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Sweet for the Soul:
Bar Scott Savors the Power of Creation
By Sharon NIchols; Photos by Dion Ogust

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Thirty years ago a woman named Jane Roberts, speaking for
an entity she called Seth, popularized a phrase which opened a door of new thought to many readers of the Aquarian Age. You create your own reality. Whether singer-songwriter Bar Scott has read, or is even aware of, Roberts’ work is an unanswered question. But Scott’s convictions are clear: creation and responsibility for our lives is of the utmost importance.

Creation Dawning, June 8, 2002
Barr Scott, a delicately boned, 40-something woman, steps onto the stage of Woodstock’s Colony Cafe, vibrant and laughing. Wearing fiery red, she sits before the baby grand. “Woo!” she exclaims. Atop the instrument is a crystal heart and photo of her son. She sings joyfully:

I have caught my emotions right down under my skin. / Come, my love, lie out in the open and I’ll let you in. / I’ll find all the bruises, I’ll touch every scar. / I’ll make no excuses. / I’ll feed you grapes and seeds.

Vocalists Jen Starr and Erica Cohn thoughtfully harmonize.

Piano, three voices. Elegant.

Eyes closed in reverie, Scott sings, nodding her head up and down rhythmically, watching the movie screen of her mind.

I’m walking all the way to heaven. / Heaven, here I come. / I’m almost all the way to heaven. / Heaven turned away. / Why am I here where roses are red and black?

The dawn of Scott’s creation: as a child, Philly native Barbara Scott began exploring her voice in church choir and sibling sing-alongs. Now the owner of Lucy Max Productions, a small record company in Woodstock, Scott has produced three studio recordings, several children’s recordings, and a new live cd/video. What’s notable about her music, aside from beautiful harmonic soundscapes, is its ability to arouse emotion in the listener. Those who know her can attest that she deeply affects people, and what she does naturally and intuitively is the ticket.

“If it’s easy for me musically, it’s the right path to go down,” Scott explains. “Songs like ‘Heaven’ that just flow out are long lasting. If I complicate a song, it doesn’t work as well. That’s important for everyone. What we do naturally—easily, intuitively, and lovingly—is what we’re meant to do. When your truth comes out, other people resonate with you.” For Scott, creating music isn’t about pleasing masses or changing minds. It’s about finding those who feel its power.

Creating God

I don’t know and you don’t either. —bumper sticker

Naturally, Scott writes about love, though her songs can feel spiritual. What’s her path? “Spirituality is much bigger than a specific organization,” she says. “It’s everywhere, everything. People get away from what Jesus Christ, Buddha, Confucius, Gandhi, all these greats talked about. The problem is separation. Like I know more than you because I believe this, that sort of thing. That’s a gigantic mistake. No one knows more than anyone else.”

July 2000. Nearly two years old, Forrest Schoenberger, son of Scott and Peter Schoenberger, was diagnosed with Stage IV hepatoblastoma, a form of liver cancer. He passed away suddenly on February 9, 2002. Busying herself with music has been her catharsis, keeping her connected to Forrest through his creative influence.

“I’ve always believed music to be very holy,” she says, “a very high art form, so abstract it must be talking to the other side. Loving Forrest is the first time I’ve experienced unconditional love; it’s the same as godliness. I’ve experienced god through Forrest. It’s all synonymous: Forrest, god, music, love.” Scott admits that her vocals have opened up. She’s taking more risk with dynamics, expressing the lyric instead of merely singing it. She now accepts purity of purpose: through music, she and god work together to make people feel. “I wasn’t open to that before. If I question why I was part of the scenario I created with Forrest, I know that’s one of the reasons he came here.”

Creating Community

Create and be created

Throughout Forrest’s illness, the Woodstock community raised $100,000, enabling Scott and her husband to be with Forrest full time. Scott’s recent thank you was a Yamaha grand piano, which sits inside St. Gregory’s Episcopal Church in Forrest’s memory. Scott maintains that more local concert spots are needed, and St. Gregory’s, with its beautiful A-frame and interior, is an obvious location. Scott and friend minister-actor Tom Miller, who perform annual commissions for composers there, agree that churches should share their spaces with communities as well as congregations.

Scott’s Episcopalian parents suggested the gift and donated five grand, proposing Scott raise the remaining five. Her vehicle was a holiday benefit concert held on December 8, sharing the stage with Bet Williams, half of the duo Epiphany Project and a solo blues/rock artist; Beth Abrams, professional jazz singer and psychiatrist who works with kids through music; and social worker Lesley Hand, who has worked in feature movies and commercials and provides music/movement therapy for children. This side project, named Woodstock Ladies Auxiliary Home Singing Club (subject to change at whim), isn’t about filling pockets or advancing careers. It’s just about singing. One casual meeting earlier this year turned into hours of singing into the wee hours every Friday night. When the piano issue came into play, Scott asked them for assistance.

The quartet packed the church, performing nontraditional and amusing a cappella holiday songs garnished with banter. Friend Jane Barsumian played two piano pieces, Williams sang one with guitar, and Lesley Hand led some humorous audience participation. After audience caroling, the group lit candles for everyone, leading a stunning version of “Silent Night.” Midway into the evening, Scott stepped to the piano for her own segment.

