HC
MusicMusic Interviews
How Can I Keep From Singing?
stuartstotts
Singing has been an integral part of being human for thousands of years. Choirs, choruses, sing-alongs, spontaneous celebrations, grief rituals, and other expressions of the human experience continue to this day in old and new forms. In this podcast we explore how singing together remains a vital part of life. Through interviews with song leaders, academics, improvisers, gospel choirs, prison ministries, children's singers, and more we discuss some of the how to, the why, and the often surprising ways that group singing blooms throughout the world.
Stuart Stotts hosts these conversations, examining, reflecting, and hearing stories from those who are in the field, creating harmony and giving voice to anyone willing and able to join in.
- 20 episodes
- Avg 26 min
- English
- HC#31May 28 · 28 min
Asking for the Best w/ Nick Page
Nick Page is the author of SING AND SHINE ON, a guide to multi-cultural song leading. Hal Leonard publishes his SING WITH US songbook which are sing-along songs for chorus and audience. Nick has led sings and songleading workshops at educational conferences, at the Jewish Choral Festival, for the Unitarian Universalist General Assemblies, and at the People Music Network gatherings (where he would wash pots with Pete Seeger). Nick directed Boston’s Mystic Chorale that always brought their audiences in to sing-along. He has over 100 published works for chorus. More info at www.nickmusic.com N I C K P A G E R E S O U R C E S F O R S I N G S www.nickmusic.com nick@nickmusic.com BVOCAL, Boston’s Voices of Community and Labor. (Lisa Gallatin started this chorus who sing at protests and rallies. Their website has songs, rehearsal schedules and more. I have a feeling it will become a movement spreading to other cities.) https://bvocalchorus.org VOICES HEARD by Nick Page (Web resource of songs for social change. You must have a google account - Gmail - to access the files. It’s free.) https://nickmusic.com/?page_id=386 PEOPLE’S MUSIC NETWORK (PMN). (They are a support group for songwriter activists with weekend workshops and online song swaps.) https://www.peoplesmusic.org CHILDREN’S MUSIC NETWORK (CMN) (They are an offshoot of PMN, a support group for activist music teachers). https://childrensmusic.org GREATER BOSTON CHORAL CONSORTIUM, (Support group for hundreds of choral groups in the Boston area. Other cities have similar groups). https://bostonsings.org GLOBAL JUKEBOX, An incredible FREE online resource with recordings of EVERY CULTURE on Earth, songs, dances. www.theglobaljukebox.org BUILDING SINGING COMMUNITIES Joey Weisenberg is a master of leading contemporary Jewish songs. He has brought the niggun tradition into the 21st Century. www.buildingsingingcommunities.com. www.smithsonianglobalsound.org l Their "education & outreach" section (particularly the Center for Folklife section) has free lessons for teachers. http://www.folkways.si.edu/index.htm CHORUSES FOR CHANGE. Peter Blood, co-creator of the Rise Up Singing songbooks, created a website dedicated to activist choruses. The site includes strategies, songs, and many useful resources. https://www.riseupandsing.org/singing/choruses SINGING CIRCLES Circle Sings are improvisational a cappella fully-participatory events inspired by Bobby McFerrin’s work. Do a search for “singing circles near me.” In Boston, go to: https://www.bostonareasingingcircles.com SHAPE NOTE SINGERS (Resource for finding Sacred Harp singers in your area.) https://shapenotesingings.com/local-singing-groups/ RECOMMENDED SONG COLLECTIONS AND SONG LEADING INSTRUCTION BOOKS. The African American Heritage Hymnal, published by GIA (Excellent hymnal) Barnwell, Ysaye, 1989. Singing in the African American Tradition, Choral and Congregational Vocal Music. (Six CDs where Dr. Barnwell teaches the harmonies one part at a time---Her way of keeping the songs within the aural tradition. With great background information. Highly recommended!) Blood, Peter, & Patterson, Annie, ed. 1988. Rise Up Singing. Bethlehem, PA: A Sing Out Publication, PO Box 5253, 18015. (The best collection of folk