Jim Scott Music - Concert Performer, Vocalist, Classical Guitarist, Environmentalist

JIM SCOTT RECORDINGS

Sailing With the Moon

Intimate vocal and acoustic guitar with accompanied by understated bass and percussion. Includes three eco-anthems from the musical The Tree and Me as well as messages of peace, justice, love and creativity.

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TRACK LIST
1. Sailing with the Moon
2. Nothing We Haven't Seen
3. Plant More Than You Harvest
4. Pioneers
5. Tree of Life
6. The Rainforest Song
7. The Oneness of Everything
8. With Every Story Told
9. The Braided Rug
10. Winter to Spring
11. May Your Life be as a Song

PERSONNEL
Jim Scott - vocals and acoustic guitars
Marsha Thomas - primary harmoney on Rainforest
Jana Underriner - primary harmony on May Your Life;b.g. vocals on Rainforest
Charlotte Carothers & David Bersch - b.g. vocals on Rainforest and May Your Life
Darrin Morphis - bass, except for Nate Waddell on Harvest and May Your Life and Mark Schneider on Pioneers.
Dom Moio - percussion

Sailing With the Moon Lyrics

Sailing With the Moon © Jim Scott 1995

The evening cool awakens
passing days elusive spirits
with no need for that sun's hot-headed face.
They revel in the mystical
and have no fear of shadow
for they know the darkness as a holy place.
Their nocturnal take on science
is their personal defiance,
They play and love
and morning comes too soon.
Laughing at the sun, Sailing with the moon.

She knows the Spring by blossoms scent,
and the Autumn by the wind,
and knows you best by possibility.
She hears your heart in your voice
and knows your mood in your step;
The grace of one who does not need to see
to see.
Cutting through the interference,
unswayed by mere appearance.
With the sense to sense when all's in tune.
Laughing at the sun, Sailing with the moon

Nothing We Haven't Seen Before © Jim Scott 1995

Nothing we haven't seen before,
From covert conflict to open wars.
Area prone to domination,
Little hope for repatriation,
So much pain and so many tears
So the lessons can fall on deaf ears.

At what cost the war is won
It's all over
But the revision's just begun.

Everything looks different
but you're just the same,
Still looking for someone else to blame.
Whispered words of what is fair
Drown in the silence of despair.
All wisdom and advice falls short of help
A mirror's no use 'til you can recognize yourself.

You were tryin' to find that flag of truce
even as the bridges burned.
It's all over
But the second thoughts await their turn.

Without closure, the curtain's drawn.
The wounded search for meaning,
the proud move on
Dreams were dashed and trust was broken
Faith so bound in words unspoken.
Do you pick the rubble
for what might have been?
No one in their right mind would want to
feel that way again.

The clock waits to extract its toll
the credits fade
and the regrets start to roll.

So frustration found release
Did anyone remember to speak for peace?
Was it for law and order,
that rights were wronged?
In the name of justice the war prolonged.
Yet through it all some greater love was grown,
And weren't there moments beyond
anything you've known?

So pack up your guilts and fears,
It's all over
But the memories start here.

Plant More Than You Harvest © Jim Scott 1990

Plant more than you harvest,
sun and water, earth and seeds.
Plant more than you harvest,
give the earth all that it needs.
Plant more than you harvest,
give the earth all that it needs,
the earth all that it needs.

Clear the meadows and the highways,
but plant stout trees between.
Let the forests hold the hillsides,
cover the earth with green.
Let the forests hold the hillsides,
cover the earth with green,
cover the earth with green.

Plant the grains to feed
every woman man and child,
Some for all the beasts and birds,
and some to just grow wild.
Some for all the beasts and birds,
and some to just grow wild,
some to just grow wild.

Tall cedar and the spreading oak
cool all that dwell below,
And the fallen trunk helps seeds reveal
the secrets that they know.
And the fallen trunk helps seeds reveal
the secrets that they know,
the secrets that they know.

Some seeds fall by the wayside,
but some will make it through,
On the water or wind or a loving hand
the cycle starts anew.
On the water or wind or a loving hand
the cycle starts anew,
the cycle starts anew.

Pioneers © Jim Scott 1995

Pioneers - making our way in a hostile land
Aliens, keen to learn
- waiting for the tide to turn
and more of us will come
Fortunate few - trade the old life for the new
Fountains of youth, mountains of wealth
Freedom to speak and live for yourself
Opportunity wide as the sky
Gonna get my piece of the pie
And more of us will come

From the rock in Massachusetts Bay,
following the Mohawk trail
Niagara and the Buffalo
- Hungry eyes and faces pale
Western Reserve, Farmers and miners
Lewis and Clark and the Forty-Niners
Golden Spike, Trail of Tears
Legacy of the Manifest years.

