Golana

Native American flutist Golaná was born Scott Cunningham and raised as an Anglo-American. He was first attracted to music through church hymns and began four years of piano lessons at eight, followed by four years of trumpet in school bands; he began playing guitar at 15. He graduated from San Diego State University with a B.S. in Information Systems Management and got his master's degree in Systems Management from U.S.C. After a corporate career, he started his own computer software consulting business in the mid-'80s. At the same time, having recovered from drug and alcohol dependency, he embarked on a spiritual search that led him to study Native American culture. His interest was given greater impetus when an aunt told him that his great-great-grandmother was a Cherokee, making him one-sixteenth Native American. Turning to the flute, he began playing a Native American style of new age music, also influenced by '70s folk and rock. In a Cherokee ceremony, he was christened Golaná, which means raven. Responding to inquiries about his music, he began issuing it on records, beginning with Path to the Heart and continuing with Walk Between Worlds and 2000's Feather on the Wind.