President Theodore Roosevelt uttered these simple but powerful words upon his 1903 visit to the Grand Canyon.In doing so,he indicated the depth of his understanding for one of the most spectacular of the world's scenic treasures.

One of the Seven Natural Wonders of the World,the Grand Canyon is a land made to humble the soul.Peaks rise unwavering to the ledge to stand as sentinels above the unfathomable depths of the inner gorge. Sharp-edged tables and mesas,pushed like fossils from the canyon floor, are sketched over and over in ridge and crevice.In the majestic sweep pf the canyon, days drop like leaves in autumn to be inscribed forever into the solid walls

Nicholas Gunns' love of the Southwest, coupled with his genuine concern for the protection of the earth, lent itself perfectly to The Music of the Grand Canyon, part of Real Music's National Parks Seriesô The Music of the Grand Canyons an exciting adventure that captures the extraordinary contrasts and voices within the ancient walls of the Canyon. This is the music of the trees and plants and creatures that orchestrate the living memory of what many feel is our nation's most spectacular national park. It is a story of sorts, an odyssey of brilliant musical composition, sound effects (recorded on location) and some spoken word from Nicholas Gunn as well as Razor Saltboy, a member of the Navajo Indian Nation. Like all of our national parks, the Grand Canyon suffers from its own popularity and threats from outside influences -- air pollution, overcrowding, crime and lack of funding. We all recognize the incredible potential that the land presents in the healing of the spirit, the opening of the mind and the enrichment of our lives. It is with this understanding that Real Music established The National Parks Seriesô for the purpose of promoting awareness and encouraging worldwide commitment to protect and preserve our national parks. Nicholas Gunn and Real Music are donating 10% of the proceeds from the sale of this album to The Grand Canyon Association, a non-profit organization working closely on preservation projects with the National Park Service.

People come to the Grand Canyon to face the expanse, and they are stunned with the spirit of the land and the depth of its meaning. Representing a thousand different nations and fluent in as many varied tongues, each and every visitor is struck silent before the Grand Canyon, listening as it opens itself with magnificence across the earth. The immensity of it is staggering. It rises noble and determined, exactly as it has since it was first dubbed Gran CaÒon by early Spanish explorers over four hundred years ago. To stand and contemplate the chiseled rock faces and towering walls is to acknowledge the tiny whisper of our existence when met with the natural elements of the earth. To hike down into it, creeping along the terra cotta sandstone and iron-stained limestone faces of its walls, is to feel the intense proportions echo all around. Space. Space, space. Endless space thundering silent with the wind and rain and moon.

The magic of the Grand Canyon is its vast layered depth and the many secrets hidden within its numerous rock chasms and ridges. In its 1,904 square miles (1.2 million acres) the Grand Canyon is home to lithe and sure-footed mammals including mule deer, bighorn sheep and mountain lions, in addition to small bands of foraging coyotes, the song dogs of the West and tricksters of Navajo myth. Many other smaller mammals, insects and reptiles thrive in the canyon along with more than 1,500 species of plants such as cliff rose, fernbush, mountain mahogany, prickly pear, cactus and cholla.

 At the lower elevations against the edge of the Colorado River Anasazi Indian dwellings (Navajo for "Ancient Ones"), abandoned for over 800 years, appear perfectly preserved by the desert climate. This hunter/gatherer tribe of Native Americans was the first to inhabit the lower reaches of the Canyon, living there peacefully from approximately A.D. 500 until the late 1200s. About 2,000 Anasazi sites have been uncovered within the park. Although the Hopi and the 19 Pueblos of New Mexico are the descendants of this ancient culture, the only tribe still actively living within the Canyon is the Havasupai ("People of the Blue-Green Waters"), whose ancestors came to the canyon about 150 years after the Anasazi had already moved to higher ground. The Havasupai maintain a reservation in the western Grand Canyon where they continue to farm as they have for centuries.

