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    250. Cycle Breakers with guest Ríomas

    2:2 Ancestors Change Cycles Determination Empower Freedom Generations Harmonized Heal Journey Joy Legacy Power & Change Scale: Minor

    Song: Cycle Breakers

    Music by: Ríomas (with some lyric support from Yesh Salz)


    Song Learning Time Stamps:

    Start of teaching: 00:03:40

    Start of reprise: 01:32:12



    Lyrics:


    CHORUS

    Cycle breakers, cycle breakers, we're the generation of cycle breakers (x2)


    VERSE

    Ancestral sorrows pouring down our faces

    Heavy-laid patterns leaving no more traces

    Bringing back respectful bounds

    Our pleasure, joy, and freedom sounds

    In this lifetime, in this lifetime


    BRIDGE

    We're the ones who can, so we're the ones who must

    Stop from handing down this pain that was handed down to us

    The hardest work we'll do brings hard-earned laughter

    And becomes a dream now possible for those who come after

    Those who come after

    (will remember us as)


    OUTRO

    In this lifetime, in this lifetime


    Image description

    Notes: Ríomas gives us a conversation steeped in joy and acceptance of hard things -- in the middle of doing a hard thing, since we lost a recorded hour of our first conversation due to a tech glitch. We talk about what makes it possible to come back -- how to not get stuck -- and how that applies to breaking cycles, connecting with our ancestors of before and those to come after. I found myself inspired by their description of the culture of song circles as a way "to vision in and dream in what we’re actually trying to create that’s more beautiful and more free and more inclusive.” I was surprised and intrigued by their take on severance from rhythm and how regaining embodied, shared pulse is a resistance practice. Catch the whole interview to learn this song that Minnesota folk created a dance to, and hear how Ríomas found their new name and what it means!

     

    Songwriter Info: Ríomas (RiYo or Río for short, they/them), previously known as Shireen Amini, is a queer, trans masculine, Puerto Rican-Iranian artist and immigrant settler based in Portland, Oregon creating at the intersection of music, healing, and cultural change. Drawing upon pop and folk soul textures, gratefully and respectfully from Black and Afro-Latin lineages, they craft artful, participatory songs that invite realness and transformative energy. Bridging contemporary music mediums with ceremonial ways and resistance efforts, Ríomas creates soulful and joyful community singing experiences that reconnect people to their power and place. In spring 2026, they released their first community song album, Gather Your Resilience: Medicine for Liberation.

     

    Sharing Info: Yes -- The song is free to share in oral tradition contexts like song circles, but please contact me for permission and rates if interested in teaching this song as part of greater money-making ventures like multi-week choirs, workshops, classes, or performances or if interested in recording this song.

     

    Links:

    Liz Digitale Anderson: https://singingforliberation.com/

    Onyx Li: https://www.instagram.com/pointsoflight_mu/

    adrienne maree brown: Pleasure Activism: https://adriennemareebrown.net/book/pleasure-activism/

    CIIS San Francisco: https://www.ciis.edu/

    Plena music of Puerto Rico : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plena

    Vernon Bush: https://www.goodlifeproject.com/podcast/vernon-bush/

    Bobby McFerrin’s Circle Singing: https://circlesongs.com/

    Vision fast: https://schooloflostborders.org/programs/vision-fast/

    Doesn’t Mean by Riomas ABS Episode 249: https://www.abreathofsong.com/p/249-doesnt-mean

    Mountain Song, Te Martin: https://www.lamafoundation.org/mountain-song/

    Tracy Robertson: https://www.instagram.com/tracyljrobertson/?hl=en

    Sarina Partridge, “I Am of This Earth”: https://sarinapartridge.bandcamp.com/track/of-this-earth

    Dark as Night by Nahko And Medicine For The People: https://www.nahko.com/music 

    Persian Aush soup – a Samin Nosrat recipe is behind a NYTimes paywall, so here’s another one!: https://www.101cookbooks.com/new-year-noodle-soup/

    Los Pleneros de la Cresta: https://losplenerosdelacresta.com/

     

    Riomas’s recent album, “Gather Your Resilience,” on Bandcamp: https://riomas.bandcamp.com/album/gather-your-resilience-medicine-for-liberation

    Patreon: https://patreon.com/riomas

    Instagram: @riomasmusic

    Linktree: https://linktr.ee/riomas

    Artist Website: https://shireenamini.com/

    Music as Medicine: https://shireenaminimusicmedicine.com/

     

    Nuts & Bolts: 2:2, minor, harmonizable song form

     

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    238. Got It Goin' On

    15:8 Abundance Celebrate Determination Empower Enough Scale: Minor Song Form: Round

    Song: Got It Goin' On

    Music by: Patricia Norton


    Song Learning Time Stamps:


    Start of teaching: 00:03:14

    Start of reprise: 00:13:59



    Lyrics:


    I got it, you got it, we got it

    goin' on!


