Simple Music for Complicated Times via my 🎶 Musical Posse
Music pushes back the complexity monster 🎶 🪕🪗🎻
Updated January 2 - My best wishes to you and yours for a healthy, fulfilling and productive 2024.
There is a LOT of work to do to sustain democracy (2024 will see 40 consequential elections, not just in the USA) and build the kind of community connectivity that identifies and reduces hot spots of vulnerability and maximizes access to information and assets (like those offered under Inflation Reduction Act).
But this is a moment not just for reflection and resolutions. It’s also for celebration.
That’s why I convened some great longtime musical friends on New Year’s Day for a special Sustain What episode. Watch and please share the show on YouTube, Facebook, LinkedIn and X/Twitter at @revkin ).
My past Hudson River Valley compadres - David Ross, David Bernz, Karen Brooks, Joe Kaminsky, Patrick Jones, Laurie Siegel, Donna and Rick Nestler and Reggie Harris - were joined by the talented young glaciologist Karen Alley of the University of Manitoba, who happens also to be a past national champion hammered dulcimer player.
These sessions are always inspiring and fun and surprising. You can explore dozens here. Here is one of my favorite moments, when Karen Alley, lamenting the lack of snow in Winnipeg, played her composition “Snow in the Mountains” (I follow here with Tow Rope Girls played on my Irish bouzouki (built in Belfast, Maine, by the wonderful luthier Nick Apollonio):
From previous shows, here’s the incredible luthier/sculptor and musician Fred Carlson playing one of his papier-mâché banjos!
Here’s a snippet from American Lullaby by my old musical friend Dean Friedman, in which he sings “We did real damaage to Earth’s thermostat; sorry about that.”
And just in case you missed it a few days ago, here’s my post of my tune “A Prayer and a Toast” - a life strategy for complicated times: