All Is Change

by Anni Zylstra

Anni Zylstra (they/them) is a multidisciplinary folk artist based in the traditional homelands of the Oceti Sakowin and Ho-chunk in SW so-called Wisconsin.   Some of the realms their work encompasses include traditional willow basketry, agroforestry, polyphonic singing, arts organizing, directing, and  teaching.  All of Anni's work is rooted in both deep reverence for the nonhuman world, as well as visions of radical inclusion and reimagining who is welcome in the the rural folkscape.

All is Change, (formerly known as Blessed Motion), is a 4-part acknowledgement of Life as an unpredictable, ever-changing movement toward itself. The melody first came crouching in a rock bed next to a fast moving fork of the Trinity River, where salmon were in their first week of journeying to their spawning sites in northern California, and inspired from words about Martin Prechtel's experience surviving a devastating earthquake in Guatemala in the 1970's.
Years after writing this song, upon reading the works of Octavia Butler and other visionary Black futurists and science fiction authors, Anni dedicates this song to their work, which they believe is the real visionary and earth-healing work of these times. - Anni

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LYRICS:

Part 1:
I believed in solid ground
until I saw the earth in motion,

In the winds of steady change
and in the ever-rolling ocean.

Part 2:
All moves on in perfect, perfect motion.
All is change and ever-rolling ocean.

Solo:
All is moving, all is change, 
Though I once believed that there might somehow be 
Something firm beneath my feet, but

All is motion, and all is well 
For solid ground is just a myth 
For those who never swim in it.

All is moving in blessed change, 
Oh the world we know will come and go 
And everything will rearrange, so

Be the ground beneath that sky,
Tumbling round the by and by.
All is change, so am I.
Li li li, li li li

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Don’t Numb To This

by Abigail Bengson

Abigail and Shaun Bengson, are a married composing and performing duo raising two children in Queens! Their music ranges from musical theater productions to on-the-spot songspells. They believe grief and joy are the same thing. They are interested in anything that gets us all free.

Abigail shared this spontaneous song on her Instagram page (2/14/2023), and it’s been a lifeline for me throughout this past year. As the news continues to bring up more reasons to feel overwhelming grief, this song is a steady reminder that our breadth and depth of feeling is an integral part of our aliveness.

Support The Bengsons via patreon.

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LYRICS:

Don’t numb to this
Don’t numb it out
Let it all flow in and out
You’re strong enough to feel it all
And keep your heart alive

Stay soft to this
Don’t numb it out
Let yourself breathe in and out
You’re strong enough to feel it all
And keep your heart alive

Don’t numb to this
Don’t numb it out
Let yourself breathe in and out
You’re strong enough to feel it all
And keep your heart alive

Don’t numb to this
Don’t block it out
Let it all flow in and out
You’re strong enough to feel it all
And keep your heart alive

(Repeat all verses)

You’re strong enough to feel it all
And keep your heart alive    2x

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Every Fall

by Earth Practice

This trio are some dear friends of mine, Yin, Jessi, and Yam, catching songs, and staying tender-hearted on unceded Lummi & Nooksack territory, in the PNW.

Jessi & Yam also host this amazing song podcast, Bliss Is Ordinary.

You can support their work via Patreon.

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LYRICS:

Every fall (2x)
The trees drop their leaves (2x)
Releasing what they don’t need (2x)

Down to the ground (2x)
Relying on their roots (2x)
To give them what they need (2x)

Bass:
Ooo, ooo
Ooo, ooo…oo
Dun, da dun-dun, da-dun, dun, dun

Last time:
To give them what they need (x3)
We have all we need

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Goldenrod Round

by Anni Zylstra

Here’s another favorite from Anni Zylstra (they/them). This little round came to Anni in the subtle yellowing of early September whilst living in a meadow full of black caps, wild night shades, sumac, milk thistle, and goldenrod at the Possibility Alliance in northeast Missouri. 

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LYRICS:

Sun wanes upon the field
Goldenrod begins
Sighing trees let go of leaves
Day turns to night again

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Good Garden

by Francis Cimarron

This one is an original that came through in the summer of ‘23. I was struggling with my health, and feeling so grateful for the ways that my community was holding me up. I was striving to remember that I still had something to offer, even when my body was unable.

Spending time in the garden reminded me that even decay, rot, and death have their contributions to make. This layered song is in 7/8 time, so the rhythm can be a bit tricky to find at first, but very groovy when it clicks..

You can support my musical work via Patreon.

