June 20, 2026 by willedare

How About You?

I recorded this sweet song as part on an hour-long program of music written for — or strongly identified with — Judy Garland.

It was written by Burton Lane and Ralph Freed for her and Mickey Rooney to perform in the 1941 MGM movie BABES ON BROADWAY.

I learned from Wikipedia that the lyricist, Ralph Freed, was the baby brother of producer/lyricist Arthur Freed, who co-wrote the song “This Heart Of Mine” which I featured in a recent blog post,

Having spent a fair amount of time — especially during the summer — in Manhattan as a child and teenager, I savor all of the geographical references in the lyrics.

I only wish they had mentioned Chock Full o’ Nuts, my favorite place to get a burger (with ketchup, mustard and relish) plus a big orange drink — which was a mixture of orange juice, sugar and water, I think, churning endlessly in a big, glass dispenser until it was sold to thirsty customers.

Chock Full o’ Nuts started during the roaring ’20s as a chain of — no surprise — nut shops.

But when the Depression hit, the owner William Black pivoted and turned his stores into lunch counters where — according to Wikipedia — one could buy a cup of coffee and a cream-cheese-with-chopped-nuts sandwich for five cents.

Jackie Robinson with a fellow Chock Full o’ Nuts employee

And his coffee proved to be so popular that he started selling it for people to make at home or in their office.

William Black — whose last name was originally Schwartz (which means black in Yiddish) — seems to have been a somewhat progressive employer.

Most of his company’s cooks and waitstaff were African-American, and when baseball superstar Jackie Robinson retired from playing, he became a vice president and director of personnel at Chock Full o’ Nuts.

Mr. Black was married to two female singers (not at the same time…) who performed his company’s radio and TV jingles. His second wife also became very involved with their family’s philanthropic efforts.

They gave millions of dollars to medical research and helped to start the Parkinson’s Disease Foundation.

And there is even a William Black medical research building at Columbia University’s medical center (Mr. Black was a Columbia alum…)

But back to “How About You?”.

Burton Lane was a very successful composer — originally from Manhattan — who worked at various movie studios in California.

Interspersed with his time in Hollywood, he co-wrote songs for Broadway shows including FINIAN’S RAINBOW (with Yip Harberg) and ON A CLEAR DAY YOU CAN SEE FOREVER (with Alan Jay Lerner).

He is also one of several people who claim credit for bringing Judy Garland to the attention of the powers-that-be at MGM after he saw her perform with her two older sisters at the Paramount Theatre in Los Angeles.

So not only do we have Mr. Lane to thank for the great songs he co-wrote, we also can (at least partially) thank him for helping to bring Judy Garland and her extraordinary gifts as a performer to a much wider audience.

I would also like to thank Doug Hammer for his playful piano impulses and painstaking production skills as well as Stephen C. Fischer for his patient and collaborative graphic design work.

If you’d like to stream our version of “How About You?” you can click here.

Every stream, every “like,” and every “save” encourages the mysterious algorithms of the digital music platforms to share a recording with other potential listeners.

Here’s the graphic for “How About You?” which features what was probably my last professional headshot as a teen performer in NYC.

One final note…

As I was drafting this blog post, the New York Knicks were engaged in an extraordinary series of basketball games which culminated in them becoming NBA champions.

I especially like New York in June when the Knicks win the NBA playoffs after a 53 year drought!

How about you?

Although I am not a big basketball fan, I became swept up in the drama and virtuosity of the NBA playoffs.

Twice I went to bed early — thinking the Knicks had lost — and awoke to discover that they had triumphed.

Wow!

Oh, me of little faith…

Since their victory, I have been savoring the enthusiasm of the Knicks’ fans — in NYC and around the country.

And I love what one of their star players Jalen Brunson said following their record-breaking comeback from 29 points down to win game four.

“You’re allowed to think about the worst possible scenario, but you gotta go out there and do something about it.”

Deep breath in.

Deep breath out.

Those are great words to live by…

Thank you, Knicks, for bringing millions of us — from many different political and cultural and ethnic backgrounds — together during this challenging time here on planet earth.

You gave — and continue to give — us hope and joy and inspiration.

And THANK YOU to everyone who is willing to read and listen to yet another one of my blog posts.

March 10, 2026 by willedare

In Praise Of Pandora

I am a huge fan of Pandora.

Not the woman in Greek mythology whose wedding gift/jar/box released evil sprits upon the world — along with Elpis aka Hope (“a single blessing to ease mankind’s suffering” according to a Greek mythology website I found online).

And not the jewelry company.

I am a fan of the music streaming company named Pandora.

However, I am also aware that the mythology of Pandora IS quite resonant right now.

Some days it does indeed feel like a bunch of evil spirits are ravaging our neighborhoods, our country, other countries, and our planet.

Thank goodness for Elpis ie: hope!

I had completely forgotten this crucial part of the myth — that the gods give us hope as an antidote/counterbalance to all of the evil spirits released by Pandora.

Deep breath in.

Deep breath out.

According to the Greek mythology website mentioned above, Elpis/hope is often depicted as a young woman carrying flowers — hence the flower images in this post.

And music can inspire a sense of hopefulness in many of us — so maybe Pandora isn’t a horrible name for a music streaming company after all.

Now you may be wondering why I am choosing in this blog post to praise the music streaming company named Pandora?

It is because they have been the most consistent beacon of helpfulness and humanity I have encountered during my five-year foray into the business of streaming music.

I wrote about them a little bit in a blog post last March.

Although they are currently part of a larger company, Sirius/XM, their cultural norms of accessibility and friendliness have not (yet) been contaminated/eliminated in a short-sighted quest for increased profit.

I love that all of the Pandora staff members with whom I have interacted are themselves musicians — and many of them use Pandora to share their own music with the world.

I have been told that Pandora listeners are located only in the USA.

But apparently some people around the world are clever enough to use a VPN — a virtual private network which, according to NordVPN “protects your internet connection and privacy online (by creating) an encrypted tunnel for your data.”

