By Ezra Black
Passing out tambourines and asking appreciative listeners to play along, Herky Cutler shared his smooth sounds with a small crowd at Infinitea T-Bar Friday night.
The Montreal-born performing artist has been calling the small but pretty community of Twin Butte, Alta. home for the last 21 years.
Cutler sang about change, love, existentialism, chicken and Mexico in a soulful twang.
“I sing because I think it’s going to help the world,” he said. “I write about things that we need to change in the world. I write love songs because I think people need love in their life. I write about change because we need to change and we need to keep on growing.”
In addition to being a performing artist, Cutler is an organizational consultant, speaker and author.
He’s had a wide-ranging career and has an assortment of degrees including a bachelor of education degree, a graduate degree in human resources focusing on organizational development and certification as a career development professional and professional speaker.
He’s developed numerous programs and projects to help youth and organizations become more fit.
He’s also a career development specialist who said he’s developed a counselling technique that involves a clients’ favourite music.
“I could find out a lot about you by having a conversation about the music that really moves you emotionally,” he said. “I’d find out about your interests, your values, your passions and maybe even some of your skills. I couldn’t match you with an occupation as result of that but I could say ‘take this list with you,’ and wherever you work, if these things are not going on in your place of work, you’re not going to be a happy dude. You’re going to be one of the 50 per cent of us adults in this country who wake up every day hating what we do.”
Cutler said music is a powerful career-development tool because it is an insight into our personalities.
“It’s our identity. When we were younger we were trying to find out who we were by listening to music. It’s the same thing with a career. We want an occupation that reflects who we are and what we want to be. That’s what we try and find in our life. I think everybody wants a career where they can be happy, make money and express themselves in whatever way they want to.”