I'm happy to say my song "Over the Christmas Moon" is included on the new Hudson Harding Happy Holidays! CD, alongside Noel Paul Stookey (of Peter, Paul & Mary), Tom Paxton, Mark Stepakoff, Phil Henry, Chris LaVancher and other talented artists. My song features Jackie Damsky on violin and closes the album. It's a promotional CD not officially for sale, BUT anyone who orders my new CD The Quiet Places or any of my other CDs (or my novelNext Big Thing) from my website between now and New Year's will get a free copy of the holiday CD! Here's a preview of "Over the Christmas Moon." Happy holidays! (I should warn you that it's not exactly "Jingle Bells" - I'm always sensitive to the holidays being a hard time for people who don't fit in for one reason or another - which I bet is most of us...) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_UsA2Q0TVJ0
My friend Karen Sauer did this very moving video for "Nature's Way" from my new CD The Quiet Places, hope it inspires you to do something nice for the planet. Thanks to Tim Casey for shooting the performance footage, and to Billy Carl Mancini for the claves!
Wednesday, October 4, 2017
I hope you're all safe and appreciating this beautiful autumn despite
the sad events of the last few days. I have a new CD, The Quiet Places,
which has some songs of peace and hope for these troubled times. The thread that runs through the album is that all the small ways we reach out and support each other add up, so individually and collectively it's important to keep doing the work we do to make the world a better place, even if it seems no one is noticing. I was lucky enough to have some talented friends on the CD, including singers Mara Levine, Amy Malkoff, Rebecca Lynch and Deede Bergeron, players Bob Harris (mandolin), Roger Williams (Dobro) and Sam Dechenne (trumpet), and Brice Buchanan, Barry Singer and Chris Peeler from my '80s band Loose Ties. In addition to my own songs, we do a version of the Spirit song "Nature's Way," because the state of the heart becomes irrelevant if we kill the planet first. I hope
you enjoy it, and that you find some Quiet Places of your own.
I was recently asked by the American Legion Neighborhoods Greenway Coalition to edit a letter urging people to comment on the Mayor's Imagine Boston 2030 plan. The original letter contained a lot of information, and links to other documents and organizations. My edited version (below) narrows the focus to what people can do right now to make an impact, mentions the two places in the plan most relevant to their cause, and the only link is to the plan. Click it and let the mayor know what you think!
Hi Neighbors,
The Mayor's Imagine Boston 2030 draft plan is out and American Legion Parkway is included! This plan will become the blueprint for our city, so it is vitally important our voices be heard now. Many voices from our neighborhood need to comment to ensure that American Legion Parkway improvements become a committed part of the plan.
Ten minutes of your time could make a huge difference in getting the city to allocate resources to upgrade our neighborhood’s quality of life, including traffic calming and other public health and safety issues, and "right-sized" development. The comment period may close soon, so please comment today!
To comment, please click the Imagine Boston 2030 Survey link below. There are two important places to mention American Legion Parkway:
Q3 Enhanced Neighborhoods - Protect American Legion Parkway’s green spaces and establish safe walking and bike paths so our neighborhood’s families may safely enjoy this beautiful and vital link in Boston’s extended Emerald Necklace.
Q9 Initiatives: Economy, Energy & the Environment, and Open Space - Recognize American Legion Parkway as the vital green link connecting Franklin Park with the neighborhoods of Roslindale, Hyde Park, Mattapan, Mount Hope and Jamaica Plain, and establish and maintain safe walking and bike paths and pedestrian crosswalks. Protect and enhance its green space by limiting development and cleaning up long-neglected roadside lands and waterways.
My first letter to the new President, sent via www.whitehouse.gov. I encourage you to let him know what's on your mind as well.
Dear President Trump,
Congratulations on winning the election, and I hope you will do your best for our country. As I read your An American First Energy Plan, I was disappointed to see no mention of solar, wind, and other renewable energy. As President, you are not just responsible for our country at this moment, you are also a steward for the future of our country and our planet. Please consider that since the beginning of the industrial revolution some three hundred years ago, we have used almost half of the planet's fossil fuels, fuels that it took the planet millions of years to produce. It may be tempting to continue to burn oil, coal and gas, but with our continued population growth the resulting pollution, greenhouse gases, and wear on the environment of burning fossil fuels will quickly outweigh any short-term economic benefits. Already, people in Beijing and Tokyo regularly wear masks because of air pollution. You mention lifting environmental restrictions, but please remember the acid rain of the 1970s which killed forests in the Adirondacks in your own state of New York before Clean Air laws were in place to limit pollution. I myself lived in Los Angeles from 1976 to 1981 and can attest to smog so thick it was impossible to see across a football field. Renewable energies such as solar and wind, which have no harmful emissions, are our best long-term solution. Luckily the cost of renewable energy has fallen to be competitive with fossil fuels, and in many cases (such as home solar collectors) can contribute without expensive infrastructure. I urge you and your administration to consider the best long-term interests of our country and planet, and to choose to promote and invest in renewable energies as the best way forward.
