“We will rise in the morning, ‘tho the night has been so long -
We will rise in the morning on the breath of a song -
We will rise.
”
Dear Friends,
In this strange time of COVID-19, I have decided to step up to this on-line world and offer free songs from my cozy living room. I call it simply Song Series. These sessions will follow themes: Songs of healing, Suffrage, work, environment, immigration, love, family, spirituality - of hope and history. I'll share stories about the songs, recite some lyrics and who knows? Scott and I are working hard to learn about the equipment we'll need, how to set it up and make the sessions available.
For a brief preview of possible themes, please visit this page on my web site where the songs are listed by genres. https://www.lindasongs.com/lyrics
We musicians are being challenged to find new ways to connect our passionate hearts to the communities we strive to bring together in song. Most of us struggle without that immediate feedback we are used to. We long to contribute to the healing we all so desperately need, to hold a vision, to remind us that we have been through hard times before, and we have survived.
Soon I'll send out more information about how to access “Song Series”. I'll try to continue these as long as the pandemic keeps us home - or until I run out of songs.
In a similar vein, we've also been posting on my website some very fun archival material, including an audio version of a concert with the Rainy Day Band (Laura Smith, Jim Zito and I) on May 18th, 1980, the day the mountain blew. On Facebook I recently shared two song meditations: One for Easter and one for Earth Day. I’m also planning to create one for Mother’s Day.
There are also links on Facebook to some beautiful work that our daughters, Jen and Kristin Allen-Zito, are offering from their homes. Our son, Nathaniel, is headed to Vanderbilt University Medical Center for his four-year residency in psychiatry. He graduates in a few weeks and will then be DOCTOR Allen-Slaba. Maybe in Nashville he’ll be inspired to pick up that guitar again.
In my work as a therapeutic musician for Hospice, I now see my patients mostly online. As a performer, everything’s been cancelled. Scott and I have mostly been sheltering in place. Fortunately, we really like each other, and both of us being introverts, we’re doing OK. We miss our friends and family members, miss going out to the coffee shop, travelling, getting haircuts. Every day I am grateful that I am one of the fortunate ones with work, a home and food.
May these songs will be a way of reaching out to you all during this time, and as we plan for the new world that will emerge….a new normal.
I hope to meet you soon online, in hope and solidarity -
Linda