Ole Cram: Fandalism's, America's inspirational composer offers immortalmelodies

[caption id="attachment_15949" align="alignleft" width="300"] Ole Cram, instrumental, inspirational music composer[/caption]

Carol Forsloff --Someone once said the person with the "leather pants" in a band is the one who plays a complex instrument, like the accordion.  But within the ranks of the greatest contributors to music are the composers, like Stephen Foster, whose compositions remain integral to the core of American song and music everywhere.   One of these composers is Ole Cram, a composer of that same tradition, who brings that classical edge of melodies that remain with us forever.

Ole Cram is one of more than 500,000 musicians on Fandalism, a website for musicians and their supporters.  In terms of numbers of followers, Cram is in that top ten or twenty on the site.  Every morning he entertains with a brand new composition.  So Cram is not just talented with music; he is prolific with both composition and performance.  And his ability to play the keyboards transcends most musical artists as well.  This means an overall presentation that elevates his music to the highest levels.

Music has been a part of Cram's life since he was a young child, his compositions beginning at the age of 10.  His was a musical family, a family that encouraged music during family gatherings.  The young Cram started drumming at age 10, then added keyboard after that.  He did this in spite of a slight hearing loss at high frequencies, for which he compensated with hearing aids when the deficit was discovered.

For those parents who fret over their youngsters'  interest in rock, rap and sometimes the ridiculous, there is a message in Cram's musical development, as his heroes came initially from pop culture.  However, as his abilities strengthened in music, and he matured, his interests expanded as well.  His music is now defined as inspirational, with all the complexities and level of tone and presence that one finds in the great music that becomes immortal.

Once the repository of major music, the Christian community has inspired Cram for many years.  That is why his music is inspirational.  It comes from a deep belief in God and a solid sense of gratitude for the gift of music.  Yet Cram takes once a sectarian, and sometimes closeted music style, and brings it forward to the modern world in a way that classicists and even young rockers can admire.

Cram tells us, "I feel so connected to God whenever I play.  It is my time to give Him my cares and concerns of the moment as He gives me His wonderful music as a gift in return.  I always feel so absolutely blessed to receive such wonderful gifts and treasure every song. I personally get great satisfaction listening to the music He gives me as much as when I'm composing it with Him. Also, during the time of composing, He gives me answers many times to the problems and concerns I have at that time.

I will say during my younger years, there was a lot of motivation to be a "rock star" and make millions. Music was going to be my venue to making it big and getting all the benefits of stardom.  So, there was a lot more selfishness in it.  However, maturity and making it through many hard trials over my life have now brought me to this point in my life where the music comes first. I now feel it is His music, not mine. It is up to Him what the next steps will be. I am open and wanting to help share His music with as many people as He wants to have experience it.

When asked how he chose the style of inspirational music to compose and play, Cram says this, "So, I don't chose the style I play, God gives me what he wants played. It is so spiritually uplifting to me and I am so honored.

Fandalism is a community for the world's musicians, and Cram is very active in that community.  Like many other musicians on the site, Cram is grateful for the opportunities afforded by Fandalism, a site created by Philip Kaplan, or Pud as he is delightfully known.  This is how Cram describes his experience.  "Fandalism has by far been the best venue for presenting the music God gives me to the world.  I have made so many new musician friends from around the world as well. I love how everyone is equal on the site.  There are no "fame gods" that are untouchable. Everyone on Fandalism is so friendly and gracious and accepting of each other. It truly feels like one big family helping each other to succeed.  I absolutely love it and love helping other new members come on board and get their music heard."

As for the future, this is Cram's vision: "I only want to serve God in all that I do. Having done "my way" for so many years as a very driven business man and investor, it is so nice to finally be at rest within myself having let those selfish motivations go.  I do hope to leave some legacy of music for my children and future generations to come. I also hope to be able to make enough money to be a good provider for my family.  If God should bless us with more money, then we will want to share the abundance with charities that can really make a difference in the lives of many others. I'm ready to joyfully serve in whatever capacity He needs."

Cram struggles with the financial end of the music business, an issue experienced by many others, including some of the top performing artists at some time.  Cram is particularly concerned about the practice of pirating the work of others and the negative effect that has on the composer and artists who originate music.  He advises,  "So, artists must come up with new ways of generating income from their arts.  I have always been an entrepreneur creating many business ideas over the years.  This is just another challenge to me that is fun to try and figure out."

Music must come first. Musicians need to create music because it is part of who they are, not the means to fame and fortune. Make smart choices about how you present your music and if it is meant to be, the doors will open to other opportunities. If not, you always have the music. "

Those who want to listen to some of the best of the newest music of the world, might wander over to the following sites to listen to Ole Cram, the man with the ultimate vision:  to produce good music as a demonstration of love for others and the Creator from which all music is shared:

YouTube Music Videos: www.youtube.com/OleCramMusic

Fandalism: http://fandalism.com/olecrammusic

Facebook: www.facebook.com/OleCramMusic

OneSheet: http://onesheet.com/olecrammusic

Google+: https://plus.google.com/b/104148704580475588441

LinkedIn Profile: http://www.linkedin.com/in/olecram

Twitter: www.twitter.com/OleCramMusic

Tumblr: http://OleCramMusic.tumblr.com

Modern music and the new historians

[caption id="attachment_15252" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="Taylor Swift"][/caption]

Today's music is the folk music of tomorrow.  This means the best will be preserved, even as other music that is meant for a short turn dissolves with time.  Some tunes, however, are done so well they are remade again, not just because of their copyright-free status because of their age but the message rendered that is eternal.

