Camela Widad Kraemer
So What’s Camela Widad Kraemer's Story…
Folk, rock, rhythm, mystic mixed up in a cup of spicy tea and a raspy voice would give you a taste of this inspiring, positive blend of folk meets intelligent lyricism, meets the sweetness of the girl next door.
Dusty old vinyl records from the Spring Green library. Whatever Widad could get her hands on, Judy Garland, The Carpenters, Puff the Magic Dragon, you know the typical choices from the 1980’s children’s collection. Widad would copy the songs, singing all the time, and then make up songs about anything she could think of. Then some weekends below the talking of her parent’s and their friends she could hear the melancholy harmonies of the old 1950’s and 1960’s country singers, Patsy Cline, the Everly Brothers and Roy Orbison. Then she would sneak out of bed to sit on the stairs to memorize the songs while no one was watching.
It was always the artists who were able to pull at your heart, that attracted Widad to music and performing. The ability to dig deep into some unknown, unspeakable place, take people with you and bring them back renewed, inspired and changed somehow even if it was subtle.
Camela Widad Kraemer left home, to start a career in the entertainment business but instead of music she studied theatre. She learned the art of performance and communicating to a wide audience a theme, a lesson, that piece of inspiration that gives to the them that experience of refection. Then in 1995, as a favor to friends she was working with at a theatre company, she helped complete the writing for the song, Council of the Sun. Driving rhythms, sweet harmonies and positive lyrics met with rave reviews and questions of when the next songs were coming.
She left college with a guy and a guitar to San Francisco where they played the difficult coffeehouse and tavern open mics learning the craft of songwriting and performing for hard won audiences. Keeping the marriage of theatre and music, she would perform shows with theatre companies and then music in between. Her passion for acting took her to North Carolina putting the music on hiatus until she was taken to Columbus, Ohio with another theatre company.
While in Ohio in 1999 her peformances on stage with a live band brought rave reviews from die hard supporters and out of this came her first solo songwriting. This is when she wrote her first album Eve. This took her to Austin, TX with radio, T.V. to follow and a weekly gig on Sixth Street. Then she went deeper into her solo songwriting and traveled to Los Angeles to learn more about the craft and entertainment of music.
That is when EAST met WEST…
The ability of artists to pull at your heart, was the reflection Widad was looking for. While living in Los Angeles she began to see and feel the deep suffering and longing for so many artists to “make it” and the many things they would do for that to happen. After playing the Sunset Strip many times and being offered work with a record company, Widad decided to wait and see if this was the direction to go. Meanwhile her music started to go deep into the longings of so many around her to have a life of passion and peace. At this time a dear friend introduced her to the practice of sufism. At this point she took another hiatus to reinvent what she was offering.
Sufism, an ancient path practiced for many centuries in the Middle East and Northern Africa, offered a reflection of so much of the suffering people were experiencing. It offered a way to clear the heart and mind of lower desires that many so often get caught up in. Widad began writing songs for her next album, Call to the Soul, to be soft and subtle, like many of the old folk albums, but with lyrics deeply meant to open the pain and give the listener that experience of release.
The mysticism of Sufism melting with American Folk went on to influence her latest Folk Rock Album, Food for the Traveler. Lover and Beloved meet to understand the deep purpose of living backed by the rock roots from Widad’s musical past in the Title track “Beloved”. Middle Eastern influences can be heard on Food for the Travler with "the Well" and in the songs “Shakti” on Eve, “Beacon of Hope” on Call to the Soul.
Now, living on the East Coast, Widad continues to write songs for her next album, and now teaches workshops and classes to help others find their passion and stick with it. She is also the founder of the Unity Music Festival an annual music and arts festival bringing together music and art with deep roots of unity.