To the Native American Indian communities who trace their origins and ancient traditions to this part of the country (the Hualapai, Havasupai, Hopi and Navajo) the land itself is imbued with the divine essence of life. The Paiutes call it Kaibab, or "Mountain Lying Down." The Havasupai refer to the region as Wikatata for "Rough Rim" or Hakatai meaning "Large Roaring Sound Caused by Dashing Water." The Hopi name is Sakwatupqa and the Navajo refer to it as Bidahaztii meaning "The Way Up Along the Canyon Wall." But no matter how they name it, each of these communities of native peoples believe that the Canyon exists as a magical place created by great spirits. According to Native American tradition, each living thing is connected to a Spirit and has a specific role as a teacher or potential friend. To the Havasupai, who still live along the canyon floor, the rock formations in the Canyon represent supernatural beings watching over their tribes.

Poets, writers and naturalists have said that a walk through the Canyon is a journey through time. Indeed, the Canyon stands as a testimonial to the ages of man, the exposed rocks telling the story of every geological period since the beginning of the earth. Recorded here are events such as the birth of the Pacific Ocean, a mighty collision between the continents of North America and Africa, and the uplifting of the present-day Colorado Plateau.

 The rocks of the Grand Canyon speak the ancient narrative of the land. The black rock on the bottom, the 1.7-billion-year-old Vishnu Schist (the oldest exposed rock on earth), proclaims the history of past mountains that once rose tortured and twisted five to six miles into the sky, now worn down to their roots. The youngest rocks in the Canyon were formed by volcanoes but the bulk of rocks are sedimentary, the result of marine and river deposits and tall sand dunes that once dominated the region. These sedimentary rocks were created by a mighty sea that covered the entire region millions of years ago as it began to recede slowly back into the Pacific. Layer upon layer of rock Kaibab Limestone, Coconino Sandstone, Zoraster Granite, Redwall and Mauve Limestone, and Bright Angel Shale preserve in their thick mantles the fossil remains of things that lived long ago. Bright Angel Shale holds fossil remains of trilobites, which were once tiny scavenging creatures abundant on the sea floor during Cambrian times. Redwall Limestone and Kaibab Limestone contain the fossil remains of prehistoric snails, nautiloids and vertebrate tracks in the sand and, as such, keep the memory of things from the distant past like markers in the long history of the earth.

This is the music of the Grand Canyon. It is the voice within the rocks. The music within the trees and plants and creatures that orchestrate the living memory of the Canyon. It speaks to us of creeks tumbling from red rock canyons and the thread of waterfalls dropping into dazzling turquoise lagoons. The hush of a red-tailed hawk riding wind currents late into the afternoon is captured in this sound, along with the thundering song of the Colorado River under the towering watch of cloud formations and paintbrush slashes of red and sage, dusty purple, muted pink, brilliant salmon and shimmering gold.

Like all our national parks, the Grand Canyon suffers from its own popularity. The infrastructure is crumbling and needs attention. In 1954, the National Park System counted 50 million visitors a year. Now, just forty years later, the count is at 270 million with predictions of a half billion visitors annually in the next fifteen years. Some parks, including the Grand Canyon, are experiencing visitor increases ranging as high as 25 percent in a single year. Last year nearly five million people visited Grand Canyon National Park.

Though efforts are being made to preserve and protect our national parks and monuments, they are beset by threats from without: air pollution, overcrowding, crime, industrial pollution, and lack of funding. Sheer use is eating away at their precious beauty. Indeed, we all recognize the incredible potential that the land presents in the healing of the spirit, the opening of the mind and the enrichment of our lives. Our national parks are important not just for their natural beauty and splendor, but because they provide centers of knowledge and information where people might rediscover a part of America and themselves.

 It is with this understanding that Real Music established the National Parks Series. Each one of our parks has a story to tell about the American land and the national experience. It is our hope that through this project we might be able to express the sacredness of the vast and majestic landscapes that make up this nation, and to celebrate the land and the ceremony contained within it, continuing a legacy that can be passed on for generations to come.

The clarity of high mountain streams, the delicate fragility of an alpine meadow tossed with spring wildflowers and the thundering echo of waterfalls through a desolate canyon are a part of our own individual heritage. It exists for each and every one of us to explore. It is our hope that listening to the music invokes memories and creates visions of the splendid scenery from which it was inspired, for it is through connecting with nature that we may feel closer to ourselves.