A gospel-flavored ballad that celebrates audible weeping and all the healing it brings.

There Are Songs

Oh, For Crying Out Loud

A simple, haunting round based on Coleman Barks's translation of Rumi.

Your Grief for What You've Lost

A love song for the lightning bugs that make summer nights pure magic.

Firefly

While You're Alive

Who You Gonna Be While You Do What You Do?

Words by Kabir; music by Jody Healy. Sung by The Flowering Women: Lia Falls, Maria Genne', Debra Lach, Barbara McAfee, and Teresa Riley-Baecker.

When You Were Born, You Cried

A snazzy little number in praise of this particular body.  What do you love about yours?

Body

A simple expression of my mission in this life.

Great Big Love

Mission Song

A snazzy blessing for anyone who setting off on an adventure, whether it's a trip, a move to a new place, or some other life transition.

World Of Wonders

Margie's Song

A song by Lia, Solomon, and Mountain Falls (used with permission) as performed by the Flowering Women (Lia Falls, Maria Genne', Debra Lach, and Barbara McAfee).

Coming Home

Welcome Darkness

A simple chant for morning and evening, composed at Mar de Jade in Chacala, Nayarit, Mexico.

Sun Come

A little ditty about the many reasons and moments to sing.

Why Not Sing?

The regular birthday song?  Bleh... It's my mission to replace it with this snazzy little number.  Finger snapping, oh-so-cool, danceable, and grin-inducing.  Spread it around!

The Better Birthday Song

Words by Hafiz.  Music by Barbara McAfee. Piano by Steven Hobert.  A wish for a friend.....
© Big Bug Music - all rights reserved

I Wish That I Could Show You

Sung by our Twin Cities based comfort choir, The Morning Star Singers.  This song was created for a friend whose daughter was experiencing a life-threatening health crisis following the birth of her first child.  Happily everyone pulled through.  Here's the strange part -- my beloved friend Jack Heckelman used the phrase "unexpected joy" a great deal during his conscious dying process.  I didn't have any recollection of that when I wrote the song.  I think he was dictating that line from the other world....

Surrounding You

A tender song for those who are walking through a difficult time. The chorus was originally released as "I Wish That I Could Show You." Chorus text is based on a verse by Hafiz as interpreted by Daniel Ladinsky (used with permission).

2023 Songs

Astonishing Light

A three-part chant celebrating the gifts of the darkness.  Lyrics:  Every time I go into the darkness, I return with fistfuls of jewels.  Midnight velvet wraps all around me; stars glitter brilliant above.
Dreaming darkness, dreaming light.  @ Big Bug Music.
This is now a video! Watch here....https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2OjQ_v7VtFI&ab_channel=BarbaraMcAfee

Jewels

A tribute to my fierce and brave friend, Susan Rosenthal Kraus.  She defies the cultural ideas about warriors with her diminutive size and thick Boston accent.  But there are few people more courageous, personally and professionally.  This piece contains a whole village of drums, played by the brilliant Michael Bissonnette.  

Heart Of A Warrior

This beautiful chant weaves words from five of the great religious traditions into a harmonious whole.  By Sophia, used by permission.  Sung by The Flowering Women - Teresa Riley-Baecker, Lia Falls, Maria Genne', Debra Lach, and Barbara McAfee.

Sacred Words Chant

Awake

I Wish I Knew How It Would Feel to be Free

I wrote this song for my friend Molly's 16th birthday.  She was weathering storms of loss and challenge with fortitude and bravery.  I wanted this song to hold up a mirror to her.  She is now in her 30s and her mother still sings this to her at every birthday.

Molly's Song

An irreverent and sassy challenge to self-judgments with a gospel kick.

Compared to What?

A joyful examination of the miracle of being alive.

Where The Angels Live

Meditation On Where The Angels Live

A meditation on what a "good death" will look like for me.  Featuring Richard Kriehn on fiddle and mandolin.

When I Die

A song co-created by Jean Leicester and Barbara McAfee to explore Jean's notions of what a "good death" looks like.  Sung by the Morning Star Singers comfort choir of Minneapolis, Minnesota.

MORNING STAR CD

Living in the Light

A sweet and honest wedding song that invokes a good life together followed by a call and response chant that the whole community can join in on.

Along Our Way/Good Life

A dreamlike, peaceful song that came to me in the midst of a Minnesota blizzard.

Britches

Promise (Near & Deep)

A dreamy meditation on the sacred connection between trees and humans.

Breathing Trees

I wrote this as the theme for the Women's Leadership Revival Tour I did with Meg Wheatley.  We visited 15 North American cities.  Thousands of women have sung it over the years.  Next week it will be used for One Billion Rising in at least two dances.  It opens with an Asian proverb: "When women wake, mountains move." 

Women Rise!

A salute to the many people in the world who do underpaid, under-appreciated work with grace and generosity. I met all three people mentioned in the song on one business trip to Chicago: a woman cleaning the airport bathroom, a security guard at the Harold Washington Library, and a saxophonist playing in a light rain on State Street.

Such As These

A song to ease our beloved friend into the Mystery.

May You Go Easy For Tom

Barbara is a singer-songwriter, voice coach, speaker, and the best-selling author of Full Voice: The Art and Practice of Vocal Presence (Berrett-Koehler Publishers, 2011).  She has released 8 CDs of mostly original songs that occupy the genres of jazz, blues, gospel, and folk.  Her lyrics encompass many moods:  smart, poignant, irreverent, boisterous, and tender.  Her voice is clear, powerful, and nuanced.  Barbara's full catalog can be accessed on iTunes or through her website.

Barbara McAfee

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