    I got it, you got it, we got it

    goin' on!


    I got it, you got it, we got it

    goin' on;

    

    a next right thing; finding a

    next right thing, finding a

    next right thing, finding, oh...

    Image description

    Notes: Thanks to Liz Rog, I'm sharing this relatively new song (she requested it after hearing me sing it briefly on the road trip when we were exchanging songs.) I wrote it for my fabulous song leaders in training as we were tackling sometimes intimidating skills and breaking them apart into what we could actually try next. Singing it this week has been encouraging to me as I grapple with elevated pain levels, trying different next things to see what can help my body find more ease. I sing it, I get out of breath, I start laughing, I have to dig in a bit to keep it rolling -- by the time I was done recording, I was grinning and felt energized and like it was worth trying another thing! I hope it's a lift for you, too...

     

    Songwriter Info: You can find out more about me in general here: https://www.juneberrymusic.com/about-patricia.html

    Or the whole team that puts this podcast out here: https://www.abreathofsong.com/about.html

     

    Sharing Info: Feel free to sing this song yourself and with your friends and family as often as you please! If you are using this song in a way that is making money for you, please contribute to the A Breath of Song gratitude jar at https://www.abreathofsong.com/gratitude-jar, and/or send me a note letting me know how the song is helping you, so the song brings us into relationship. Thank you!

     

    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: 15:8, minor, 6-part round

     

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  • Published on

    232. Road Trip, Ann Arbor: Love Wears the Crown

    2:2 Change Determination Hope Love Power & Change Road Trip Scale: Aeolian (minor) Song Form: Call & Response Song Form: Unison Song Form: Unison With Separate Harmony Line

    Song: Love Wears the Crown

    Music by: Maggie Wheeler


    Song Learning Time Stamps:

    Start of teaching: 00:03:19

    Start of reprise: 00:27:13

    Lyrics:


    Let us all come together 

    Let us come together now 

    Let us sing sing sing 

    Till the walls of hate crumble down  (2x) 


    Let us sing, let us sing 

    Let us sing, let us sing, let us sing  (2x)


    Let us all come together 

    Let us come together now 

    Let us sing, sing, sing 

    Till the power of love wears the crown  (2x)


    Let us sing, let us sing 

    Let us sing, let us sing, let us sing  (2x)


    Let us all come together 

    Let us come together now 

    Let us sing, sing, sing 

    Till the power of love wears the crown


    Till the power of love, Till the power of love,

    Till the power of love, Till the power of love, power of love (6x)


    Let us all come together 

    Let us come together now 

    Let us sing, sing, sing 

    Till the power of love wears the crown

    Image description

    Notes: I'm visiting Carol Bardenstein and TatiAnah Thunberg, and Carol shares a song by Maggie Wheeler. "Love Wears the Crown" felt to Carol like the perfect song for a No Kings march, and as she teaches it to us, she talks a little about the ways she adapted it for singing in crowds without time to learn nuance... and TatiAnah and I learn it on the spot. I play with harmonies (some more successfully than others, natch!) -- and we reprise it with Carol's whole song circle, so if you're ready to join a crowd, it's time! I loved hearing about the ways these two songleaders are being led by love into interweaving their work and including folk in their circles. There's bounty here!


    Songwriter Info:

    Maggie Wheeler is best known in the U.S and internationally for her extensive work as an actress in film, television, and voice-over and most notably as the character of Janice on NBC’s hit series Friends. Maggie is a passionate singer, songwriter, choir director and workshop facilitator, teaching her vocal workshop Singing In The Stream for over 30 years. It is Maggie’s belief and experience that by singing together we build community, counteract loneliness, become inspired and energized and feel more deeply connected to others and to ourselves. Maggie is a prolific songwriter with a catalog of powerful and timely songs that have been sung by choirs and singing communities worldwide.

    Her original music for choirs and communities is available on Bandcamp, Apple Music and other music platforms.


    Carol Bardenstein is a beloved local song-catcher and song leader of numerous community song-circles and singing workshops/retreats, based in Ann Arbor, sharing her singing there, elsewhere in Southeast Michigan, and beyond! She also facilitates song circles for meaningful life-cycle events and milestones, as well as song healing for bedside, and hospice singing. More recently, she has become very involved in local iterations of the Singing Resistance movement bubbling up from the streets of Minneapolis, inspired to help facilitate the emerging synergy between community singing and singing resistance in rising to meet these times in heartful and empowering ways.