If you use a VPN, you can stream music via Pandora from anywhere there is internet service on planet earth (if I am understanding this VPN option correctly).

I think using a VPN also allows for some privacy regarding one’s internet history — which might be wise for more of us to consider using?

Anyways, back to Pandora…

The Pandora staff have created a bunch of free promotional tools which musicians like me can use — such as creating personalized audio messages to share with one’s listeners.

One can also feature a particular song for up to two months at a stretch (six times per year…)

And every month Pandora offers two free training sessions via Zoom, which allow independent musicians to learn how to use their promotional tools and — more importantly — to build relationships with real human beings.

This is the crucial piece that so many companies seem to have completely devalued in recent years.

Many (if not most) of us human beings want to build relationships with the people in our daily lives — whether it’s our mail carrier, or a teller at our local bank, or the staff at our local grocery store, or the folks who run our favorite restaurant, or the doctors/nurses/staff at our local hospital, etc. etc. etc.

Chatbots may save money, but they do not help to build actual human relationships.

And it’s actual human relationships which tend to create a foundation of customer loyalty.

Another deep breath in.

And deep breath out.

As regular readers of my blog are well aware, there is a steep learning curve when one starts releasing music to be streamed via companies like Pandora, Apple Music, YouTube, Spotify, Tidal, Amazon Music, etc.

In addition to recording a song, mixing it and then mastering it, one also needs to get a graphic designed for it, select a company to distribute it (I use CD Baby), register it with the Copyright Office in Washington DC, and then enter it into one’s account at various organizations which collect money for the use of one’s song — including ASCAP, SoundExchange, Songtrust and the Mechanical Licensing Collective.

CD Baby used to have wonderful customer service until it was bought by another company which made a lot of changes…

And now the company which bought CD Baby — Downtown Music — is being sold to Universal Music Group (one of the three largest music conglomerates) after they were given permission from a European tribunal weighing the anti-trust implications of such a purchase.

G-d only knows what changes this purchase will bring into the lives of tens of thousands of independent musicians like me who currently use CD Baby to distribute our music…

Maybe UMG will use some of their enormous clout on our behalf?

Maybe they will improve customer service at CD Baby?

Or maybe they will find new ways to cheat, fleece and otherwise take advantage of us?

Time will tell…

Yet another deep breath in.

And deep breath out.

I can attest to the effectiveness of Pandora’s promotional tools.

My total streams on Pandora recently surpassed 200,000.

So I will continue to use these promotional tools AND will continue to remain grateful for Pandora’s terrific staff.

The song I included at the beginning of this blog post was written for a show called FUNNY FACE which starred Fred Astaire and his older sister Adele in the1920s.

I attempted to release this version, which I recorded with pianist Doug Hammer, last year.

But CD Baby mysteriously messed up the metadata attached to the recording — listing Doug as a primary artist rather than a featured artist — and he asked me to remove it from distribution so that it wouldn’t confuse the fan base (much larger than mine) he has built for his solo piano compositions.

Sadly, I have been unable to get any definitive answer from the customer service staff at CD Baby about how this mistake happened in the first place and whether I’ll ever be able to re-release it with the correct designation (featured artist not primary artist) for Doug.

Deep sigh.

Thank you to Doug for recording it with me.

Thank you to the Gershwin brothers for writing it in the first place.

Thank you to Pixabay for the lovely photos of spring flowers.

And thank YOU for reading and listening to another one of my blog posts.

You are always welcome to visit my website — willsings.com — if you are curious to learn more about my musical life here on planet earth.

I’ve begun a new postcard-writing campaign with a bunch of people in my neighborhood.

We are reminding Wisconsin voters that they have an important Supreme Court election coming up on April 7th.

It’s a small task.

But doing something — anything — to withstand/offset the chaotic cyclone of destruction being unleashed by our current political leadership helps me stay connected to a tiny sense of Elpis/Hope.

As does the melting snow outside…

And the promise of spring flowers!

June 27, 2025 by willedare

Let The Day Unfold…

Greetings!

I first attempted to release this song several years ago, but complications at CD Baby — the company I use to distribute recordings to digital streaming platforms — led me to cancel that initial piano/vocal rendition.

Fast forward three years, and I am releasing a new version — this time recorded with my friends Molly Ruggles (playing piano and singing) and Carole Bundy (singing).

Molly also crafted our harmonies.

I co-write this song with two former bandmates, Scott Kowalik and Javier Pico, with whom I was in a pop-rock band a long time ago.

Here is a photo of us way back when…

Scott and Javier are on the right side, and I am leaning on Alan.

Robert sits in the middle.

That is when I still had a fair amount of hair.

I think Scott’s girlfriend at the time snapped this photo near the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston.

I am saddened to realize that some of the lyrics in this song (“and so we set off to fight another war…”) areeven more compelling today than when Scott (mostly the chorus) and I (mostly the verses) wrote them.

G-d only knows what will continue to unfold in the Middle East… and Ukraine… and so many other active human war zones…

Deep breath in.

Deep breath out.

I do not want my blog posts to be too discouraging, overwhelming or unhappy.

There’s already plenty of that energy in circulation here on planet earth!

That’s partly why I started sharing shorter, flower-filled Thursday Throwback blog posts this year.

And “Let The Day Unfold” offers a bit of hope and maybe even a smidge of wisdom.

I DO feel that many of us are caught in a losing battle — armored “with the righteous power of the either/or” — about all sorts of very important topics.

For example, I can easily find myself hunkering down in a judgemental, self-righteous, bike-riding, public transportation-using stance regarding our over-consumption of fossil fuels (leading to the increasingly erratic and dangerous weather here on planet earth).

But life is always — or almost always — more complicated and nuanced than a purely either/or position.

That’s why I love the yin/yang symbol — it so beautifully illustrates the concept of “both/and.”

And it reminds me that compromise is not necessarily a horrible option.

Image by Stefan Schweihofer from Pixabay

Sometimes it’s the only option.

Another deep breath in.

And deep breath out.

Thank you to the generous photographers and graphic designers at Pixabay.

