Song Form: Call & Response - A Breath of Song

Published on: July 1, 2026

239. My Body is Perfect

Song: My Body is Perfect

Music by: Kaitie Ty Warren

Song Learning Time Stamps:

Start of teaching: 00:02:54

Start of reprise: 00:14:00

Lyrics:

Your body is perfect

(my body is perfect)

Just the way it is

(just the way it is)

Your body is perfect

(my body is perfect)

Just the way it is

(just the way it is)

(feel free to sing "your body is perfect" or "my body is perfect" according to the needs of the moment.)

This song is a good zipper song. Here are some suggestions:

my health is perfect

my timing is perfect

my offer is perfect

my singing is perfect

my voice is perfect

Notes: Kaitie started quite a discussion around our house with this song. What is perfect? Who gets to decide? And why is it so darn comforting to be told you're perfect, anyway? But when I first sang this song with Kaitie at Heather Houston's Global Summit many months ago, I was struck by how much better I felt after singing it to myself -- and I have continued to sing it through a flare of pain that I'm still seeking answers for and is constricting my way of life -- and I continue to find it comforting! Maybe you will, too? Next week, I get to talk with Kaitie directly about all kinds of things, including the ways we're trying to move away from the harm done by white colonial cultures and toward a vibrant, inclusive kind of presence that hums with life and generativity.

Songwriter Info: Kaitie Ty Warren (any pronouns) grew up on Tongva and Ohlone lands, by the ocean and often dreams in fishes and songs. She is a songwriter, songleader, writer, collage artist, cartoonist, minister, and performing artist. She is the founder of Living Room Choir, Be Heard! Voice for Parkinson's, and East Bay Song Fest, all on Ohlone lands in the Bay Area CA. She has a background in theater and music. She goes by Mama to the most awesome little songleader. KaitieTyWarren.com for more; follow on Patreon and socials @KaitieTy.

Sharing Info: Kaitie's songs are available for free to humans for the sole purpose of using it with their choir(s) and song circles. For commercial and for-profit uses, please contact Kaitie via LivingRoomChoir.com. This is not for AI training or use.

Links:

"My Body is Perfect" on Kaitie's Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/kaitiety/posts/new-song-my-body-137978799

Kaitie's Patreon: www.patreon.com/kaitiety

Living Room Choir's Instagram: www.instagram.com/livingroomchoir

Living Room Choir's Website: LivingRoomChoir.com/song-library

Kaitie's Website: https://kaitietywarren.com/

Kaitie's Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kaitietywarren/

Kaitie's Bandcamp: https://kaitietywarren.bandcamp.com

Nuts & Bolts: 4:4, call and response, major

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Published on: May 6, 2026

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

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

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: September 24, 2025

205. Set It Right Again with guest Ana Hernández

Lyrics:

Call: There’s a great trouble in the land
Resp: We’re gonna set it right again
(3x)
All: We’re gonna set it right, set it right again.

More verses to zip in:
Trouble’s been brewing too many years
We need clean water and healthy food
People need housing, we’ve a right to thrive
Mass deportations tearing families apart
We are the ones who can change the world
We need education to build a just world
Families need childcare, they don’t need to go broke
We need fair wages, rich folk need to be taxed!
Add more verses to suit your actions.

Song: Set It Right Again
Music by: Ana Hernández

Notes: Ana Hernández has been in the music business for quite a while, finding ways to follow the sounds she loves, to express her activist wishes, to ease her anxiety, to remember wise words... and she writes powerful, moving community songs to do all these things! Her book, the Sacred Art of Chant, was a game changer for me when I discovered it in 2019 for the way it named how singing with repetition changed my body. It was a huge honor to be in conversation with her, and then play with harmonies as we sang together (no, I didn't get ALL of them "right"! 😊 But I was having a great time!!!) "Set It Right Again" is a song to take into protests, and Ana advises listening to the speeches to adjust the lyrics to fit... newsletter subscribers will see the flowers and the little black book that get described.

Songwriter Info: Ana Hernández is a composer, recording artist, retreat leader, and activist song leader creating and collecting tunes to build living and just communities through skillful action. A theomusicologist with NYS Poor People’s Campaign, Ana is also the author of The Sacred Art of Chant: Preparing to Practice (Skylight Paths/Turner Publishing).