    Carol discovered heart-centered singing with others as a deep and transformative spirit portal some 15 years ago, and she’s been singing her heart out and in with others, facilitating many different kinds of song circles ever since! Grief, joy and everything in between, and all that you are, are warmly invited into her song circles, for expression, connection and communion in heart and song.  

    Contact Carol for information about her offerings via email at cbardens@umich.edu.


    TatiAnah Thunberg, LMSW (she/hers) is a somatic psychotherapist, singer, song catcher, expressive and improvisational artist, and a seasoned experiential facilitator with more than thirty years of experience guiding transformative group practice. Her work centers the voice as a path to belonging—an embodied, relational exploration of presence, creativity, and communal care.

    She is the founder of Spirit Moves LLC and co-founder of the Vocal Wilds Collective, Supper & Sing Community Jam, Ensemble Night, the Vocal Lab, Creatrix Lab, and TAZ, all circles of artists dedicated to the art of embodied improvisation in Ann Arbor, Michigan.  ​​​


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


    Links:

    https://www.goldenbridgechoir.com

    https://maggiewheeler.bandcamp.com/album/the-crow-calls 

    https://maggiewheeler.bandcamp.com/album/the-world-is-turning 

    https://music.apple.com/us/album/walk-with-me/1441718449 

    SongFest with Maggie Wheeler in 2026: https://www.eomega.org/workshops/songfest 

    Maggie says: "This song was inspired by a talk given by cultural historian Josh Kun. He spoke about a composition for 50 trumpets titled 'Walls Will Fall - The 49 Trumpets of Jericho' by Mazen Kerbaj. 

    The musicians gathered in a defunct water reservoir in Berlin.

    Mazen says, 'According to the old testament, Jericho’s walls collapsed under the sound of seven trumpeters, blowing their horns for seven days while circling around the city. Far from the religious background of the story, it is the idea of music breaking walls and barriers that is central to this composition.'

    The participating trumpet players came from from Australia, Austria, Cuba, Denmark, England, Germany, Iran, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Lebanon, Poland, Russia, Serbia, Somalia, Spain, Sweden, Syria, Turkey and the United States. 

    This story and this work deeply inspired me. I wrote LOVE WEARS THE CROWN  to invoke the power of music, the power of voices gathered to dissolve barriers, and to dismantle the walls of hatred and injustice."

    https://mazenkerbaj.bandcamp.com/album/walls-will-fall-the-49-trumpets-of-jericho 

    TatiAnah's websites:

    https://www.VocalWilds.com

    https://www.SpiritMoves.Us


    Nuts & Bolts: 2:2, minor, unison with call and response section, optional harmonies


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  • Published on

    230. Great Turning with guest Grace Oedel and singer Rebecca Csuy

    4:4 Change Determination Empower Future Hope Power & Change Scale: Aeolian (minor) Song Form: Layer Trust

    Song: Great Turning

    Music by: Joanna Colwell


    Song Learning Time Stamps:

    Start time of teaching: 00:03:03

    Start time of reprise: 01:08:19

    Lyrics:

    Part 1
    We are turning, turning 
    We’re part of a great turning
    We are turning, turning
    We’re turning it around
     
    Part 2
    I will not fear you 
    I will not harm you 
    I will not fear you
    We are turning it around 

    Part 3
    We are all in it together 
    We are turning, turning it around 

    (Gratitude to Joanna Macy, for her teachings on The Great Turning)
    Picture

    Notes: It seems fitting that Grace Oedel, who tells us she is “Not doing any of this alone," brings us a song caught by a friend of hers, Joanna Colwell... and that this song references the mentor and teacher Joanna Macy, who helped so many folk seek reconnection. Grace and I are joined by Rebecca Csuy to learn this three part song, and then we dive into a laughter-filled conversation that visits some hard questions and nourishing responses. Grace is doing vital work in the world in many different arenas, seeking ways to help us get comfortable with the enormous changes we are facing, hospicing modernity -- but she points out, “I eat chocolate chips in bed… I am not a holier-than-thou person!”  "We're all in it together," like the song says... "we are turning it around."


    Songwriter Info: Joanna Colwell is a yoga teacher and song leader in MIddlebury, Vermont. She started the Yoga Equity Project and can generally be found tearing down the patriarchy with art, song, ritual, and good cheer.