Thank you to Javier and Scott and Molly and Carole and Doug Hammer (who recorded us and then patiently helped to mix and master this new version of “Let the Day Unfold.”)

And thank YOU for reading and listening to yet another one of my blog posts and songs!

You can click here to stream “Let the Day Unfold” on your favorite musical platform.

And you can click here to visit my website if you are curious.

February 9, 2025 by willedare

When Your Heart Is Full Of Love…

Valentine’s Day is on the horizon.

I have chosen to honor it with a sweet song by Frank Loesser which was nominated for an Academy Award in 1952.

Mr. Loesser wrote it for Danny Kaye to perform in a movie about the Danish writer Hans Christian Anderson.

According to Mr. Loesser’s daughter, he did not think highly of this song, and sometimes even used it as an example of songwriting to avoid.

But I love it.

Mr. Loesser began his songwriting career as a lyricist and co-wrote a bunch of great songs in the 1930s and 1940s including “Heart and Soul” and “Two Sleepy People” (both with Hoagy Carmichael), “I Don’t Want To Walk Without You” (with Jule Styne) and “See What The Boys In The Back Room Will Have” (with Friedrich Hollaender).

The first hit song for which he wrote both words and music was “Praise The Lord And Pass The Ammunition” during WWII.

Loesser ended up writing words and music for the songs in WHERE’S CHARLEY, GUYS AND DOLLS, THE MOST HAPPY FELLA, and HOW TO SUCCEED IN BUSINESS WITHOUT REALLY TRYING (along with a few less successful undertakings).

Some hits from those shows include “Once In Love With Amy,” “Luck Be A Lady,” “I Love You A Bushel and A Peck,” “If I Were A Bell,” “I’ve Never Been In Love Before,” “Somebody, Somewhere,” “Standing On The Corner,” “Joey, Joey, Joey,” “I Believe In You,” and “Brotherhood of Man.”

Mr. Loesser also continued writing songs which were used in movies such as “Baby, It’s Cold Outside,” “Let’s Get Lost,” “Inchworm,” and “Spring Will Be A Little Late This Year.”

And he wrote a few songs which became pop hits without any connection to Broadway or Hollywood, including “What Are You Doing New Year’s Eve?” and “I’d Like To Get You On A Slow Boat To China.”

Danny Kaye, his wife Sylvia Fine, arranger Billy May and Frank Loesser

I have long loved his song “Thumbelina” — and am very happy with this peppy version which Doug Hammer and I recorded quite spontaneously a few years ago when I was putting together an hour-long program of songs written or co-written by Frank Loesser.

I had been thinking I might use it in a Valentine’s-Day-inspired blog post, and then fellow blogger Jennie F. left the following comment regarding my blog post last month:

“Nature is as wondrous as music. Your (hyacinth) bulb flower(ing) says it all… Stay warm, and remember the words of Hans Christian Andersen, “Where words fail, music speaks.”

That coincidence/synchronicity sealed the deal.

Deep breath in.

Deep breath out.

Barley (I think?) photo by Frauke Riether from Pixabay

I had forgotten the exact plot synopsis of THUMBELINA (which I first read as a child), but Wikipedia refreshed my memory:

“Thumbelina is about a tiny girl and her adventures with marriage-minded toads, moles, and cockchafers. She successfully avoids their intentions before falling in love with a flower-fairy prince just her size.”

I had also forgotten that Thumbelina comes into being as a result of the actions of a woman who — longing for a child — plants a barleycorn seed.

Thumbelina then emerges from a barleycorn flower… and the adventure of her life begins.

As a Music Together teacher, I particularly resonate with Mr. Loesser’s lyrical admonition that Thumbelina dance and sing — since that is exactly what I do three mornings per week with a delightful crew of small children + the grown ups (parents, grandparents, and nannies) who love them.

Illustration by Thomas Vilhelm Pederson from original publication of THUMBELINA in 1835

By the time I bike (or take the bus) to class, vacuum the karate studio (the floor of which accumulates a surprising.amount of hair, clipped toenails, cookie fragments, dust etc. plus sand and salt during the winter months), hide the punching bags and karate trophies behind a wall of rolling screens, set up a boombox and instruments, change into my teaching — rather than biking/cleaning/snow shoveling — clothes, welcome families, lead a 45-50 minute class, chat with families after class, and then put away all the stuff I set up an hour earlier, I do not earn very much money per hour.

But the sweetness, playfulness, joy, humor, love and sense of connectedness I experience with my families each week is always a balm for my soul.

And there’s no way to put a price on that!

Leading Music Together classes helps me get out of bed in the morning AND reassures me that the human world is not an irredeemably f–ked up mess about which I can do nothing to help.

And sometimes one of the small humans in my class is inspired to give me a hug at the end of class.

Illustration from a 1914 edition of Han Christian Anderson’s Fairy Tales

When this happens, I feel like I am being visited be an angelic being who is offering me unadulterated love, comfort and gratitude.

It is such an honor to receive one of their hugs.

And sometimes I am offered a hug by one of the grownups in class, too — which I also appreciate and savor.

Another deep breath in.

And deep breath out.

These little children are a big reason why I ride my old and raggedy-looking bike rather than drive a car, why I rarely buy new clothes, and why I never travel (especially via airplanes) simply for the sake of going someplace new or warm or trendy.

I live a downwardly mobile life so that the children in my classes might be able to live an ever-so-slightly less chaotic and terrifying life due to the myriad ways that climate change is affecting all of us here on planet earth.

Yet another deep breath in.

And deep breath out.

Another radiant hyacinth bulb from Trader Joe’s

I end this blog post with some of my favorite quotations by the Dalai Lama.

“Our prime purpose in life is to help others. And if you can’t help them, at least don’t hurt them.”

“In our present circumstances, no on can afford to assume that someone else will solve their problems. Every individual has a responsibility to help guide our global family in the right direction. Good wishes are not sufficient; we must become actively engaged.”

“When you are discontent, you always want more, more, more. Your desire can never be satisfied. But when you practice contentment, you can say to yourself, “Oh, yes — I already have everything that I really need.”