song lyrics around. Tapes or CDs available.) www.singout.org Carawan, Guy and Candie, ed. Sing For Freedom, The Story of the Civil Rights Movement Through its Songs, Bethlehem, PA: A Sing Out Publication, 1990. Cuyler, Patty and Stone, Molly, ed., RAISING THE BAR Vol. 1 & 2, Trad. South African music taught in the oral tradition from South African choirs. http://www.northernharmony.pair.com Nyberg, Anders, ed. FREEDOM IS COMING, Songs of Protest and Praise from South Africa for Mixed Choir. Chapel Hill, NC: Walton Music Corporation. (Great book and CD of SATB songs and chants.) Orozco, José-Luis, ed. Ill. by Elisa Kleven, De Colores and Other Latin-American Folk Songs for Children, New York, NY: Dutton Children's Books, 1994. (also Diez Deditos, Ten Little Fingers) Page, Nick. Sing and Shine On! An Innovative Guide to Leading Multicultural Song, available at www.westmusic.com (The book offers several song-forms and strategies for teaching each.) Page, Nick, The Nick Page SING WITH US Songbook, 2008, Hal Leonard. (Many songs for community singing) Available at www.westmusic.com Parker, Alice. 1976. Creative Hymn Singing. Chapel Hill, NC: Hinshaw Music, Inc. P.O. Box 470, 27514. (Even though her subject matter is hymns, her strategies apply to all songs. She teaches how to make old songs come alive again.) Schmid, Will, ed., Get America Singing . . . Again!, (Vol. 1 & 2) Hal Leonard 1996. (Great collections of sing-along songs). Seeger, Pete, 1993. Where Have All the Flowers Gone, A Singer's Stories, Songs, Seeds, Robberies. Bethlehem, PA: Sing Out Corporation. www.singout.org Sweet Honey In The Rock, All For Freedom. 1989. (Recording) Redway, CA: Music For Little People. (Great African and African-American songs for children.) Songs of Zion. 1981. Nashville: Abingdon Press. (Manufactured by the Parthenon Press) [ISBN 0687391202] (Fantastic collection of African American Hymns, Spirituals, and Gospel Songs---with historical backgrounds for each style.) 1981 Treece, Roger, CircleSongs, The Method, 2016. Available from www.rogertreece.com. (Circle Singing communities have sprung up around the world – inspired by the improvisational group sings led by Bobby McFerrin.) Tiemstra, Suzanne, Latin America Choral Music Resource www.latinamericanchoralmusic.org - excellent Weisenberg, Joey, 2011, Building Singing Communities, A Practical Guide to Unlocking the Power of Music in Jewish Prayer, www.mechonhadar.org, www.joeyweisenberg.co,, (Joey concentrates this guide on leading the Chassidic Nign, a style he is helping to make popular again.) V I D E O S DO YOU SHINE? by Nick Page https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7rb7tFwcxHw A PROMISE I WILL KEEP by Nick Page & Nita Penfold. Published by Boosey & Hawkes. Performed by The Mystic Chorale of Boston, Nick Page & Louise Grasmere soloists. https://youtu.be/2bg3WN9vuC0 SWIMMING TO THE OTHER SIDE by Pat Humphries arr. by Nick Page sung by the Mystic Chorale. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O1FRhZBNra4 I’M GONNA’ GET THROUGH THIS WORLD words by Woody Guthrie, music by Lisa Gutkins of The Klezmatics from their Wonderwheel CD. Performed by The Vocal Arts Academy of Milwaukee, Emily Crocker, director. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A4Dzv_LGK_A THERE’S HONEY IN THE ROCK, Spiritual with additional words by Nick Page. Published in Nick Page’s SING WITH US songbook from Hal Leonard. Performed by Nick Page, Jeannie Gagné and friends. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M1xThijZ1c0&feature=related YOU HAVE A HEART by Nick Page. Published by Hal Leonard. The piece was written for New Jersey’s JOYFUL NOISE, a group of singers with physical and intellectual disabilities, but it can be sung by any group with audience participation. The message is one that the group JOYFUL NOISE teaches us, that we need to let our hearts fly and not hold back. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Mesq_JRZoE
- HC#28May 20 · 26 min
Tuneless Choirs: Exuberance in Singing
