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  • Published on

    228. All Call This Home

    3 Layer 4:4 Birds Earth Gratitude & Trust Home Notice Play Praise & Wonder Scale: Ionian (Major) Song Form: Layer Uptempo
    Song Learning Time Stamps:
    Start time of teaching: 00:03:06
    Start time of reprise: 00:15:28
    Lyrics:

    Rock dove roosting on a roofline
    Willow thicket on a highway island
    Dandelion in a sidewalk crack
    Muddy puddle with a raccoon track

    You are never alone, and
    We all call this home, and

    You, are, never alone
    We, all, are wild animals

    -Plainfield, VT April 16, 2025
    Picture
    Song: All Call This Home
    Music by: Heidi Wilson

    Notes: Heidi Wilson has devoted herself to the craft of songweaving -- and it shows! My groups have all loved this song -- a great mix of almost-rap with sweet harmony swells, and trading back and forth playfully. Once it's in your head, it stays, providing a rhythmic counterpart to walks and a sweet sense of neighborliness with all our more-than-human kin.

    Songwriter Info: Heidi Wilson has a passion for sharing songs in service to community and the wild world; songs that celebrate the seasons, bring groups together, offer thanks, muster courage, and make room for healing. She is drawn to the potent and surprising journey of deep-listening and collaborative emergent music making. Heidi has been leading community singing groups in Vermont for the last 15 years and currently sings with the vocal trio Heartwood. 

    Sharing Info: 
    Heidi says: "I’m on an ongoing journey figuring out how to share songs (that feel like generous gifts from the world) while also making a living as a songweaver. I am happy for the songs coming through me to be shared! If people are singing them in informal, community, or ritual settings that’s awesome, sing away! If people are sharing them in a setting where they are making a bunch of money or there is a budget for educational/repertoire materials and they are able to pass some of those resources my way I appreciate that. I would feel good about that reciprocity coming in the form of a one time donation (venmo: @Heidi-willsing) or by joining me on Patreon and supporting my songweaving work at any monthly level. And if you are interested in recording any of these songs let’s talk!
    Looking for recordings of more songs? I mostly share music through Patreon, an online platform to support artists. On my Patreon site I’ve posted 80+ songs. Each post has downloadable practice recordings of the harmony parts. And through Patreon I also link to a spreadsheet where the songs are organized into categories, so you can listen through and find just the right song for Spring, or Gratitude, or Trees."

    Song Learning Time Stamps:
    Start time of teaching: 00:03:06
    Start time of reprise: 00:15:28

    Links:
    Website: www.HeidiAnnWilson.com 
    Patreon: www.patreon.com/HeidiWilson 
    Heartwood Trio: www.heartwoodtrio.com 

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

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    225. Walk Me Home with guest Una McCann

    4:4 Earth Gratitude & Trust Home Journey Light Moon Protection & Presence Safe Scale: Ionian (Major) Song Form: Harmonized Trust Wind
    Song Learning Time Stamps:
    Start time of teaching: 00:05:32
    Start time of reprise: 01:28:35
    Lyrics:

    ​Oh wind blow away the doubt circling around my head instead
    Let me know the blessing of my feet upon the ground

    [Chorus:]
    (And) walk me home, 
    (And) walk me home, 
    (And) walk me home again

    (And) walk me home, 
    (And) walk me home, 
    (And) walk me home again
    .................
    Oh moon shine a silver light illuminating all that I would hide 
    Guide me through the shadows, trusting in the steps before me 

    [Chorus]
    .................
    Over and over, your touch at my shoulder, guiding me homeward again
    .................
    Oh mountain, be kind to me, shelter me from storms that would arise, wise and silent, you show me how to follow through

    [Chorus]
    Picture
    Song: Walk Me Home
    Music by: Una McCann

    Notes: What do you do with anger? Can you set shame gently aside so you can get out of the way of what's coming through you and wants to be voiced? How do you move through times of doubt and grief to do what you are called to do? Una shares with us a beautiful song companion for walking each other home, and we explore these questions and so, so much more in this extended conversation. 

