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

Songwriter: Kate Rhudy
Producer & Engineer: Jordan Dylan Bailey
Guitar: Kate Rhudy
Guitar riff: Dylan Lavier 

The Only Pretty Thing In Texas

I wrote this song in response to the story of Shannon Bigley. This woman about my age was experiencing homelessness in summer 2018 and was killed during a CalTrans clearout of a homeless encampment in Modesto, CA.

Shannon had been sleeping in a cardboard box. CA had recently accelerated disassembling of homeless encampments, and CalTrans employees had complained that their role in this dismantling did not fit their backgrounds and job descriptions.

According to news reports at the time, Ms. Bigley went by the nickname Sunshine. I imagine her story in this song. The story shared in the song is in part also my own, as I myself was living near Modesto at that time and experiencing housing tenuousness exacerbated by a brain injury and a brush with Lyme disease.

To learn more about the Grand Hotel Garden Recordings, of which this is part, visit this blog post: https://clairebatesmusic.com/2019/07/21/what-are-the-grand-hotel-garden-recordings/.

Load of Trouble - Grand Hotel Garden Recording

This interlude is featured on the new music entertainment art project from Afrofuturist jali/producer Bryce Detroit titled "Structured Water". 

This excerpt is from a 1.5 hour live performance, that took place at Figures Libres, in Vendome France (2017).

This piece features New Afrikan instrumentalist Efe Bes

Structured Water

inter.lude.

Bird of Light - Heather Houston

I offer this chant as a powerful practice of presencing. In the dark, difficult and uncertain times, one of the most powerful tools I've found is to chant mantra. Mantra, that which protects the mind, helps us to enter into a one pointed concentration, thus quieting the looping stories and the fears. 

Choose one part and stick to it throughout, and notice how you feel afterward. For practice parts, please go to: https://heatherhoustonmusic.com/song/bird-of-light-heather-houston/ 

Hamsa so hum translates as "I Am That" in Sanskrit. In Vedic philosophy, it means identifying oneself with the universe or ultimate reality. The Soham mantra has been called the universal mantra because of the fact that its vibration is already a part of the breath, and everybody breathes. Sooooo... is the sound of inhalation, and Hummmm... is the sound of exhalation.

Hamsa means white swan. The swan, of course, is an ancient symbol of spiritual grace and purity. The mantra is called White Swan because when the in-breath and out-breath are freed and purified, they are like the wings of a swan helping our spirits to soar. The Hamsa mantra helps us find the grace within and carries us beyond our limited concepts. 

Hamsa so hum, hamsa so hum

I am that I am that I am, I am that I am that I am

So hum, so hum, so hum, so hum

I am this breath, I am this voice

I am a bird of light, I am a bird in flight

© November 2019
Heather Houston
All rights reserved

Heather Houston's Album

Bird of Light by Heather Houston

Conscious analysis and loving transparency illuminate tender, gutsy, bluesy folk when Claire plays and sings. Claire Bates gives from her heart songs for hard times.

Load of Trouble - Grand Hotel Garden Recording

Claire Bates Music

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