wonder shares twenty-one of her visual art pieces along with deeply moving reflections about life accompanying each of those pieces. A lover of the natural world, she was, and still is, most at home wandering about in Mother Earth's natural vistas. Her deepest inspirations have come from these wanderings through nature. She intimately crystallizes with words the gifts and lessons of her contemplations with Mother Earth. Her second published book called Calming Dr. Twitch-a-Lot: From Heroic Fantasy to Human Reality, An Approximate Autobiography is a journey of wounding and subsequent healing that bridges her own envisioned lifetimes. It is full of self-revealing painful transformations and growth. It often provokes out and out "side splitting" laughter from deeply comical reflections. It is both humble and outrageous at the same time. She is currently writing a sequel. I can't wait to read it!

Stained glass work by Evelyn Wolff

Evelyn nominated her friend, fellow Buddhist and musician Taivi.

For many years, Taivi’s ability to balance two careers encouraged me. My struggle to manage this myself made her efforts and her success at doing so important to me.  Seeing her persist in meeting the challenges of a successful legal professional while keeping the inner flame of a creative artist burning gave me joy. Slowly and patiently she honed her skills taking lessons on several instruments – piano, guitar, fiddle, mandolin – while through other activities she developed the range and expressiveness of her voice and her ability to write powerful and meaningful lyrics.

Simultaneously, as “an ethical lawyer” (sounds like an oxymoron to some, but it is true of her) she focused on the arena of social justice. She rose through the ranks to become a legal advocate, and then executive director of both Community Legal Education Ontario, and the Ontario Justice Education Network. More recently she became a leader in the justice sector (chairing a national tribunal excellence committee). 

As a fellow Buddhist on a spiritual journey, I have traveled with Taivi for over 40 years. There she has shown the same determination she exhibits in her legal and creative life applied to become the best human being she can be. She dares to look at herself with searing honesty; she finds the courage to rise above her wounds and continues to make whatever efforts are required to move towards her full potential. Her commitment to her spiritual practice supports her in becoming ever more steadfast, while remaining youthful in spirit, and exhibiting increasing joyfulness. So, of course, she continues to inspire.

With the weight of her responsibilities escalating, making time for creativity was hard. Especially when trained by parents and society to be overly responsible to others. I know how endless the demands of professional life can be. In the face of this to see Taivi listen to her soul’s yearning to engage in joyful play with her Muses while always on the quest to refine her craft, inspired me to continue to create space for these moments of bliss for myself. Taivi, also a lover of fine art, owns three of my original one of a kind stained glass creations. Her generous support was crucial in encouraging me to dare to retire from medicine and to give myself wholeheartedly to my artistic life.  

After years of playing music behind the scenes – spanning folk-roots, classical, jazz, and bluegrass - Taivi was finally ready to feature her original songs and bring her musical vision to the world. At this point, Claire Lynch a multi-GRAMMY nominated musician saw and truly heard Taivi’s songs, observing that Taivi “comes straight from the heart with barebones sincerity.” Claire became her mentor lending guidance and encouragement. With this help, Taivi soon released her debut album Rising Tide, 2018, which jumped to the top 25 in the chart. This brings us full circle to the event at the beginning of this story. Suddenly Taivi found herself in the company of  Ry Cooder, John Prine, Joan Baez, and Buffy Sainte Marie. 

With her musical success now visible, Taivi is challenged to take it one further. Again, she inspires as she dares retire from law to allow her creativity and musical life more than just stolen moments. Truly it is mysterious and wondrous to see our human capacity to inspire courage in each other so we go where our souls yearn to go, even where angels fear to tread.

The final inspiration I want to share about Taivi’s life relates to her roots in her motherland, Estonia. She had been born to a family in exile, with her parents’ homeland having been shrouded by tyranny and repression. Then, in 1991, Estonia successfully ousted the Soviet Union achieving independence without a drop of bloodshed. This has become known as “the singing revolution.”  Two million people joined hands across the Baltic states along hundreds of kilometers of highway, while daring to sing songs which had long been banned. On the anniversary of this momentous day, Taivi returned to sing in Tallinn, the capital, with a choir of 40,000 Estonian men and women which grew to a hundred thousand as the audience joined in commemorating this remarkable event.

Truly Taivi’s inspiring life that weds her passion for social justice with the power and joy of her songs, shows she carries the lifeblood of her ancestors. Now we can celebrate together as she takes the stage to share her songs of freedom, the fruits of her courage, and determination with all of us.

Music by Taivi



 Taivi nominated the renowned American bluegrass musician, singer, songwriter and producer Claire Lynch

When I first met Claire Lynch, she was criss-crossing the highways of this continent in her van, loaded up with instruments, non-stop itineraries, a ton of creativity and three band members who spanned a generation and ideologies. She is a bandleader, singer, performer, songwriter, producer, businesswoman, manager, innovator, and a behind-the-scenes creator of spaces that attract the best in people.  

