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RIVER — Ibeyi Lisa-Kaindé — Naomi Diaz
3min. 46sec.
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DEEEP RIVER BLUES — Doc Watson
2min. 38sec.
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LISA OF THE LIGHT chose DOWN BY THE RIVERSIDE as the Music Theme for this week
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GON’ LAY DOWN MY BURDEN, DOWN BY THE RIVERSIDE — The Carper Family — Red Tail Ring — The Foggy Hogtown — Bluegrass Jamboree
4min.
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The Wonderful Willow has chosen the Music Theme for next week. It is THE EIGHTIES! Hmmm, it was an era, but were you even born yet? Do you remember life before birth? What do THE EIGHTIES! signify to you?
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Kuwômôyush k’hpáyash — Joanne Shenandoah
Peace and Power
3min. 28 sec.
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When I was a child, no matter how far away we traveled, my Mother would always gather us children and return to Prairie Creek to renew herself.
Prairie Creek was a deep slow-moving black water river filled with alligators and sometimes choked with invasive hyacinths, gorgeous with their purple blooms and glossy green leaves. Prairie Creek was always changing, always beautiful, much like my Mother.
Mother loved this ancient river, not to swim in, not even to trail hands in, and never to get too close to the banks. In those days alligators particularly liked dogs and children for snacks. Alligators, over sixty years ago, were also bigger than they are now. Mother loved Prarie Creek, partly because the river was dangerous, with its water moccasins and gar fish and alligators, and alligator snappers (turtles), but also there were good eating fish, beautiful birds, wonderful plants and trees.
After good rains the water was clear and we could see the waving grasses and sandy bottom. During drier times the water was a deep dark red with tannic acid. Mother took us children in the row-boat, when we were small, and would drift and fish. Or more usually she would row up river and drift back. She loved that it was soothing, but also that she had to stay alert.
Sometimes Mother would go alone at night to gig frogs, particularly dangerous as alligators, and most other predators, do most of their hunting at night, too. The next day she would fry frogs legs. I could never eat them as they looked too much like Little People, to me.
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RIVER DANCE — Departum — Lisa Gerrard , Marcello De Francisci
4min.
Angie Fotopoulou
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Perhaps Prairie Creek renewed us children as well as Mother?
CHILDREN OF THE RIVER — Secret Garden
3min. 58sec.
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For my Mother the times she seemed most happy were in Grandfather’s row boat on Prairie Creek or sitting by a small fire at Little Bear Lake. These few moments, of her too short life, were when I was allowed to see her True Self.
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BOAT ON THE RIVER — Styx
3min. 14sec.
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I was qualified as a Life Saver, just before I turned twelve, yet I longed not to save my own life, but to stay forever beneath the deep water where no one could find me. I wanted to sleep forever with my green eyes eternally open watching green water flow, never again closed and vulnerable; my long hair tangled with water grasses, holding me, keeping me invisible, unreachable. Safe.
OPHELIA —Kula Shaker
3min. 09sec.
“…I will lay beside the river now,
Forever and a night
Forever and a night…”
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I was taught as a child, when we lived “Out West” that if I should become lost, to go downhill until I found water, then to keep following the current down hill. I was not told that it is possible to be lost on the RIVER as well. Nor was I told that a RIVER might be more than a RIVER.
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LOST ON THE RIVER –The New Basement Tapes — Rhiannon Giddens — Bob Dillon, Rhiannon Giddens, Marcus Mumford
3min. 48sec.
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Much of the water in the world is now contaminated, not only with natural parasites and toxins, but also with human introduced chemical run-off and tailings from man-made industrial enterprises including factory farms, mining projects, radioactive waste and petro-chemicals and coal industry wastes, as well as with human bodily effluvia, medical waste, and even kitchen and household wastes of seven plus billion people. In some monstrous cases the water has been deliberately poisoned.
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DIRTY FILTHY SOUTH — Rising Apalachia — Leah Song — Chloe Smith — Scott McKibben Photography
3min. 43sec.
This song and video offer a lyrical analysis of our southern regions and the onslaught of environmental abuses laid onto sacred lands. The lyrics touch on the Gulf coast oil spill, Mountain top removal, and fracking, and beg the question WHY is this south is so “filthy Dirty”. This video is filmed in Lake Verett, LA, thanks to Eye of the Crow videography, and was designed in conjunction with the Gulf Restoration Network at http://www.heathygulf.org. Thank you to everyone who takes the time to learn about land restoration, and preservation. Rising Appalachia
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In the end, not my Mother, not her dreams, not her memories, not even her beloved sanctuary BESIDE THE RIVER survived. Beautiful Prairie Creek is no longer pristine, it has been dammed and some areas are permanently flooded. There are subdivisions with paved streets, street lights, and two car garages, all THINGS Mother aspired to possess. She achieved that aspiration, for a while, but it was as sweet as bitter ashes.
BITTER ASHES — Blood of Angels — Nox Arcana — Michelle Belanger
3min. 48 sec.
Standing here stripped of everything
I have lost my faith it’s all bitter ashes
Standing here as the waters rise
All my memories swirling down the gutter
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TO BE WASHED IN THE RIVER IS A SYMBOLIC CLEANSING OF THE SOUL
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“Won’t do me no good washin’ in the river …”
BARTON HOLLOW — Civil Wars — Joy Williams — John Paul White
4min. 14sec.
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The RIVERSIDE has been built up with civilization and the rivers themselves savaged by humans, even as we humans savage ourselves.
BOAT TRIP TO NEW ORLEANS — Twelve Years A Slave (OST) — Hans Zimmer
5min. 15sec.
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WHAT ELSE IS HAPPENING DOWN BY THE RIVERSIDE?
LISA OF THE LIGHT: Music Theme – Down By The Riverside
JOHNNY:
MAGICAL MADDIE: ♪”Down by the riverside” – Music Themes
ANTANYA OF THE FOG:
WONDERFUL WILLOW:
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Now I shall pass over the RIVERSIDE out into the deep RIVER and
JOURNEY AWAY — Whale Rider (OST) — Lisa Gerrard
3min. 35sec.
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