Notes: Catherine Young, a poet deeply rooted in the Driftless region of Wisconsin, USA, gives us a wistful melody in the ancient Dorian mode -- a minor scale that has a beautiful, lifted sixth degree that gives it a particular flavor you'll come to know well by singing this with me. In the northern hemisphere, fall is upon us -- the equinox approaching -- and this song carries with it the beauty of this time, and the grief of letting go of summer. I teach the melody first, just letting my mouth form shapes to really get to know this beautiful tune -- you can create your own shapes, and then round it with me, or on your own -- or stay with the original melody. So many options!

Songwriter Info: Catherine Young is a writer and performing artist whose work is infused with a keen sense of place. She is author of the ecopoetry collection Geosmin and the environmental memoir Black Diamonds. Her weekly podcast Landward:Readings of Place and Season is available online from WDRT. Rooted in farm life, Catherine lives with her family in Wisconsin's Driftless Area where she is totally in love with meandering streams. She holds concern for water and deeply believes in the use of story and art as tools for transforming the world.

​Sharing Info: Yes -- The song is free to share but Catherine always welcome financial and/or networking support. Please contact her to purchase sheet music.

Links: 
"September Round" is from the song almanac Rounding the Year which can be purchased in print or as pdf from Catherine: catherineyoungwriter@gmail.com
You can also request to be put on her mailing list.
For writings and recordings, visit Catherine's website: http://www.catherineyoungwriter.com/
Podcasts: https://wdrt.org/landward/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/catherineyoungwriter 

Live online international book launch conversation for her book Black Diamonds: a Childhood Colored by Coal.
Thursday, September 28, 2023 6 PM Central Time (7pm eastern).
LINK FOR EVENT: https://www.crowdcast.io/c/black-diamonds

Song Learning Time Stamps:
Start time of teaching: 00:03:53
Start time of reprise: 00:17:53
​​
Nuts & Bolts: 4:4, Dorian, round

​Join the A Breath of Song mailing list to receive a heads up as a new episode is released, plus a large version of the artwork, brief thoughts from my slightly peculiar brain... and occasional extras when they seem vitally important! No junk -- I will never sell your address. I read out all your names into my living room when I send new mailings... I appreciate the connection to you who are listening and singing these songs with me.

Exchange energy with A Breath of Song with dollars at the Gratitude Jar (whoo-hoo!!!!), or by making comments, leaving reviews, suggesting songs or songwriters (including yourself) ..... your participation matters!​

Notes: After singing this song, I keep questioning myself, "What if this is true???" If all motion is love, Patricia, what does that look like, right now? If I follow love, what does that even mean? Do I know what love looks like? I'm so often in unthinking motion — what happens when that motion becomes love? Pam Blevins Hinkle is not messing around here! In the next episode, we get to talk, and hear about how she got backed into community singing through a health crisis. The changes it has precipitated. What swung into motion, and how that's leading her now. Following love. Is this any part of your life? Mm-hmmm.

Songwriter Info: Pam Blevins Hinkle–song leader, composer, arts administrator, tree-lover, and kazoo fanatic–has devoted her life to projects that blend creativity, community-building, and spirituality. With over 30 years experience leading community, college, and congregational choirs, she currently facilitates spontaneous group singing for conferences and events, co-leads SongSquad Indianapolis with her brother Adam, co-produces the annual Indy Winter Solstice Celebration, and more. Pam has received numerous awards including the Inspirational Woman Award from IUPUI and the Creative Renewal Arts Fellowship from the Indy Arts Council. Since 2006, she has served as director of Spirit & Place, which sparks civic change through a one-of-kind, 11-day festival and through year-round initiatives that leverage the power of the arts, humanities, and religion to catalyze creativity and conversation.

​Sharing Info: Yes -- The song is free to share in oral tradition groups, but please contact Pam for recording and/or performing permission

Links: 
Song Squad Indianapolis Website: songsquadindy.com
Indy Winter Solstice Celebration Website: indysolstice.com
Pam's Website: pamblevinshinkle.com

​Song Learning Time Stamps:
Start time of teaching: 00:04:09
Start time of reprise: 00:12:45
​​
Nuts & Bolts: 3:4 Mixolydian; unison chant with optional harmonies

​Join the A Breath of Song mailing list to receive a heads up as a new episode is released, plus a large version of the artwork, brief thoughts from my slightly peculiar brain... and occasional extras when they seem vitally important! No junk -- I will never sell your address. I read out all your names into my living room when I send new mailings... I appreciate the connection to you who are listening and singing these songs with me.

