From an attic window in some small town in America came the psychedelic
wanderings of a madman on the guitar. From another part of the country came the
sound of a baby hushed to sleep with the soft, yet clearly deranged playing of
a young man. And in yet other parts of the world the sounds of a back beat on
bass that caused the heavens to shudder in wonder! In a small room in WNY a
drummer was carried off in a frenzy of musical thunder that he had never
experienced before…
As these sounds, separate yet equal, came together by the
four winds that carried them aloft, they exploded into a sound with a force
that could not be denied! The thunder rumbled through the heavens from the
point where the sounds collided, back to our musicians.
As our four musicians quit playing, struck with a feeling
that somehow, somewhere, something had changed in the world around them, they
put their instruments away.
The four musicians slept but, dreams invaded their peaceful
slumber. These were not the dreams of happy men, but the dreams of those possessed.
In these dreams colors swirled to the sounds of ancient thunder, trees bowed
and trembled in fear…
The creatures of the forest ran, not away from the sound,
but towards it, as if a magnet was pulling their very soul further into the
forest.
As our forest friends came closer to the sound, there was
smoke and lightning all around them, but they were not afraid!
They pushed on
through the smoke and lightning knowing that they were about to behold a wonder
that had not been seen in many a long moon. Some might say that such things do not exist,
that it is only in the mind…
There in a circle were our four musicians the smoke and
thunder were coming from them as they played. Surrounded by a dozen or more Nvyunuwi
dancing in all colors of the rainbow, their movements shaking the very foundation
of the earth they danced upon.
At first the animals could not believe their eyes;
they had heard legend of the Nvyunuwi (nun-yoo-noo-wee) from the fire circles
of the ancient Indians that had once walked the land. But, never had they seen
one let alone a dozen or more.
As the music built into a frenzied rhythm, all the creatures
joined in this dance. For hours into the night they danced as our four musicians
played. It seemed that days went by. The rhythm overtook them and they danced…
Just before daylight, the music gained even more power and
our friends were dazed in the awe of it all and yet they could not stop dancing…
And just as they thought they would all explode into some cosmic void of color
and sound the music stopped, they daylight appeared over the horizon and the
four musicians were gone.
As our friends looked around, murmurs could be heard.
Who, what, was it just a dream… were they ever here at all?
And then they saw it, one word was burnt into the forest
floor. That word:
Stoneclad
Some say that if you walk far enough into the hills of
Allegany County, you can still hear the sound, and if you follow that sound far
enough, you might just find them, the Nvyunuwi, dancing to our four musicians, the
only ones allowed to carry their name; STONECLAD!