Joe Paulik

My hope is to enhance the awareness of our connection to the Earth, the philosophy and skill of living with the Earth and Nature, and the process of healing through sound, music, and video.

Songwriting has always come naturally to me. From my earliest childhood memories there were songs playing in my head that I didn't hear anywhere else. When I learned what songwriting was, I recognized it as a calling, a command to remember and write these songs down. I sensed some greater purpose for them.

I love recording. After my first album The Road, which was recorded and engineered by Michael Monroe, I acquired microphones and equipment and recorded some of my own albums and music. More recently Al Oikari began producing albums for me.

 

I am a passionate student of Nature, at times obsessed with recording extended audio/video Baseline Symphony tracks of birds, animals, insects, water, and wind, to learn the sophisticated language of nature, and just for the sheer enjoyment of it. Learning the ABC's of Nature's language has been one of my life's greatest thrills. Extended nature tracks playing on a stereo in the background can be stress relieving and an aid to healing. If children have nature symphonies playing in the background at home, they can become accustomed to nature and its energy balancing properties. On some albums I've combined them with my music. 

Education

Much of the way in which I view Nature and philosophy is a result of attending Tom Brown's Nature, Tracking, and Wilderness Survival School, beginning in 1982 and continuing until he passed on in 2024. Tom often says, "teach only what you have mastered". I aspire to hold myself to this standard. In the songs, stories, and descriptions on these pages I may refer to phrases and teachings which come either from Tom or from his teacher, Stalking Wolf the Apache elder. I love plants, working with their edible and medicinal qualities and their ability to communicate. I am a passionate student of natural healing techniques. What I learned in 42 years at the Tracker School about healing, life philosophy, communing with nature, and survival, is intertwined and part of my life. Any flaws here are evidence of non-mastery on my part.

Mastery?

Tom is a coyote teacher, leading one to truths by offering more questions and side routes, hardly ever giving a direct answer. I know that it is not really possible to utter or write a word without teaching in some way. In writing this paragraph, I am teaching you about one of my teachers. Have I mastered this subject? No, but I've mastered as much as I'm saying about it.

Tom also often said, "if you believe me you're a fool; prove me right or prove me wrong". In saying that, he is demanding that the student question the teacher, revealing up front that he won't be party to any inclination to view him as an idol. Paraphrased, I think Tom was saying "Try these teachings, and if you find them to be truth, master and pass them on".