(cheery folk music)
- [Gaelynn] My music and my disability to me
are not the same.
I don't think about my disability while I'm playing.
I feel like myself.
(high trilling crescendo)
It's my form of meditation, I think.
You know, there's a lot of work that we could do to make
the arts more inclusive, so if I can be a catalyst
for any of that that's important to me.
That's cool. That's fun.
(rhythmic banjo strumming)
- [Chris] I'm Chris Funk.
I'm a musician in a band called The Decemberists.
And I'm on a journey looking for the most surprising
and extraordinary people in music.
My first stop takes me to Duluth, Minnesota.
There I will meet up with Gaelynn Lea,
an artist who creates music like nobody else.
(Electric organ)
I've shared the stage with some incredible people in my life,
but the musician I am meeting today is truly extraordinary.
My name is Gaelynn Lea, and I am a violinist
and a songwriter from Duluth, Minnesota.
- [Chris] I'd heard a lot about Gaelynn
and was excited to meet her, little did I know
that she was also a fan of The Decemberists.
It turns out she had heard us play in 2004.
[Gaelynn's friend] Hand spray-painted.
No way, that's hilarious, I don't even have one of these.
I'm keeping it, thank you.
Please, no. (laughs) It's coming home (laughs)
Last time, it was gonna be like a toy,
but it was like oh no, this is the real deal.
Yeah, it's legitimate, man.
Gaelynn was born with brittle bone disease,
which has left her in a wheelchair.
But you'll really forget that after a few minutes.
I started playing the violin when I was 10 years old.
I loved the way the strings sounded.
So the next year the teacher took it upon herself to help me
figure out how to play up and down like a little cello.
So it just meant I had to practice the same stuff
a little bit harder probably and maybe
that was a good thing in disguise.
(slow melancholy tune)
- [Chris] Gaelynn had been a part of the Duluth music scene
for years when another musician gave her
a device called a looping pedal.
It allows her to record herself and
play the music back while she's performing.
And now I can play a song.
(slow heartfelt tune)
Looping was a mindblower, I mean
it was so much a game-changer.
‘Cause it was just such a cool experience to go from
one note to like 10 notes and have it be orchestrated.
It opened up a lot of doors, instrumentally and vocally
and everything just kind of changed when I got into looping.
And then I might want to fade out.
(emotive tune fades away)
So you're engaging all that with your knee?
Yep. Awesome.
I'm always fascinated by the imagination musicians
will use to create new and fresh sounds.
But the ingenuity that Gaelynn has shown in her journey
to produce beautiful music is truly inspiring.
(snappy folk tune)
I think any instrument but especially violin,
the way I play automatically just sounds different
than the way someone else plays.
It's really cool how you develop a voice and a form
of expression that's kind of unique.
It just clears my mind and lifts my spirit.
There's not anything else that I've found does that.
(long violin note, banjo strumming)
(audience applause)
(bing)