![]() ![]() On the Saturday morning session, we got to know each other better and explored writing as Jonathan shared more examples of pairing lyrics and melody from his repertoire. We all enjoyed getting to interact with Jonathan and listen as he shared the backstory behind several of his own popular compositions. They were supportive, open, and excited that I was stepping out of my comfort zone to try to write a song. On the first Zoom meeting on Friday night, I met the other seven students, who were mostly musicians and songwriters already. #Burda magazine march 2019 how toBut I needed direction on how to hone the composition and a boatload of encouragement, both of which I got from the wonderful three-day course. I found a couple of songwriting apps that allowed me to identify and document the melody I was creating.īy the time the songwriting retreat rolled around in September, I had the basis for “Safe Passage: Animals Need a Hand” already in draft form both in terms of the lyrics and the melody. But now I wished for a keyboard to pluck out the notes. Mother played mostly “by ear” and provided me with both piano and voice lessons for about five years, but they never really “took,” and I gave up to focus on horseback riding and boys. I also realized that I missed having a piano at the ready, as had been the case when I was growing up in eastern Kentucky. I realized that I needed a way to write the music down that was flooding into my head. Here’s what came out:Īncient trails have been put down for centuries.įoxes and bobcats, coyote, and bear and elk are hit.Īnd that was just the beginning. As I did this physical motion, I simultaneously opened my mouth, and sang the words, “Safe passage, animals need to cross!”Ĭoffee in hand, I returned to my desk and turned on the digital recording app on my phone. I pushed back my chair, stood up, and headed to the kitchen to refill my coffee. “Could I write a song?” I heard myself say out loud, as if I had momentarily split in two and was asking my other self a question. Sitting at my orange-and-yellow-crackle-painted desk in my home office in Flag Pond, Tennessee, I opened the Byrd Word to read that Jonathan was inviting fans to join him for a virtual songwriting retreat. On July 27, 2020, the book’s illustrations were being created by GSMA Publications Specialist Emma DuFort while I pulled together the educational material for the back section. I’ve waxed on about that creative process in an earlier blog post here. ![]() These three-hour concerts helped us feel a sense of community and sanity during lockdown and into the “new normal.”Īt the same time, from March to May of 2020, in an unpremeditated fit of creative passion for wildlife and their struggles to cross highways like I-26 and I-40 near the Smokies, I wrote the story that became my children’s book, A Search for Safe Passage. As the pandemic descended and we all struggled to feel connected, the band continued to provide their live streams, first from the Kraken while it was closed to its local audience, and later from the loft of Jonathan’s home. Wednesday nights at our house became Jonathan Bryd night as we watched the band performing live from a small music venue in White Cross, North Carolina. I distinctly recall feeling that this was an important moment.įrom that time on, I followed Jonathan Byrd and the Pickup Cowboys, purchasing some CDs and signing up for the band’s email newsletter, the Byrd Word. Appropriately, and easy to remember, it was Jonathan Byrd. The refrain that struck me to my core, and what I assumed was also its title, was “we used to be birds.” I strained at the end to be sure I picked up the name of the artist. Like a bolt from the blue, a song came on that created such a shift in my focus that I was scarcely aware of driving my vehicle. Sometime back in 2018, I was driving home from Asheville on Interstate 26 listening to WNCW, a noncommercial public radio station operating from Spindale, North Carolina. Bella Wells-Fried (the elk), Natalie Karrh (the deer), and Lexi McGraw (the bear) enter the box culvert in Unicoi County, TN, that provides their safe passage under a busy highway in the video. So, I thought I’d write the story of how it all began. On December 10, my new music video of the song “Safe Passage: Animals Need a Hand” launched on the YouTube channel of my supportive employer, Great Smoky Mountains Association. “I am not a songwriter.” Before the pandemic, this statement was true.īut today, the “t” in “not” has to become a “w” to make a new true statement: “I am now a songwriter.” ![]()
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