(The first line of this song was born out of another song called Everyday Miracles, by my friend, Yin Friend, of Earth Practice, based in so-called Bellingham, WA)

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LYRICS:

Alto:
Feed me, from your garden
I can taste the sun that shines on everyone

Soprano:
Tender fruits ripen
Blossoms bursting…open

Tenor:
Tender, turn it under
Tilling what’s rotten into medicine

Bass:
Feed me
from your
good garden

All:
Feed me, from your garden
I can taste the sun that shines on everyone

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I’m Not Alone

by Anat Hochberg & Aly Halpert

Anat Halevy Hochberg is a Boston-based musician, writer, educator, and ritualist with family roots in Israel, Yemen, Hungary, and Poland.

Aly Halpert (she/her) is a queer Jewish musician, educator, and activist living on Lenni Lenape land in Philadelphia, PA, USA. A singer, pianist, drummer, and guitar player, Aly writes songs for building community, working for collective liberation, and visioning different worlds.

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LYRICS:

I’m not alone, I’m not alone
I’m not alone, I’m not alone 

I forgot, for a minute
Who I belong to
The mama earth, the wind and rain
The beauty and the pain

I’m not alone
For me the world was created
I’m not alone
To dust I will return

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In This Heart

by Shuhada' Sadaqat/Sinéad O’Connor

(from her 1994 album, Universal Mother)

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LYRICS:

Soprano:
In this heart lies for you
A lark born only for you
Who sings only to you
My love
My love
My love

add Tenor:
I am waiting for you
For only to adore you
My heart is for you
My love
My love
My love

add Alto:
This is my grief for you
For only the loss of you
The hurting of you
My love
My love
My love

add Bass:
There are rays on the weather
Soon these tears will have cried
All loneliness have died
My love
My love
My love

I will have you with me
In my arms only
For you are only
My love
My love
My love

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It’s Gonna Change

by James Rose

James Rose (PKA Brave James) is a prolific arranger, composer, performer, producer & educator, based in London.

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LYRICS:

From somewhere deep inside
I let it fall away
Still looking out for me
It’s gonna change someday

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Jewels

by Barbara McAfee

Barbara McAfee is a master voice coach, author, keynote speaker, and singer/songwriter who merges her experience in organization development with the transformative power of sound. Barbara is the founder of the Morning Star Singers, a volunteer hospice choir in the Twin Cities. She lives up the street from the wild and scenic St. Croix River in St. Croix Falls, Wisconsin.

You can support her work on patreon.
You can listen to her recording of this song here.

Notes from Barbara:

“This song grew out of a conversation I had with a voice coaching client many years ago. The person was struggling to heal after a traumatic brain injury and thought singing would help her brain recover. It did. Meanwhile, when she was having a particularly hard day, I heard myself saying these words to her: "Every time I go into the darkness, I return with fistfuls of jewels." It didn't feel like me talking, but some larger and wiser being.

I filed the line away in my memory. Then in a hot tub under the stars on the south shore of Lake Superior, it found a melody and a second line: "Midnight velvet wraps all around me; stars glitter brilliant above." The third line arose in a community song circle. This song baby has traveled far and wide and is a winter solstice favorite in many communities. “

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LYRICS:

Low: Every time I go into the darkness
I return with fistfuls of jewels

Mid: Midnight velvet wraps all around me
Stars glitter brilliant above

High: Dreaming darkness, dreaming light

Net of Remembrance

by Alexandra “Ahlay” Blakely

Alexandra "Ahlay" Blakely (she/her) is a songcatcher, and spaceholder of Ashkenazi/Scandinavian/Celtic roots, living on Coast Salish Land in the Pacific Northwest. You can hear her recording of this song here.

Support her work via patreon.

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LYRICS:

Low:
Everyone feels and carries
Different parts of the story

Mid:
And together we weave, we weave the net,
Of remember, of remember-ance

High:
We were not made, we were not created
To hold this, hold this all alone.

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Over // Under

by Lyndsey Scott / A-Rhodd

This anthem for collective liberation was co-created by Lyndsey Scott (a songleader based in so-called Iowa) and Anthony Rhodd (indigenous incarcerated author).

I was lucky enough to get to learn this from Lyndsey herself, and it has been resonating in me ever since.

Over // Under is an invitation to imagine ourselves beyond the carceral state into right relation, through brave connection, grief practice, the fire of forgiveness, and radical care. - Lyndsey

You can buy this track, and read more about the backstory of this song on Lyndsey’s bandcamp.

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LYRICS:

Over / Under    All the way through
Over / Under    Back to You
Over / Under    All the way down
Over / Under    Lost then Found

Call: I am the love that doesn’t leave
Response: We do this til we free us!