Over the years, she has held a vision which has kept her music and creativity flowing across boundaries and barriers. Through her ingenuity, hardwork and business-sense, she has managed, as a musician, to keep others on full time payroll, all the while opening new possibilities and new ways of seeing things for those who came within “the field of Claire.” 

She once said, "I drive and do paperwork for a living - I sing because I love to.” Focusing on what you love, and letting everything else feed that – what a wonderful way to be in this world. She has done it with a light touch, viewing the world with heart and compassion, always looking ahead of curve. A delight to be in her presence.

Claire humbles and inspires me to look at my life afresh, and look at what really matters. Self-reliant, she works hard, going for excellence with every breath and phrase. Generous with others while exacting and disciplined with herself - no wonder she’s a three-time Grammy nominee.

Some years ago, I asked Claire if she’d be prepared to mentor me in songwriting.  She said she’d willing to give it a go. I was thrilled. Though neither of us suspected it at the time, it began an adventure-filled production of my first album, with her at the helm. For me, the experience was like obtaining an incredibly joyful joint doctorate in music and life. 

When Claire approaches something, she deeply listens, takes things in from levels unseen, and people step up. A gentle, well-timed discerning question from Claire, and a ship gets on its true course.  Everyone seems to play and sing better when she’s in the studio.

Photo: Kevin Kelly

Music by Claire Lynch

Claire nominated Herb Trotman, a Bluegrass banjo and guitar player from Alabama

There are people in our lives who inspire our art and who are to be lauded and admired. But what is artistry, if not an articulation of our relationship with the world around us?

For this reason, I’ve chosen to nominate a man whose life has literally become an expression of love for acoustic music and the people with whom he shares it.

Herb Trotman has been a central figure in Alabama’s old-time and Bluegrass music scene for over fifty years. I first knew him as a banjo picker at local festivals who happened to own what is now a legendary music store in Birmingham called Fretted Instruments. My band was young and hungry, living hand-to-mouth. We hadn’t thought of ourselves as having any great significance on Alabama’s music scene. Yet Herb, who had a knack for making everyone seem important without pretension, supplied us with guitar and mandolin strings at such deep discounts we felt we must have been stars on the rise. 

But Herb Trotman is not only an entrepreneur and a musician, he’s a volunteer for Alabama Folk School’s Bluegrass Camp, Birmingham City Schools and Alabama Bluegrass Music Association – to name a few. And he’s a craftsman who has worked on and repaired many instruments in the Southeastern U.S. and beyond. Most importantly, he’s been a teacher for many years, and that may be his favorite occupation.  One former student, Daniel Wallace, author of Big Fish, stated, “Along with Betty Caldwell, my English teacher in 11th grade…Herb Trotman is one of the most powerful inspirations in my creative life. He was my banjo teacher for two years, and he was one scary character, intimidating in the best possible ways. He demanded my best. Six months passed before I saw him smile, because it took that long for me to learn how to do an acceptable Scruggs roll, and it pleased him to hear it. I borrowed from him a work ethic without which art is just a hobby.”  

This plaque has been hung on the wall of Fretted Instruments since 1976.

But don’t let these guys fool you. Herb’s a marshmallow.

Because Mr. Trotman is who he is, old-time and Bluegrass musicians, guitar pickers and singer-songwriters drop into the store during the week and on holidays, particularly Christmas Eve. They bring instruments, refreshments and families to celebrate together. He is quoted as saying, “I sometimes view myself more as a custodian for a rather large amorphous therapy group!” That expression became the subtitle for 12 CDs (and counting) of Christmas music played by area musicians and given out gratis to customers and friends. Each year for over a decade, the “Large and Amorphous Group” has recorded Christmas music especially for this CD, including me!  When (and if) I grow up, I hope I can be loved and respected by friends and fans as much as Herb is. And I’m proud to be one of the Large and Amorphous Group under the custodial care of my long-time friend, Herb Trotman. 

Photo: Ian Gray

Herb nominated his fellow Alabamian Ken Austin, a retired architect/city planner who paints in watermedia.

While attending a small music jam session in the Spring of 1964, I had the good fortune to meet the very interesting Ken Austin. His mother was an artist.  His father, a college professor in the local university’s school of business, spent summers in Mexico collecting Pre-Columbian artifacts. Ken played the banjo and I wanted to know more. More than half a century later, I still find Ken to be amazing and inspiring.

Ken may be best known as an artist, author, teacher, architect or city planner, but we shared interests in music and songwriting. For Ken “art” is a verb. His attention to the smallest details of  the color of a musical tone and his attention to the tone of a color in his paintings:  they were equally important to him. 

Ken is an inspiration for his vision and, equally as important, for his willingness to share.

Ken Austin and his work:

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