Song: Estrellitas
Music by: Ana Lucia Divins

Notes: Singing this song of grief and the lifting of grief connected deeply with my heart this week. No matter what grief is in my heart at the moment, the wordless "O", followed by the shaping of Spanish words for sorrow, doubt, and fear as well as let go and little stars -- letting all the grief light the fire and then the sparks carry it away -- oh, it felt good to sing this. Soft and strong, velvet and spark, ache and motion. I'm grateful Ana Lucia gifted us this song to sing, and excited that once you've learned the core of the song with me, you get to sing all of it with her if you follow the Bandcamp link! 

Songwriter Info: Music has been a lifelong companion for Ana Lucia Divins, who has witnessed its healing power and the strength of community connections. This journey led her to explore sound and therapeutic music studies. She is a Certified Music Practitioner by MHTP and a Holistic Voice Therapist with the British Academy of Sound Therapy. Since 2022, she has integrated healing music into her offerings, singing by patients’ bedsides and sharing therapeutic music in the community for restoration and relaxation. In 2023, she received the Arts and Science Council Creative Renewal Fellowship and in 2024, the Arts and Science Council Artist Support Grant, enabling her to delve deeper into music’s healing potential and produce new works. Ana Lucia’s exploration of her voice has taken her to national and international workshops and retreats in Greece, Spain, the UK, and Colombia. 
In the summer of 2024, Ana Lucia and Carlos Crespo, an Ecuadorian guitarist, released their debut healing music album, “Emerging,” in collaboration with other talented musicians. Available on all digital platforms, "Emerging" offers a deeply relaxing and uplifting sound bath of original new-age world music. It is a sonic journey mirroring life’s ebb and flow, from dawn’s gentle awakening to night’s tranquil embrace, remembering the cycles of healing, new beginnings, and transformation.

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

Song Learning Time Stamps:
Start time of teaching: 00:02:39
Start time of reprise: 00:13:14

Links:
Ana Lucia's website: https://www.adivins.com 
Divins Music Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/divinsmusic/ 
Azul Healing website: https://www.azulhealing.com 
Azul Healing Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/azulhealing/ 
Emerging album on Bandcamp: https://divins.bandcamp.com/album/emerging 

Nuts & Bolts: 4:4, minor, unison

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Song: Towo Kalona
Music by: Alix Thorpe

Notes: I did something a little different in the way I shared this -- I took time with the proto-Celtic, so you could be comfortable singing in a Bronze-Era language... and then there's the usual looped section, with a harmony above and below -- but then at the reprise, I sing just the melody with piano, and then just the piano so you can sing the melody yourself, and allow me to accompany you. I find this song of Alix Thorpe's beautifully addictive, and there's something about singing in a bone language that feels like healing perspective to me. After you are snagged by the melody and parts on the podcast, buy it from her on Bandcamp, where you can hear the full English lyrics! 

Songwriter Info: Alix is a mother, a birth doula and a shiatsu practitioner who lives in Devon in England. She found her voice and began writing songs only a few years ago. Song for Alix is a way of prayer and an expression of soul.  She has written several songs in proto-Celtic; a kind of "spirit language" and ancestral mother tongue made of the earliest traceable fragments of the Celtic languages, dating back around 4000 years. Dreaming with proto-Celtic has been a powerful vehicle for kindling connection with her ancestral roots. Alix's songs are particularly inspired by whales, the spirit of the rose, Buddhism and honouring sacred rites of passage.

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

Song Learning Time Stamps:
Start time of teaching: 00:03:01
First full singing: 00:10:40
Start time of reprise: 00:20:16
Just piano: 00:21:20

Links:
Alix's Bandcamp: https://alixthorpe.bandcamp.com/track/towo-kalona 

Nuts & Bolts: 3:4, melody with 2 harmonies

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