The idea for the name Mixed Nuts comes from the fact that in a bag of nuts there is always a selection of different flavors and types of nuts and seeds. The musicians in our group vary like different trail mixes. We each bring our personal musical tastes and influences to the band and the blend is always a tasty treat. Something for everyone… so grab a bag and go!
In concert at the July 4th Peace Picnic 2006
The Traprock Peace Center in Deerfield, Massachusetts
Mixed Nuts that day included :
Lynne Meryl - vocals, guitar
(Sunflower seed… nickname “Sunflower”)
David Wertman – Bass
(Hazelnut Jones… nickname “Hazelnut”)
Barbara Ween - vocals, percussion
(Barbara Brazilnut…. roll the “r's”)
Karen Copeland - vocals,congas
(Karen KoKonut…nickname “KoKo”)
John Sprague - flute, congas
(John Almond....nickname "J’almond")
Zack Danziger - vocals,guitar
(Zack Mackadamia…nickname “Zackademia”
.... because he's a teacher)
David Wertman wrote most of the original melodies and Lynne Meryl wrote most of the lyrics to the tunes we perform.
We played:
Peace in Every Day ("Let's bring World Peace through our music, everybody just start singing")
Walk in Sunshine ("Peace on the Planet, love in your heart")
Spirit Dance ("You can feel the Spirit dance in the air")
Also that day we offered up:
Golden Rule ("do unto others as you would have them do unto you") ....by Zack Danziger
We Are a Circle of Family....by Alisa Starkweather
Everybody's Got a Heart ("everybody's got a soul") ....by Ken LaRoche
Last Night I had The Strangest Dream .....(the wonderful, traditional plea for Peace)
MIXED NUTS HISTORY
The band in 1980 was originally called The David Wertman Sun Ensemble and featured David and Lynne and great jazz players like Tom McClung - piano, Tim Atherton - trombone, Tim Moran saxophones, flute, Charlie Miller - congas and Tony Vacca or Claire Arenius - drums.
It later evolved into The Spirit Ensemble which featured our dear departed friend Ken LaRoche on flute and saxophone. Our CD May The Spirit Be With You was aired on radio stations around the globe, played numerous times on MTV and received great honor being included in many compilation discs (notably one from UNESCO) related to music of Peace. The songs were then in the original Jazz style a' la David Wertman who wrote them. (David is famous in the Jazz world. Look him up. He's recorded multitudes of recordings with great Jazz cats and is internationally known. He started in NYC in the Improvisational Jazz loft scene of the 60's)
Since meeting David in 1980 Lynne Meryl has become an accomplished Jazz singer but her roots are in Folk music. A couple of Summers ago she started playing our songs on the guitar and simplifying the chords; changing them up to accommodate harmonies and group participation in concert; making them more kid-friendly and easy to sing.
Harmonies with our friends...... Moonlight Davis, Annie Hassett and Morningstar Chenven
Mixed Nuts was born!
You get a different, assorted bag of nuts at each concert and we like to blend our flavors and influences to produce spirited, peaceful music.