Pioneers - Making our way in a hostile land
Aliens, keen to learn
- waiting for the tide to turn
and more of us will come

The Golan through the promised land
The settlers - make our stand
Surviving the centuries of scorn
Now the desert blooms and is reborn
Protect our own with vigilant disdain
They were nomads, they had no claim
" Never again! It's our God given right."
but hate is thrown in bricks and stones
that turn to rockets in the night

Pioneers - making our way in a hostile land
Aliens, keen to learn
- waiting for the tide to turn
and more of us will come
The chosen few
- temper old ways with the new

Up from Xuahaca, 'cross the Rio Grande
Over the parched hills in darkness,
through checkpoints undermanned
Swim from Tijuana, lose yourself in the crowd
Jump from the truck - guest worker,
stayed longer than allowed

Pioneers - elude the Immigration

in a hostile land.
Aliens, keen to learn
- waiting for the tide to turn
and more of us will come
From famine and war
to peace and good health
Freedom to stand up,
keep some for yourself
Pioneers -
and more of us will come.

Tree of Life © Jim Scott 1988

Oh, tree of life come dance with me,
in Autumn and in Spring.
Your roots will hold through Winter's cold
and in Summer we will sing,
In Summer we will sing.

Oh, sing your song again to me,
I love to hear the sound,
But how can I dance with you oh wind,
when I'm rooted in the ground?
I'm rooted in the ground.

I'll push you here, and I'll pull you too,
and sing with you my song
To help you stretch your wings and dance
for all your life so long.
Oh it's when you sing your song to me,
that I can dance the best.
You can bend me almost to the ground,
but I'll bring myself to rest.
I'll bring myself to rest.

We'll send the seeds out dancing
in a wild and joyous ride,
But a message have these sailing ships
upon this ocean's tide.

And singing of all knowing love,
the seed waits out the cold,
Then spreading like wildflowers,
growing like weeds,
their dances will unfold.
Their dances will unfold.

Your leaves and fruit, your trunk and limbs feed all the living things
That dance above you and within
the shelter of your wings.
The shelter of your wings.

And the freest quickest of the dance,
each winged creature learns
That sky, as earth, is rooted when
to your arms it returns.
To your arms it returns.

For each to understand, we must
grow separately, but then
Mother Earth in her great wisdom spins,
to mix us up again.

So all that was once a part of you
will someday come to know
All the seasons of the dance
by the seeds you sow,
By the seeds you sow.

On the ground level,
turtles and leopards and snakes
live in the shelter the rainforest makes.
The ground is so soft and the air is so clear
with three hundred inches of rain ev'ry year.

Oh let the rain feed the thirsty ground.
Sing me the song of life you sing,
such a beautiful sound.
Oh let the rain feed the thirsty ground.
Sing me the song of life you sing,
such a beautiful sound.

Down in the the ground, the worms and the ants
nurture the roots of the flowering plants.
And under the canopy, life is a breeze.
Orangutans swing from the limbs of the trees.

(counterline) (rain come down, rain come down)
Oh let the rain feed the thirsty ground.
Sing me the song of life you sing,
such a beautiful sound.

High up above, where the tucans fly,
emergent tree tops reach into the sky.
There's more kinds of plants
than anyone knows.
Look out! There's a sloth
hanging by her three toes.

Oh let the rain feed the thirsty ground.
Sing me the song of life you sing,
such a beautiful sound.

(bring in one at a time)
The understory, the understory.
The ground level, on the ground level.
Canopy- Canopy-
Emergent! Emergent!

Oh let the rain feed the thirsty ground.
Sing me the song of life you sing,
such a beautiful sound.
Oh let the rain feed the thirsty ground.
Sing me the song of life you sing,
such a beautiful sound.

The Braided Rug ©Jim Scott 1994

Spnning, bright spinning,
the whole room across,
Telling the tales of triumph and loss.
Cycling, recycling a life's love for me,
Treasures of childhood and family.
Fashioned the way that dreams are made:
Out from the center,
and follow the spiral dance of the braid.

The rug started quietly, when I was ten,
Traced my brother and me from boys into men.
A mother's meditation, no need to work fast.
" We use what we have," and we make it to last.

