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| DOVER-SHERBORN
COMMUNITY PRESS Same Message, Different Tune for former Candidate Jill Stein retains her politics while switching back to music at the Peace Abbey By Chris Orchard/ Correspondent Thursday, December 18, 2003 
SHERBORN - Snow covered the grounds of the Peace Abbey the first Friday
of December as Jill Stein, Ken Selcer & Friends played music inside.Stein
is best known as the 2002 Green Party candidate for governor. In the
year since that election, Stein has re-entered the world of music
with her old bandmate, Ken Selcer.With Stein in the band, it comes
as little surprise that much of the music played that night had political
and social themes. It's what's expected when an ex-Green Party candidate plays bongo drums at an organization that runs a veganpeace sanctuary. The crowd got what they came for.The set opened with a song called "Rise Above," with Stein, Selcer and band member Rich Caloggero on acoustic guitars. Cologgero is the acoustic guitar-ringer of the group. The song's lyrics ask, "I'm wondering when the friends of Earth will finally take charge?" and "I'm wondering when the poor will rise up and get their share?"Stein moved over to the bongo drums for the second song, Keith Kirkpatrick jumped in on the electric bass, and Stein's son, Noah Rohrer, a senior at Lexington High School, joined in on the electric guitar.The band's music is predominantly folk, but with a good mix of jazz, reggae and Latin American sounds. They played some popular songs (including one from Argentina that Stein sang in Spanish) and also songs they wrote themselves.Stein introduced a song she wrote by saying, "so this is a peace song that I started in the first Iraq War, and the second time around it all came together." It's called "Give Peace a Try," she said. Some of the lyrics were "Gonna teach my children right, that talkin' beats a fight," and "let the doves go out and fly. Give peace a try." Some audience members sang along.Stein and Selcer first got together in the late 1980s after meeting at a party. They moved up in the musical world after playing the 1990 Earth Day celebration on the Esplanade in Boston. After producing a few albums the two went their separate ways. Stein became more dedicated to political activism, and in 2002 ran for governor on the Green Party ticket.Stein is currently president of Massachusetts Coalition for Healthy Communities, an organization that concerns itself with health care, education, the economy, the environment, civic involvement and a variety of other issues, believing that communities are improved by focusing on the whole picture, not just specific issues.Selcer continued to play music, and got the current band together. Band members didn't know each other before coming together; and they each bring different musical styles to the group, says Selcer. Eventually, Selcer invited Stein to informally play with the band, and all the pieces seemed to fit.Stein injected a political element to the band that wasn't there without her, says Selcer. But the final product is something all band members adhere to."We're all definitely on the same page," politically, says Selcer.In this way, theirs was the perfect band to play at the Peace Abbey, which has a similar political conscience. The Peace Abbey celebrates peaceful elements of all religions and advocates a pacifist way of life that includes kindness to animals, among other things. The organization was in the news earlier this year when Emily, a cow that escaped the slaughter house and was adopted by the Abbey, died of cancer. Emily became a friend to visitors of the Peace Abbey, and her untimely death saddened many.The night Jill Stein, Ken Selcer & Friends played the Peace Abbey was the first big snow of the season, and yet an intimate crowd came out to see the show. After listening to songs about peace, the crowd left to discover that, while they were indoors, the ground had been covered with snow, silently blanketing the earth where Emily the cow is now buried. |