    Songwriter Info:
    Una McCann is based in Belfast, Northern Ireland where she works as a choir leader and songwriter.  She has been leading groups in harmony since her school days and has been working with adult choirs for 15 years.  
    Una is a proud and active member of the UK Charity The Natural Voice Network, and works in line with the principle that we are all born to sing.  She is passionate about the power of song and creativity to transform lives.
    Song writing is a part of life that sustains and supports Una.  She writes melodies and words that she needs to hear in that moment and is always delighted when they resonate with other people too.  
    In her spare time, Una enjoys running singing holidays and retreats.

    Sharing Info: Una says: "Please sing these songs; they were born to be sung. If you make money through singing the songs and would like to support me in my work as a song carrier, please purchase songs through my website or drop me an email for more options."

    Song Learning Time Stamps:
    Start time of teaching: 00:05:32
    Start time of reprise: 01:28:35

    Links:
    Website: www.unamccann.org
    Facebook: Una McCann Music
    Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/unamccann47/ 
    Rhiannon: https://rhiannonmusic.com/home 
    Earthsong camps with John Bowker: https://www.earthsong.ie/about-earthsong
    A note in sand or water: https://youtu.be/-CZlrgq8syE?si=VzijHkmvxuPUJ7MD 
    The first song Una remembers singing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8QfXXj8RoPk&t=32s 
    Stéphane Grappelli – musicians of the eyes and musicians of the ears: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St%C3%A9phane_Grappelli
    Una’s Soundcloud – Henrietta!: https://soundcloud.com/unamccann/henrietta 
    Tara Brach – teachings of kindness and wellbeing: https://www.tarabrach.com/ 
    Natural Voices Network: https://www.naturalvoice.net/ 
    Indigo Girls: https://www.indigogirls.com/ 
    The Roches: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Roches 
    Airplane: https://youtu.be/MhVcbRldEfs?si=rubOOaeZ2S8lXF-a (from the Indigo Girls 1992 “Rites of Passage” album – my gift to Una was finding the song she loved!)
    Gamelan instrument: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gamelan 

    Nuts & Bolts: 4:4, major, harmonized (intriguingly, it starts with a descending Phrygian scale...)

    Join this community of people who love to use song to help navigate life? Absolutely:
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  • Published on

    223. The Reach

    4:4 Cycles Earth Generations Gratitude & Trust Grow Hope Praise & Wonder Scale: Ionian (Major) Seasons Song Form: Harmonized Song Form: Round Trust
    Song Learning Time Stamps:
    Start time of teaching: 00:02:50
    Start time of reprise: 00:14:29
    Lyrics:

    The earth
    opened in the spring, opens
    in all springs. Nameless,
    ancient, many lived, we reach
    through ages with the seed.

    – Wendell Berry, “Rising”
    New Collected Poems
    ​(Counterpoint Press, 2012)
    Picture
    Song: The Reach
    Words by: Wendell Berry
    Music by: Malcolm Dalglish

    Notes: I learned this beautiful round from the amazing Moira Smiley, who connected me with Malcolm Dalglish to request his permission to share on this podcast. I continue to be amazed by the seeds we sow when we befriend and tend each other, unfolding understanding and trust. It's not always easy to reach forward or back -- but these seeds we plant with each other open, even if the winter is long and icy! At least that's where this poem is taking me today. And let me tell you, I practiced deep love and care for all of you whose voices are comfortable in higher ranges than mine! I taught it where I'm comfy -- but I did the reprise where Malcolm actually set the sheet music (nice tenor/soprano range) -- so if you want to buy the sheet music from him and sing along with it, that's where you should head...

    Songwriter Info: Malcolm Dalglish is a hammer dulcimer player and composer from Bloomington Indiana, whose many vocals celebrate a love of our natural world. He has set many poems by Kentucky author, and farmer, Wendell Berry. 

