[GUITAR MUSIC] POPS WALKER: When the sun comes up
It lights a fire on those red and orange and yellow trees.
We call it fire on the mountain.
There are different types of beauty.
But the Blue Ridgeâ¦ Well.
How many songs have been written about it, how many people have written books about it and stories about it.
Itâs a place to go and get in touch with your muse.
[NATURAL SOUNDS]
[GUITAR AND HUMMING]
KIPYN MARTIN: Communicating a message in a song
for me personally, comes really from the deepest place I know how to express from.
And I can access that when I listen to what nature has to say.
KIPYN SINGING: Held the heaaaaaaart of a night bird.
KIPYN SINGING: Swore she sang my song.
KIPYN MARTIN: When I come away from having gone out and written in the Wilderness,
and have the best song I have ever written, each time it just keeps getting better.
[WHISTLING]
POPS WALKER: Music is out there in the ether.
You just have to get yourself into a state of mind where you welcome those ideas, those musical ideas.
[GUITAR]
POPS WALKER: See the sky and the mountains. See the light ridge over there of clouds.
It is so vast and it made me aware of how small I am.
And so some lyrics started popping into my head.
Let me sing a song of the Blue Ridge sky.
She waters upâNo excuse me.
She warms up my heart and waters up my eyes. Sheâs a thing of her own. She makes me feel all alone and so small.
POPS SINGING: Let me sing a song of the Blue Ridge sky.
She steals away my heart, waters up my eyes.
Sheâs a thing of her own. She makes me feel all alone, so small.
[NATURAL SOUND: WIND & BIRDS]
KIPYN MARTIN: To me, half of being a good musician is being a listener.
And to just keep listening.
[NATURAL FOREST SOUNDS]
[GUITAR MUSIC]
KIPYN MARTIN: There is a crispness to the wind.
Literally, there is a lot more treble in the sound.
Every so often a leaf will fall and of course create its own little percussion.
POPS SINGING: She blows that way.
POPS SINGING: The windâs shifting. [GUITAR]
KIPYN MARTIN: Sometimes lots of leaves are falling.
Creates a natural little crescendo on the ground.
POPS SINGING: Now the windâs almost gone.
KIPYN MARTIN: Because itâs so vast and because itâs so serene, the Wilderness is just such an anchor for creativity.
POPS WALKER: Sometimes just out of the blue a melody will reach in and somehow find your brain.
[RUSHING WATER]
KIPYN MARTIN: Thereâs a message in the water.
[LOUDER RUSHING WATER]
KIPYN MARTIN: Thatâs water thatâs falling. I can hear the
turbulence where the rocks catch the falling water and so
I may compose a melody that falls and does something interesting at the bottom.
[GUITAR]
KIPYN MARTIN: Ahh. This is more interesting. Soâ¦
KIPYN MARTIN: So it kind ofâ¦
KIPYN MARTIN: So do you get the imagery of the falling and then the action.
This is, this is all kind of just evolving here.
KIPYN SINGING: Let me faaaa-aaaa-aaaa-all.
Let me faaaa-aaaa-aaaa-all.
Something like that.
KIPYN SINGING: Let me faaaa-aaaa-aaaa-all.
Like water to the rocks below.
I donât know. Thatâs about as far as I feel like I can go right now
but weâre totally writing a song write now. Like this is so cool!
[GUITAR MUSIC]
KIPYN MARTIN: The purest music is in the air and in nature.
My nameâs Kipyn Martin and Iâm a Shenandoah Valley musician.
POPS WALKER: Life is moving fast out there.
But when you come out to the woods, you get freed up from that.
Iâm Popâs Walker.
Iâm a husband. A retired soldier.
A musician.
[GUITAR PLUCKING]
[WIND & NIGHT SOUNDS]