Earth and Spirit Songbook Volume 2

Now collecting songs for this new songbook

I’m happy to announce that I’m compiling and writing a sequel to my Earth and Spirit Songbook. Earth and Spirit book 2 will have the subtitle “Songs For A Just And Peaceful World” and as that suggests, a wide selection of songs. I’m going to include some human ecology – Civil Rights and Labor songs – while certainly keeping the environmental context.

I am collecting songs of Earth, peace on Earth – anything with Earth imagery, rites of passage, seasons, climate disruption, pollution, fracking, etc. etc. – I already have a big list but there must be more gems I haven’t heard.  They don’t need to all be “Let’s get together and save the earth,” though there’s a place for that, too. We need songs of other than (white) American culture, of course for a world of diversity.

I got a grant from the Fund for Unitarian Universalism to help with it, and I am now the “Artist in Residence” for the UU Church of Worcester MA. The book, however, will not be just for UU Church consumption it’s for the wider public, anyone who wants to celebrate ecological ideals. (The fund supports what they think are good works, not missionary proselytizing).

Songs can celebrate and also teach, good news and bad, problems and solutions, and singing is my response to the challenges. I hope you’ll help, with your songs, or your suggestions of good songs by anyone else. The book will probably have no more than a song or two by any one composer so it would make it easier on me if you can self-select, the best one for a diversity of music. If songs are written down, that helps of course, at least the lyrics.  I can transcribe from a recording. I will make an arrangement for vocal and piano with chord symbols.

You can send me an mp3 – to Jim@Jimscottmusic.com or send a CD to Jim Scott PO Box 4025 Shrewsbury MA 01545.

If you’d like to see more about my first Earth and Spirit Songbook, check this link.