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

    Song Learning Time Stamps:
    Start time of teaching: 00:02:50
    Start time of reprise: 00:14:29

    Links:
    Malcolm's website: https://oooliticmusic.com/ 

    Nuts & Bolts: 4:4, major, round with optional descant

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  • Published on

    211. Set Us Free

    4:4 Earth Freedom Generosity Peace Scale: Ionian (Major) Song Form: Unison Wisdom
    Song Learning Time Stamps:
    Start time of teaching: 00:02:49
    Start time of reprise: 00:15:29
    Lyrics:

    SET US FREE
    by Elise Witt,
    Spanish translation Lisset Rodes
    inspired by Rev. Timothy McDonald
    ©Non Si Sa Mai Music ASCAP

    Porqué MENTIR para buscar la verdad?
            We cannot LIE our way to the truth
            We spin and spin the earth around
    El mundo gira y girara’
            MENTIR nos destruye (Amen)
                    LYING will destroy us (Amen)
            Mas LA VERDAD nos liberara’
                    TRUTH will set us free

    Porqué GASTAR para endeudarnos mas?
            We cannot SPEND our way out of debt
            We spin and spin the earth around
    El mundo gira y girara’
            L’AMBICION destruye (Amen)
                    GREED will destroy us (Amen)
            LA SENCILLEZ nos liberara’
                    GENEROSITY will set us free

    Porqué PELEAR para lograr la paz?
            We cannot WAR our way to peace
            We spin and spin the earth around
    El mundo gira y girara’
            LA GUERRA destruye (Amen)
                    VIOLENCE will destroy us (Amen)
            Solo LA PAZ nos liberara’
                    PEACE will set us free
    Picture
    Song: Set Us Free
    Music by: Elise Witt

    Notes: Elise is an inventive songleader and huge heart in Georgia, USA, whom I met online during the pandemic doing vocal improv with our shared teacher, Rhiannon... but I had been in contact with her before then because I wanted to sing a song of hers with my community chorus. Here, she has set words from the Rev. Timothy McDonald, calling us to the kind of integrity that gives freedom. I teach the song a capella, so you can sing with just my voice -- and then do it with piano at the end, so you can experience it that way -- and then if you follow the shownote links, you can sing it in Spanish and English with Elise, Judith & Lisset Rodés -- Lisset wrote the Spanish words... and it's a little slower, a little more legato than I sang it. I love it when there's a chance to compare different versions of the same song!

    Songwriter Info: Elise’s concerts of Global, Local & Homemade Songs™ and her Impromptu Glorious Chorus™ workshops create and connect singing communities around the world. Born in Switzerland, raised in NC, and living in Atlanta since 1977, Elise speaks 5 languages fluently and sings in at least a dozen more. The Elise Witt Choral Series features choral arrangements of her original compositions and she recently published All Singing, a songbook with 58 original songs including music notation, lyrics and chords, stories and photos.
    A founding member of Atlanta’s Theatrical Outfit, Elise spent many years as a Resident Artist, visiting communities around the state of Georgia and the Southeast, teaching global music and writing local songs with students of all ages.
    From 2009 until 2024 Elise served as Director of Music Programs at the Global Village Project, a non-profit, special purpose middle school for teenage refugee girls in Decatur Georgia, for which she published Imagine A Circle: The Global Village Songbook, Using Singing and Songwriting to teach English for Multi-lingual learners.
    Elise currently gathers singers of all persuasions in joyous circles, and continues her global touring.

    Sharing Info: Elise says: "I always love to share songs in oral (by ear) tradition and I'd love to hear from you how and with whom you share the song...
    AND the song is also available as a choral arrangement (SATB, SSAA, TTBB) on my website https://elisewitt.com/web/ewcs-choral-music/"
    ​
    Song Learning Time Stamps:
    Start time of teaching: 00:02:49
    Start time of reprise: 00:15:29

    Links:
    Website: www.EliseWitt.com 
    A glimpse of what I do: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e0YHTe_Q7bE&feature=youtu.be 
    All Singing: The Elise Witt Songbook: https://elisewitt.com/web/product-category/songbook/
    “Jenny Jenkins” global community music/art video created for DAS Year 1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QCmNNZIVZkw&t=2s
    “Ready or Not” global community music/art video created for DAS Year 2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UNsUsSobImw&t=11s 
    Imagine A Circle: The Global Village Project Songbook: https://elisewitt.com/web/gvp-songbook/ 
    Elise's Bandcamp: https://www.BandCamp.com/EliseWitt 
    Choral arrangements by Elise: https://elisewitt.com/web/ewcs-choral-music/ 
    Choral arrangements for Set Us Free in particular: https://elisewitt.com/web/product/set-us-free/ 
    Spanish and English version of Set Us Free in concert: https://youtu.be/L5IjAhJZyOo?si=5WIleerpseLX_rxo 