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


    Song Learning Time Stamps:

    Start time of teaching: 00:03:03

    Start time of reprise: 01:08:19


    Links:

    Grace's Substack: https://graceoedel.substack.com/ 

    Joanna Colwell – Middlebury yoga teacher:

    https://www.yogaequity.org/ 

    www.ottercreekyoga.com 

    https://www.instagram.com/ottercreekyoga/

    Joanna Macy – The Work that Reconnects: https://workthatreconnects.org/ 

    Octavia Butler: "Kindness eases change." "God is change.": https://www.octaviabutler.com/ 

    Moira Smiley on A Breath of Song: https://www.abreathofsong.com/episodes--show-notes/39-stand-in-that-river#/ , https://www.abreathofsong.com/episodes--show-notes/40-render-a-remedy-with-moira-smiley#/ 

    Heidi Wilson on A Breath of Song: https://www.abreathofsong.com/episodes--show-notes/139-bend-and-rebound#/ , https://www.abreathofsong.com/episodes--show-notes/140-the-feast-with-guest-heidi-wilson#/ , https://www.abreathofsong.com/episodes--show-notes/228-all-call-this-home#/ 

    Singing Resistance: https://linktr.ee/singingresistance 

    Kairos Center with Songs in the Key of Resistance: https://kairoscenter.org/projects/songs-in-the-key-of-resistance/ 

    NOFA – Long-Handled Spoon Dinners: https://www.nofavt.org/about/blog/announcing-new-long-handled-spoons-dinners 

    L’Chaim Jewish collective leadership in Burlington: https://www.lchaimcollective.org/ 

    Ilyse Morgenstein Fuerst, UVM professor: https://www.uvm.edu/cas/religion/profile/ilyse-morgenstein-fuerst 

    Elise Witt on A Breath of Song: https://www.abreathofsong.com/episodes--show-notes/21-song-deep-in-your-bones#/ , https://www.abreathofsong.com/episodes--show-notes/211-set-us-free#/ 

    Nero’s Expedition Up the Nile by Moondog (Louis Thomas Hardin): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zpUIzHWB_zc 

    James Baldwin “The children are always ours.”: https://www.thenation.com/article/archive/notes-house-bondage/ 

    Aylie Baker – wayfinding in Micronesia: https://emergencemagazine.org/essay/wave-patterns/ 

    Indigo Girls: https://www.indigogirls.com/ 

    Batya Levine on A Breath of Song: https://www.abreathofsong.com/episodes--show-notes/166-breathe#/ 


    Nuts & Bolts: 4:4, minor, 3-layers


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  • Published on

    229. We Will Not Stand Down

    3 Layer 4:4 Boundaries Chant Determination Empower Hope Justice Love Power & Change Scale: Ionian (Major) Song Form: Layer Strength
    Song Learning Time Stamps:
    Start time of teaching: 00:03:44
    Start time of reprise: 00:15:29
    Lyrics:

    We will not stand down
    we will not go home
    our love will move us on
    in love we're not alone

    I do not need permission to be brave
    ​
    I can do it scared
    I will do it scared​
    Picture
    ​Song: We Will Not Stand Down
    Music by: Grace Oedel

    Notes: This song came directly out of protective action, as Grace was asking herself how to develop a chant into a song -- it's got a groove, it's alive, and it's adaptable. Sing it with only a few words, or add some lyrics. Get people moving on the parts they resonate with and help them hear the collective pulse that underlies it all. Add what feels good in your body and voice -- and next week, join Grace and me for a wide-ranging conversation that asks questions about how can we keep showing up with and for each other for the long haul? How can we use rage as a fuel that doesn't burn us out, but helps us to not stand down, to not go home, to do what scares us because love is underneath that rage, moving us on!

    Songwriter Info: Grace is a doula for change and an enthusiast for collective action. She's an ordained rabbi who organizes with the L'Chaim Collective and serves as the executive director of NOFA-VT, building power for a just and delicious future. She sits on the boards of Rights and Democracy, Milk with Dignity, National Family Farm Coalition, National Sustainable Ag Coalition, the Better Selves Fellowship, and is an affiliate for the Institute for Agroecology. She leads a monthly community sing for resistance and hope that is a real banger, is a fan of desserts, and is mama to three little ones. 

    Sharing Info: The song is free to share in oral tradition groups - use it anywhere it can be helpful! - but please contact Grace for recording and/or performing permission.

