The only thing we can change is ourselves.  Yet this can change the world.

Sky offers music that is instantly likable, yet, like the wine in his home of Sonoma County, gets better with time. Sky is a winner of West Coast Songwriter's Song of the Year 2008 (Tied Up Tied Down), three-time winner of "Best Performance” and two-times for "Best Song” (Space for Uncertainty, Tied-up Tied-down). We Are the Ones (We've Been Waiting For)" received an honorable mention in the Indie International Song Contest.

Aptly named by his dad while looking out the window from the Point Reyes Youth Hostel on the beach where he was born, Sky has walked a unique path. Instead of looking for instant notoriety, Sky spent his first 30 years learning about the inner world and trying to come to terms with the suffering of life. Between his work as a physicist and the practice of his music, he strove to find broader meaning in life’s course.

In a dream one night, he was asked “are you a Moses or a musician?”… Sky answered instinctively “I'm a musician.” From that night forward Sky dedicated himself to his muse and has never looked back. In becoming focused on his own life-passion, and becoming willing to let the people in his life be themselves, his own life has transformed. Sky’s intention is to liberate himself from suffering, and inspire his audience to do the same. He lives the life he believes in, and puts it to song.

Sky has played piano since the age of 3, and has performed around the San Francisco Bay Area with various groups. He has studied at Berklee College of Music, UC Berkeley (BA Physics), and with numerous private teachers. Sky also experimented with a normal life as a high school physics teacher for 5 years.

      Sky has also published one paper and is composing further work on the connection between physics and spirituality. This work draws upon his diverse experiences, studying relativity, holography, the trigonometry of music, quantum mechanics, and the meditative practices of Eastern and Western spiritual traditions. The first paper, On the Holographic Nature of Light and its Measured Speed, can be found for free download at his web site.

Think for yourself, do what you love, and the world will change.

Sky Nelson

Described by one colleague as a “Musician’s musician”, Sky's diverse music history speaks volumes about his intentions as a songwriter and performer. Sky began learning piano at the tender age of 3. His first decade at the instrument focused on ear training with the classical Suzuki Piano Method, and even as his tastes changed to popular music, he maintained a passionate relationship with Beethoven. Yet he began lifelong affairs with the music of Dr. John, George Winston, and Keith Jarrett's ‘Koln Concert’. “Each time I learned something from one of my teachers, I had to quit them and spend a few years integrating what I had been shown,” says Sky of his experiences with his various private instructors. “I had four lessons with one guy in high school. In one lesson, he opened my eyes to playing a sort of stride with the left-hand… I remember that image to this day.”

Potential Energy

Though Sky has taken jazz theory classes at UC Berkeley and Berklee College of Music, Sky's bachelor's degree is in physics, and this background informs his work as a songwriter in startling ways. “Just like a pinball will always find its way to the bottom of a gameboard due to gravity, I often try to find the chords that fall to the most natural, though not obvious, state.” Sky was turned on to a vast array of influences by his two older brothers, Muni and Sunjya, and on the long drive to their high school they reveled in the sounds of the Grateful Dead, Led Zeppelin, and Huey Lewis. As a result, Sky’s writing tends to aim at mainstream audiences, yet it is also important to him that it speaks to his listeners in meaningful ways. “I like popular music because it can make me feel so much, but I also want to write songs that encourage people to think deeply about who they are.”

Social Activist

Sky says, "I just want to know that I have lived up to my full potential as a human being. I want to look back at my life at the end and know that I was the person I wanted to be.” Sky has always been fascinated by spirituality, and its direct application to his life. Though he tries to speak universally in his songs, he realizes that everybody has to find their own truth. “I’ve found that the only thing I can truthfully have direct control over in life is my own attitude. I try to be grateful, and yet intensely driven and determined.” With an eye aimed at future generations, Sky is building professional relationships with two non-profit organizations that provide artistic outlets to struggling youth.

Quit Your Day Job

Sky is no stranger to the legacy of music. Steeped in San Francisco Bay Area music folklore, he has studied with famed guitarist Terry Haggerty (Sons of Champlin) as well as composer, author and scholar WA Mathieu (recommended to him after a lesson with jazz pianist Art Lande). He worked side by side in the role of bandleader with Raz B (B2K, current R&B charting solo artist), and prepared a band to perform behind Michael and Regina Winans, the incredible Grammy winning gospel vocal songwriting duo. Sky has refined his performance style over the years through work with two local alternative rock bands (Wake, Waking Eve). During his years as a high school physics and math teacher, he built the beginnings of his original project by steadily performing solo shows, building a fan base, and refining his songwriting. June 2006 saw his last day as a high school teacher, when he stepped off the edge to fully embody the person he wants to be. Currently promoting his “best album yet”, Sky uses all the available tools on the Internet to build awareness of his work, including being represented by A&R Select, the leading A&R firm in Hollywood, CA.

House concerts are a great way to have a blast in your own home with your friends and with great entertainment. It is easy to do. Consider hosting my music in your home with your friends as guests. We will have an inspiring night of fun, joy and laughter, and spread inspiration into our community, one home at a time. Click below for some video from my last house concert at David's in Oakland...