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.
​
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Notes: It's a generous mast year here around the Connecticut River -- another gift of the trees, our breathing partners. Joy brought this song to my Pocket Songs group in the fall of 2020, and it is much loved by the Pocket Song Singers. A thing to know about Joy is that she has an extraordinary ability to be present with the feelings of those around her -- and an incredible capacity for delight and kindness… as well as an openness to learning that is hard to have unless you feel confident about your own innate worth. There's something about this song that transmits that sense of one's own standing: present, and also willing to change. It is a TOUGH one for me to sing in tune!!! (Thanks, Joy!) There are back-up parts that remind me of my once-upon-a-time deep desire to be one of the Shirelles, and a sweeping melodic line for the first part, followed by a breathing, in-and-out line for the second part. I hope you find it as satisfying and affirming as I do.

Songwriter Info: Joy Tru combines heartfelt harmonies with vocal percussion, electronic layers, guitar and flute to create unique, honest folk and pop songs evoking love and hope. She also leads circlesinging and creates live improvised prayer songs and soundscapes using a loop station.

Links: 
Joy's website: joytru.com
Joy singing Falling Acorns herself: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DFLvejDaz7E

Nuts & Bolts: 6:8, Ionian (major), 2-layers with 4-layer background
​
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: Kathleen says she caught this comforting song while lying on a huge rock next to the Schuylkill River in Philadelphia, crying her heart out over a relationship that was transforming.  A beautiful oak tree was growing out of the rock, and as the song was born her sorrowful feelings washed through with the sound of the river, and she was left feeling whole, and at peace with the way things were. She also shared this story with me, "One time I sang the song in a show with a group of women drummers. Their teacher, a lovely African man, also played with us in the concert and rehearsal. After I taught them in the rehearsal and we had played it for a while, the African drummer told me that the song felt like an African song to him. That was one of my happiest moments, since I have for so long felt inspired by African diaspora music. And I did not really feel like I wrote that song... it just came through as a whole as I cried by the river." 

Songwriter info: Kathleen has been writing, collecting and sharing songs for over 50 years. Her songs were awarded a North Carolina Arts Council Songwriter Fellowship. She currently leads the Bodies, Voices & Spirit Choruses in North Carolina and Maine, and is also a Dances of Universal Peace leader. She's a student of the Heart, and she facilitates The Work of Byron Katie.

Links:
Kathleen's blogpost & recording of Ancient Green with guitar, bass, piano, and drum. (So much fun to sing with!) 
​https://www.kathleenhannan.com/song-blog/songs-for-our-journey-26
Kathleen's online presence: www.kathleenhannan.com
Kathleen's chorus: https://bodiesvoicesandspirit.weebly.com/
Kathleen's song blog, which is searchable by title, subject or excerpts from lyrics: https://www.kathleenhannan.com/song-blog

Kathleen's most recent CD is Seen & Unseen: Songs from the Light of Midlife
Purchase CD here: https://www.kathleenhannan.com/seen--unseen-cd1.html
Lyrics are here: https://www.kathleenhannan.com/lyrics--credits.html
Photos from the recording process: https://www.kathleenhannan.com/photos.html

Nuts & Bolts: 4:4, Ionian (major), round with possible harmonies, or optionally could be taught as a 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 Tip Jar (whoo-hoo!!!!), or by making comments, leaving reviews, suggesting songs or songwriters (including yourself) ..... your participation matters!

Notes  Samara Jade and I talk embodied intuition, the musical Rent, vocal health, names, mycelium, Moonshadow and trust... and Samara shares "I Trust My Roots". I sing along, periodically smudging the words, as I often do when I first learn a song (maybe you do, too?). A squidge of laughter, a dollop of wonder... it was a fabulous hour!

Music referenced in the show:
Cat Stevens, Moonshadow
the musical Rent by Jonathan Larson
Pink Floyd The Dark Side of the Moon
singer/songwriter Johanna Warren

Songwriter Info A modern folk troubadour, Samara is dedicated to the art of listening deeply and crafting soul-centered songs that are medicine for the moment. Inspired greatly by the wild wisdom of nature and the landscape of the human psyche, her songs ride the crest of the unknown and balance between shadows and light.
Coming from a musical background as diverse as classical, jazz, folk, Broadway musical and progressive rock, Samara stitches together a unique tapestry of sounds with a quality of musicianship distinctly her own. As heart-opening as they are intellect-stimulating, A fan once coined the term "Philosopholk" to describe Samara's tunes, and no one has ever described it better in a one-word nutshell.
Samara lives in her van, Vincent VanGo, and is committed to sharing her song-beings around like thousands of spiraling maple helicopter seeds - which is, not coincidentally, what a samara is.

You can find her in all these places:

On Patreon: www.patreon.com/samarajade
On Bandcamp: https://samarajade.bandcamp.com/
On her website: www.samarajademusic.com
On Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/samarajademusic
On Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/user/WildPamplemousse/videos

Nuts and Bolts Zipper song in 4:4, Aeolian (natural minor).

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!