Sharing Info: The song is free to share in public resistance actions and oral tradition groups. Please contact Ana for recording, streaming, or performing permission.

Song Learning Time Stamps:
Start time of teaching: 00:03:34 and 00:06:39
Start time of reprise: 01:11:55

Links:
Ana's website: https://anahernandez.org
Ana's Patreon: www.patreon.com/anahernandez
Listen on Apple Music: https://music.apple.com/in/artist/ana-hernandez/214582777
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/0NGPpe3jeQqHFeFArIqYEH
SoundCloud: https://soundcloud.com/anahermusic
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC-p9kisJu1ISLW7w6Wy2lVA
Poor People’s Campaign: https://www.poorpeoplescampaign.org/committee/new-york/
Sojourner Truth: https://www.womenshistory.org/education-resources/biographies/sojourner-truth
Ghandi’s mantra Om Sri Rama: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ramanama
Aham Prema: you are divine love: https://www.yogapedia.com/definition/9462/aham-prema
Raimon Panikkar: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raimon_Panikkar
Malka Heifitz Tussman: https://www.spiritualityandpractice.com/quotes/quotations/view/33350/spiritual-quotation
Marcia Falk The Book of Blessings: https://www.marciafalk.com/blessings.html
Hold My Hope: https://www.musicthatmakescommunity.org/teach_me_to_be_love
Open My Heart: https://www.musicthatmakescommunity.org/open_my_heart
Louis Armstrong: https://www.louisarmstronghouse.org/biography/
Miles Davis: Sketches of Spain: https://www.milesdavis.com/albums/sketches-of-spain/
Cantus Firmus in Monteverdi Magnificat: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RajAq0Yd-s4
St. Columba: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Columba
Ranunculus: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ranunculus
Alice Parker: “My belief is that a page of music conveys about five percent of the information needed to perform it.” https://giamusic.com/resource/the-anatomy-of-melody-book-g6765
Augsburg Fortress Publishers: https://www.augsburgfortresspublishers.org/
Banquet of Love album: https://anahernandez.org/album/banquet-of-love/
Mame: Ethel Merman play: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mame_(musical)
Sending You Light album: https://anahernandez.org/album/sending-you-light/
Melanie DeMore: https://www.abreathofsong.com/apps/search?q=melanie+demore
Caravan of Empathy: https://ruralmigrantministry.org/save-new-yorks-rural-economy-a-journey-of-empathy-caravan/
Copland’s Appalachian Spring and Tenderland Suite: https://www.aaroncopland.com/works/appalachian-spring/
https://www.aaroncopland.com/works/the-tender-land/
Amina Alaoui from Morocco – Alcantara: https://open.spotify.com/album/1EDReLi3Q3luXIHcUgR0k7

Nuts & Bolts: 4:4, blues minor, call and response

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Published on: February 19, 2025

179. Let Your Voice Be Heard

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Song Learning Time Stamps:
Start time of teaching: 00:03:05
Start time of reprise: 00:20:00

Lyrics:

Hmmm, let your voice be heard
Hmmm, every sacred word
Hmmm, let your song be sung
Hmmm, truth is on your tongue

Song: Let Your Voice Be Heard
Music by: Sarina Partridge

Notes: Getting access to Sarina Partridge's catalog of songs was a beautiful moment for me -- SO many good things -- wise, accepting, generous, warm -- the songs reflect the songwriter, for sure! Join me today singing "Let your voice be heard..." -- I love the laid-back feel combined with the invitation to speak up -- and listen to next week's episode to hear Sarina's own voice, getting an inside perspective of how an educator might approach song leading with full heart.

