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Arts & Entertainment

Local Musician Heads To Nepal To Raise Environmental Awareness

SoulFood Books co-owner Clint McCune will perform Friday evening at the coffee house before he embarks on a month-long journey.

Clint McCune wants to make a few things clear.

He’s not Bono and he’s not an entertainer, but his music can make a difference. 

McCune said he is ready to take the craft he’s worked at locally for many years and put it on a global scale — not for fame, but for the betterment of the planet.

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“I intend to take my guitar and shout that to the world,” McCune said. “The whole point of (being) a musician is to play the highest concert, to raise the roof.”

McCune will get the opportunity to play the highest concert — literally — at Mt. Everest’s base camp, 17,000 feet up, as part of an expedition he’s taking to Nepal with a group from around the country. The journey kicks off with a concert at 8 p.m. Friday at in Redmond, where McCune is co-owner, before he leaves for Nepal the following Wednesday.

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The goal of the trip is to raise awareness of global warming and the danger it presents to the Himalayan Mountains, as well as promote stewardship of Nepal’s natural resources. It’s also part of a larger initiative run by the Seven Summits Foundation to build schools and bring dental and medical care to needy areas, McCune said. The foundation is run by AC Sherpa, a native of Nepal who now lives in Washington state, and who tapped McCune to use his music to help the cause.

Sitting in SoulFood Books with fellow co-owner Sara Pelfrey and the couple's 10-month-old daughter May on his knee, McCune reflected on the role of musicians.

“(We) play at moments where people need to connect,” he said. “(It’s) our first and foremost job as minstrels.”

That’s a role he’s played for a number of years at SoulFood, a coffee house and community center where he usually performs his folk/rock/funk blend of music one night a month. He, Pelfrey and another co-owner, John Mower, started SoulFood about four years ago as a place for members of the local community to feel safe to explore their creativity, McCune said.

“(Creativity) hides in the evergreens here,” he said. “We wanted to build a place that had a stage for ways for the neighborhood to shine.”

The intensely local focus is part of what makes McCune tick, but his passion will move onto a global stage with the Nepal trip — and music is a language that communicates across cultures, Pelfrey said.

“Music is such a bridge,” she said. “It cuts through all of the fatigue we feel when we talk about global issues.”

Problems like global warming can seem daunting, and political differences can get in the way of real progress, McCune said. But he’s determined to do his part — and let the mountain air and the sounds of song guide the way.

“Whatever our differences are, we can agree that it’s best to take care of our place,” McCune said. “(We’re) climbing as high as we can get — out of all of the banter.”

McCune will be traveling with fellow co-owner Mower and several others from the area. They’ll meet up in Nepal with people who have signed up from around the country as well as five other musicians from Nepal.

All together, McCune will be gone for nearly a month. Looking at his nearby family, he admits that’s a long time to be away, but Pelfrey understands the importance.

“It’s a very short life not to do what you believe is right,” she said.

As the journey grows nearer each day, McCune continues to plan for what he calls “the most logistically hard gig to play.” Planning is tough though — especially when you’re playing on the world’s highest mountain.

Friday’s kick-off show won’t be quite so complicated, and will be inspiration for the “great unknown” of the trip. Individuals like the people at SoulFood are what make the difference, he said.

“Change isn’t going to happen from some major corporation,” he said. “We are the cavalry — person to person.”

You can follow along with McCune’s journey at his website, where he also plans to stream the concerts from Nepal.

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