Notes: Rain is not always the easiest weather for me to delight in... seems to come with dark days and wet, slippery footing -- I often get a little cranky in response! I love the delight in the rain this song evokes -- reminds me of how crucial water is, what a gift to have it falling fresh from the sky. The original melody reminds me of the whoosh of rain, and as we sing "Rain falling down on the plains," the melody falls, too. Then in the response melody, I put the plink of the rain drops on the rooftops -- so the whole song is an onomatopoetic celebration of rain that enchants me out of crankiness into delight.

​Songwriter Info: I got to record this one live with my daughter and dear friend, Rebecca, which affirmed for me the magic of singing with someone you love. Just as relationships of love grow and shift and change, some songs seem to grow organically, shifting shape and adapting to their circumstances. I always want to respect and hear the intent of the composer, and there are times when a song adapts in relationship to the singer. When sharing songs that have grown or changed, or songs of unknown provenance, I think it’s really important to name what we do know, what we guess, what we've changed (after requesting permission if there's a living composer), and welcome learning more. So: I learned the melody of this song from Micky Hickey, who offers a beautiful set of pocket songs on Instagram. (See the links below.) She learned it from Bennett Konesni, a songsharer in Maine. It has definite echoes, and maybe even quotes from the Joseph Shabalala song, Rain, Rain, Beautiful Rain, that Ladysmith Black Mambazo released in 1987, but it’s not exactly that song. I added the response melody… so what we’re singing today is a song of accretion and adaptation. Maybe you will add to it or adapt it as it enters your life? And if you have more information about the origin of the song, I would love to hear!​

Sharing Info: Free to share, but please credit the full history as we know it.

Links: 
Micky Hickey's Pocket Song project: https://www.instagram.com/pocketsongproject/
Bennett Konesni: http://www.duckbackfarm.com/
Ladysmith Black Mambazo, Rain, Rain, Beautiful Rain: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ke6RF3IH45g

Nuts & Bolts: ​3:4, Major, melody & countermelody

​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.

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Notes: It was amazingly fortuitous -- Louise Blackburn and I had agreed on releasing her song as episode #91, and then it turned out that recording episode #91 live would be just the right time to celebrate 25,000 downloads -- and we had the perfect song in place. In June of 2021, I had searched long and hard for a podcast I could listen to from which I could learn songs for well being and more about the people who shared these songs. I couldn't find it, so I started A Breath of Song together with Patty Piotrowski, constantly reminding myself that who I am, what I bring to the table, is enough. I love the way Louise's song embeds that idea in my brain with gentleness and persistence. The spacious, simple harmonies create an elegant call, while the response feel like it's tugged out of my heart. Recording live in front of a full gallery Zoom audience was a novel way to create an episode, and I believe you can feel the connection I felt with the group and we all felt with you who listens now across the space/time continuum.

​Songwriter Info: Louise feels incredibly lucky to run choirs, workshops, festivals, singing for wellbeing groups and yoga and voice sessions across Birmingham, Walsall, Sutton Coldfield and Sandwell in the United Kingdom. Her songs are an absolute joy of creation for her and have been sung all over the world including New Zealand and America. It makes her very emotional to think of them being sung and enjoyed by other people.
​
Sharing Info: The song is free to share but Louise always welcomes financial and/or networking support if/when folks are so moved.

Links:
Louise's website: www.voicesentwined.co.uk
Louise's Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/4oTIDDsibmihC771Wvy1Mh

​Nuts & Bolts: 4:4, Aeolian, 3-part harmonized call with response

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.

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Notes: I love the way this song takes me into completely different scope of time -- geologic, massive, unimaginable -- and therefore inescapably present. "Ïn the Land of Oden" has a murky history, both for lyrics and melody… it was recorded in the 1960s by many different folk artists, including Peter and Gordon, Barry McGuire and the New Christy Minstrels, and the Townsmen… but is credited to different composers on each recording. And they are all slightly different than the version I learned from Adam Podd (check out episode #82!). This particular melody has stayed with me, though, and it resonated in me with a Buddhist story Jack Kornfield tells about something lasting for 1000 kalpas – and each kalpa is as long as it takes for a bird dragging a silk scarf across a mountain to wear it away. In a Grimm’s Fairy Tale, recorded in 1812, the Shepherd’s Boy responds to the king’s third question about eternity with a description very similar to this, although the mountain is made of diamond and is in the land of Pomerania! So for this moment, welcome to fairy-tale time.
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Sharing Info: As far as I know, this song is free to share.

