Social - December 2002

Making Music: Teacher’s cross-cultural journey is one to note

By SARA FUNDERBURK, Special to the LTN

December 13, 2002 - Denise Baxter-Yoder’s passion is now a second career.

A sixth-grade teacher at Catawba Intermediate School, Baxter-Yoder has enjoyed creative writing since she was in elementary school.

Today she mixes words with music to create a cross-cultural blend of bluegrass, country, pop and Celtic songs — songs that reflect real life, real people.

“Many times I overhear a conversation and make it a song,” said Baxter-Yoder, who calls herself a “Jack of Many Trades.”

Her husband Chuck is frequently her singing partner. The couple met during a community theater group production.

“I thought it would be a good place to meet people.” she said.

Baxter-Yoder’s first solo CD is titled “The Wild Seeds We Sow.” A love song on the CD, “One Step at a Time,” is performed by her husband.

“I wrote everything I wanted him to say to me and had him sing it,” she said.

“Patterns In The Piecing,” a song with a country mood, was inspired by “Quilters,” another of her community theatre projects.

Sometimes Baxter-Yoder uses her students in her works. In “Foxes on the Run,” their voices give the tune just the right folk art touch, she said.

Baxter-Yoder’s second CD, “High Flyer,” features a photograph of her parents on the cover.

Her father, an avid pilot, was licensed by the age of 16 and later flew in the Air Force. “Angels Have an Ear of God” was written for him.

The CD is a tribute to her father Lt. Colonel Pat Baxter — a fighter until his death due to cancer — and her mother Virginia Baxter.

In addition to her solo CDs, the teacher turned artist is the singer and song writer for Puddingstone, a Lenoir-based group which describes itself as a “time machine,” performing cross-cultural music using a mix of ancient and modern instruments.

A song she wrote, “This Remembering,” was written in memory of Puddingstone guitarist, Larry Hipps.

And, though she is the group’s singer, being a musician she also plays some hand percussion instruments.

“They throw an instrument in my hand and expect me to play it,” she said laughing.

In the future, Denise Baxter-Yoder would like to produce a CD with narratives from the Bible. The many styles of the Gospel prose would, she believes, lend themselves well to interpretation through her music style.

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Denise Baxter-Yoder’s CDs are available at Barnes & Noble and Julia Rush’s Fine Crafts in Hickory.

© 2001 Lincoln Times-News  

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