SPRINGFIELD – A powerful, yet peaceful, easy feeling hovered over Island Park.
Very clearly, something was in the air at Flutestock 2025 last weekend. Call it what you will, maybe it was just the soothing vibrations of the music. Or maybe it was something on a more spiritual level.
“It does take a certain consciousness to be a part of what we do,” said Rona Yellow Robe, the event’s featured performer. “Otherwise, you can’t hear. Inside, there’s a certain thing that happens when you open up and see, and I’ve been able to help people open up.
“I had a man tell me after a set that he had only cried twice in his life and (that night) was one of them. I don’t know how that happens – I don’t know what happens to someone who only cries twice in life – but all I know is the energy of this flute and how you play them can shift energy within things that are blocked.
“You know, I can change a life, and it’s happened to a lot of people in our circle who come to play this instrument – or listen to it, too.”
Feeling that kind of inner power and energy has driven Rona – a member of the Chippewa Cree Tribe in Rocky Boy, Mont. – to continue playing for tribal events, festivals, and other events, including art shows, weddings, and memorial services. She has performed end-of-life shows for hospice organizations for 20 years.
“When you’ve been through tough experiences in life and you’re able to create a song and energy to let people know they’re not alone,” Rona continued, “those vibrations that go through me and through them, all of us share that, and being able to look at it like being on purpose, we do need to have this kind of spirit. Even with a small amount of people – we had a really good crowd here tonight – but even with that, we have the power to make things happen. We’re just a small part of that, but I don’t think The Creator looks at it as small. It’s a big deal for all of us to be part of the solution.”
The 2014 and 2016 Native American Music Award Flute Player of the Year, Rona collaborated with Bruce Witham to be nominated as the NAMA Songwriters of the Year in 2009 for “Voice of the Trees.”
She has vivid memories of seeing the tree in question, the one that graces the cover of her album of the same name. One year earlier, she had gotten sober. Yet she was still in that in-between place, still searching for answers, still trying to make sense of her world.
So she had a conversation inside her head.
“Rona, do you see that tree over there?”
“Yeah, I see that tree.”
“Do you believe that tree belongs here?”
“Yeah, of course I believe that.”
“Then do you believe that you belong here like you believe that tree belongs here?”
“And that’s when I began to cry because I didn’t believe that, and it took awhile for me to come to believe that. It helped me to carry on, because I was already a year sober at that point.”
The Island Park venue couldn’t have been more ideal.
“I love this area the way the trees are set up,” Rona said. “There’s some pretty old trees here, and when I was playing I could feel there was a response. I think animals and plants and nature respond to this instrument – I’ve had the wind respond to it. … Sometimes we’ve had birds singing while I’m playing. This is a very nice environment. I can tell that everybody likes it. There is so much shade here and the river is going by … it’s perfect.”
‘Priceless’ experience
Joseph Young has been a sound guy for 30 years. Plays in a band and teaches music, too. Having a chance to work the soundboard for an event like this?
Priceless!
Young’s entire life is consumed by music – and he loves every minute of it.
“I fell in love with the flute. I started playing sax at age 12. I got a pennywhistle and my first Native-American flute in my early 20s,” said Young, who’s now 53. “I started writing new-age music at age 13 and the flute became one of my main vehicles for writing melodies.
“I also play in a blues-rock band, Stef and the Groove. It’s nice to be able to go from this world to that world. I also do a lot of teaching. I didn’t do any teaching here – I’m at the soundboard from morning till night. But I usually do 2-4-day schools.”
Three-day festival
One of Flutestock’s features was its three days of creative workshops, many of them hosted by the other Flutestock musicians: Timothy JP Gomez, Sherrie Davis, Randy “Windtalker” Motz, and Earthsong Voyage. Two-time Grammy winner Mary Youngblood was unable to make the trip to perform this year.
A master on saxophones and ethnic flutes, Young gets no greater satisfaction than seeing his students gain a meaningful connection through their music.
“I can get anybody playing something in 10 minutes,” Young said. “It speaks to people. I don;t know the percentages, but I’m willing to bet that 90 percent have no musical background. Some might have played piano as a young kid and then stopped. But the flute is a vehicle for a lot of emotions and stress in your life. It soothes them and calms them, and for an instrument to be that accessible for people who don’t have a musical background is magical.
“And very rarely do I teach kids. I usually teach adults – a lot of retirees come out. You’d be surprised by the number of 65-and-overs who didn’t start music until they were 60 … and then they found this flute.”
“There are flute-makers everywhere. Come to a festival like this and pick one up. A lot of people are afraid to play in front of a crowd. You can’t find a more gung-ho, enthusiastic, nonjudgmental crowd than these folks. Get up there, if you make a mistake, we don’t care. We just want you to be able to express yourself. That’s what it’s all about. We all want to support each other and pull in as many other people as we can and help each other out.”
Social media posts throughout the three-day event indicate how pleased attendees were with the experience.
Many posts called out co-founder Alby Thoumsin for helping organize the annual festival.
Learn more online at: flutestock.org