    Nuts & Bolts: 4:4, major, many verses

    Join this community of people who love to use song to help navigate life? Absolutely:  https://dashboard.mailerlite.com/forms/335811/81227018071442567/share

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  • Published on

    209. We Shall Be Known with Flow Singers

    2:2 Change Earth Fire Friendship Future Hope Love Scale: Ionian (Major) Song Form: Harmonized Strength
    Song Learning Time Stamps:
    Melody: 00:04:20
    High harmony: 00:07:16
    Low harmony: 00:11:34
    Whole song: 00:15:05
    Lyrics:

    We shall be known by the company we keep
    By the ones who circle round to tend these fires
    We shall be known by the ones who sow and reap
    The seeds of change alive from deep within the Earth
     
    It is time now
    It is time now that we thrive 
    It is time we lead ourselves into the well
    It is time now
    And what a time to be alive
    In this "Great Turning" we shall learn to lead in love
    In this "Great Turning" we shall learn to lead in love
    Picture
    Song: We Shall Be Known
    Music by: Karisha Longaker of MaMuse

    Notes: I could not be more delighted than to bring you this beloved song in a real-life song-sharing situation. My Flow Singing folk were singing "We Shall Be Known" for the third week -- so we simply recorded! You'll sing with them as they review the main melody, learn the upper harmony for the first time -- and then I inserted a quick teach of the low harmony -- and then we get to sing "in the room" with the Flow Singers, who were leaning into the song in such a beautiful way. I feel so lucky with the company I get to keep... and next week, I find myself in a Zoom room with Karisha Longaker and Sorah Nutting themselves, talking about the "insanely fun, incredibly connected" first years, and what it means in practical terms to "believe in kindness as our common wealth." 

    Songwriter Info: MaMuse (“Ma” as in Mamma; “Muse” as in the one who inspires) was born out of a collaboration between songwriters Karisha Longaker and Sorah Nutting. 2008 was a year of great alchemy. Fires erupted in Northern California, a great wind of inspiration blew through, catalyzing a series of songs written from the soil and rivers, ash and heat of Chico where these two musicians met.
    In the early days these troubadours toted instruments around town by bicycle and shared their songs at farmers markets, community gatherings, small cafes and festivals. Not too long after, these two voices became iconic to the Chico community, representing idyllic values of friendship, community, love for nature and care for Self and World. The love spread, sisterhood held strong through two decades of LIFE: children, relationships arriving and dissolving, making home in many new places. 
    MaMuse songs such as “We Shall Be Known” and “Hallelujah” have sprouted wings and are now sung at the bed sides of birthing mothers, round campfires, at weddings and funerals... All places where people are gathered to celebrate and to mourn. These are songs born of the Folk lineage; songs for all of us.

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

    Song Learning Time Stamps:
    Melody: 00:04:20
    High harmony: 00:07:16
    Low harmony: 00:11:34
    Whole song: 00:15:05

    Links:
    Show info, bookings and newsletter signup: www.mamuse.org
    Instagram: www.instagram.com/mamusemusic 
    Patreon: www.patreon.com/mamuse
    Download and contribute to recorded music funds: mamuse.bandcamp.com 
    Lisa Littlebird's page for We Shall Be Known: thebirdsings.com/we-shall-be-known/
    Burlington, VT Flow Singers: ​www.juneberrymusic.com/flow-singing.html

    Nuts & Bolts: 2:2, major, 3-part harmony

    Join this community of people who love to use song to help navigate life? Absolutely:  https://dashboard.mailerlite.com/forms/335811/81227018071442567/share

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  • Published on

    203. Towo Kalona

    3:4 Ancestors Beauty Dreams Earth Gentle Heart Light Lullaby Night Prayer Rain Sky Song Form: Harmonized Stars Water
    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

    ​Lyrics:

    Towo kalona, kaini x 2
    Torano, kamawo,
    Wera, wera
    Manatlo

    Towo - your
    Kalona - heart
    Kaini - beautiful
    Torano - thunder
    Kamawo - sorrow, deep sadness
    Wera, wera - rain, rain
    Manatlo - spray of blossoming flowers

    (Find more English lyrics for the full song on Alix's Bandcamp page)
    Picture
    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