Call: Feel through the dark is how we see
Response: We do this til we free us!

Call: We are remembering how to grieve
Response: We do this til we free us!

Call: You are a part of my family
Response: We do this til we free us!

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Sabodisho

This traditional healing song comes from the Guria province of Georgia (bordered by the Black Sea on it’s Western shore), and is sung as a prayer for healing over sick children.

"The bat'onebi (lords) are spirits who live beyond the Black Sea. They allow parts of their realm to appear in the most diverse corners of the world. They obey a "Highest Lord", who, to test the loyalty of humankind, sends bat'onebi out in all directions. Dissidents are to be killed or enslaved. During the day, the bat'onebi move about on mules. In the evening, they return to the houses of the sick and reside in the bodies of the stricken. Bat'onebi are to be obeyed without question, as resistance only enrages them. Nonetheless, their hearts can be won over with tenderness and caresses; thus it is possible to protect oneself from calamity. Bat'onebi enjoy gentle songs and the bright sound of instrumental music." - Ensemble Mzetamze

You can listen to a version by Ensemble Ialoni that has all the verses here. (The harmonies are slightly different than the version we are singing.)

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LYRICS:

bat’onebo, mouokhe,
mouokhe, bat’onebo.
lamazi bat’onebia,
ia da vardi penia. (x2)

tetri t’ani samoselit,
mo-brdzan-de-bi-an bich’ebi.
lamazi bat’onebia,
ia da vardi penia. (x2)

bat’onebs ekhvets’ebian,
bat’onebs ekhvets’ebian,
shemogts’irav ias da vards
da daginteb ts’mida bazmas.

tetri tskhvaris da tkhis jogi
modis tik’anma ikht’una.
gaukharda bat’onebsa,
dautsbad p’iri ibruna.

English (translated by Frank Kane):

Oh, lords, help,
have mercy, oh lords.
Beautiful lords,
bedecked with violets and roses.

Wearing white clothes,
The boys come.
O beautiful spirits!
Violets and roses are spread out .

They implore the spirits,
They implore the spirits,
I offer you violets and roses,
And I light for you the holy walnut.

White sheep and a herd of goats,
a lamb came jumping.
The lords enjoyed this,
and turning away, left us.

Original Georgian:

ბატონეო, მოუოხე.
მოუოხე ბატონებო.
ლამაზი ბატონებია,
ია და ვარდი ფენია.

თეთრი ტანისამოსელით
მობრძანდებიან ბიჭებე.
ლამაზი ბატონებია,
ია და ვარდი ფენია.

ბატონეს ეხვეწებიან,
ბატონებს ეხვეწებიან,
შემოგწირავ იას და ვარდს
და დაგინთებ წმიდა ბაზმას.

თეთრი ცხვარის და თხი ჯოგი ,
მოდის თიკანმა იხტუნა ,
გაუხარდა ბატონებსა
დაუსბად პირი იბრუნა.

Take Time

by Earth Practice

Here’s another gem from this trio, Yin, Jessi, and Yam, catching songs, and staying tender-hearted on unceded Lummi & Nooksack territory, in the PNW.

Jessi and Yam also host this amazing song podcast, Bliss Is Ordinary.

You can support their work via Patreon.

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LYRICS:

Take time with your own heart (2x)
Take time with your own heart
With your own heart, take time.

And, it’s ok to feel…pain 
It’s ok to feel
It’s ok to feel…pain 
It’s ok to feel

(repeat verse and chorus)

There’s light in your own heart (2x)
There’s light in your own heart 
In your own heart, there’s light.

‍ ‍

Try Again

by Francis Cimarron

This layered song came through for Yom Kippur, 2023 (5784 on the Jewish calendar). I was feeling moved by the realization that having a safe space to make mistakes is what makes growth possible. The last line of this song is Hebrew, meaning "I will forgive, according to your word.” OR “I forgive you as you forgive me.”

So often accountability feels inaccessible when shame is the primary reaction to mistake making. Instead of feeling safe enough to take the risks needed to make things right, we isolate and withdraw, causing more rifts. Resilient communities require that we become a safer space for our collective growing pains, and individual mistakes, welcoming each other into reflection and connection, and all learning together as we grow.

You can support my musical work via Patreon.

