The Sunday after this episode is released, May 4th, 2025, at 4 p.m. Eastern time, there will be an online gathering of folk who use song to help navigate life -- and we'll sing through this Ribbon of Songs with live-looping! To learn more, click here, or sign up right now to join us!

​​​​Lyrics ​& Links to the original episodes for the songs in this ribbon.

Join this community of people who love to use song to help navigate life? Absolutely:
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Help us keep going: reviews, comments, encouragement, plus contributions... we float on your support.
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Song: Where Am I Going To?
Music by: Patricia Norton

Notes: I heard adrienne maree brown describe humans as "bags of water" -- humans on average are around 60% water.... like a delta, or the land around a pond or river with its banks, or a bathtub and its water pipes -- we are a way of shaping water -- we are, literally, a flow. This song was born in motion, the kind of walking where the rhythm of your steps and breath becomes the soundscape, and you can release everything else, dropping into the flow.

Songwriter Info: Patricia loves to walk fast from one spring wildflower to the next -- averages out to a stroll! 

Sharing Info: Please share freely, and let people know about A Breath of Song when you do.

Song Learning Time Stamps:
Start time of teaching: 00:03:19
Start time of reprise: 00:11:40

Links:
Flow Singing: https://www.juneberrymusic.com/flow-singing.html 
All of what I'm up to: https://www.juneberrymusic.com/ 
Kindred Voices Retreat: https://kindredvoicesretreat.com 

Nuts & Bolts: 4:4, major, round or 3 layers

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Help us keep going: reviews, comments, encouragement, plus contributions... we float on your support.  https://www.abreathofsong.com/gratitude-jar.html

Song: The Riddle Song
Music by: traditional

Notes: I find myself feeling like we live in a bit of a riddle right now -- how can this impossible thing be so, and what will resolve it? I literally learned this song at my mother's knee... it's one of the earliest I remember singing, and I was so delighted by the riddle form! As a young teen, it was one of the first songs I learned on guitar. I sang it to kids I babysat in college, where I learned about the Child Ballads and Cecil Sharp's collecting in southern Appalachia. I sang it with my children, with our granddaughter -- and now I get to sing it with you! There's a through-line for a song.... what songs have travelled with you your whole life?

Songwriter Info: Patricia was born in Boulder, CO, and is grateful to the burgeoning folk music scene that encouraged family music, which is how she learned this song.

Song Learning Time Stamps:
Start time of teaching: 00:02:20
Start time of reprise: 00:12:08

Links:
An intriguing discussion board about trad music: https://mudcat.org/
An introduction to Child Ballads: https://folkways.si.edu/playlist/child-ballads 
Text of Child Ballad #46 (which The Riddle Song is believed to have come from): https://sacred-texts.com/neu/eng/child/ch046.htm 
The Cecil Sharp collection of The Riddle Song: https://archives.vwml.org/records/CJS2/9/2688 
Doc Watson's recording: https://youtu.be/fRO6egtKipg?feature=shared 
Carly Simon's recording: https://youtu.be/4O_Lu_khQDM?feature=shared 

Nuts & Bolts: 4:4, major, strophic (3 verses)

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Song: vocal improvisation
Improvised by: David Ruffin and Patricia Norton

Notes: It's a first for A Breath of Song! An episode of improvisation -- David Ruffin is our guest, talking about the multiple benefits of the practice of improvisation, his teachers, leading menfolk in song circles, the particular challenges of having a big, beautiful voice, how singing together might build soil in these times... and more! We hope you join us in exploring the voice, and that our questions raise questions for you, too...

Songwriter Info: David is a performing artist, community song leader and teacher with a passion for authentic expression. He loves creating space for voices to emerge fully and freely. He calls Central Vermont home, where he’s grateful to be able to share his holistic approach to voice in community through lessons, workshops, community singing and performance collaborations. David’s work is inspired by a diverse background including studies with Roy Hart Center voice teachers, deep dives in vocal improvisation, explorations in Voice Movement Therapy and over 20 plus years of performing arts, teaching and counseling/ministry experience. David believes singing helps us remember who we really are, what we're here to voice and, how we’re, thankfully, so very bound up together in this. 

