How do You Stay Sane in Such Turbulent Times? For Me, One Path is Still Music

Take a mental break and do tell me how you stay sane and centered given the turbulence of this political and societal moment and the tough path ahead?

For me - along with our dogs, cooking, carpentry, hikes and the like - there’s always music. (Read my post explainng that side of my life if you haven’t already.)

Singing at the Pickled Wrinkle with two of my Maine musical compadres, Gus LaCasse on Fiddle and Mathias Kamin frailing his banjo.

This new song of mine, “After the Roaming,” was inspired by a melody composed by fellow student Kathy O'Rourke during our current songwriting workshop at Bagaduce Music in Blue Hill, Maine. (We were each tasked by the teacher, George Emlen, to create a couple of simple melodies and then were asked the following week to write lyrics to a melody other than our own.)

The lyrics are below.

Life’s a very fine line right now

I’m planning to pull together this tune and a batch of my recent original songs into my first album since my debut recording in 2013, “A Very Fine Line.” That tune, I realize, is also highly relevant given that one line is as follows:

It’s a very fine line between loony and sane.
A very fine line between a loss and a gain.
A very fine line between pleasure and pain.
Most of your life you spend walking a very fine line.

People you think are a genius are this far from bent.
President blows an election by half a percent.
We all know love hurts but we try it again and again.
We know that the line between love and despair is so thin.

Chip in via the subscription box here if you want to help support the musical part of what I do, as well:

Here’s “After the Roaming.” Snag an audio download at Revkin.Bandcamp.com or share the video version on YouTube below.

After the Roaming

© 2024, Andrew Revkin

I’ve fished the ocean, and I’ve plowed the ground.

I’ve toppled timber and rambled around.

But in all my roaming, two things I can’t find:

A loving companion and true peace of mind.

A loving companion and true peace of mind.

When a lad leaves his home to go out on his own

His work and his friends are his life.

But the job and the beer in the end bring no cheer

Compared to the arms of a wife.

So I’ll sell my boat, drop the plow and the axe.

I’ll woo a sweet woman and finally relax.

After all of that roaming, two things will be mine:

A loving companion and true piece of mind.

A loving companion and true piece of mind.