Exchange energy with A Breath of Song with dollars at the Gratitude Jar (whoo-hoo!!!!), or by making comments, leaving reviews, suggesting songs or songwriters (including yourself) ..... your participation matters!​

Notes: Sometimes I get so overwhelmed with the thought of death, I think I'm going to precipitate it by forgetting to breathe! And then somehow, something will help me back into the present, alive moment... and this song appeared just after one of those moments. I was absolutely delighted to record it with my son, Seth, who was visiting from Boston (you'll hear a little fangirl excitement in my voice)... and also surprised by how different it was for me to sing it with someone else rather than just my own voice on the looper! This voice music thing... it's always surprising me, delighting me, stretching me. And this particular song keeps coming back, insisting I sing it again.

Songwriter Info: In addition to hosting this podcast and an online singing program, Pocket Songs, Patricia is excited to be developing an in-person community singing program in Burlington, Vermont. You can find more details about that at the Juneberry Music site. Patricia believes in singing as a part of vibrant well-being, experiencing wholeness, courage, connection and joy along with brokenness, fear, loneliness, and despair... trusting the whole messy catastrophe! She lives with her long-time beloved, Tom, in a single bedroom apartment close to their daughter's family (the better to play with their grand.) Patricia reads widely, and also spends time exploring the natural world on these Abenaki lands, knitting, and reluctantly strength-training.

​Sharing Info: You are welcome to share this song; please contact Patricia directly for sheet music or permission to record or perform. She always appreciates hearing about how the song travels.

Links: 
Patricia's Website: https://www.juneberrymusic.com

​Song Learning Time Stamps:
Start time of teaching: 00:03:25
Start time of reprise: 00:15:15
​​
Nuts & Bolts: 4:4 Minor & Major, unison or 2-part layer

​Join the A Breath of Song mailing list to receive a heads up as a new episode is released, plus a large version of the artwork, brief thoughts from my slightly peculiar brain... and occasional extras when they seem vitally important! No junk -- I will never sell your address. I read out all your names into my living room when I send new mailings... I appreciate the connection to you who are listening and singing these songs with me.

Exchange energy with A Breath of Song with dollars at the Gratitude Jar (whoo-hoo!!!!), or by making comments, leaving reviews, suggesting songs or songwriters (including yourself) ..... your participation matters!​

Notes: A sweet short song like this brings me deep rewards -- the chance to drop into the joy, the preciousness, the abundance of simply being alive. For me to learn it, Jane sent me "a just rough off the looper" recording -- and it was so, so beautiful! Don't miss the links to Jane's recorded music -- her voice is like flavored butter -- smooth with an extra kick -- and the sense you get of her self that infuses her singing is generous and gentle and joystruck. My version doesn't sound nearly as good as her's to me -- and yet, it was such a pleasure to get to sing the song, and I think it'll work so you can learn the song and take it on into your own life, with your own voice. If Jane ever records it, or you get a chance to hear Jane live, maybe you can sing it along with her!

Songwriter Info: Jane Lewis is a singer-songwriter, workshop facilitator, and community music instigator. She is a strong believer in the power of music to bring people together. When not performing with her folk/roots duo Gathering Sparks, she can be found leading vocal & harmony workshops, Circle Singing, Vocal Meditation, and Women's Music Weekend retreats.

​Sharing Info: Yes — The song is free to use/share, but Jane always welcomes networking support. A financial contribution when folks are able is also appreciated!

Links: 
Jane's Website: http://www.janelewis.ca
Women's Music Weekend, facilitated by Jane: https://www.womensmusicweekend.com
Jane's YouTube Channel: http://www.youtube.com/JaneLewisMusic
Jane's duo with Eve Goldberg: Gathering Sparks YouTube Channel: http://www.youtube.com/GatheringSparksMusic

​Song Learning Time Stamps:
Start time of teaching: 00:02:59
Start time of reprise: 00:13:29
​​
Nuts & Bolts: 4:4, Mixolydian with a twist, 3-part harmony

​Join the A Breath of Song mailing list to receive a heads up as a new episode is released, plus a large version of the artwork, brief thoughts from my slightly peculiar brain... and occasional extras when they seem vitally important! No junk -- I will never sell your address. I read out all your names into my living room when I send new mailings... I appreciate the connection to you who are listening and singing these songs with me.

Exchange energy with A Breath of Song with dollars at the Gratitude Jar (whoo-hoo!!!!), or by making comments, leaving reviews, suggesting songs or songwriters (including yourself) ..... your participation matters!​

Notes: Abundance, gratitude -- words that can be so annoying when you're feeling scarcity and lack -- I think part of the reason for traditional festivals was to smush us together with other people who were celebrating so that we can't help but feel a bit of a lift, a bit of a reminder that oh, yes, there is plenitude in the world, and food tastes good, and even better with loved ones around us. I'm grateful to Flora Ware for her entire collection of chants for the year... grateful to you for singing with me -- to my mind, that makes us kith, and I'm so glad to celebrate abundance with kith and kin through this song.

