|
Thea is an award winning singer-songwriter who was raised with the Seminole Indians at the Musa Isle Indian Village on the banks of the Miami River and spent her childhood summers in the Southern Appalachian Mountains of North Carolina. As a result of these influences and her deep love of nature, Native American images and the subject of rivers, mountains and canyons weave their way through her songwriting. Her lyrics are socially conscious and empowering, her love songs poignant and deep. Thea began playing guitar at the age of eight and has released five recordings to date; A Chance to Live: Children’s Songs for Peace, used in the Public Schools “Teach Peace” program and endorsed by Dr. Helen Caldicott (founder and president of Physicians for Social Responsibility) Planet We Ride, the self-titled, Thea, Thea & the GreenMan LIVE, and most recently, My Mother’s Garden. Traveling extensively, she has performed to audiences across the US and in Europe, opening for such acts as Richie Havens, Peter Yarrow (Peter, Paul & Mary), Karen Taylor Good, Jenny Bird, and R. Carlos Nakai. Thea has also toured on the Arizona Comission of the Arts and with the Canadian ensemble, Sunyata.
Many have found Thea’s music to be an inspiration for personal growth and healing, and not without good cause. Her involvement in Holistic & Alternative Medicine spans thirty years as a mother, midwife, herbalist, nutritionist, and childbirth educator. She was a founding mother of the South Florida School of Midwifery that is currently licensing professional lay midwives. During the 1980’s in partnership with Dr. Lewis E. Mehl-Madrona, author of Coyote Medicine, Thea owned Mindbody Press and Evolutionary Press (Findhorn Books) and was the Executive Director of Resources for World Health where she worked with indigenous healers and medicine people from around the world.
Thea is an experienced radio and television guest, lecturer and workshop leader. She has led workshops in Native American Spirituality and is a regular speaker at Unity and New Thought Spirituality Churches. She leads songwriting workshops at Folk Festivals and at the local community college. Thea recently had an essay published by the Frank Waters Foundation in a book titled, Rekindling the Inner Light, and is working on a book of essays about her shamanic journeys. Her photography has found its way into magazines, brochures, newspapers, private collections and can be seen on her Thea’s Kitchen web site. She is also an avid cook and gardener who is working on a cookbook entitled; Thea’s ‘Organic’ Kitchen. Together with her husband Charles E. Willhide, aka: the GreenMan, she owns StarPony Productions; a digital hard disc recording studio and production company. They reside in beautiful Highlands, North Carolina, in the mountains of Thea’s childhood summers with their two dogs, two cats and a lizard.
|