“Love is the reason I love this life,” she sang.

Four words were printed in bold on the event program: “Create and be created.”

Creating the World, Conquering Fear

As children come from your physical tissues, so is the world your joint creation.—Jane Roberts

“We all share creative responsibility for what’s happening in our world,” says Scott emphatically. “I look at 9/11, terrorism, all this political crap, and I can’t separate myself from it. It’s not just George Bush and his colleagues over there, it’s all of us collectively creating this planet. If we were all aware of that and knew how responsible we are—to each other and to ourselves—what a difference that would make.”

Through her recent experiences, Scott recognizes the importance of personal responsibility and the oneness of all. “There’s a tendency to say, ‘Oh, god, why are you doing this to me?’ As if god’s outside of us making decisions. That doesn’t resonate with me. Forrest’s life and death was the perfect scenario for me, for him, for so many people around us. We all created it. If I look at everything that’s happening politically, I know we’ve created this together. And it’s a beautiful thing, a perfect reflection of where we are emotionally and spiritually. When we realize our responsibility, we can live our lives with more love.”

Just after Forrest’s passing, Scott was asked to sing with Phoebe Snow and Beth Nielsen Chapman for a private concert in Red Bank, New Jersey, where many 9/11 widows reside. Another concert, aired across the us, was performed at New York City’s Beacon Theater in July for 3,000 of the 9/11 recovery workers. Scott was honored to help on such a large scale. “If we do something, we have a chance to change the world. If we don’t, we’re just doing the same old thing. We can sit around, mope, and be terrified, or we can get out there, care for one another, change the balance.”

Scott has learned not to live in fear. “It didn’t bother Forrest to have cancer. He lived his life so fully; I get really blissed out on that. He came, shone like crazy, and left. He didn’t make a big drama out of it. That’s inspiring. Cancer’s not the big deal. It’s fear. Death is really awful if you’re scared. This country’s so afraid of cancer, it’s taking, what, four billion dollars worth of drugs to beat it?”

Scott’s course of action is not taking up arms, but creating music. “I question the strategy of political activity. When you’re offensive to someone, making accusations, you’ll never get anywhere. You’re not taking responsibility for why it’s happening. We’re all creating this. My only conclusion is to create music as honestly as I can.”

Creating Music

Invocation to a higher power

Scott’s latest creation is Sweets for the Soul, a live cd/video capturing the June 8 Colony show. Produced by Scott, the 15-track cd was engineered and mixed by David Cook, who’s worked with B-52s, David Bowie, Alanis Morrisette, Radiohead, and many others. Chief engineer at Dreamland Studios until 1994, he now engineers for syda Foundation, working with top Indian music players. For Scott’s performance, Cook worked from a remote recording truck that housed 32 tracks of digital recording gear. Also on the cd are violinist Dorraine Scofield, bassist Anders Alfelt, guitarist Ralph Legnini, djembe player Fre Atlast, and pianist Joshua Pearl. The hour-long video, which mirrors the cd, was directed by Ralph Umhoeffer and produced by Nevessa Production’s Chris Andersen. It’s an entertaining mix of musical segments, short interviews, and lighthearted backstage moments.

Scott approached Cook after Forrest’s memorial service about a live cd. What began as an inexpensive recording turned multi-track digital with a $21,000 price tag. Scott desired a vhs archive of her work with her backing vocalists; though she does her own studio vocals, she’s performed live with Starr and Cohn for eight years. Cohn, a case worker, and Starr, a music teacher, are from the a cappella group Harmonytryx.
Scott stands center stage, giving the audience a single note to hum. Eyes closed, she begins her prayer, a chant called “Grace”. No lyrics, merely the lovely instrument of her voice, until she sings the words, “Thank the world for giving me all the reasons that I have to sing. Amen.” It’s the consummate invocation to a higher power.

Encore. Scott sits meditatively at the piano, preparing for a lullaby written for her son. “Okay,” she whispers. Pause. Her fingers begin to grace the keys. Her lips start to move.

Go to sleep now, it’s time to dream. / And go to where the angels meet. / They’ll shower you with kisses. / And shelter you from harm. / And bring you safely back into my arms. / So fly away, little one, you’re my angel.

Applause. Scott stands and slips on her guitar. “So tell me, is my mascara running down my face or anything?” Smiling, she begins the upbeat, “Silence is Broken.” And on she goes. Powerful. Creating.

Creating Joy

Why am I here, ashes to ashes? / We all fall down and we get up again. —Bar Scott, “Heaven”

Wondrous art is often the product of pain. Scott’s work is no exception and she has started a new album. But pain is not a dwelling place. One must experience the joy of the art created from pain. “Forrest was so good at getting up after some awful therapy and saying, ‘Come on! Let’s go!’ Am I going to live in despair? My life isn’t about sadness. My choice is to live. And whatever I’ve created, it’s important for me to give that back. To sing.”

For more information on Scott or Forrest, and upcoming performance dates, visit www.barscott.com. To donate to the piano fund, send a check to St. Gregory’s, po Box 66, Woodstock, NY 12498, writing “Forrest” in the memo.