“We can live without religion and meditation, but we cannot survive without affection.”

“The problems we face today — violent conflicts, destruction of nature, poverty, hunger and so on — are human-created problems which can be resolved through human effort, understanding and the development of a sense of sisterhood and brotherhood. We need to cultivate a universal responsibility for one another and for the planet we share.”

“As people alive today, we must consider future generations. A clean environment is a human right like any other. It is therefore part of our responsibility towards others to ensure that the world we pass on is as healthy, if not healthier, than we found it.”

“This generation has a responsibility to re-shape the world. Start the task even if it will not be fulfilled in your lifetime. Even if it seems hopeless now, never give up. Offer a positive vision, with enthusiasm and joy, and an optimistic outlook.”

“Happiness is not something ready made. It comes from your own actions.”

“Be kind whenever possible. It is always possible.”

THANK YOU for making it to the end of another one of my blog posts.

Thank you to Doug Hammer for his spritely piano accompaniment and his expert musical production skills.

Thank you to Stephen C. Fischer for his graphic design (and to the professional photographer in NYC who took this photo of me many decades ago…)

Thank you to Hans Christian Anderson for creating the story of Thumbelina and to Frank Loesser for creating his song “Thumbelina.”

Thank you to the wonderful photographers at Pixabay.

Thank you to the Dalai Lama for his wisdom and inspiration.

And thank you to everyone who has streamed my music on Youtube, Pandora, Spotify, Apple Music, Tidal, Deezer, etc.

Every stream — and especially every thumbs up and/or inclusion in a playlist — helps to improve the likelihood that the clever algorithms of these streaming services will share my music with new listeners.

And you can click here to stream “Thumbelina” if the spirit moves you.

And as always, I welcome any comments below!

September 18, 2024 by willedare

Happiness Is A Thing Called Joe

Greetings on a late summer day!

As regular readers of my blog may remember, I have been away from home — and spending a minimum amount of time on my computer — during July and August.

But now it is September, and I am home and getting back into the swing of A) leading Music Together classes, B) doing gigs at retirement communities, and C) donating time + money to various political races + Get-Out-The-Vote undertakings.

Deep breath in.

Deep breath out.

I am writing this post in the middle of the night while drinking eight ounces of a somewhat vile-tasting liquid every fifteen minutes in preparation for a colonoscopy later this morning.

Yesterday I drank liquids (water, veggie broth and chicken broth) all day long — ending with the first round of vile-tasting-liquid drinking before bed.

The three days before that I ate the opposite of a healthy diet — including lots of refined white flour products (although I WAS allowed to potatoes and sweet potatoes as long as their skins were removed…)

It’s kind of funny that one is NOT supposed to ingest fiber before a colonoscopy when ingesting lots of dietary fiber is one of the best ways to promote colon health.

Ahh, the paradoxes of life!

THANK YOU to everyone who has continued to visit my blog during the past two months.

It is very heartening to check my stats and find that 5-15 people have been dropping by on a daily basis even though I have shared no new content since the middle of June.

I first featured this song — written by Harold Arlen (music) and Yip Harburg (words) for Ethel Waters to sing in the MGM version of a musical called CABIN IN THE SKY — in a blog post on November 8, 2020. You can click here to skim it if you are curious.

The Biden-Harris ticket had recently won the presidential election, lots of people were dying due to COVID, and I was learning what it’s like to surrender to Western medicine as I began chemotherapy to treat a rare medical condition which first appeared to be multiple myeloma but was eventually diagnosed as PGNMID.

Almost four years later I am still very much alive and was even able to take a break from my two somewhat experimental drugs over the summer because they had worked so well during the preceding months.

Another deep breath in.

And deep breath out.

I will end this blog post by quoting Simon Rosenberg, a political strategist who has been offering a sense of hope and possibility to many of us in recent months.

“When the dust settles, and the Russian-backed MAGA movement fades, America will come to understand how lucky we were that Joe Biden won the 2020 Presidential election.

His Day 1 as President was among the most challenging in our history — pre-vaccine COVID, economic collapse, (the former president’s) disastrous management of the pandemic, an insurrection, the first time America failed to have a peaceful transfer of power… just unbelievable levels of chaos as far as the eye could see.

And today, almost four years later, America’s economy is ‘the envy of the world.’

Growth here has been far above the growth in other advanced economies. We’ve had the best job market in 60 years. The lowest uninsured rate in history. Record levels of new business formation. Wage growth has outpaced inflation. The stock market is setting records.

Joe Biden has made historic investments in our economy and workers that will be creating jobs and opportunity for the American people for decades to come.

We’ve dramatically accelerated the energy transition necessary to keep the planet from warming.

We’ve beaten inflation – a global phenomenon – and interest rate cuts are coming now.

We are more energy independent today than we’ve been in decades.

Crimes rates which had gone up under Donald Trump have come down under Joe Biden.

The deficit which skyrocketed under Donald Trump has come down under Joe Biden.

Despite reckless Republican obstruction, flows to the border are lower today than they were under Donald Trump.

Joe Biden passed the first major gun safety legislation in 30 years, retired hundreds of billions of dollars of student debt, reinvigorated the Western alliance and has now landed a serious and long overdue blow against Russian influence operations here in the United States.”

And — behaving in the exact opposite manner from a dictator — he has chosen to pass the political baton to Vice President Harris, whose candidacy has catalyzed a new wave of enthusiasm and political engagement here in the USA.

Thank you, President Biden, for your decades of leadership, public service and compassion!

Yet another deep breath in.

And deep breath out.

Thank you to Pixabay for great photos.

Thank you to Doug Hammer for his grounded, creative piano playing and sublime engineering/producing chops.

Thank you to all of the pollinators who work tirelessly to help our ecosystems function AND to all the folks who are working like busy bees to help elect the candidates of their choice.

And thank YOU for reading another one of my blog posts.

Onward to autumn!

ps: You can play my recording of “Happiness Is A Thing Called Joe” on your favorite streaming service by clicking here.