Nadine Cooper and Bernie Bracha started their first Tuneless Choir in 2016. Their sole aim was to have members walk out the door feeling uplifted. There were be no auditions, no music, no parts and no tuition. Now there are over30 active tuneless choirs around the UK, with more in the planning stage. https://www.tunelesschoir.com/story/
- HC#30May 14 · 25 min
Hold On/ with Heidi Wilson
Heidi Wilson’s passion is to share songs in service to community and the wild world; songs that celebrate the seasons, bring groups together, offer thanks, muster courage, and make room for deep connection. Heidi has been leading community singing groups in central Vermont and beyond for the last 19 years, and is touring The Well Tree, an original storytelling musical, with her trio Heartwood. Other links for folks to look into: @singingresistance kairoscenter.org Songs in the Key of Resistance HeidiAnnWilson.com HeartwoodTrio.com
- HC#24May 7 · 27 min
Rewilding the Voice w/ Frankie Armstrong
Frankie Armstrong ( www.frankiearmstrong.uk) has been singing professionally since 1964. In 1975 she began her pioneering Voice Workshops based on ethnic styles of singing - where singing is as natural as speaking. She has sung and run workshops all over Europe, N America and Australia Frankie has made 12 solo albums and co-written three books on Voice, including Acting and Singing with Archetypes. She is President of NVN (Natural Voice Network. She offers workshops called Adventures in Voice and If you Can Talk You Can Sing as well as one called Rewilding the Voice. She’s been called :the godmother of the natural voice singing movement
- HCS2 · E16April 30 · 26 min
Dreams of Harmony with Joanne Hammil
Joanne Hammil is a composer, songwriter, choral director, music educator and performer. Her passions for singing in harmony and creating community through music infuse her songwriting and teaching. She has directed many choruses throughout her career and has presented hundreds of workshops and concerts throughout the country. Our conversation revolves around attitudes and approaches that make group singing more powerful and inclusive. Her own songs and choral pieces have been performed and recorded by many artists and have become standards in songbooks, harmony circles and choir repertoires. For more information https://www.joannehammil.com Joanne’s version of Break Them On Down begins the episode. It is by Harmony Grisman.
- HCS2 · E27April 23 · 25 min
Spirit and History w/ Lauren McElroy and Bev Grant
Today's episode features two different guests. Lauren McElroy is a song leader in Viroqua, Wisconsin. She frequently attends and offers songs as part of Wisconsing's gathers. Bev Grant is a long time musician, activist, and for many years a leader of the Brooklyn Women's Chorus. https://bevgrant.com/ for Bev and Motherofpurl.net for Lauren
- HCS2 · E32April 16 · 28 min
Singing What Is Possible: The Rana Choir in Israel
Rana is a unique women’s choir operating in Jaffa and comprised of Muslim, Christian, and Jewish women. The choir was founded in 2008 by Mika Danny, who serves as its musical director and conductor, and by Idan Toledano, who serves as the artistic director. Rana has performed successfully throughout Israel and the world. The choir aims to express the female voice, which is not heard enough in their region, to cultivate dialogue, and create a cultural and human bridge. The choir’s repertoire includes folk songs and women’s songs in Hebrew, Arabic, and other cultures of the region. Rana choir operates under the “Felicia Blumenthal Center for Music”, which focuses on discovering and providing opportunities and support for talented musicians and ensembles. The bravery and vision of the choir is a central topic to our discussion. https://ranachoir.com/en/home-page-english/#Our_story https://open.spotify.com/artist/3gTxEHwlGWZaN6o9NIgYdo
- HCS2 · E29April 9 · 27 min
Singing in Prison w/ Catherine Roma
Catherine Roma has led community singing in a variety of locations and types, but she has a specific passion for working with incarcerated people. creating choruses and music that reflects a focus on dignity and social change. She discusses experiences and lessons from her more than 30 years of leading singing in prisons in Ohio.
