Erik Swerrie Music

About The California Wind Children

The California Wind Children was an inter-denominational Christian Folk-Rock group based originally out of St. Francis Episcopal Church in Novato, California. In 1975, popular folk, rock and pop music was booming, and out of that, the Christian Music Market was evolving quickly. It was a great time for fresh new music, and it seemed like everyone was learning to play the guitar and singing in groups. 

Churches were just beginning to explore what they liked to call “Contemporary” or “Folk” worship services, and guitar playing groups of young church people were popping up all over. There were singing groups at nearly every church in Novato. 

In the summer of 1975, a group of 13 young people from St. Francis, traveled to Bluff, Utah, and decided to form an ongoing group to start singing and traveling to complete a volunteer work project each summer. When they returned from their first trip, they started making ambitious plans to acquire and convert an old school bus, set up their next work project and tour, make their first dramatic musical presentation, and make a record album. 

Such ambitions were guided by The Rev. Edgar E. Shippey (or simply Shippey, as everyone called him) who had been involved with a similar group out of Little Rock, Arkansas called The Retreat Singers. Shippey's guidance included that the young people were to do everything themselves (learning with the expertise and guidance from parents and others, of course.) This started a group ethic that the young people could and would take care of themselves and get done what needed to get done. And it worked. 

The Wind Children did all they set out to that first year and more. In addition to performing and recording their first presentation, about the Gospel and the Acts of the Apostles, The Spiritual Drama, they received an amazing invitation. Since 1976 was the US Bicentennial, entertainment was being scheduled from acts all over the country to be performed on the lawn at the White House. The California Wind Children were invited to perform and worked it into their first summer tour. There was only one glitch – the group could not sing their religious presentation. 

Shippey and his wife Jennifer called in experienced songwriter and singer Michael Mirabella, to help create a second show for the Wind Children. This new show, named The Flower The Flag, was a history of America in music, narration, and dance. It was fast, and fun, and The Wind Children departed on their tour that summer, heading for Washington DC, singing The Spiritual Drama, while still learning The Flower The Flag. The group “church-hopped,” trading an evening show for a pot luck dinner and a place to sleep for the night, then would get up and hit the road to the next town the next morning. 

The Wind Children made that performance at the White House, performed in the National Cathedral, and then headed north to Quebec for a work project at Lake Mistassini. After the work project, they made it across Southern Canada and down the West Coast back home completing 10,000 miles in 10 weeks to a big homecoming show at Grace Cathedral in San Francisco. After all that, they were determined to do a similar tour the next summer. 

So the Wind Children learned to repair their own vehicles, write and arrange their own music and shows, choreograph the presentations, create their own costumes, run their own sound equipment, manage their own finances, pack, move, navigate, and drive their operation from stop to stop. When other young people found out, the group grew in size peaking, at around 120 active members, with ultimately some 250 people having been a member, as they passed their know-how from member to member. 

Heading to the Wind River Reservation in Wyoming in 1977, the Wind Children completed another ambitious work project helping to renovate an old church and repairing other buildings. The homecoming show was performed at the Marin Veterans' Memorial Auditorium.  The group gave three more performances at the Marin Civic Auditorium including the 1978 send-off performance, and homecoming shows in 1979 and 1980.

In 1978, the group traveled to Europe and Great Britain, with their work project in Dogellau, Wales. The adventure, and the effort was huge, but incredibly fun. The group created a Christmas show (called The Christmas Show), and it became customary for the Wind Children to write a new homecoming show with fresh songs written on tour every year. These included shows like On the Road With the Wind Children, and Postcards and Dreams. A second Christmas show, The Story of Silent Night, was written and performed and in 1980, and a new musical about the Gospel story, called The Promise, was unveiled at Easter that year. The Promise became the main show performed for religious events, and The Flower The Flag continued as the main secular show, though it was frequently being changed to keep it fresh and fun. 

In 1979, The Wind Children moved their home base from St. Francis Church in Novato, to an Episcopal Camp and Conference Center, St. Dorothy's Rest, in the redwood trees near Occidental, CA. Shippey became the director of the camp, which was in disrepair, and the Wind Children were just the team to help begin renovating the collection of beautiful old wooden buildings. This involved pulling out and replacing many wooden structures, tons of deferred maintenance, and even pouring a foundation under one of the buildings that was at risk of sliding off the hillside. 

While some Wind Children were touring to work projects in the summer, other Wind Children operated summer camps for disadvantaged youth at St. Dorothy's Rest, Expanding Horizons.  The camps incorporated many of the life lessons and experiences that members of the Wind Children had benefitted from and allowed youth to learn skills that would normally not be available to them.

In 1981, the group's work project would be to help renovate an Off-Off-Broadway theater in New York City, which was being used as a theater and church. So the Wind Children created a new musical show that was more like a play than their typical dramatic presentations. This required building sets and figuring out how to transport them as they traveled. The show was called The Jazz from the Nazz and incorporated a dramatic sermon which was originally written by Shippey following the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr.. 

Next, in 1982, the Wind Children traveled overseas again, touring England and Ireland and doing a work project to help in the early renovation of the Glencree Center for Peace and Reconciliation. The Peace Center would be located in an old stone farm compound which was, at that time, half filled with old rusting junk, debris, and sheep manure. For this trip, called the Hand-in-Hand tour, The California Wind Children joined forces with a newer youth group named Youth Song. 

Although the adventure of The California Wind Children was beginning to wind down, with the final tour being in 1983, the group changed the lives of many people. Many of the now aging Wind Children are still young at heart as they gather annually at St. Dorothy's to remember, to laugh, to renew friendships and share new songs. 

Have you been a member of the Wind Children and do you want to get in contact with others in the group? Please send a note through “Contact Us” and we'll happily reconnect you with Wind Children.