Image by Muhammad Haseeb Muhammad Suleman from Pixabay

August 12, 2023 by willedare

Gold In Them Hills

Today’s wise and optimistic song was written by Ron Sexsmith, a Canadian singer-songwriter who currently lives in Stratford, Ontario.

I featured it almost three years ago in a blog post about distributing my first song to music streaming platforms.

One of the many pleasures of blogging (in my opinion) is rediscovering posts we have written in the past and then forgotten.

This one includes a lot of quotations — which I was very happy to re-encounter — from friends about the value of music in their lives.

I have sprinkled a few of them into this blog post, too.

You are welcome to click here to read (or re-read) this past blog post if you are curious.

“Music is a great encouragement to people in hard times.”

Deep breath in.

And deep breath out.

I also explain in this past blog post about how little money is earned by performers and songwriters from streaming platforms such as Spotify, Apple Music, Pandora, YouTube, etc.

Not surprisingly, this is still true — as a 2022 article I found online demonstrates.

Spotify, which last year had an almost 50% market share of music streaming worldwide, still pays less than half a cent per stream.

Apple Music was the next biggest player, with almost 25% market share of music streaming worldwide — but paid a penny per stream (almost triple what Spotify paid…)

All of the other music streaming companies share the remaining 25% of worldwide music streaming — and paid anywhere from .00069 cents per stream (YouTube Music) to .017 cents per stream (Napster).

Here’s a graphic representation from this article of all of these numbers.

Suffice to say that I have not been earning any significant money as a result of people streaming the 37 recordings I’ve released during the past 34 months.

Deep breath in.

And deep breath out.

But I DO have the satisfaction of knowing that my music is out there in the world, being listened to by folks in fifty different countries — including the USA, Finland, Canada, Taiwan, Great Britain, Kazakhstan, Australia, Indonesia, Turkey, Brazil and Chile!

“Music is part of what makes the world keep going.”

And in recent months my streaming statistics on Spotify have risen significantly (although my total numbers are still quite modest).

This rise in my stats helps me feel that what I am doing — releasing music — is not entirely futile, useless and/or egotistical.

And it gives me a small sense of hope, which is what Ron Sexsmith’s lovely song does, too.

Hope remains a blessed mystery to me.

I hope you feel at least a tiny kernel of hope in your life.

Recent regional elections here in the USA have renewed my sense of hope in our political process.

And small children — such as those who grace my Music Together classes — also give me a sense of hope as well as a reason to continue to work for a more balanced, sustainable, and respectful future here on planet earth.

I’d be happy to learn in the comments about what gives YOU a sense of hope these days.

Here is a link for “Gold In Them Hills” in case you might like to listen to it on a streaming service.

If you “like” it or “heart” it or add it to a playlist, that apparently improves the algorithmic sharing of my music on that streaming service.

One more deep breath in.

And deep breath out.

Thank you to Ron Sexsmith for writing great songs.

Thank you to Doug Hammer for playing so beautifully on my version of Ron’s song AND for being such. a skillful engineer/producer.

Thank you to Stephen Fischer for his colorful graphic design work.

Thank you to Gretje Ferguson (I think?) for taking the photo which Stephen incorporated into his graphic design.

Thank you to Gloria O’Leary for making the coat I am wearing in this photo.

Thank you to the photographers at Pixabay for their great images.

And thank YOU for reading. and listening to yet another one of my blog posts!

“Music is a touching reminder that life is worth living.”

July 11, 2023 by willedare

Waltzing With COVID-19

Three and a half years ago the World Health Organization (WHO) declared COVID had become a public health emergency.

*Image by Miroslava Chrienova from Pixabay.*

Six weeks later, it grew into a pandemic — from which many of us are still recovering…

However, the WHO recently announced that COVID-19 no longer qualifies as a global emergency.

This is good news.

Deep breath in.

Deep breath out.

Apparently deaths from COVID are at their lowest point since the early days of the coronavirus outbreak.

This is also good news.

However, a lot of people are still continuing to die here in our Not-So-United States of America.

Last night I ordered a pizza and salad from a nearby restaurant, and after I picked it up, a woman waiting outside congratulated me on wearing a face mask.

She, too, was wearing a mask and told me in no uncertain terms that our COVID challenges are not over yet.

In fact, the 40-year-old son of one of her friends had just died from COVID.

Another deep breath in.

And deep breath out.

In 2023, the USA COVID death toll has averaged 150 people per day

Although this is a decline from a peak death toll of 2,500 human beings per day in early 2022, 150 per day still feels like a lot of people dying to me!

And all around the world, people continue to die — one every three minutes — “and that’s just the deaths we know about,” says WHO director general Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus. “COVID-19 is (not) over as a global health threat.”

Yet another deep breath in.

And deep breath out.

I wrote the song in the player at the beginning of this blog post during the first year of the pandemic.

I was inspired — in part — by the months-long hospitalization of a fellow singer who was on a ventilator for a very, very long time.

Amazingly enough he has managed to recover — and resume singing!

He was cared for by a team of truly courageous nurses, doctors, and support staff who came to work day-in and day-out while most of us were sheltering in place at home.

I bore witness to the dedication and patience of many nurses, doctors and support staff during this time because — exactly as COVID was entering our lives — I was diagnosed with an obscure medical condition called PGNMID.

As the COVID epidemic grew worse and worse, I met with specialists at several hospitals, underwent kidney and bone marrow biopsies. and ended up being given three rounds of six-month-long-treatments — chemotherapy+immunotherapy+steroids the first time, a new immunotherapy drug the second time, and an even newer experimental immunotherapy drug the third time.

I appear to be responding well to the latest round of treatments — and may write more about this experience in a future blog post.

I mention it now because I saw firsthand — on a weekly basis — the brave and loving response of the medical community during that horrible time.

Recently another musical acquaintance shared with me that she stopped working as a nurse a year ago so that she could begin to recover from the stress and trauma of being a nurse during the COVID pandemic.

I know she is not alone…

Another deep breath in.

And deep breath out.

It’s easy to forget — or ignore — the reality that most of the people who have died due to COVID were connected to a web of caregivers, family and friends who are now grieving their loss.