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LYRICS:

Low Mid: We all make mistakes 
This journey’s long
Don’t let it break you
Your will is strong

High Mid: Get up, try again
Get up, try again
Get up, try again
Your will is strong

Low: Everybody’s on their own journey
Everybody’s got a _ long road to walk
Reach out, lift each other up
I forgive you, please forgive me

High: Salachti kid’varecha
Salachti kid’varecha
Salachti kid’varecha
Salachti kid’varecha

We Dream

by Jude Brothers

I learned this magic spell from my friend, Jude Brothers. Jude is a folk derived singer-songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist from Arkansas, with a penchant for whimsy and tender-heartedness.

Support their work via bandcamp.

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LYRICS:

We dream of what might be, That we 
might have the mettle to see to what must 
Be done in our dawn, in our days, in our hearts
That we might keep carrying on

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We Make The Road By Walking

by Amalia Kalisz Tonsor

This song came to us with quite a story. It was shared with me immediately post-Hurricane Helene, after my dear friend, Sarafina, sang it with a group of friends in WA, as a prayer for those of us here in the midst of it all. I later found out that there were other dear friends of mine in that circle, including someone who was friends with Amalia who wrote the song.

I shared it with small groups of friends as we began to gather together to process all that had happened, and the story began to accumulate layers and depth as we found out just how many threads were connected to the lineage of this song, and to the dear ones who first sent it our way. It has become a conversation across time and space, a sharing of a vision of future possibility, despite, or because of, great challenges.

“We make the road by walking” is a quote from Brazilian educator/activist Paolo Freire. It became the title of a book that was a dialogue between Freire and another seminal educator/activist, Myles Horton, who was an important figure in the Civil Rights Movement in the US. There is conjecture that Freire was paraphrasing this poem by Spanish poet, Antonio Machado:

“Caminante, son tus huellas
el camino y nada más;
Caminante, no hay camino,
se hace camino al andar.
Al andar se hace el camino,
y al volver la vista atrás
se ve la senda que nunca
se ha de volver a pisar.
Caminante, no hay camino
sino estelas en la mar.” - Antonio Machado

Traveler, your footprints
are the only road, nothing else.
Traveler, there is no road;
you make your own path as you walk.
As you walk, you make your own road,
and when you look back
you see the path
you will never travel again.
Traveler, there is no road;
only a ship’s wake on the sea.

- translated by Mary G. Berg and Dennis Maloney

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LYRICS:

This moment calls our hearts here
Step by step, we make the road by walking
And, where we go, love follows

Let love move through me (x3)

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Wester Caputh

by Brendan Taaffe

(chorus text from Psalm 121 adapted by Ali Burns, music, and additional text by Brendan Taaffe)

I contacted Brendan to get sheet music for this piece, after Hurricane Helene devestated WNC, and here is his response:

Hey Francis,

I’m so glad that song reached you at the right time. I wrote it on the Isle of Eigg (in Scotland) during a challenging time of my own, and then we recorded it right before Hurricane Irene decimated Vermont 10 years ago. It’s a well traveled song at this point, having been sung on almost all of the continents.

Given the situation in WNC, I am happy to gift the song to you and your choir. If they are interested in supporting me as a composer, they could get a copy of the original album at bandcamp here.

Sing on,
-Brendan (he/him)

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LYRICS:

Tenor:

Chorus:
To the hills I will lift mine eyes
and I am not__ not afraid
To the hills I will lift mine eyes
and I am not___ afraid

Verse 1:
In sun by day or the moon by night
My courage will not fade
In sun by day or the moon by night
I am not afraid

Verse 2:
In the morningʼs smile or the eveningʼs veil…

Verse 3:
O guide my feet and guard my way…

Bass:

Chorus:
To the hills I will lift mine eyes
and I am not, I am not afraid (x2)

Verse 1:
In sun by day or the moon by night
My courage will not fade
In sun by day or the moon by night
I am not afraid

Verse 2:
In the morningʼs smile or the eveningʼs veil…

Verse 3:
O guide my feet and guard my way…

Alto:

Chorus:
To the hills, To the hills
I will lift mine eyes
and I am not afraid (x2)

Verse 1:
In sun by day or the moon by night
My courage, oh my courage will not fade
In sun by day or the moon by night
I am not, I am not afraid

Verse 2:
In the morningʼs smile or the eveningʼs veil…

Verse 3:
O guide my feet and guard my way…

Soprano:

Chorus:

To the hills I will lift mine eyes

and I am not, I am not afraid

To the hills I will lift mine eyes

and I am not afraid

Verses:

In sun…or the moon by night
‍ ‍(In the morn…or the evening veil..)
((O guide…and guard my way…))
My courage, oh my courage will not fade
In sun by day or the moon by night
I am not, I am not afraid