Songwriter Info: Flora Ware is a Sacred Sound Priestess and founder of EarthSong Temple where she serves a global community through ceremony, singing circles, and earth magic. As a Vocal Coach, she helps spiritual entrepreneurs become confident speakers and get booked on podcasts and stages, so they can attract more clients and share their message with the world. In 1993, her mother brought 14-year-old Flora to a full moon women’s circle. She remembered she was a Celtic witch and has been on a spiritual path of devotion to the Divine Feminine ever since. She lives in Vernon, BC, Canada with her wife and young wizard-in-training.

​Sharing Info: Please sing and share! Flora has a free lyric booklet for all her Wheel of the Year chants available to download from her website (very helpful when teaching a group).

Links: 
Flora's Website: https://floraware.ca
Flora's Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/flora_ware/

Song Learning Time Stamps:
Start time of teaching: 00:03:09
Start time of reprise: 00:12:47
​​
Nuts & Bolts: 3:4, Aeolian, unison with 3-part harmony chorus

​Join the A Breath of Song mailing list to receive a heads up as a new episode is released, plus a large version of the artwork, brief thoughts from my slightly peculiar brain... and occasional extras when they seem vitally important! No junk -- I will never sell your address. I read out all your names into my living room when I send new mailings... I appreciate the connection to you who are listening and singing these songs with me.

Exchange energy with A Breath of Song with dollars at the Gratitude Jar (whoo-hoo!!!!), or by making comments, leaving reviews, suggesting songs or songwriters (including yourself) ..... your participation matters!​

Notes: A helpful therapist once said to me that feelings can help me understand how I perceive the world – I feel sadness when I experience loss; fear lets me know that I'm seeing a threat, anger flags where I see unfairness or injustice. What I love about this song is the way it lets the feelings roll into a grounding of power -- one's own voice and ability to stand in love -- and not be silent. Lisa wrote it in the aftermath of the violent white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia in August of 2017. I invite us to recognize where we see wrong, and let this song help find our powerful voices in response, aligned in heart and love.

​Songwriter Info: Lisa G. Littlebird facilitates group singing as a transformational personal practice, healing art, and to foster healthy communities. She is the creator of Littlebird Flight School, a community song leader training program with more than 400 graduates worldwide. She also founded the 160-member Wholehearted Chorus in Big Sur & Monterey, CA and has been on the faculty at Esalen Institute for 15 years. 

Sharing Info: Yes -- The song is free to share in oral tradition groups, but please contact Lisa for recording and/or performing permission

Links: 
Lisa's Website: https://thebirdsings.com/
Lisa's Patreon: patreon.com/thebirdsings
Lisa's song library: https://thebirdsings.com/song-library/
Turning Wheel in Lisa's library: https://thebirdsings.com/turning-wheel/

Nuts & Bolts: ​​4:4, minor, 4-layer song

​Join the A Breath of Song mailing list to receive a heads up as a new episode is released, plus a large version of the artwork, brief thoughts from my slightly peculiar brain... and occasional extras when they seem vitally important! No junk -- I will never sell your address. I read out all your names into my living room when I send new mailings... I appreciate the connection to you who are listening and singing these songs with me.

Exchange energy with A Breath of Song with dollars at the Gratitude Jar (whoo-hoo!!!!), or by making comments, leaving reviews, suggesting songs or songwriters (including yourself) ..... your participation matters!

Notes: Angela Gabriel has given us a brilliant setting based on words by Nisargadatta Maharaj, “Wisdom is knowing I am nothing, Love is knowing I am everything, and between the two my life moves.” The first line twists around on itself disappears into nothingness. The second line starts an octave away and drops into the security of "everything." Then, on a note in the middle of the two starting pitches, and in 6:8 instead of 3:4, the song begins to dance and flow, and ends on a slightly surprised major third. You don't have to know any of that for it to work its magic, though -- simply let it wind into your body as a beautiful melodic invitation to release. I'll be singing this one to myself long after this podcast is wrapped up, reminding me of both-and, flow, fluidity.

​Songwriter Info: Angela is a professional percussionist & pianist and community music/community singing facilitator. She lived in Santa Fe NM for the last 20 years, where she played with the opera, symphony, chamber music festival, as well as in African, Haitian, and samba gatherings, funk and ragtime bands.  She just moved to Bloomington, Indiana in the end of 2022.
Angela's mission in life is to facilitate expressive creative, musical, and vocal experiences and to encourage folks to replace judgement with curiosity and open themselves to their unique, creative flow. Part of how Angela does this is by singing and drumming online weekly with people living with Parkinson’s and other movement disorders.

Sharing Info: This song is free to share but Angela always welcomes financial and/or networking support if/when folks are so moved.

