The Winding Path

Infobox Album |
Name = The Winding Path
Type = Studio album
Artist = Kevin Kern


Released = 2003
Recorded = 2003
Genre = New Age, Instrumental
Length = 44:36
Label = Real Music
Producer = Terence Yallop, Kevin Kern
Last album = "Embracing the Wind "
(2001)
This album = "The Winding Path"
(2003)
Next album = "Imagination's Light"
(2005)

"The Winding Path" is the sixth studio album from American new age pianist Kevin Kern. As with his preceding and succeeding albums, it is an album of instrumental songs. It was released in 2003, his first after his best-of album "".

The album's liner notes feature a guide to healing visualization based around the songs on the album. Kern is joined here by Randy and Pamela Copus, the duo that makes up the new age band 2002.

Track listing

#"The Touch of Love" - 4:21
#"The Way of the Stream" - 4:21
#"A Million Stars" - 4:06
#"High Above the Valley" - 5:40
#"Ancient Guardians" - 5:03
#"Cauldron of Healing" - 5:29
#"Filled With Light" - 2:27
#"Through the Veil" - 4:49
#"Softly Falling" - 4:22
#"The Winding Path" - 3:58

Liner Notes

Kevin Kern has become a universal name for beautiful, relaxing music. This intimate, piano-led path through nature creates a resonance of tranquility and peace for pure listening pleasure. Also ideal for massage, meditation, or relieving stress.

The combination of songs on "The Winding Path" creates a vivid journey easily followed. Detailed instructions for a self-guided healing visualization are included in the booklet.

Guided Visualization

"Taken from the liner notes of" The Winding Path. Song titles are placed in quotation marks.

Gently close your eyes and at the count of five, find yourself in a small field, a very safe grassy field, where you will be sitting upon a grassy mound or in a low, comfortable chair. There is a hedge and there are trees around the field and nearby stands a large, strong tree.

Counting slowly down from five to one...5, 4, 3, 2, and 1, imagine yourself sitting safely in this beautiful field. Look around using your senses and see the shapes and colors, hear the sounds of this safe place...a breath of wind rustles the tree leaves. Sense the fragrance of nature, the pungent earth, even the taste of safety. Lastly, touch the soft grass where you sit ("The Touch of Love").

A section of the hedge catches your attention and rising from where you are seated, you go to explore. To your surprise the hedge conceals a wall in which there is a very old wooden gate... partially concealed by ivy and with a brick arch above it. With a gentle push, the gate swings easily open and you step through to see ahead a path leading through many magnificent trees. Walk through this forest with its brilliant shafts of light... then across a meadow... and along by a stream ("The Way of the Stream") where water splashes and gurgles over rocks. Take your time... let the path lead. Enjoy the meandering walk, noticing twig, leaf, and petal along the way. As the sun gets low in the sky begin a gentle climb on a grassy foothill scattered with clusters of rocks. After climbing for a while, notice that one rock attracts your attention. Walk over to it and find a place to sit and rest. It is very comfortable there and looking around, realize that you are high above a valley ("High Above the Valley"). As the sun sets, drink in the splendor of this wonderful setting. Before long, the watchful gaze of "A Million Stars" fill the sky and in your own time, slip into a gentle sleep.

Comes the dawn, lazily opening your eyes, a particular cloud drifting by catches your interest. In an instant you become the cloud, floating effortlessly. Cautiously turn and gaze back to the place where your body still sits against a rock while your light body floats in the cloud and then begins to gently descend. With a soft bump, find yourself on the floor of the valley, the valley of the sacred.

A stream can be heard nearby. Walk over to the stream. The water has a fragrance, the fragrance of the leaves and petals that have fallen in. Ahead, a finger of mist beckons like that of the dragon's breath. With a few steps, you are engulfed by the mist, stepping from stone to stone in the shallow water, walking amidst "Ancient Guardians", crossing over to the other side. This mist must have a source that can be found. Ahead are large rocks. Is this where the water and mist are coming from? But then to your surprise, you discover a huge cauldron sitting upon coals. Without hesitation, you step up to this "Cauldron of Healing", placing your hands upon the rim, which is not hot, and peering in. Begin inhaling the mist, allowing it to seep deeply into your entire being and as it does, it cleanses and heals every aspect of you... every sickness, every hurt, every sorrow, sadness or regret, every destructive thought or memory that has held you trapped... washed away, healed by the mist from the cauldron.

When ready, begin the journey back through the valley, cleansed and healed, filled with newness... filled with hope... "Filled with Light", seeing, sensing, and understanding everything with crystal clear vision. Sit down next to the stream and lean against a large, smooth rock. Resting your head back, look up to see puffy white clouds. Feel that you are now slowly drifting up and up, as though through a veil, soon to be floating high in the sky... safely and securely caressed by a familiar cloud ("Through the Veil").

"Softly Falling", with a gentle bump, find yourself back upon your high perch, leaning against another comfortable rock, looking down deep into the valley, the valley with a thread of stream and a tiny finger of mist. Closing your mental eyes, remember the safe field with the ivy-covered gate where your journey of healing began. Walk back through the gate. Hear the sounds, smell the fragrance... touch... and in an instant find yourself there, back in safety, sitting on a grassy mound or a low, comfortable chair in the beautiful field, next to a large, strong tree.

At the count of five be willing to open your eyes and return... 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5... open your eyes, refreshed, renewed, ready to continue your own special journey, "The Winding Path" of life.

Personnel

* Kevin Kern - Piano, Keyboards, Producer
* Pamela Gibbs - Rainstick
* Jeff Linsky - Guitar
* Jeremy Cohen - Violin
* Randy Copus - Percussion
* Pamela Copus - Flute, harp
* Terry Miller - Bass guitar
* David Earl - Drum programming
* Terence Yallop - Bell tree, Executive Producer

External links

* [http://www.kevinkern.com/ Kevin Kern's official website]
* [http://www.realmusic.com/a_kern.htm Kevin Kern at Real Music]