Short trousers and long,
relatives' hand-me-downs,
Rough woolen shirts and cozy nightgowns,
The grey suit I wore at the church in the pines
Singing "What Child Is This?"
It's now part of the grand design.

Pleasures and wonders, aspirations and tears
All woven together over some fifteen years.
Mom's favorite red coat
and my my olive green pants,
And the camel hair jacket from
my first high school dance.

Haphazard donations from cousin or friend,
Too good to discard and too ragged to mend,
Now torn into strips and gathered in spools
And spun out in colorful chaos,
as she made her own rules.

The old Navy blue blanket,
Dad's checkered work shirt
Now tied up with burgundy, and over to flirt
With the teal and the grey
of some old college clothes.
" Hey! Where is that overcoat?
- Let's see if Mom knows."

On the outermost edge
there's the herringbone weave;
Grandfather's best suit , until he took his leave,
With my "Abe Lincoln" greatcoat,
from the army sent home,
I thought she would mend it,
but you know, I should have known.

The Oneness of Everything Jim Scott c 1988

Far beyond the grasp of hands,
or light to meet the eye,
past the reaches of the mind
There find the key to nature's harmony
in an architecture so entwined.
Like the birds, whose patterns grace the sky
and carry all who join in love expanding,
The message of peace will rise in flight
taking the weight of the world upon its wings,
With the oneness of everything.

Peace is in the dance of trees
who stir before the first breath of wind
is yet perceived
Trust in the song, becoming one with the dance,
and all mysteries can be believed.
Like the sorrow of the clouds,
whose tears fall caring on the soil undemanding,
Lessons of love are giv'n that we
might rejoice in the music they bring
Of the oneness of everything.

From the chords that sound of molecules,
spinning billions to a cell,
the call resounds afar,
To the sun who warms the dancing earth,
and whose song
holds it close on the journey of a star.
Songs of lives long past who touch our own
are written in the earth forever giving.
And now to maintain the harmony
gives to us all lives worth living
In the oneness of everything.

Still we seek to find a truth
that we might understand,
and reduce to terms defined
Vast and immeasurable time and space
all so overwhelmingly designed.
Oh passing years, just might I know the faith
that winters in the heart
to be reborn in Spring.
To hear and to feel the pulse of life
enters my soul as a song to sing,
Of the oneness of everything.

Tell me of all things sacred,
held to be true
beyond disappointments
pass to me memories
hold for me images that can renew

rescued or stolen from your life
share with me dreams
of loves and ideals
of loss and of lessons
of a world more forgiving
than it sometimes seems

Open the secrets of awe and of laughter
marked celebrations
small initiations
that grew in their meaning forever after
Save for me moments
of pleasure and strife
of rites of passage
of wounds and of healing
show me the feeling you know for life

With every story told
our friendship becomes art.
Each passage of life
is a gateway to the heart.
We are one in joy and sorrow,
and the music of our healing
is danced in love and harmony
with each day of earth's turning

Like a seed planted is memory shared
walls will crumble when the soul is bared
with the courage to express an honest feeling
Our words have the power to find the healing

The breeze excites the branches
with the sound of violins,
and rustles of percussion
as the orchestra begins.
The sun ascends its platform
like conductor with baton
awakening the players, for the music must go on.

Winter to Spring, Summer to Fall,
And may each of us experience a lifetime of it all.
Summer to Fall and Winter to Spring,
We are her to share the joy and sorrow
all the seasons bring,
All the seasons bring.

The birds comprise the woodwinds,
the great animals the brass,
And higher partials flit between
the flowers and the grass.
In silent grace, the water folk
surrender to their dance
within their fluid theater,
so as not to break the trance.

From mud and water have we come
to split the earth and sky,
The plants and fish, the birds and bees,
and lately you and I,
To learn the dance of harmony
and lessons all to share
Of love and living circles,
rich with magic in the air.

My wish for you now as we part
is for greater peace to fill your heart.
With dreams as vast as starry space
so hurt and anger hold no place

May truth be shared and wounds be healed
and joy for living be revealed.
Through every fate and circumstance
may hope lead weary steps to dance.

And may your life be as a song
Resounding with the dawn
to sing awake the light,
Then softly serenade the stars
Ever dancing circles in the night.

May fears be turned with keen insight
to wisdom for what's just and right.
Where sorrow grows compassion strong
and pain will pass before too long.

May the bounds of our diversity
serve a richer harmony,
May courage hold your heart so true
to smile on love when it smiles on you.

And may your life be as a song
Resounding with the dawn
to sing awake the light,
Then softly serenade the stars
Ever dancing circles in the night.