Cedar Breaks Band announces the release of “Ayre” along with their first music video of 2017. “Ayre” is a metaphoric plea to become more aware of the natural world around us.
The Band recently crossed their genre line with the song “Ayre” and won in the “Best Rock” category at the 2016 Utah Music Awards. Though the basic trend of Cedar Break’s music is labeled “New Age Folk,” the band is very diverse and loose with that designation, presenting songs with rock, blues, bluegrass, and even gospel leanings. They combine strong and interesting harmonies with diverse settings of instrumentation including classical guitar, rock guitar, violin, piano, banjo, and drums.
The Band believes that the message of their songs and media–which includes, music, films, music videos and books–provide the power to help ask the right questions. Then, the answers to those questions come to those that take the time to listen.
The members of the band include; classical guitarist Mike Ericksen, guitarist and pop singer Michael Gibbons, classical singer Rebecca Croft, pop singer Diana Rogers Glissmeyer, and banjo player Keith Behunin.
In the past few years, Cedar Breaks Band’s media has been featured in music and film festivals across the country winning awards for best country song, best music video, best short video, best rock, best musical documentary, best historical documentary, and best of 2016.
Their music has also been featured in the historical novel “Upon Destiny’s Song”, the historical documentaries “Walking in Obedience, the Ole Madsen Story”, “Sweetwater Rescue”, and the children’s book “My Dog.” Another children’s book called “Re-Run” featuring their music is due out in 2017 published by Guardian Angel Publishing.
The Band gets asked a lot about the meaning of the name Cedar Breaks. So “Ayre” was written for that reason and as a namesake piece. It’s a bit of a “look up from the device and get back to nature and the Spirit” song. A band member commented, “We love cell phones and devices but there is whole world out there waiting to communicate with us, if we will just listen.” The Band loves to showcase the beauty of their state of Utah in their films and they are excited to demonstrate the strength of Utah’s diverse culture built around the blessings of freedom.
When asked about the song’s meaning, one band member replied, “When you stand at the cliffs of Cedar Breaks, if you look up at night or down in the day, either way you can see millions of years in the past as well as the endless possibilities in either direction. You can look across the vast waves of green cedars that are now, and realize in the “Myst” of all that time that you have choices to make that will affect generations. You realize that you must step forward with meaning and intent.”
All members of Cedar Breaks have individual music and performing careers and they come together as Cedar Breaks Band as a way to present top quality media that they hope will make a difference in the lives of others with the use of stories and themes about faith, family, and heritage.
What’s really unique is the ways that they have found to spread their message. At this time they are not a touring band because of a commitment to their young families. In the five years that they have been together, they’ve added 10 babies. You can see family members throughout their films as well as many times on the film sets or in the recording studio. They are committed to the message that they send out and they are quick to point out that it costs a lot less to have family members as part of the production.
Still, Cedar Breaks has done a lot of programs and concerts over the last five years usually with just one or two of the band members at a time, but rarely with all 5 members together other than to practice, work in the recording studio, or present on the screen. Last year found their presentations and concerts in Iowa, Wyoming, and Utah. They have been able to combine their message with live songs from one or more of the band members and then introduce the band through some of their videos.
There is also an interesting inter-faith part of their story. The Band’s music and videos have also been played at many Christian music and film festivals across the country and even winning some. One band members pointed out, “We have so much in common and societal goals with other faiths, so we want to find ways to celebrate these and to work together. Though the band presents its media as non-denominational, they bring the spirit of who they are to the world. Do they know Mormons have music in their festivals, of course? But Cedar Breaks believes that their message can transcend the different faith traditions.”