- HC#25April 2 · 28 min
Singing with Spirit w/ Betsy Rose
Betsy Rose has been a singer and songwriter for over 50 years. Apart from her compelling and poetic writing, she has a passion for group singing, especially in political and cultural change contexts. Her songs have taken her around the world, but lately her main stage is at political street protests. more at betsyrosemusic.com
- HCS2 · E20March 26 · 23 min
Community Choir Leadership Training
My guests in this podcast are Denis Donelly, Cathy Baker and Dick Jackson. Denis, Cathy and Dick are codirectors of the community choir leadership training in Victoria British Columbia. The training began in 2004 and continues to this day with a yearly program of a two-week intensive in-person session and a full year of mentorship and ongoing networking opportunities through the Ubuntu Choirs Network. They each bring a rich history of singing and directing choirs and ta deep commitment to the empowerment and community that singing together creates. https://www.communitychoirleadership.com/index.php
- HCS2 · E23March 19 · 28 min
Unity and Harmony w/ John McCutcheon
John McCutcheon has performed for audiences around the world for over 50 years. Beside his considerable musical talents, he's a committed song leader with a long history of encouraging connection and activism through group singing. We talk about his development of song leading as a skill and a passion. John's Website
- HCS2 · E18March 12 · 29 min
Shape Note Singing with Esther Morgan Ellis
Esther Morgan-Ellis shares the joys and the structures of this old style of singing together. The exuberance of the practice is echoed in Esther's own enthusiasm for the power of this tradition. Esther Morgan-Ellis is a historical musicologist who focuses on participatory musical traditions, especially community singing and old-time music-making. She has written extensively about the early twentieth-century American community singing movement. Her research also explores contemporary traditions such as Sacred Harp singing, hymn singing, and revivalist old-time music, examining how communities sustain and reshape these practices over time. As editor and lead author of the open-access textbook Resonances: Engaging Music in Its Cultural Context, she highlights musical traditions from around the world to show how music functions within diverse societies. In both her scholarship and her work as a performer and educator, she emphasizes the social bonds and shared histories that grow out of collective music-making. And the global singings website: https://shapenotesingings.com/
- HCS2 · E21March 5 · 28 min
Singing with Nightingales w/ Sam Lee
Sam Lee is a British folk singer, song collector, and environmental activist who founded Singing with Nightingales, an immersive springtime series that brings audiences into the woods to experience live music in duet with nightingales. A Mercury Prize–nominated artist and passionate nature conservationist, he uses this project to connect people more deeply with the natural world, blending traditional song, storytelling, and ecological awareness into a powerful shared experience. What is the song of a Nightingale if not a celebration of life? An expression of the energy in the roots of Spring, coursing up through the earth, through the trunks of the blackthorn thickets, through the leaves, the blossoms, through the buzzing insects and the munching caterpillars, streaming at last through the syrinx of our little brown birds as they perch at the peak of the season. Sometimes it seems as if they sing the season into being, sometimes they are the season’s self. It’s one of the reasons we come to the woods every spring – to learn how to sing praise like this, and to sing praise ourselves. The Nightingale has maybe forty years left in Britain. Myself and the SWN team are intent on making those years good ones. https://www.singingwithnightingales.co.uk
- HCS2 · E19February 26 · 22 min
Buddhist Chanting with Chau Yoder
Chau Yoder was born in Hanoi, Vietnam. Since 1989, she has offered workshops and classes in Mindful Living, in youth, corporate retreat, and community settings. Chau was Trained by Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh and ordained as a Dharma Teacher in 2003. She’s dedicated to sharing practical methods of mindful living that cultivate awareness of body and mind. She’s also a retired engineer, who spent 25 years at Chevron. Chau lives in Walnut Creek, California, with her husband Jim, and is a grateful mother of two daughters and a grandmother of four.
- HCS2 · E17February 19 · 27 min
Hootenannies: with Phil Hoose and Beth and Scott Bierko
Singing that fills the living room or dining room or basement or kitchen is a tradition that's probably as old as group singing in itself. Phil, Beth, and Scott talk about their experience and tips for inviting people in to your home and to the songs themselves. Phil Hoose information. Beth and Scott Bierko information and a written piece by Phil and Faith Petric. These days, many people can’t imagine singing out loud without a Karaoke machine. It seems a shame, for nothing brings people together like making your own music in a group. To help revive and energize the great art of living room singing, we two veterans of it would like to offer a few suggestions. Faith’s Part. Phil: For about 35 years now I’ve been hosting group singing parties in my home. Often I co-host them with a group of folks who come up to Maine from Boston to spend the weekend. I don’t belong to an official Folk Club as Faith does, but I do try to schedule these events regularly. I host one sing in the winter, one in the summer and usually one in the autumn. We have a pretty big living room, enough to accommodate about 25 people. Heaven for me is a place within