Links: 
Grimm's Fairy Tale: http://www.pinkmonkey.com/dl/library1/story139.pdf

Nuts & Bolts: 4:4, Mixolydian, 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 Tip Jar (whoo-hoo!!!!), or by making comments, leaving reviews, suggesting songs or songwriters (including yourself) ..... your participation matters!

Notes: I'd like to highlight the custom art created for each episode by Patty Piotrowski. If you're following this on a podcast app that shows only the A Breath of Song logo, and not the artwork, then please go here to feast your eyes! Patty sang in a chorus with me for several years before the pandemic and included me in the friends with whom she shared an Advent calendar of one painting a day via email -- and I loved the experience of opening my email to see something beautiful. During the pandemic, she sang Pocket Songs with me, and we both leaned into song as resource. When I decided to start sharing songs that were making it easier for me to navigate life through this podcast, I wondered if Patty would be willing to share this creative process with me. For each song, she listens ahead of time, sings with it, lets it soak in... and then waits for an image to appear. She emails me a photo of the custom art, which delights me, and makes the process of preparing the podcast for release exponentially more pleasurable.
About this piece, she said:
   "Here is a tree for all of the seasons of this song
   I’ve been passing this tree along I91 and talking with it for two years
   It looks different depending on your orientation:
   when I approach it from the north on the highway, I see it whole and round with branches,
   but as I pass it, I see then actually there are no branches on the south side."

Dirk says about the song: "Winter Song was written for amateur groups to sing at the winter solstice. I chose the traditional English round form so the repetition can have a meditative effect and people can sing it for as long or short a time as they wish... It was my late wife Adrienne who suggested to me ten years ago that there was a need for new songs to celebrate the eight-fold year celebrations of solstices, equinoxes and cross-quarters that Druids traditionally observe. I did write some others but they were not as good as Winter Song and have passed deservedly into obscurity! 2012 was the last year of Adrienne’s life. She heard the song performed for her birthday in July that year. She was pleased with it. My awareness of her impending death is probably what gives the song its emotional charge."

Songwriter Info: Dirk Campbell has put this song into the public domain, so we are welcome to share it. Dirk was born in 1950 in the British military hospital in Ismailia, Egypt, and lived in Kenya till 1962, so was exposed to indigenous Arab and African music before its acculturation by western influence. He went on to a successful career as a composer for films, radio, stage, etc, His website is a fascinating dive (and I mean HOURS worth!!!) into many instruments from a wide variety of cultures around the world on which he has gained skill. He teaches musicians about ways of incorporating ancient and non-western music into contemporary composition.

Links: 
Dirk Campbell

Nuts & Bolts: 4:4, Dorian, 2-part layer song with optional drone.
​
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 Tip Jar (whoo-hoo!!!!), or by making comments, leaving reviews, suggesting songs or songwriters (including yourself) ..... your participation matters!

Notes: This is the determined, comforting chorus of Shireen Amini's song, "We're Not Walking Alone". I love 'walking music' -- and this is one of my go-to's when I'm looking for an up-tempo walk. I'll sing the different parts consecutively, and if I can rope a co-walker into singing one of the parts, even better! Shireen says nature is the "enwrapping companion" that lets her own answers arise. The first verse of this song is, "When we stop trying to force all the answers -- 'cause they never will come from the mind -- they will come from a place that is peaceful; take a walk on the land, they will arise." I love the sense that the land itself is willing to care and tend us, and is, in the deepest sense, our home.
​
Songwriter Info: Shireen Amini (non-binary human using she in English / elle in Spanish) is a queer, Puerto Rican-Iranian, Earth-loving singer-songwriter, performer, percussionist and teaching artist. With a BA in Ethnomusicology from UCLA and a certificate in Sound, Voice, and Music Healing from CIIS in San Francisco, Shireen has also come to believe strongly in music as a tool for personal and collective transformation. As a songleader, Shireen loves to share medicine songs with healing and empowering messages, infectious grooves, and soulful melodies, often engaging her participants in rhythmic play and movement while singing. She also offers music classes, facilitation, and coaching for her local and virtual communities through her project Shireen Amini Music Medicine.

