Music & Videos

Life’s a Song - liner notes by Michael Townsend

Once upon a time, barn raisings, quilting bees, and dances were places to meet the neighbors and reaffirm community ties. In that spirit, Life’s a Song brings together some of the finest musicians in the Northwest with courageous songwriters aged twelve to one-hundred-and-three. This meeting of minds and hearts has created a compelling blend, painting a musical mural of life on the Puget Sound.

Between 2007 and 2013 a team of songwriters visited 200 individuals in Olympic Peninsula nursing homes, retirement communities and classrooms. Many of the contributors (average age 75+) were diagnosed with Alzheimer’s or dementia, and the song lyrics often have a magical surreal charm, speaking unselfconsciously to the miracles of everyday life.

“Out on the Water” (cool, clear water) has a gently rocking rhythm with soothing dobro and flawless harmonies.
“Way Up in the Air” (what treasures I have found in the wind), gives us a glimpse from above, seeing boats mooring and eagles soaring. “Generations,” the closing cut, starts with a verse and a simple minor chant that evolves into a powerful call and response.

Many songs speak to a strong work ethic, whether building your own home 23 miles out of town on “A Good Piece of Ground”,
or facing 100 mph storms in “Wake Up You Sleepy Heads” (tuna are jumping, are you afraid?).
“WWII Homecoming” tells the story of twin brothers returning home after a 17 month tour with the Marines, their waiting families and the joyous reunion.

“Life’s A Song,” and “It’s Wonderful” celebrate the deep satisfaction of watching children and grandchildren grow up strong (the diapers and noise, I’d do it all again) and “The Happy Life” describes Puget Sound as not too cold and not too warm (come to our town soon, the rhodys are in bloom).

“Gotta Get With It” is a quirky song about meeting life’s challenges, from a wheel in the ditch to baking a pie!
There’s a moody minor background in “I’m Satisfied the Way I Am” (try and change me if you can.)
A solid swing band propels “In Our Time,” where the writer laments that they don’t dance like they did before to the rhythm of the horn. Certainly a special moment in the collection is “Home Town,” a poignant song that expresses the longing for where one grew up and the uncertainties of a prodigal return.

Executive producer Judith Kate Friedman, as a folklorist and community activist, has years of experience coaxing music from novices and professionals alike. As a singer-songwriter, she blazed a creative trail from the Lower East Side to San Francisco to the Salish Sea. Through the nonprofit educational foundation Songwriting Works which she founded (twenty nine years going strong), she has received three National Endowment for the Arts grants to train songwriter facilitators from across the U.S., establish ongoing projects around WA state’s Olympic Peninsula, and bring multi-instrumentalist Orville Johnson in to produce the recording you hold in your hands.

The first songwriters to join Songwriting Works’ SongTeam were Keeth Apgar, Matt Sircely, Paula Lalish, and Anke Summerhill, soon followed by Aimee Ringle, Laurence Cole, associate producer Daniel Deardorff, and Hannah Rose Trailer (who recorded Home Town the week she was leaving for her first year in college). These are all accomplished performers and writers, each contributing to the success of this collaboration, and the vocals are too uniformly excellent to single out one great example.

Instrumentally, Danny’s wistful harmonica, Matt’s mandolin, and producer Orville Johnson’s dobro bring a tasty folk flavor, pristinely recorded by George Rezendes at Toolshed Soundlab.
Guest artists include Joe Breskin, David Michael, Hans Teuber, Alanna Dailey, Tomoki Sage, and poet Bill Mawhinney.

Life’s A Song weaves together many threads.
Some are shiny and new, some soft and worn, but all lend strength to this endeavor and are featured in surprising combinations.

If ever a project can be more than the sum of its parts, this is one.

Michael Townsend
Port Townsend, WA