    Song Learning Time Stamps:
    Start time of teaching: 00:03:44
    Start time of reprise: 00:15:29

    Links:
    Grace's Substack: https://graceoedel.substack.com/ 

    Nuts & Bolts: 4:4, major, 3-layers

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  • Published on

    220. Pray With Our Feet with guest Paul Vasile

    2:2 Change Determination Empower Hope Power & Change Prayer Scale: Aeolian (minor) Song Form: Unison
    Song Learning Time Stamps:
    Start time of teaching: 00:04:35
    Start time of reprise: 01:15:00
    Lyrics:

    It's not enough to offer thoughts and prayers.
    It's not enough to say that we care. 
    It's not enough to hope that things will change. 
    We've got to pray with our feet,
    pray with our feet, pray with our feet
    and get out, out on the street.
    Picture
    Song: Pray With Our Feet
    Words by: Paul Vasile, based on a quotation by Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel
    Music by: Paul Vasile

    Notes: This is what folk in Minneapolis are doing -- praying with their feet, getting out on the street. They're singing songs to bless each other, the people they're protecting, and the ICE agents who are so misguided. And this is not the only place in the world where people of "middle power" gather -- not super-powers, not uber-wealthy -- just people who care about living in a world where we feed and educate our children, hold jobs with purpose. Paul Vasile describes it as "belonging belovedness -- you are safe, you are seen, you are heard." In this conversation, we dive into the sometimes knotty weeds of faith and how someone who is deeply connected in a faith tradition might want to expand into questions of what world we want to create together. Big trees. "Talk less, sing more." "As a queer person, I experienced a faith that helped me be a bigger, better me."

    Songwriter Info:
    Paul Vasile (he/him) is a church musician, teacher, coach, and composer who finds his greatest joy in collaborative and community-centered work. Committed to modeling expansive, imaginative, and hospitable experiences of music making wherever he goes, Paul's leadership builds trust, invites spaces of creativity, vulnerability, and play, and supports practices of reflection and holistic learning.
    For the past decade he has offered short- and long-term transitional leadership, consulting services, and creative resources to faith communities in seasons of discernment, challenge, and transformation. From 2016 to 2023, Paul served as the Executive Director of Music that Makes Community, a non-profit that shares "paperless" (oral tradition) leadership practices and songs. He traveled across North America modeling distinctive approaches to communal singing and learning at retreat centers, conferences, denominational gatherings, seminaries, and in congregations of all sizes.
    Paul also composes music that invites communities to express and explore their connection to sacred stories, their bodies, and the ecosystems that sustain us. His music is represented in Glory to God, All Creation Sings, and Voices Together, as well as The Hymn Society’s resource, Songs for the Holy Other: Hymns Affirming The LGBTQIA2S+ Community.

    Sharing Info: Please buy sheet music on Paul's website if you plan to share this song as a songleader.

    Song Learning Time Stamps:
    Start time of teaching: 00:04:35
    Start time of reprise: 01:15:00

    Links:
    Paul's website: https://www.paulvasile.com/ 
    Paul's Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lovedintobeing/ 
    Sheet music for Pray With Our Feet: https://www.paulvasile.com/products/pray-with-our-feet
    Feb 7th workshop at Lutheran church in Ft. Washington, MD with Maren Marchesini: https://www.sharingthesong.org/
    Inspiration for lyrics, including quote by Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel: https://www.tbemaine.org/praying-with-hearts-and-feet 

    Music that Makes Community: https://www.musicthatmakescommunity.org/ 
    Rev. Donald Schnell, a 2012 interview as Music Makes Community was beginning: https://www.conversations.org/story.php?sid=329
    Bobby McFerrin: https://bobbymcferrin.com/ 
    Taizé chants: https://www.taize.fr/en/the-songs 
    Chanda Rule: https://www.chandarule.com/
    Hold Me by Nina Wise: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yxU_egWayc4&t=16s
    Nina Wise: https://ninawise.com

    East Coast songleader trainings:
    Mila Redwood in Toronto: https://www.milaredwood.ca/song-leader-training
    Patricia in Burlington, VT: https://www.juneberrymusic.com/songleader-training.html 

    Alice Parker:     https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alice_Parker
    Liz Rog -- here's a place to find her book on songleading: https://www.centerforbelonging.earth/
    Arvo Pärt – Passio: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Passio_(P%C3%A4rt) 
    Spencer LaJoye: https://www.spencerlajoye.com/ 
    Spencer's song Plowshare Prayer: https://youtu.be/MhOZv5i7CHY?si=S5bbjdBDJP2cU_4I

    Nuts & Bolts: 2:2, minor, unison

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