Links: 
Listen to Shireen's recording of the whole song from her album, "Break Myself Free": https://youtu.be/UWlLZ_36iVI
Shireen's website
Shireen's community singing website
Shireen on facebook
Shireen on Instagram (@shireenaminimusic)

Nuts & Bolts: 4:4, Mixolydian, 3 layers

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 Tip Jar (whoo-hoo!!!!), or by making comments, leaving reviews, suggesting songs or songwriters (including yourself) ..... your participation matters!

Notes: An elemental song that reminds us of how ephemeral human life is -- yet how we can rely on the solidity of the elements and return to them again and again. This is a song I need when I feel unrooted by grief and anger. I wonder how it will feel to you, what it might touch, how it might help you adapt and flex and grow? Listen for the surprise sound effect... I was recording with the windows open, and my looper caught a passing sound... I decided not to rerecord, both because I didn't really have the time, and because I thought it was actually kind of cool in the context of this song. Just a reminder that this podcast is not a polished recorded performance (as if you hadn't figured that out already! :) ) I use the looper to layer up my voice a bit, but it's how it would sound if we were sitting in the same place and you were singing with me live... two real humans doing real human-y stuff.

Songwriter Info: Starhawk is an author, activist, permaculture designer and teacher, and a prominent voice in modern earth-based spirituality and ecofeminism. Anne Hill has expertise in many areas, from dreams and spirituality to self-publishing and author platforms. She is a sought-after speaker and teacher, helping people improve their lives using both inner and outer resources. With Diane Baker, they co-created a book called Circle Round, which is a resource of nature spirituality practices.  Unusually, I did not manage to get their explicit permission to share this song, though I reached out through their websites... so if this episode disappears, you'll know why! I'm hoping that because this song is already widely shared, it might be okay. Please, if this song speaks to you, here's an extra plea to use the links and visit their websites to support their work!

Links: 
Regenerative Culture, Earth-based Spirituality, and Permaculture « Starhawk's Website http://starhawk.org
About Anne | Serpentine Music & Media

Nuts & Bolts: 2:2, Ionian, Call & response with 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 Tip Jar (whoo-hoo!!!!), or by making comments, leaving reviews, suggesting songs or songwriters (including yourself) ..... your participation matters!

Notes: This particular song of Saro's has gained international attention, becoming an anthem in the movement to end global warming and garnering praise in the Huffington Post. You may already be familiar with it... in which case I'd really encourage you to use this podcast to explore it and use my voice as an opportunity for you to experiment with harmonies, or being a grounded, single note, or be able to pay extra attention to how it feels inside your body as you sing. Or maybe you don't know it yet? That's cause for celebration, because you have a treat waiting for you today! For me, when I sing this, I feel huge things -- grief at what is happening to our planet and a powerful, grounded determination to respond as I can -- and, like I said -- feeling those things strong and large. It taps into something bigger than myself, even when I'm singing alone, as I often am these days. And then Patty sent me her image for this, which she had developed independently, after listening to the song over and over -- and I was so moved by the force of this hippo! I'd be curious to hear how it feels to you to sing it with me?

Saro encourages people to sing this in groups -- "please share this song -- use it at protests, use it in church, use it in meetings, add new verses, spread it around!"
​
Songwriter Info: Saro Lynch-Thomason is an award-winning ballad singer, song leader, folklorist, and documentarian from Asheville, North Carolina. Saro has been studying and teaching traditional song and balladry from the British Isles, Appalachia and the American South for over a decade. Saro believes that old songs help modern learners access history, folklore, and (most importantly) compassion for the experiences of others, and she uses in-person teaching, film documentary, podcasts and more to convey these lessons. She holds an M.A. in Appalachian Studies and a Certificate in Documentary Studies.

Links: 
www.sarosings.com,
www.patreon.com/sarolynch,
Music at sarolyncht.bandcamp.com,
TikTok and Instagram at @songspeaksaro
Saro herself singing More Waters Rising. (SO worth singing with!!!)

Nuts & Bolts: 4:4, Aeolian, harmonizable
​
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 Tip Jar (whoo-hoo!!!!), or by making comments, leaving reviews, suggesting songs or songwriters (including yourself) ..... your participation matters!