Time Stamps:
Start time of first improvisation: 00:04:40
Start time of second improvisation: 01:11:26

Links:
David's website: www.davidruffinvoice.com
David's Venmo: @David-Ruffin-Voice 
Rhiannon: https://www.rhiannonmusic.com/ 
Bobby McFerrin: https://bobbymcferrin.com/ 
Wendy Tuck: And When I Rise: https://web.plumvillage.app/item/and-when-i-rise-2 
Wendell Berry: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/wendell-berry 
“Shaker Tune” For All That Has Been is actually Let Go and Move by Velma Frye - https://youtu.be/-q9T3iiDOXA?si=EYMoNAdnR2XcK-uG 
Heidi Wilson: The Feast: https://www.abreathofsong.com/episodes--show-notes/140-the-feast-with-guest-heidi-wilson 
Evan Premo: http://www.evanpremo.com/ 
Boston Big Sing with Milly Roberts: https://www.bostonareasingingcircles.com/origins 
“Beyond the Us and Them”: https://www.patreon.com/posts/build-soil-117107668 
Robin Wall Kimmerer: https://www.robinwallkimmerer.com/ 
Singing Revolution in Estonia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Singing_Revolution 
Circlesinging in Burlington: https://www.juneberrymusic.com/special-events.html 
Judi Vinar: https://www.judivinar.com/ 
Ethelyn Friend in the Roy Hart tradition: https://www.ethelynfriend.com/ 
Fauré Requiem – recording: John Rutter with the Cambridge Singers: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLXpQCRhZw2laREcCUl4Hb4IWOX9MNEQf3 
Moira Smiley: https://moirasmiley.com/ 

Join this community of people who love to use song to help navigate life? Absolutely:
https://dashboard.mailerlite.com/forms/335811/81227018071442567/share

Help us keep going: reviews, comments, encouragement, plus contributions... we float on your support.
https://www.abreathofsong.com/gratitude-jar.html

Song: Where the Moss Grows
Music by: David Ruffin

Notes: We get to sing David Ruffin's beautiful moss song in three different keys, so you can experiment with the range and how it feels in your voice in different ways -- and really feel like you know the song well by the end! So this episode is a little longer than sometimes -- but it's a great way to get a slightly longer song and harmony into your body, and still under 30 minutes. Next episode is a conversation with David, and we'll get to know this song carrier...

Songwriter Info: David is a performing artist, community song leader and teacher with a passion for authentic expression. He loves creating space for voices to emerge fully and freely. He calls Central Vermont home, where he’s grateful to be able to share his holistic approach to voice in community through lessons, workshops, community singing and performance collaborations. David’s work is inspired by a diverse background including studies with Roy Hart Center voice teachers, deep dives in vocal improvisation, explorations in Voice Movement Therapy and over 20 plus years of performing arts, teaching and counseling/ministry experience. David believes singing helps us remember who we really are, what we're here to voice and, how we’re, thankfully, so very bound up together in this. 

Sharing Info: The song is free to share but David welcomes financial and/or networking support if/when folks are so moved. Please contact him for recording and/or performing permission.

Song Learning Time Stamps:
Start time of teaching: 00:02:33
Start time of song in B-flat: 00:13:16
Start time of song in D-flat: 00:17:36
Start time of song in B: 00:23:38

Links:
David's website: www.davidruffinvoice.com
David's Venmo: @David-Ruffin-Voice 

Nuts & Bolts: 4:4, major, harmonized

Join this community of people who love to use song to help navigate life? Absolutely:
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Help us keep going: reviews, comments, encouragement, plus contributions... we float on your support.
https://www.abreathofsong.com/gratitude-jar.html