Songwriter Info: Sarina Partridge is a musician, song-leader and educator in Minneapolis, Minnesota. She feels most alive when learning, creating and sharing songs, and enjoys singing with a wide variety of music projects - Eastern European and Yiddish song, old-time music, community song-leading... and everything in between. Sarina has traveled around the world to study with master folk singers, and has toured with the traveling ensemble Northern Harmony abroad and in the USA. She has a passion for connecting people with their own creativity and with community, and uses singing to help folks develop a sense of wonder for this wild world around us. Let’s sing!
Sarina performs and teaches with several music projects/ensembles (Heartwood, Nanilo) and as a solo artist and educator; teaches at music camps (Village Harmony, Songroots, Folklore Village); and leads regular community sings and workshops in and around Minneapolis.

Sharing Info: When sharing in a money-making venture, like a workshop, class, or performance, please contact Sarina for permission and rates.

Song Learning Time Stamps:
Start time of teaching: 00:03:05
Start time of reprise: 00:20:00

Links:
Sarina's website: SarinaPartridge.com
Sarina's Patreon: patreon.com/sarinapartridge
Sarina's Bandcamp: sarinapartridge.bandcamp.com

Nuts & Bolts: 2:2, major, harmonized melody with harmonized response

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Published on: January 15, 2025

175. One Foot/Lead with Love with guest Melanie DeMore

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Song Learning Time Stamps:
Start time of teaching: 00:02:56
Start time of reprise: 01:12:05

Lyrics:

Chorus:
You gotta put one foot in front of the other,
and lead with love, put
one foot in front of the other, and lead with love.
(2x)

Verses (call and echo)
1. Don't give up hope,
you're not alone!
Don't you give up --
keep moving on.

2. Lift up your eyes,
don't you despair!
Look up ahead;
the path is there.

3. I know you're scared
and I'm scared, too!
But here I am
right next to you.

Song: One Foot/Lead with Love
Music by: Melanie DeMore

Notes: Melanie DeMore both entrances and intimidates people -- she is direct, funny, a fabulous story-teller, and fierce and broad in her love. I have to apologize to listeners for the sound quality of this interview -- we had some microphone glitches on both sides that means despite the best sound studio wizardry I could come up with, there's some distortion, and it's not the usual quality of sound. But the quality of content -- where it counts -- is top-notch. Melanie shares One Foot/Lead with Love, including the story of what sparked its creation. She talks about her family, and how the wisdom and experiences of her parents shaped the way she approaches people who hold different world views. We talk about coyotes, kids, accolades, how she takes care of herself on tour as a "4-star, card-carrying introvert". She sends us out with a charge: “Here’s what you need to do, people out there: keep your head up. Keep your heart wide open. Remember to breathe, and keep doing the work. Sing on.”

Songwriter Info: Melanie DeMore is a 3 time Grammy nominated singer/composer, choral conductor, music director, and vocal activist who believes in the power of voices raised together. In her presentations, DeMore beautifully brings her participants together through her music and commentary. DeMore facilitates vocal and stick-pounding workshops for professional choirs, and community groups as well as directing numerous choral organizations across the U.S, Canada, and beyond. She is a featured presenter of SpeakOut!-The Institute for Social and Cultural Change, the Master Teaching Artist for Music at UC Berkeley/CalPerformances; works with everyone from Baptists to Buddhists, and was a founding member of the Grammy-nominated ensemble Linda Tillery and the Cultural Heritage Choir. She is Music Director for Obeah Opera by Nicole Brooks and will be touring with the company to South Africa. She is a charter member of Threshold Choir founded by Kate Munger, a mentor to the Jerusalem Youth Chorus and conducts song circles with an emphasis on the voice as a vessel for healing. In her own words: "A song can hold you up when there seems to be no ground beneath you."

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

Song Learning Time Stamps:
Start time of teaching: 00:02:56
Start time of reprise: 01:12:05

