Press

“…With her filmmaker’s eye, mental gift of literary narrative and song writer’s ear, all juxtaposed, [Klein] and Collet weave material into an entire tapestry masterpiece that illustrates and celebrates the best and the worst of all of us…” In the late great experimental composer John Cage’s Silence, Lectures and Writings he writes, “The emotions-love, mirth, the heroic, wonder, tranquility, fear, anger, sorrow, disgust-are in the audience.” Vashti Stopher Klein might have adopted the above as s maxim when she created her book of poetry, lyrics and music, The Soprano, the Monster and the Dragon Slayer. Reading her work and listening to her perform, it is obvious that she knows her audience’s essence. She knows and incorporates all things that make them--their triumphs and fallacies, their exultations and lowest denominators of behavior--their flawed, and as Warren Haynes from Government Mule sings, “beautifully broken”, humanity. In the epigraph of her book, she quotes Dylan Thomas:

Poetry is what in a poem that makes you laugh, cry, prickle, be silent, makes your toenails twinkle,

makes you want to do this or that or nothing, makes you know that you are alone in the unknown world,

that your bliss and suffering is forever shared and forever your own.

Klein’s words, lyrics and voice make the reader’s toe nails twinkle. They also contain a bitter sweet and sad wisdom of life experience and heart wrenching spasms of love won, lost, denied and unrequited. She expresses this eloquently and brilliantly, encompassing all of her audience’s (to borrow a biological term) phenotypes. She shows this and comes full circle to the Thomas epigraph in the first five stanzas of her poem “Painted Pink Toenails” She writes:

Oh the promise of freshly
Painted pink toenails!
But who will see them?
Only I.
 
Only I will relish their significance,
a symbol of youth,
Love,
Passion,
Hope, desire,
Him.
 
And will it be this way
forever more?
Am I destined
From this point forward
to be their only admirer?
 
Time was when each night
I slathered lovely creams
On my legs and arms,
though I was young
and didn’t need them.
 
And now I am old
and they look dry from neglect;
a casualty of the lost
Hope for love.
Except for tonight
I have pink toenails…
 
Creating literature and music runs in Klein’s blood. She comes from a long line of musicians. Her influences are eclectic, ranging “from that heard on a Kentucky farm, to a Gaelic pub, to a concert hall.” In the digital editions of her book, Klein provides her readers with links to YouTube videos of her vocal performance of her songs: “You are Here”; “Look Away”; “The Heart of Things”; “Meant to Be”; “The End of Forever”; “My Wishing Well”; “The Whispering Wind”; “Love is a Holy Thing”; “Path to the Sun, Moon and Stars”; “Don’t Let Go”; “Because You Love Me”; and “Whatever He Wants”.

Gleaned from her lyrics and listening to the tracks on YouTube, one can hear a loving painstaking perfectionism and craftsmanship in the composition and production of her music. Take for example, the song “Look Away”. At first, the lyrics on their own seem almost banal and full of greeting card sentiment. However, the song’s piano instrumentation and Klein’s vibrato vocals give the lyrics the power and spirituality of a prayerful hymn. For example, Klein writes:
 
I crossed over oceans
And rivers to try
To fill all the holes in our lives
But I found it was something I could not do
Unless you were willing to try.
 
So the years passed away
Without giving a clue
That our love was fading away
Until the day came
When somehow we knew
There was nothing left to save.
 
It is highly suggested that if readers want to experience the full impact of this song, or all her songs, they should read her lyrics while listening to the music. Obtaining a physical copy of her book is highly suggested. While reading and listening to “Look Away”, readers can smell the oceans and rivers she has crossed, hear their waves in her singing as they crash the bow of a beaten ship. Her beautiful voice expresses a forlorn weariness, trying to carry a relationship by herself, her tremulous vocals filled with sorrow, an inevitable acceptance of giving up.
 
From her music, lyrics and poetry, it can be deduced that Klein is influenced by Folk Singers like Pete Seeger, Arlo Guthrie and Peter, Paul and Mary. One can also feel the impact of Gershwin; twentieth century musical creators such as Rodgers and Hammerstein and Stephen Sondheim. Also, there are hints of the pop stylings of Lennon and McCartney, and the lyrical playfulness of Cole Porter.

Similar to the artists mentioned above, Klein is also a great story-teller, like a bard. This is apparent in the beginning, from her introductory short-short story (also the title of her book) The Soprano, the Monster, and the Dragon Slayer. The introduction is not only a fairy tale, but it is also an important thread to the entire book and collection of music as a whole. In the story, the main character, The Soprano (Klein slips in a little Easter Egg homage to Shakespeare in this tale, which slyly confirms that she is indeed a bard of tremendous prowess.) becomes very ill and can no longer sing. A Dragon Slayer comes from afar and says that he can save her life. He opens her chest with his sword and removes the hideous creature that made her sick. The Soprano recovers and heals, experiencing a catharsis and transformation into something better. More than an elemental, more than earth, wind, fire, air and water. She becomes a goddess, her song an incorporation of all the elements at once. Klein writes, “Her voice started at the core of the Earth as it flowed and whirled, up, over and through the rock, granite, and gritty soil of her entire life. It wended its way up and through every molecule, every muscle, every organ in her body. She took the deepest breath of her life and began to sing from her unencumbered, grateful heart.”

The tale will undoubtedly come across to some readers as a metaphor for surviving cancer or some other life-threatening disease. In part it is, but like mentioned above, that metaphor is a smaller but important thread with many, many other threads. Klein emphasizes this and heightens it through Carol Collet’s artwork. Collet is an award winning quilter. Such incredible and astonishing results from their collaboration took meticulous planning and scheming; weighing and matching Collet’s art with the themes, narrative and tone of Klein’s music, lyrics and story. Klein is also a filmmaker. With her filmmaker’s eye, mental gift of literary narrative and song writer’s ear, all juxtaposed, she and Collet weave material into an entire tapestry masterpiece that illustrates and celebrates the best and the worst of all us. Klein says it best in the second verse of her song “The Heart of Things”. She writes,
 
But dreams will come and they will go
Like the ocean waves that ebb and flow
the only constant thing I know
is life goes on until we grow.
 
Vashti Stopher Klein is an award-winning filmmaker and folk singer-song writer in the Washington, DC metro area. Through her music label, Butterfly Effect Productions, she released the 2014 album The Heart of Things, In 2015, she released the album Path to the Sun, Moon, and Stars.
 
Carol Collet, of Carol Collet Desert Studio, is a fiber artist, teacher and award winning quilter from Scottsdale, Arizona. Her artistic talents extend to unique quilt making, mixed media art, wearable art, fiber art and jewelry making. Her work has been published in periodicals like American Quilter.

~ Lee A. Gooden, The Daily Postcard