Over the four years of the Climate Letter Project, I had relatively few opportunities to link climate and music, despite the many obvious connections. This was one. The NOLA Defender (New Orleans, LA) gives the Big Easy’s perspective on climate: Global warming often conjures images of melting ice caps and smokestacks spewing soot. On Friday, […]
….was in 1970 or thereabouts. I was 12. I’d seen a jug band perform and was deeply impressed with the washtub bass (I have always had a thing for low frequencies). I went home and over the next few days…. Located a big square tin can (maybe 12″ high by 10″ square) that used to […]
…that they’re not doomed to repeat it. Here’s some important history for us:
While there are plenty of raw materials for instrument-making which have come under threat from climate change and environmental destruction (tropical hardwoods, to offer just one example), at least one type of instrument seems safe. Arundo Donax, the “giant reed” which provides the vibrating material for saxophonists & clarinetists worldwide, is not only critical for […]
Berne Krause has been recording the natural world for decades. His book “The Great Animal Orchestra” is one of the most important things you can read — both for insight into the ways we humans evolved as a species in a world saturated with music, and for (mostly very depressing) insights into just how badly […]
I remember reading that a natural ecosystem that had taken thousands of years to develop can be destroyed in ten minutes by a guy driving a bulldozer. That seems true enough; horrifying and depressing, but true. All evolution’s gradual work, building a wonderfully complex interdependent structure — turned into undifferentiated rubble in less time than […]
I learned this song at summer camp — a camp which was, not coincidentally, run by Pete’s elder brother John Seeger, who died last year at age 95. At Camp Killooleet, community singing was a regular feature, and one of the musicians who led the kids was a guy named George Ward; I learned this […]
As of December 28, 2013, people have delivered the Climate Message in San Antonio, Texas: “I have made the commitment, had my first announcement tonight at my monthly kirtan in San Antonio, TX. Thank you for the inspiration to act and the reminder that we have the power to influence hearts and minds.” Bangalore, India […]