Deep sigh…

Millions of human beings around our planet — myself included — are now struggling to regain their hopefulness, their sense of connectedness with others, their equilibrium, their sense of purpose, and their mental health after being in survival mode for the past few years.

And some folks are also struggling with mysterious, lingering health challenges after being infected with COVID.

A recent interview on Fresh Air with a neuropsychologist named James Jackson reminded me that there are millions of people here on planet earth who continue to experience a wide variety of debilitating symptoms due to their COVID infection — the “long-haulers.”

As the Fresh Air webpage explains, these folks “struggle to remember things, perform basic tasks and solve problems” — which can lead “to a loss of employment, income, and important relationships.”

Yet another deep breath in.

And deep breath out.

Jackson has written a book called Clearing The Fog — From Surviving to Thriving with Long COVID.

I am rooting for all of the COVID long haulers!

I have so many thoughts and feelings about COVID — as I am sure you do, too.

Maybe you will be moved to share a little of what you are feeling and thinking these days about the impact of COVID on our lives in a comment at the end of this blog post.

Part of me was tempted when writing this blog post to share a list of the high-profile folks — such as former presidential candidate Herman Cain — who downplayed or actively denied the significance of the COVID virus… and then ended up dying from it.

However, that seemed too disrespectful and schadenfreudey.

I did stumble across an interview earlier this year with a former Republican senator from Oklahoma — Jim Inhofe — in the Tulsa World, in which he explains that one of the reasons he retired was long-term COVID-19 complications.

At the time of his retirement, he said that he had tested positive for “a very mild case” of COVID-19.

But in this interview he admits that it has been much more serious.

And according to Inhofe, “Five or six others have (long COVID), but I’m the only one who admits it.”

Yikes!

I think he is referring to other US senators… but maybe he means members of Congress overall?

He also says: “I try to be careful, but I have to be reminded to do things like wash my hands. I have to do things I’m not used to and that’s difficult sometimes.”

I agree.

It can be VERY difficult for us to change our longtime habits and mindsets and patterns of behavior.

Apparently Inhofe has also been an outspoken climate science denier for decades — and we shall see how that ends up affecting him…and his family…and his former constituents…and all of the rest of the web of life here on planet earth in the upcoming days and weeks and months and years!

I think it’s been pretty hot in Oklahoma in recent weeks…

One final deep breath in.

And deep breath out.

Thank YOU for reading and listening to another one of my blog posts.

I am always surprised and heartened to check my WordPress stats and see that people continue to visit my blog even when I haven’t posted anything new in many weeks.

Thank you to all of my visitors!

And thank you to Pixabay for their wonderful and generous photographers.

And thank you to Doug Hammer for playing his Schimmel grand piano so poignantly AND for helping me to mix/master “Waltzing With COVID-19” via many Zoom sessions during the past two years.

If you are curious to hear more music, you can find me singing — with Doug Hammer playing piano — on Spotify, Pandora, Apple Music, YouTube and other streaming platforms.

And you can listen to “Waltzing With COVID-19” on your favorite streaming platform by clicking here.

Any song you “like” or “heart” or add to a playlist will improve the algorithmic activity of my music there!

I am going to continue to wear a mask whenever I am inside a movie theater or a bus or a subway or a friend’s car (if the windows are rolled up) or a friend’s home or an office or a hospital or a retirement community.

This is a simple way we can continue to respect and care for each other.

One more deep breath in.

And deep breath out.

January 11, 2021 by willedare

It’s Not Over…

I’ve been feeling stunned and disheartened and — yes — terrified by the events unfolding recently here in the USA.

Maybe you have been feeling something similar.

And I have been wondering — yet again — how music might in some small way help to heal the soul of our country.

I shared a blog post 14 months ago which featured a song I co-wrote called “Let The Day Unfold” and which I recorded using Apple’s wonderful GarageBand program.

You can click here for a link to that blog post if you are curious.

The version I am sharing at the top of today’s blog post is a stripped down piano + vocal recording I made with the wonderful pianist Doug Hammer at his studio north of Boston.

There are so many things one could write about recent events here in the USA that I find it hard to know where to begin.

Here are just a few thoughts that have jumped out at me…

Many white Americans I have seen on TV (and heard on the radio and read online) who have been attempting to make sense out of what recently transpired in our nation’s capital have said things like, “This is not who we are as a country.”

And many people of color have responded — respectfully and persistently — by saying, “Actually, this IS who we are as a country. This IS who we have been as a country for hundreds of years.”

I have found that when I listen to the news nowadays, all I want to hear is what people of color are saying, thinking, feeling and yes — for what must feel like the umpteenth time to them — explaining to the rest of us.

They have lived with violence and threats of violence and terrorist acts — such as public murders/lynchings — for generation after generation after generation.

And — as one woman’s extraordinarily articulate and passionate viral video this summer further explained — they are not (amazing to me…) seeking vengeance.

They are seeking justice.

In recent days I have heard several African-American college historians explain, and re-explain, and explain yet again how every advance made by people of color in this country has been met by a huge — and terrifying — backlash from unhappy (and extremely vengeful) white folks.

They have pointed to our recent election of the first African-American/South Asian-American woman as vice president as well as the election of the first African-American and Jewish-American US senators from the southern state of Georgia as being one of the precipitating factors in the white mob take-over of our Capital building last Wednesday.

Ashton Lattimore, in a recent Prism report explains:

“Any flex of political power by Black and brown people in the United States (is) followed by a reactionary white supremacist show of force. The pattern of racist white backlash to the barest hint of racial progress has persisted since the earliest days of the republic up until now, from antebellum white mobs attacking free Black people essentially just for existing, to the Civil War itself and post-Reconstruction violence punishing Black self-determination in Tulsa, to the violent resistance to the civil rights movement, and then the enraged, panicked genesis of the Tea Party and the Trump era immediately after the election of the first Black president. Against that historical backdrop, the white insurrectionist takeover of the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 was as predictable as a pendulum’s swing.”

You can read her entire article by clicking here.

