Music and water: blog action day

Water. It might be something you take for granted; it might be something you struggle for. Lack of it might cause your crops to fail, too much of it might wash your house away. Perhaps you make your living on the waters, or perhaps you live landlocked or dry country. Whatever your circumstance, water affects your life.

Water turns up very often in music, both as a direct subject-- think Rain Rain Go Away or Out on the Rolling Ocean, Thousands are Sailing or Oro Mo Bhaidhin, a song in Irish whose name means my little boat. It also appears in more indirect ways too, such as in Waist Deep in the Big Muddy or Hurricane’s Coming , Lough Erne’s Shore or Ready for the Storm, or Be Like the Sea.

I am telling you all this just now because today is blog action day. Today thousands of bloggers from countires around the world are writing about water, what can be done to ensure everyone on the planet has enough, now and in future, and ways to think about these things.

As you’ll know, I tend to think about things through music. For thinking about these issues to do with water, I suggest to you Carrie Newcomer’s song Stones in the River.


other music to go along with your thinking about water
The Farthest Wave
Precious Waters : River of Life
Music Road: Music and Landscape: Blog Action Day 2009
Music Road: Carrie Newcomer: Before & After
Music Road: Cathie Ryan: Songwriter

the photograph is from the Irish Sea on a tranquil evening, with all boats safe home.

You may also wish to see
Delicious Baby's Photo Friday, where travelers offer new insights to the world each Friday

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now playing: The Brendan Voyage

The Brendan Voyage


This is now reading, actually. It's a book. more on this in a bit...
as promised. Explorer adventurer Tim Severin set out from the Dingle Peninsula, County Kerry, in a leather and wood curragh, with 4 other men (later three), to see if the stories told in the 9th cenutry manuscript telling of St. Bredan's voyage and long thought to suggest the Irish reached America before the Vikings and before Columbus, could be true. Long and short of it, yes. Severin's Voayge took place in the late 1970s; Brendan's if one believes that, in the fourth century. Each worth reading about for connection and confrontation between people and nature, and one's own nature. They made it to Newfoundland -- Severin and his companions, that is, and if one follows on the evidence, Brendan and his too.

creative practice: risk, another thought

finding balance between the ever flowing river of change and the essential stillness of water
and the commitment needed for each part of that
music for this, pick your favorite sea born song.

creative practice: attention

Playing music and, one would wish, listening to it, both ask for attention to the present moment.
But that does not always play out, so to speak.






Adrienne Young has some thoughts on placing one's attention on the present moment, shared through bluegrass, folksong, and banjo, in her recording
Room to Grow