This week's guest on REPORT FROM SANTA FE is Jack Loeffler, ethnomusicologist, radio producer, "aural historian" and author, discussing his new memoir "Headed Into the Wind." Loeffler is also the editor of "Voices of Counterculture in the Southwest" and author of "Adventures with Ed: A Portrait of Abbey."

With the temperament of Santa Claus and the tenacity of a badger, Jack Loeffler reveals his compassion and concern for Southwestern traditional cultures and their respective habitats. As an “a-u-r-a-l historian” Loeffler devotes his life to working with indigenous cultures and recording their relationship to the land. He believes that the knowledge and wisdom of people who live on the land close to the earth--such as the Hopis, Navajos, Pueblo Indians as well as tribes from Mexico--can help our species survive. Jack records the nature sounds, the music, and the stories of these groups, to develop an environmental consciousness for the world.

Jack Loeffler reflects, "Awards are awfully nice but the point of the whole thing is to do the best possible work you can do and stay relentless at it, as far as I am concerned. You just have to really pick out what you want to do and do it as hard and as best as you can."

Among the awards Loeffler has received are the 2008 Governor’s Award for Excellence in the Arts for his “decades-long efforts to preserve and promote the music and culture of northern New Mexico," the Hewett Award for Outstanding Public Service by the NM Historical Society, and the Stewart Udall Conservation Award. In 2009, Loeffler was named a Santa Fe Living Treasure.