Personnel includes: Valerie Dee Naranjo (vocals, arranger, percussion); Randy Crafton (guitara, reed bundles, gourd).
A singer and drummer with a vested interest in Native American music and culture, Valerie Dee Naranjo has worked throughout Navajo reservations and performed with the likes of Phillip Glass, Hugh Masekela, Tori Amos, and David Byrne. ORENDA: NATIVE AMERICAN MUSIC TO HEAL THE SPIRIT is Naranjo's debut album, and draws on the concept of the Native American musician as a healer and promoter of sacred and spiritual energies.
The music is very percussion-oriented, and features instruments of Native American origin including frame drums, bones, mouth bows, marimbas, and rattles made from nutshells and toenails. Naranjo's sings on much of ORENDA (a Huron word indicating the power or force innate in all things), and her liner notes provide information on the history and meaning of the music, while also suggesting how it can be incorporated into relaxation and healing in modern day American life.