Links: 
Angela's website: www.AngelaGabriel.me
Support Angela's work: find songs, rhythmic activities, and more at patreon.com/AngelaGabriel
Check out Hidden Whale, Angela's old band (she's the drummer): https://youtube.com/channel/UCpxdVqwSxzEBhgUilN3qQLg
Nisargadatta Maharaj: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nisargadatta_Maharaj

Nuts & Bolts: ​​3:4, Aeolian with major final third, round

​Join the A Breath of Song mailing list to receive a heads up as a new episode is released, plus a large version of the artwork, brief thoughts from my slightly peculiar brain... and occasional extras when they seem vitally important! No junk -- I will never sell your address. I read out all your names into my living room when I send new mailings... I appreciate the connection to you who are listening and singing these songs with me.

Exchange energy with A Breath of Song with dollars at the Gratitude Jar (whoo-hoo!!!!), or by making comments, leaving reviews, suggesting songs or songwriters (including yourself) ..... your participation matters!

Notes: Patty Piotrowski, who creates the art for each episode after learning the song, wrote about painting for this song of Ahlay Blakely: "The word that jumped out for me was “breaking”. I have a plate, a whole pottery plate on my kitchen table, that holds broken porcelain shards of dishware from the late 1800’s when there was a fire that burned the hotel on Star Island and so much was lost at sea. This past summer when I had the opportunity to go to Star Island for two weeks of art making, I walked the shoreline, and found these remnants of past plates and bowls and cups. These pieces of porcelain from England were worn smooth on the edges from being tossed and turned in the ocean for over 100 years. Each one was a precious discovery for me, telling a bit of the story. The beauty of the brokenness. Back home now and months later I have them arranged on a plate with a candle, reminding me to understand and honor the past, and to heal what I can inside myself in the present."

As we navigate the rage and wounding and grief in ourselves and others, it can be so helpful to have a framework for understanding… the kind of understanding that leads to healing and compassion. When we break these cycles, it affects the future ones – and it also reaches back and in some way fills the aching dream of those in the past. I love this song for the conviction that my own ache for belonging ripples through time, breaks harmful cycles, and creates a fundamental healing. Don't miss Ahlay's upcoming project, Wails, and the chance to be part of the ripples of change it could create by supporting it.

Songwriter Info: Alexandra "Ahlay" Blakely (she/her) is a song carrier remembering that which was meant to be forgotten in her lineages: song technology as connective tissues of the communal body. She blends song, body percussion, dance, stillness, breath & silence with the deepest intention to support others in remembering their inherent birthright to singing and rhythm. Her ancient ancestors of Old Europe (Ashkenazi, Scandinavian, Finnish, English, Scottish, Irish) sang while building, creating, birthing, working & being in reciprocity and bring with the Land. She understands song to be fundamental in the expansion of ones internal capacity to participate in the collective shift towards life-affirming conditions. An underlying prayer in her song offerings is that they may contribute to the shared effort to transform white culture into being more connected with our bodies, emotions, Land & the animate world around us. ​ These songs are swirls of spells for cracking open, falling humbly to our knees and cultivating more access to the conversations our souls are aching to have with us about their most intimate longings. They are dedicated to the more than human world, the Waters and our Kin in both the seen and unseen realms. We sing to shame, courage, for breaking cycles of intergenerational trauma and for the preparation of being ready for these times we are living in, all while sending these song-beings in ripples through to the ancient and future ones. The songs sung have come directly through Ahlay.​ ​ Some of her mentors: Whale, Mycelium, Rue, Lightning, Rain, Oak, Redwood & Rosemary
​
Sharing Info: Yes -- The song is free to share but Ahlay always welcomes financial and/or networking support if/when folks are so moved.

Links: 
Wails: Songs for Grief Fundraiser:  https://www.gofundme.com/f/community-singing-album
Bandcamp digital album "SPELLS FROM THE UNKNOWN" https://ahlayblakely.bandcamp.com/album/spells-from-the-unknown
Ahlay's Website/Newsletter https://www.healingattheroots.com
Ahlay's Patreon - new music monthly, 1-3 songs per month https://www.patreon.com/alexandrablakely
Instagram @alexandra_blakely
Resmaa Menakem: My Grandmother's Hands - https://centralrecoverypress.com/product/my-grandmothers-hands-racialized-trauma-and-the-pathway-to-mending-our-hearts-and-bodies-paperback

Nuts & Bolts: 12:8, flat-7, both major & minor; 3-layer song

Join the A Breath of Song mailing list to receive a heads up as a new episode is released, plus a large version of the artwork, brief thoughts from my slightly peculiar brain... and occasional extras when they seem vitally important! No junk -- I will never sell your address. I read out all your names into my living room when I send new mailings... I appreciate the connection to you who are listening and singing these songs with me.

Exchange energy with A Breath of Song with dollars at the Gratitude Jar (whoo-hoo!!!!), or by making comments, leaving reviews, suggesting songs or songwriters (including yourself) ..... your participation matters!