Music from Brian Dyer Stewart

Dear family, friends, and fellow travelers,

The song this cycle is Promise of the Sun, written for my daughter when she turned 18.  Before becoming a parent, I could never have truly imagined the depth of the tides that would run between us.  I am ever grateful to our four children for the abundance of life and love that they bring into this world, just as we so need it...

This was a live recording of Joyful Trio - Kenny Pierce on cello, Leonore Hildebrandt on percussion and harmony vocals, and me on piano and vocals.

Dear family, friends, and fellow travelers,

    So sorry to be late this month - kids and grandkids visiting and a major meltdown with my computer!  The song this cycle is Numeric Bliss, appropriately enough written with the grandkids a couple of years ago.  Count to ten and back again and throw in some hot keys and percussion.  Leonore Hildebrandt on percussion and vocals.  The song was recorded for our latest CD, Market Day.  To hear the whole album, click the link, Market Day!

Dear family, friends, and fellow travelers,

    The song this cycle is Abiding Love.  I wrote it a number of years ago now and it only deepens as time goes on.  You get down to the bones with your partner as the years go on, if you're lucky enough to weather the ride together and see anew the beauty and mystery that is always ours to discover and behold.  I recorded the song with Leonore for our album, Into Starlight.  She is on percussion and vocals.

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,