a circle of those folks, when everyone’s voice is raised together in song. Here’s how I organize singing parties, with a few tips and precautions: *About 2 months ahead of the date I send out an e-mail invitation to the usual suspects, inviting them to come and bring no more than one guest. Usually the party is on a weekend night. Our tradition is “Potluck at 5:30, singing at 7:00.” We sing until we give out, which is earlier than it used to be. I pass around a clipboard and ask everyone to update their contact numbers. *Sometimes, b ut not always, I propose—or solicit--a theme for the evening, pointing out that the theme can be broadly defined. For example, once we did “lust,” but it turned out that every song anyone could think of turned out to be lusty in one way or another (e.g., “Amazing Grace” is really about lust for salvation and a of courser man must have lust for the lure of the mines, etc). *Children are welcome. Often someone brings a movie or two for children who get tired of hearing their parents sing. What do you do if a child grabs one of your harmonicas and wails in the wrong key during a lovely ballad? Beam. *I ask everyone to bring five copies of the words and chords to their song. If you ask for 25 copies, you end up wading through an ocean of paper on the floor the next morning. Besides, if three or four people have to look on to same sheet, harmonies erupt. *Format: We go around in a circle, with each person getting to name and, if they like, lead a song. They also get to describe the accompaniment they want. Many say, “let’s do this without instruments,” (or, in the parlance that has developed at our house, “holster your capellas”). Sometimes we flip a coin to see whether we’re going clockwise or counter-clockwise around the room. This can be a big deal, since it can take more than an hour to get around a big circle. *Rise Up Singing (the Bible). Alas, as our group ages, this glorious book becomes increasingly less relevant. The font is now way too small for us. A Rise Up Singing that our group could read would be thicker than the Tokyo phonebook. Nonetheless, many folks still bring it, and still depend on it. As their turn approaches, you can see them flipping through it, necks bowed, squinting at the tiny, tiny words. *Tuning. We start the evening by tuning together, and stop to tune occasionally. Staying in tune makes the evening so much better (ironically, after tuning for fifteen minutes, we traditionally lift off the party with The Beatles’ “One After 909,” which invariably knocks everything right back out of tune).
- HCS2 · E26February 13 · 26 min
On-Ramps to Activism: Music in the Minneapolis Streets w/ Heather Mae
Heather Mae is a genre‑defying artist‑activist whose music blends the storytelling intimacy of folk with the grit of alternative rock and the hooks of indie pop. She writes anthems about mental health, queer liberation, survivor empowerment, and social justice, inviting listeners into a space of radical honesty and shared vulnerability. Her double‑album project WHAT THEY HID FROM ME has helped to build a devoted community of “light‑seekers” and “good‑troublemakers” Her concerts feel less like passive performances and more like participatory gatherings that remind audiences they are worthy, not alone, and very much still here. And I would add Heather Mae has recently been spending time in Minneapolis and brings her unique perspective on what’s happening in the streets and in the shared voices of a resisting community. the song Hold On in the podcast was written by Heidi Wilson. /Heather Mae's website
- HCS2 · E22February 12 · 24 min
Tradition and Creativity w/Jane Sapp
Jane Sapp is a nationally admired cultural worker, musician, educator, folklorist, and activist whose approach to social transformation is rooted in the African American musical, cultural, spiritual and human rights traditions. Through her singing, documenting local culture and stories, song-writing workshops, and other expressive work with diverse communities and youth, Jane actively engages people in creative cultural processes that help them understand and see not only the challenges faced by their communities, but their assets as well. Jane has many recordings and a book Let’s Make a Better World: Stories and Songs of Jane Sapp. She has sung all over the country and farther, and her influence reaches around the world. Among other things she is currently working to document her stories as a way to reflect on her own work and on the cultural history of the last fifty years. https://www.janesapp.org/about
- HC#9February 5 · 27 min
Singing with a Vision w/Paul Tinkerhess
Paul Tinkerhess is a long time community singer and songwriter from Ann Arbor, Michigan. Our conversation explores the ways we risk vulnerability and move forward as singers and as a community.
- HCS2 · E5January 29 · 28 min
An Impromptu Glorious Chorus w/ Elise Witt
Elise Witt’s concerts of Global, Local & Homemade Songs™ and her Impromptu Glorious Chorus™ workshops create and connect singing communities around the world. Born in Switzerland, raised in NC, and living in Atlanta since 1977, Elise speaks 5 languages fluently and sings in at least a dozen more. From 2009-2024, Elise served as Director of Music Programs at the Global Village Project, (GVP) a special purpose middle school for teenage refugee girls in Atlanta, Georgia. Imagine a Circle: The Global Village Songbook: Using Singing and Songwriting to Teach English for Multi-lingual Learners is a book of 55 songs written by, with, and for the GVP students. The Elise Witt Choral Series features choral arrangements of Elise’s compositions, and she recently published All Singing, a songbook with 58 original songs for solo and community singing. More info at https://elisewitt.com