Folk music is no longer the popular genre as it was in the 1960's, but there are folks who in looking for their personal roots find that the old music supports it.  Music tells of the times in which it was written.  Music was used, and still is, to record history.  In that sense, the musician one passes on that street corner in a city somewhere in the world may be doing something that will last for centuries, when elements of the new technology has long faded.

The musicians of great reknown know this, as Elvis Presley recorded not just the modern rock and roll songs with which we are familiar but the old-time music as well, including "Old Shep" and the gospel songs that were part of his personal roots.  Bruce Springsteen is another of the relatively new artists of today who looks for certain types of root music to perform, then gives it that modern twist or two that identifies it is his personal sound.

Many songs, when they have been rearranged, change so significantly that the meaning of the author has been lost.  The song  "Letter Edged in Black" became known by the country artists of the 1950's through Johnny Cash and Hank Williams, but its different theme in modern lyrics took away from the writer's story of how family estrangement can cause pain for generations.  This is an eternal message, even as the war protest words were that were later written to the melody and known  in later years.  But the history of time and the idea that we continue to learn from our history only when we know it, and the messages it gives, is lost when too many of our original music is lost as well.

So for those looking for their ancestry and building scrapbooks to identify a family, include with it a scrap of music from that same time.  Look beyond the words of today in looking for the good of yesterday that we can all enjoy again.

When we speak of traditional values, traditional music needs to be included in that definition, so long as its meaning remains what identifies us all as a community of individuals with one thing in common---our humanity.

As for modern music, it too has a distinctive place in that it records the events of the day and in time will become roots music of future generations.  It shares, in that regard, those old melodies that remain because we care.  So those folks on Americas Got Talent may be looking for their dreams to be fulfilled, and we can look at them with new eyes when we recognize how valuable music becomes when time has passed from what we knew of simpler times.

Stephen Foster's eternal message on the loss, neglect of childrenremains contemporary

[caption id="attachment_15194" align="alignleft" width="300"] Monument to the children of Babi Yar[/caption]

Carol Forsloff - Recent news on missing children has focused on Madeleine McCann who vanished five years ago.  Police have raised the possibility the child may still be alive.  While the focus is on the problem in modern times, early death or the kidnapping of children presents one of the greatest heartaches in our culture.   Our great composers, like Stephen Foster, eloquently spoke of this type of tragedy, one that continues to bring attention to the precious lives we lose and the need to focus on the health and welfare of the innocent.

MSNBC writes that " Madeleine's name has become synonymous with parental despair -- a heartbreaking story that has no end."  Madeleine disappeared in Portugal when the family was on vacation.  The parents, along with volunteers and aided by the media and police, have been unable to find the child.  Now the authorities are offering some hope Madeleine may still be alive.

In the United States there are consistently stories about missing children, some found like Jaycee Duggard, whose story of captivity for many years riveted the nation.  Then there is Elan Paltz, a child who went missing in 1979 and inspired the pictures of children who had disappeared and had not been found.

Children are lost in many ways.  The United States has among the highest rates of infant mortality among the developed nations of the world, at a rate of seven deaths per thousand, according to 2007 statistics.  Furthermore, twice as many black children die than white babies.   Also infant mortality is more than one-third higher in the South than in the rest of the country, all while the U.S. spends far more on health care than other nations.

Throughout history musicians, painters and writers of both poetry and prose have translated the news of tragedies that affect people of any era.  At the time Stephen Foster wrote the song "Virginia Belle," children worked in farms and factories along with other members of their families who struggled to make a living during hard times.  Many children died early from disease and accidents, as medicine did not have the tools to save their lives in those years.    They also died from abuse and neglect, a problem that continues today .   Who could communicate the emotional pain of losing a child better than those whose particular means of telling stories and news events could relate the feelings as well as the facts.

Stephen Foster's music, while considered antiquated by some and seldom heard in our modern world, had a way of bringing attention to the plight of the hopeless and helpless, as he also wrote of the events of his day, but in a way that immortalizes not just the facts of that time period but also the events that occur today, as the loss of a child represents.

The song, "Virginia Belle," far less known that Foster's songs like "Oh Susannah" and "Jeannie with the Light Brown Hair" speaks of the sorrow parents have when a child is lost.  The media today recognizes that most of us relate to that type of loss in some way, as we hold our dear ones close.   His song helps us remember the value of a single life,  and how the loss of a solitary child has meaning for us all.