ORIGINAL COMMUNITY SONG INDEX

Below, I share with you a growing repertoire of community songs that have come to me and through me! I am including lyrics and any other relevant notes. In most cases, the recordings are simple and rough. I entrust them with you for personal and community use and in good faith that, if you share in a group setting, to the best of your ability you will offer me songwriter credit (me the vessel not the owner ;). You could also point people to this very page. If it feels more in honorable exchange for you to offer a financial contribution for your use of one of these song, you may do so by clicking on the “Donate” button below. Otherwise, please feel free to use and share away!

If you are interested in having me as a guest song leader, collaborating, or using one of these songs for a bigger production, please contact me!

Thank you and enjoy!

The Ship is Turnin’ Round

an Upbeat song about the humor and hope of slow progress

Spirited African-American style rhythm and blues

LYRICS

PART 1

The ship, the ship is turnin’ round

The ship is turnin’ round

PART 2

The ship, the ship, is turnin’, is turnin’

The ship, the ship, is turnin’, is turnin’

PART 3

Slow it goes, but its turning

I Am Free in my Body

A Dance-inducing mantra for affirming all the QUALITIES we want to feel in our bodies

Hip hop sensibility and empowered attitude

LYRICS

PART 1

I AM FREE IN MY BODY, I AM FREE IN MY BODY

I AM FREE IN MY BODY, NOTHING CAN TAKE THAT AWAY FROM ME

PART 2

NOTHING BUT FREE, NOTHING BUT FREE

Nothing but free, nothing can take that away from me

part 3

Du-NUH-NUH-NUH-NUH, Du-NUH-NUH-NUH-NUH x3

nothing can take that away from me

**The word “free” in both parts 1 & 2 can be replaced with “love,” “strong,” or any other word of your choice.

Not So Independent

A Mid-tempo song affirming our interdependence and lamenting unpatriotic feelings

Slow rock and country sensibility

LYRICS

PART 1

We're not so independent after all

Together we rise, or together we fall

If freedom for all people, we declare

We're not there, we're not there

PART 2

Me and you, if we share the same air

then I am there for you

Me and you, if we share the same ground

then I will stand with you

PART 3

This flag I see doesn't fly for me

So I'm holdin' for a moment it will cry for me

There's no pride in me when it's flying free

So I'm holding for a moment it will rise for me

Gather Your Resilience

A fast march-like song about gathering strength from others in times of need

Gospel spirit and ensemble choir fortitude

LYRICS

PART 1

Resilience isn't just from me

it comes from all the ones who choose to

hold me and love me

Resilience is built from within

But also from the ones whose strength

I choose to let in

PART 2

Gather your resilience

Let your pride be gone

Gather your resilience

Someday you will pass it on

PART 3

Just as much as pain or more

we gather, we store resilience, resilience

Don’t Gotta Be So Hard

A song that gets real about difficulty

African-American blues and pop chord structure

LYRICS

It don’t gotta be so hard

It don’t gotta be so hard

It’ don’t gotta be so hard, it don’t gotta be so hard

But it won’t be that easy

If One Did Not Love

A grief song to alleviate uncertainty, encourage expression, and soothe

Slow lullaby with church choir-like counterpoint

LYRICS

PART 1

One does not grieve like this if one did not love

One does not grieve like this if one did not love

So have no shame, have no doubt

You let it all in, you can let it out ‘cause

PART 2

Let your love be light

Let your love be light

And your light hold them now

And theirs hold you

Alas

A SLOW GRIEF SONG using ocean imagery TO help CALM THE INTENSITY OF POWERFUL EMOTIONS

Steady march feel and old-time poetry with long uneven timing

LYRICS

This too shall pass, this too shall pass

Like the swell of a wave that soon will crash

This too shall pass, this too shall pass

And I’ll rise from the shore more strong, more humble

And walk with a song in my heart, alas!

 ABOUT COMMUNITY SONGS

What are community songs?

A certain kind of music that comes to me (and numerous other song leaders), divinely-designed and delivered in the spirit of healing, strength, and humor, destined for the context of group singing. These songs usually come to help me personally but end up being medicine for others, too. It’s a lovely, organic, musical distribution system that dances between self and community. In this way, I believe the modern movement of community singing ripples qualities of restoration and higher consciousness throughout the world as it brings the power of singing back to the people.

Community songs consist usually of a short melody and set of lyrics that repeat. This makes them easy-to-learn. This is more simplified than the singer-songwriter format, which includes non-repeating sections like verses or a bridge. Dimension can be added to these songs in the form of harmonies. Sometimes they are constructed as “layer songs,” with two or more different parts layered on top of each other, which interact rhythmically, harmonically, or lyrically in interesting ways. Song leaders teach these songs by ear usually in a circle setting and with minimal accompaniment, perhaps a drum or a guitar if anything at all. None of what I describe here are strict guidelines for community songs, just common trends.

Where do community songs come from?

Apart from the mysterious way these songs come to us out of the ether, these kinds of songs have deep roots in almost any ancestry as singing to commune with nature, community, and spirit is as old as time. But there are some traditions that are closer to home for those of us in the United States of America with African, African-diasporic, folk, church, or ceremonial ways as part of our cultural makeup. These traditions inform a lot of the ways in which songs in the modern community singing movement are structured or sung.

How do I carry and share community songs?

It’s so important we remember that songs and their qualities, while often divinely-given, always have cultural and historical context because the qualities we apply to them came from us and we came from a unique cultural and historical context. So I bless and thank the nuances that my ancestors and my cultural surroundings imbue into the songs I create. Anytime I can recognize those qualities, I thank them and I recognize they may have emerged as a brilliant discovery, a sonic medicine brew that affected human consciousness, a group of people with shared experience, or nature’s energetic field around them in a way that aided survival. And I acknowledge those origins, name them, whenever I can. I thank these ancestors and I pray that the way I use these qualities in the music I create and share is with integrity and as a force for greater good, continuing the trend from survival to thriving. With the songs I share that I did not create, I acknowledge the writer and, if possible, cultural context in which they arose. In some cases, I ask permission before sharing a song written by another.