Deep breath in.

Deep breath out.

My brain now turns to is something I read earlier today.

A Republican congressman was explaining why many of his colleagues in the House of Representatives continue to support the charade of voter fraud even after an angry mob had burst into the Capitol building and sent them all into hiding.

According to him, they are scared about the safety of their family members.

That’s what terrorism does.

It makes people scared.

I empathize with these scared congressmen and congresswomen AND I want to say to them, “Do you get it now?! This is what people of color have been living with for hundreds of years! Do you get it now?!”

I wonder if any of them do or will.

I have certainly been slow to get it — or at least to begin to get it…

Another deep breath in.

And deep breath out.

I chose photographs of sunrises for this blog post from the Pixabay website because I am guessing that most of us have already seen more than enough disturbing images from our nation’s capital.

I hope you are finding ways — going for a well-masked walk, stretching, visiting with loved ones via Zoom, singing, praying, writing, cooking, etc. — to keep well during this seemingly-ever-more-challenging time in our lives.

I offer my (perhaps now familiar) thanks for food, for shelter, for employment, for electricity, for internet access, for running water, for soap, for friends and family, for Doug Hammer, and for my fellow bloggers.

Let the day unfold… this life is wide open.

Every plan we make… can be broken.

We’ve got to find the strength to lose some of our cherished point of views…

We’ve got to have hope… it’s not over!

ps: I am aware that the correct grammar for the chorus of “Let The Day Unfold” is “cherished pointS of view,” but that didn’t rhyme as well.

pps: If you are wanting to hear even more music which might comfort and/or inspire your spirit, you are welcome to visit the mini-website which songwriter Barbara Baig and I have started to honor her (similarly titled) song “Let Me Be Strong.”

We’d love to hear from you there!

ppps: You are also welcome to visit my website, and you can find me on Spotify, Pandora, Apple Music and other digital music platforms.

November 22, 2019 by willedare

Let The Day Unfold…

Although my spirits are flagging due to the shorter days and longer nights of autumn in New England, I want to keep a small flame of optimism alight.

So this post is dedicated to the political process unfolding here in these currently-not-very-united United States of America.

I have included a song I co-wrote several years ago called “Let The Day Unfold.”

It started life as a verse/chorus sketch which guitarist/songwriter Scott Kowalik shared with pianist/songwriter Javier Pico.

I, Scott, Javier, and two other people — Robert M. Brown and Alan Najarian — collaborated for three years in an original rock band called CUE when we were in our twenties.

Each of us moved on to different undertakings (including lawyer, real estate developer, and non-profit arts administrator) but all of us have kept music in our lives in one way or another.

And our musical paths continue to overlap every now and then — such as when I visited Javier, and he shared with me this song sketch which Scott had shared with him.

If my memory serves me Javier gave me chords + words for the chorus as well as some chords + some lyrics for a verse. I expanded the verse structure and wrote several more verse lyrics. I wish I had a copy of what Javier originally gave to me for comparison with my finished products…

The version at the beginning of this blog post is a GarageBand draft to which a long-time collaborator, Doug Hammer, added some string parts. He also helped me sample a recording of one of Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s most famous speeches which I included during an instrumental break.

I wrote a blog post which featured Doug — who is a gifted pianist, composer, and engineer/producer — a couple of years ago.

I remain very discouraged that war continues to be such a huge part of life on planet earth.

Our country has been at war off and on for generations.

Many of us — who have not experienced war first-hand — live in a privileged bubble of ignorance and denial.

Yet every day brave women and men sign up to defend their country’s values, borders, and culture.

This child, however, did not sign up to be part of an armed conflict…

Who knows what he will choose to do with his life when he grows up…

Deep breath in.

Deep breath out.

And so our wars continue here on planet earth…

I often wonder how making music — which seems very modest and inconsequential compared with the bravery and sacrifice and horror and trauma and chaos of war — fits into the larger equations of life on planet earth.

In an ideal world, music brings people together.

Yet it can also — such as George M. Cohan’s song “Over There” during WWI and again during WWII — inspire people to enlist in order to wage war.

And I have read about soldiers in Afghanistan playing certain songs to lift their spirits and boost their resolve while they are deployed.

I know music lifts my spirits on a daily basis.

But it seems to pale in importance when I reflect upon things like genocide…

Another thing I often ponder is the difference between “either/or” and “both/and.”

Every day I find myself slipping into an either/or mindset — it’s us or them… I’m completely right and someone else is completely wrong… it’s my way or the highway, etc.

“Either/or” is a mindset which often leads to conflict… or worse.

“Both/and” is a mindset which can lead to listening.

To pausing.

To honoring the paradoxes and contradictions of life.

I watched another Democratic presidential debate this week — and attempted to remain open to as many different opinions and perspectives and visions and explanations as I could manage.

I do feel some optimism when I see the range of candidates.

I’ve been giving small amounts of money each month to several of them.

I’m excited that many women are running for president.

And people of color.

With some thought-provoking ideas.

I am also amazed that an un-closeted, married gay man is in the race.

Some candidates are dreaming bigger than others.

And I am grateful for that.

When our country collapsed into a huge economic depression ninety years ago, we elected a president with big dreams.

And he managed to convert many of those big dreams into action — despite having significant personal health challenges.

I love that he — a man living with paralysis due to polio (or perhaps undiagnosed Guillain-Barre syndrome – an autoimmune neuropathy) uses the word “paralyzes” in his famous speech about fear.

“Let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself — nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance.”

I find solace and take comfort in the conviction in FDR’s voice — ringing across the decades thanks to the magic of digital zeros and ones.

I also find solace and comfort and inspiration in many of the new voices speaking up here on planet earth.

I also love finding new voices and kindred spirits among my fellow bloggers on WordPress.

Thank you to Pixabay and Wikimedia Commons for the images I have used in this blog post.

Thank you to Scott, Javier, Alan, Robert, and Doug for sharing a love of music over many years.

And thank YOU for reading and listening to yet another blog post!

