Music from Brian Dyer Stewart

Dear family, friends, and fellow travelers,

    The song this cycle is a love song for Orion.  She was one of the first constellations I learned as a boy.  It would be such a comfort to see her rising in the East as winter came on traveling the night sky with such graceful arcs and patterns, the warm red brilliance of Betelgeuse the brooch on her right shoulder (left from our viewpoint).  There was a kind of built in nostalgia from her emergence around the winter holidays and the mysterious dance of distance and time to a youngster.

Dear family, friends, and fellow travelers,

    The song this cycle is Song for My Father, one of the first songs I wrote, somewhere around 1970 when I was 19.  It imagined a time 53 years later when my kids had grown and had their own families and wondered how that would be.  Something to hear those words now!  I only had an old cassette recording from 1980 so I recorded it fresh this morning with a little piano sprinkled in.  I hope you enjoy it.

The song this cycle is Roiling Boys, which I wrote when our older boys were adolescents.  Ah, the christening of parents into the mysteries of their own children's growing wings and taking flight and how beautiful and beyond comprehension those times are to all involved!  I recorded this with Joyful Trio - Kenny Pierce on guitar and vocals, Leonore Hildebrandt on percussion and vocals, me on keys and lead vocal.  I am ever so grateful to have become a parent and to all the blessed roiling times!

The song this cycle is Sing Your Song, which has been kicking around for a couple of days and finally took shape this morning and just now, a quick recording.  Sometimes I think that music is the mother tongue and when we sing or play or listen we tap into that grace and love that creates and blesses the cosmos.  I was recently reading about the Chilean poet, musician and activist Victor Jara who was the musical catalyst of the Chilean people's movement that led to the election of Dr. Salvador Allende.  After a brutal military coup, Jara was arrested.  Soldiers broke his hands and taunted "Play your guitar now".  At that he started singing the Chilean protest song "Venceremos" and was shot dead.  The tune lived on long after Victor Jara and long after the dictator, Pinochet, was removed from office, arrested for war crimes and died.

Dear family, friends, and fellow travelers,

    The song this cycle is Hoot Owl, an old favorite from thirty+ years ago.  It was one of the first recordings I ever made, done for a sampler CD of Downeast Maine Musicians.  Leonore Hildebrandt and Susan Merrill on vocals with Leonore on conga.

    Here's the filterable playlist of all the songs from all the newsletters.

Dear family, friends, and fellow travelers,

    The song this cycle is Crossing Over, an improvised piano piece from the last couple of weeks - you'll see a few hesitations in the playing and so on, but the tune seemed to me to capture something of this season as we pass the winter solstice and find, hopefully, some quiet and reflective time before heading into the new year and the return of the light.

Dear family, friends, and fellow travelers,

Dear family, friends, and fellow travelers,

    The song this cycle is Life Is Like a Car, written in the early 90s when two friends whom I had worked with on peace and justice issues were leaving the area.  I remember finishing the last verse in the basement of the church where we were having their going-away party.  Susan Merrill helped me with thoughts and feedback and we sang it together later that evening. It's a song that circles my chest often during times of farewells and passings and just deep friendship remembered. 

Dear family, friends, and fellow travelers,

    The song this cycle is First Love, written in 2015 on my way to song writers' retreat.  The tune had been circling around my brain - a nostalgic melody - and the words were jotted down as I drove along I-95 south.  I didn't get around to recording it until the end of that year - that's me on vocals, piano and my only concertina recording (so far).  A good fall song in terms of bitter-sweet and oh, that autumn moon - we had just such a one this last full moon. 

Dear family, friends, and fellow travelers,

    The song this cycle is Back Home with Jesus, written earlier this summer with some help from my friend and lyric magician May-Lily Lee.  I finally made a quick recording this morning.