Music from Brian Dyer Stewart

    The tune this cycle is Little Sparrow, brought back from the archives, July 2019.  There was a large sorrow in my life at the time.  At songwriters' retreat I had been out early in the morning, just as the sun rose and had gone down to the shore where I was serenaded at some length by a song sparrow in a nearby pine.  Somehow there seemed to be a perfect circle formed by that song and my heart was soothed and this song was the result.  A little song from that little sparrow to you all.

Dear family, friends, and fellow travelers,

    The tune this cycle is Winter Trees, which I wrote this week while down visiting my eldest son and his family in the DC area, where I also grew up.  I'm blessed on these visits to be able to see dear friends from my very earliest days who still live here.  There's no place quite as deeply etched in the heart as friendships that were so formative and have continued over the years with ebbs and flows but always returning.  I am ever grateful for their friendship.  

Dear family, friends, and fellow travelers,

    The tune this cycle is Push, which I wrote a couple weeks ago and recorded this morning. Straightforward blues, straightforward call to come together and Push toward a just, compaswsionate and inclusive country and world.

    Love and Courage

    Brian

Dear family, friends, and fellow travelers,

    The tune this cycle is Jenny Hold On, a small song that came out of a jam session with Leonore Hildebrandt.  She plays percussion and sings on the recording we made after a little polishing up.

   The tune this cycle is I'm a Chicken, a song I wrote a number of years ago when visiting our oldest grandchild (now 9) and her family on their farm.  She loved the chickens and this song developed while we were feeding them.  I finally got around to recording it today...

    On the wall in the kitchen, above the sink, Pammy pasted a quote, many years ago now, from Howard Thurman:
   “Don't ask yourself what the world needs. Ask yourself what makes you come alive, and go do that, because what the world needs is people who have come alive." 

    It's such a part of every day chores that many days I fail to notice it...but then I do.  In the song this cycle, the chicken is living that life.  It's up to us now.

   The tune this cycle is Fine and Dandy, a piano improv from a couple years ago.  I had a more sombre tune in mind, more reflective of the angst the world scene keeps bringing on for me but thought Hey, let's just enjoy a summer day for a moment.  So much exists at the same time, such love, beauty and joy, such sorrow, tragedy and cruelty.  I know that has always been true but the dissonance seems so amplified in these times.  Nonetheless, a moment just to explore a Fine and Dandy day - also a part of this life and hopefully one that will give us some renewed joy for going into those harder moments.

Dear family, friends, and fellow travelers,

    The tune this cycle is Song of the Sea, written a few years ago and somehow lost in the shuffle.  I think of the Wendell Berry poem, The Peace of Wild Things, about the juxtaposition of despair and peace that we humans seem to carry as our burden, our gift.  I recorded the song yesterday.

    The tune this cycle is The Price of Bread, which I just wrote yesterday.  A kind of lullaby to a young girl in Palestine.  I'm haunted by the destruction in Gaza.  A friend who was there in the 90s with the State Department continues to have friends there.  The stories and pictures from them and, of course, from the news are devastating, past words, past sorrow.  And yet, on and on it goes.  The cycle of violence seems never ending and it takes such courage and strength to break it.  There is no victory in vengeance, no hope in the murder of children or anyone else.  I remember Gandhi's quote of "An eye for an eye will make the whole world blind..."  And there is so much beauty to be seen and shared...

Dear family, friends, and fellow travelers,

    The tune this cycle is Silver Moon, a blues tune from a bit ago, on a full moon last autumn, I think.  Lost love has something universal to offer, just that feeling of woebegone.

    Love and Courage,

    Brian

I'm sending you a monthly offering from original music I've been writing over many years. I've been so bold as to add your email to my newsletter list.  You can unsubscribe at any time (link at the bottom of the email).

Dear family, friends, and fellow travelers,

    The tune this cycle is We Will Rise.  We've been on the road this week, visiting kids and grandkids.  Such deep sorrow, worry and fear we see as we travel, even as spring shows its first signs and the joy and fervor of our grandkids shines.  There are such real and imminent problems to face in our time, in our country.  It is hard to see our leadership deliberately creating fear and discord while focusing on themseles and their desire for fame, fortune, and power.  The world needs us all to pull at the oars of cooperation, mutual support and service to each other.  Instead, we attack those committed to service, villanize the most vulnerable, rewrite history as if that might erase the failures and problems that remain in our times.

    We Will Rise remembers how we have and can come together in times of crisis, disaster and chaos to support each other and bring hope where devastation and fear have wrought great pain. 

    Hand in hand, together, we will rise.