June 8, 2018 by willedare

Catch Me…

Recently I read a small but devastating article in The New Yorker about what our new Secretary of the Interior has already accomplished in the first year of his service.

It immediately reminded me of the song “Catch Me” (which opens with a few seconds of silence after you hit the play icon at the top of this page…)

“Catch Me” is another song by David Friedman (about whom I wrote recently) which Bobbi Carrey and I recorded with pianist, arranger, and engineer Doug Hammer for our If I Loved You CD.

Although Ryan Zinke held much more conservationist views when he was a Montana state senator — acknowledging climate change as a significant threat to US national security, for example — now that he is Secretary of the Interior, he is working hard to remove burdensome regulations to industry on public land and in our coastal waters.

He even reversed a recent ban on lead ammunition in wildlife refuges designed to protect birds that eat carrion.

The article concluded by saying that — while it is possible future elections will nudge our leadership back in more sustainable and respectful directions — the damage already being done to our public lands and wildlife will take decades to re-balance or repair (which, of course, is not even possible when a plant or animal becomes extinct…)

Somehow this article has thrown me into what I trust is a temporary tailspin of depression and hopelessness.

As lyricist Fran Landesman once noted, spring can really hang you up the most…

Obviously there is SO MUCH that we human beings need to do to reduce and re-balance our patterns of consumption and destruction as soon as humanly possible.

And yet so many of us — me included — are unable to change a lifetime of habits and assumptions and behaviors in order seriously to address the coming environmental challenges/catastrophes/opportunities.

For example, many of us who are blessed to live in countries such as the United States continue to think, “Of course I deserve to travel as much as I can afford.”

Yet according to a recent article on The Conversation web site, “no other human activity pushes individual emission levels as fast and as high as air travel.”

Yikes!!!

And even if we can’t afford a plane trip to someplace warm (or intriguing or affordable or colorful) we are strongly urged by our morally bankrupt financial institutions to pay for it using a credit card…or two…or three.

How many of us are basically indentured servants to our credit card companies, making minimum payments yet never paying off all our accumulated debt?

Another assumption I find odd is that most of us continue to think that we deserve to have one — or more — cars.

Of course, this is often related to the fact that many of us think that we deserve to live wherever we like — places which may not be located anywhere near public transportation, for example — so, of course, we have to have a car in order to get to work, to shop, to visit friends and family, to drive to the gym (the practice of which I truly don’t understand… why not ride your bike or walk to the gym? Or ride your bike/walk/run instead of joining a gym and donate what you used to pay for your gym membership to a deserving non-profit group?) etc.

And how about those of us who feel that we deserve to own vacation homes — sometimes built in very unwise locations?

Many of these structures sit uninhabited for weeks or months at a time, consuming fuel/electricity so that the pipes don’t freeze, or so that the house doesn’t get too humid, or so that the burglar alarms are functioning…

The list of possessions and privileges to which many of us aspire is loooong — and has been extremely well-marketed for at least a couple of generations here in the USA.

Yet so few of us seem to be able or willing to pause and ponder the consequences of our consumption…

And global greenhouse gas levels continue to rise.

And weather becomes more erratic — affecting wildlife habitats as well as human agriculture (and thus the ability of more and more countries to feed their citizens).

And plastic — some of it visible and some of it in tiny fibers — continues to pollute the waters of planet earth and contaminate aquatic life on all levels of the food chain.

Sadly — depressingly — tragically — hubristically — the list of human pollution, deforestation, and environmental degradation goes on and on and on…

I often feel — as I watch TV or listen to the radio or use the internet — that I have entered a frantic cocoon created solely so that we human beings can hide (for couple of hours or for an entire lifetime) from the terrifying realities of the larger patterns/feedback loops which are unfolding/unraveling right now on planet earth.

And I want to say — to myself and to most of my fellow human beings here in the USA — WAKE UP!!!

Often this is when I catch a cold.

And I stay home and write a blog post like this…

I am aware that I am extremely blessed to live a life where I can moan about larger environmental challenges because my basic needs for food, clothing, shelter, employment, love, and respect have already been met.

And I have a job — leading Music Together classes — to which I can walk or bike or take the bus.

However, I am also aware that anyone writing or reading a blog post is using electricity and some sort of magical electronic device which contains metals mined all over the planet by human beings under inhumane conditions as well as plastic from fossil fuels — and which have most likely been assembled by human beings working under inhumane conditions.

And my other job — sharing one-hour programs of beloved standards at retirement communities, assisted living facilities, and public libraries — involves driving many miles per month in a trusty, high mileage Prius belonging to the jazz pianist Joe Reid, with whom I do 50+ gigs per year.

So I am utterly complicit.

And I wonder what the f–k I am doing with my one precious life here on planet earth.

Yet I also know that music matters in some way — that it can touch our hearts and even inspire us to do unimaginably courageous things.

A documentary I watched recently about James Baldwin reminded me that there was a lot of singing by heroic non-violent protestors as they were marching… and as they were being beaten… and as they were being thrown into police vehicles.

Deep breath in.

Deep breath out.

What do you think/feel about any of this, dear reader?

What do you think/feel about the sad news that Kate Spade and Anthony Bourdain — two people who have achieved international success, wealth, fame, influence, celebrity, and in theory the happiness which success/wealth/fame/influence/celebrity are alleged to bring — have taken their own lives during this past week?

Another deep breath in.

And deep breath out.

Thank you to David Friedman for writing such compelling songs.

Thank you to Bobbi Carrey for her musical collaboration over the past 15 years.

Thank you to Doug Hammer for his piano playing, engineering, production wizardry, patience, and humor.

Thank you to Mike Callahan for his vocal arrangements.

Thank you to Pixabay for the images in this blog post.

And thank YOU for making time so that you could read and listen to another blog post.

amusicalifeonplanetearth

Music and the Thoughts It Can Inspire

Hope

How About You?

In Praise Of Pandora

Let The Day Unfold…

When Your Heart Is Full Of Love…

Happiness Is A Thing Called Joe

Gold In Them Hills

Waltzing With COVID-19

It’s Not Over…

Let The Day Unfold…

Catch Me…