I’m continuing to write songs along with my Sustain What webcasting and blogging here — in part to keep sane and in part because this has always been one of my ways of connecting people with ideas. (Buy my new album here.)
In this post, you’re getting the first look and listen to the first rough recording of “Nothing is Quiet.” The lyrics — also still a work in progress — are below. Everyone can listen but I’d love it if a few more of you might chip in financially to help me sustain my output.
The path from idea to song
The songwriter Amy Love was one of the songcrafting workshop leaders this spring at Bagaduce Music, Downeast Maine’s prime hub for musical education and a world-class library of printed music. In one session she offered this prompt: Write a song about an object.
I immediately focused on the red wool caps my wife started weaving from a pattern sold by a Minneapolis-area shop to raise money for local nonprofits helping immigrants facing the brutal ICE invasion. You may remember this from my post on “craftivism”:
The back story is quite remarkable, with a Minneapolis knitting-shop employee recalling a Norwegian red wool cap design dating from World War II.
I began scribbling.
Knitting is quiet, even serene.
Small talk and tea cups and needles weaving….
But nothing is quiet ‘bout knitting these days.
Thanks to hat makers with something to say.
I could have written the full song about the Minneapolis saga, but wanted to widen the picture. What else is normally quiet, but not these days? I’d also recently listened to Trevor Noah’s conversation with José Andrés, the superstar chef and restaurant impresario who founded World Central Kitchen after the calamitous earthquake in Haiti in 2010.
I encourage you to listen to the full show, which has fascinating details on how Andrés learned on the run, grew a network of hundreds of collaborating restaurants and related busineses and nonprofits and has built an agile and gutsy operation that has served 600 million meals in dozens of disaster and conflict zones.
Fourteen WCK workers have been killed in the field — seven in an Israeli attack on a convoy in Gaza, six more in Ukraine. (Today’s recording of the song says seven… updates to come!)
Nothing is quiet ‘bout cooking these days.
Thanks to a kind-hearted chef named José.
From Haiti to Congo, Beirut to Turkey
His World Central Kitchen serves hot meals for free.
Under bombardment, teams cook beans and grain.
Seven died in Gaza, six more in Ukraine.
But still they cook on, fighting famine and fear.
Try to support them with more than a cheer.
At the end of the song I widen out the view once more, noting other quiet, but essential actions — from meeting to healing to voting.
This section may evolve, along with other elements of the song. Feedback is welcome!
I composed the tune on my Maine-made bouzouki because I find that breaking away from guitar — my instrument of choice for more than 50 years — helps free me from mental ruts.
Nothing is Quiet These Days
Here are the lyrics at the moment:
Knitting is quiet, even serene -
Small talk and tea cups and needles weaving.
Counting up stitches, unballing yarn.
Wool becomes sweaters to keep loved ones warm.
But nothing is quiet ‘bout knitting these days.
Thanks to hat makers with something to say.
In cold Minnesota, a knitting brigade
Made red wool a shield
To keep immigrants safe.
Red capped resistance
When ICE agents swarmed.
Hats made to a pattern passed down from a war.
Those caps got their start back in snowy Norway.
A symbol of freedom from Nazis and hate,
I said nothing is quiet ‘bout knitting these days.
Thanks to hat makers with something to say.
Cooking is quiet as stirring a pot,
peeling potatoes, keeping soup hot.
Turning meat into stew, wheat into bread,
Dish it all out to keep everyone fed.
But nothing is quiet ‘bout cooking these days.
Thanks to a kind-hearted chef named José.
From Haiti to Congo, Beirut to Turkey
His World Central Kitchen serves hot meals for free.
Under bombardment, teams cook beans and grain.
Seven died in Gaza, six more in Ukraine.
But still they cook on, fighting famine and fear.
Try to support them with more than a cheer.
Nothing is quiet ‘bout cooking these days.
Thanks to a kind-hearted chef named José.
Silence is deadly in this day and age.
Raise up your voices with heart and not rage.
But singing alone will not fix what is wrong.
Get knitting and cooking,
Meeting and voting,
Healing and marching
To get the job done.
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Here’s a related post from Drop Site News:
Here’s an Atlantic Council video on World Central Kitchen’s work in Ukraine: “‘In Focus: Voices from Ukraine:’ World Central Kitchen on humanitarian needs in Ukraine”:
And Here’s Jorunn Hernes 🇳🇴 — the Nordic Knitter — on the history of the red wool hats:
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