“If we surrendered
to earth’s intelligence
we could rise up rooted, like trees.”
A quote from the German poet Rilke to go with the new season and new playlist from Canadian music channel Foxx’s Frequency – ‘Songs for September’; drawn from many international songwriters; amongst them my Let Yourself Be Seen– more on the song below. Thank you FF for continuing to discover and introduce songs to your listeners, sharing from your heart. (edit ‘Song For September no longer available – Original Let Yourself Be Seen video posted thanks FF)
You can subscribe to the channel through the playlist here and also donate to this lovely project.
Matthieu Ricard
Buddhist monk, author, photographer and Humanitarian, Matthieu Ricard has been working on projects of well-being and mindfulness for many years since being a translator for HH The Dalai Lama.
A friend of mine, Journalist Phil Cartwright, recently interviewed Matthieu and included some of my songs (Lay Down and Be Still) in the final cut. Phil interviews artists and writers in an ongoing project looking at where love is in our contemporary culture.
Here it is: join Matthieu for half an hour talking about mindfulness, meditation, Matthieu’s book Altruism, photography, humanitarian work and much more.
Druid Cast
and something else to listen to you may have not heard before, the mythical and magical Druid Cast.
A friend of Damh the Bard (Druid cast presenter) sent in my song Be Still which was featured in episode 137 .
I found stepping into to this world through the show, took me somewhere deeply natural with a magic appreciation and reverence for life and all those who have called themselves, druids, witches, bards and more… It may surprise you that this is a thriving movement with festivals, events and books all currently available –
Touched to be included Damh.
****************
and 2 other stories this month
Ali and Let Yourself Be Seen
These two feel good together. Ali Mushaima (above) is a human rights activist sleeping outside the Bahrain embassy in London to raise awareness of the treatment of father, a pro democracy campaigner who has been imprisoned in Bahrain. On a friend’s call relaying Ali’s wish for artists to visit, I went to say hello; you can hear my interview with Ali where we talk about the protest and about peace and solidarity and more here
The other pictures are of my Mum (melodeon) and Cornwall Dad (Stepdad), Jon (violin), who I recorded recently for Let Yourself Be Seen. More on the story of the song and recording can be found here.
Love
Joe
*******************************************************************************
Alongside the recordings in my journal pages I have recently released an ep of songs ahead of an album. You can visit here to stream and download.
Please don’t let money be a concern. Feel free to pass through the donation screen with my blessing if you would like to download any songs and have no means to donate.
Any donations will go to my recording and traveling fund – thank you.
Joe Holtaway 