Links:
Lady of Peace – written by Melanie for her mom: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=94Clq6DHpNA
Threshold Choir: https://thresholdchoir.org/
Children’s Music Network: https://childrensmusic.org/
Bessie Jones: https://open.spotify.com/artist/1BUnRZrkCS0NoTiXefkW6U
Ella Jenkins: https://ellajenkins.com/
Oakland Youth Chorus: https://www.oigc.org/oyc
Obeah Opera (South African/Toronto) – about Tituba: https://obeahopera.com/
All One Tribe collective album: https://open.spotify.com/album/1EEVSonqRIjEB0DapNIRs8
Melanie's GoFundMe for a home in Taos, NM: https://gofund.me/6be198cb
Taos pueblo – Tewa people: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tewa
Bebe & Cece Winans – gospel singers: https://open.spotify.com/artist/3WNUkxJcJeliFx9KXWXMgs
John Lewis: https://civilrightstrail.com/experience/rep-john-lewis/
Margaret Nes - visual artist: https://www.ventanafineart.com/margaret-nes
Something Moving by Mary Watkins: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E3RTzI4-j64
Whirimako Black: https://open.spotify.com/artist/0dzCFvKwiJQ4w9ViwLzs49
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/melanie.demore/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/butchyg3/
Melanie's email: melaniedemore(at)earthlink.net

Nuts & Bolts: 2:2, major, call & echo, chorus & verse, 3-part harmony on chorus

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Published on: December 4, 2024

170. Over/Under with guest Lyndsey Scott

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Song Learning Time Stamps:
Start time of teaching: 00:05:15
Start time of reprise: 01:06:15

Lyrics:

Over / under
All the way through
Over / under
Back to you
Over / under
All the way down
Over / under
Lost then found

I am the love that doesn't leave
We do this til we free us!
Feel thru the dark is how we see
We do this til we free us!
We are remembering how to grieve
We do this til we free us!
You are a part of my family
We do this til we free us!

Song: Over/Under
Music by: Lyndsey Scott

Notes: Lyndsey Scott talks about her radical trust in life, how she perceives energy, the playfulness and generosity of cyclical wisdom. She shares the origin story of this song, Over/Under, and wisdom from her co-creator, Anthony R. Rhodd about gratitude. We were recording the Thursday after the US elections -- as I listen to the focus on how to find resources and energy, I realize how depleted I felt in the moment of recording. And yet talking with Lyndsey buoyed me -- the deep attunement that she practices shines through our conversation -- I feel like I can really feel the truth of "I am the love that doesn't leave..."

Songwriter Info: Lyndsey Scott is a multimedia artist, songleader, songwriter, and ritualist committed to exploring community singing as a technology of belonging and a strategy for mutual liberation. She currently co-facilitates the yearlong cohort of emergent earth-based ceremonial study with Earthkeeper Wisdom School (Hartsburg, MO), leads song for politicized somatics practitioners in Embodying Racial Justice’s yearlong program, Opening to Freedom (Millerton, NY), and teaches "Community Singing as Collective Power" at the University of Iowa School of Music's Grant Wood Fellow.

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

Song Learning Time Stamps:
Start time of teaching: 00:05:15
Start time of reprise: 01:06:15

Links:
Lyndsey's website: https://www.lyndseyscott.earth/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lila.gaia/
Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/lyndseyscott
We Do This 'Til We Free Us by Mariame Kaba: https://www.haymarketbooks.org/books/1664-we-do-this-til-we-free-us
What It Takes to Heal by Prentice Hemphill: https://prentishemphill.com/book
The Wild Edge of Sorrow by Francis Weller: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/250673/the-wild-edge-of-sorrow-by-francis-weller/
Song Carrier Toolkit by Liz Rog: https://www.centerforbelonging.earth/store/p/song-carrier-toolkit
Earthkeeper Wisdom School: https://www.earthkeeperwisdomschool.org/
Rebeccah Bennett, Root Teacher, The InPower Institute: https://inpowerinstitute.com/
The Milk-Eyed Mender by Joanna Newsom: https://joannanewsom.bandcamp.com/album/the-milk-eyed-mender
Meredith Monk: https://www.meredithmonk.org/
Emma Koeppel: https://soundcloud.com/emma-koeppel
Anthony R. Rhodd: https://substack.com/@anthonyrrhodd
Woman Stands Shining (Pat McCabe): https://www.patmccabe.net/

Nuts & Bolts: 4:4, minor, unison or harmonized, call & response section

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Tags

239. My Body is Perfect

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

205. Set It Right Again with guest Ana Hernández

179. Let Your Voice Be Heard

175. One Foot/Lead with Love with guest Melanie DeMore

170. Over/Under with guest Lyndsey Scott