Live in the Rotunda

יִשְׂמְחוּ בְמַלְכוּתְךָ, שׁוֹמְרֵי שַׁבָּת וְקֽוֹרְאֵי עֹֽנֶג

Yismechu v’malchuscha shomrei shabbos v’korei oneg

They will delight in your all empowering sovereignty - those who tend and care for shabbos and call it a joyous celebration

Credits from Karov, released August 20, 2020:
Batya Levine - lead vocals
Anat Halevy Hochberg - vocals
Aly Halpert - vocals
Molly Bajgot - vocals
Micah Shapiro - vocals
Arielle Rivera Korman - violin
Joey Weisenberg - percussion & bass
Richie Barshay - percussion

Please check out and support Batya! She has a website here: www.batyalevine.com, a Bandcamp here: batyalevine.bandcamp.com/album/karov, a Patreon here: https://www.patreon.com/batyalevine, and is on streaming services such as Spotify. Also, make sure to check out Rising Song Records and all of their amazing artists: https://risingsongrecords.bandcamp.com/.

This remix also features Chris Dickson on the bass and me on guitar.

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If you made it this far, you get to read a quick personal note:
 
I first came upon Batya's original Soundcloud recording (https://soundcloud.com/batyalevine/yismechu-batya-levine) after I had just quit my job and was walking my former colleague's dog for money. The magic of the melody struck me hard and I listened to it on repeat while Basil dragged me through the streets of Somerville. I was so stoked it made the album and made everyone at my sister's socially distant birthday party listen to it the day it came out. I must have heard the melody a thousand times working on the remix and the magic still holds.

It's been a tremendous joy to work with Batya and their melody on this remix. I'm not sure if music production is really my thing in the long run, but my stance remains strong regarding the creation of contemporary Jewish dance music: somebody's got to do it.

Batya Levine - Yismechu (Diva Nigun Remix) - Now on Spotify!

Ahava V'rachamim by Bon Singer 
Ahava V'rachamim Chesed V'shalom
Love and compassion, kindness and peace/wholeness

Recorded by IfNotNow Boston Summer 2016.

Ahavah V'Rahamim

I've been given feet, not wings.
Is 'Up' the best direction for me to go? Is that the ladder to success that I'm really meant to climb?

Hmm...

Oh, the Beauty

They've Got Wings

"Everything flows on and on like this river, without pause day and night." -Confucius

Original melody/arrangement caught while standing beside the Colorado River in the Grand Canyon at night.

Finding Our Voice

Everything Flows On and On

Paul Barton (Toronto) brought this song with a humble yet powerful presence to the Village Fire 2018 gathering. He explained in the midst of teaching it that he was crafting the harmony parts on the spot. Suffice to say, the 100 or so of us around the fire with him were floored by the beauty of the song.  

This recording is from the Texas State Capitol rotunda, where about thirty of us gathered on the first Monday of the month (as we do - also on the last Monday of the month) lead by community song leader, Josh Blaine, to sing songs of connection and courage.

Song posted with permission of Paul Barton. To hear more of his music, check out: http://www.paulbartonmusic.com/community-songs.html

8.6.18 Rotunda Sing

I Am Me (Paul Barton) - Live in the Rotunda

Yismechu, words from Shabbat liturgy, melody by Batya Levine sung at Let My People Sing! 2018.

(Sung & transliterated in Ashkenazi pronunciation of Hebrew)
Yismechu b'malchuscha shoimrei shabbos v'korei oneg

Translation: They will rejoice in your Sovreignty/Interconnected-Reality, those who guard/honor/keep sacred shabbat and call it a true celebration.

LMPS 2018

Yismechu - Batya Levine - LMPS 2018

A bit about the song from the song catcher:

"Written after a night of dancing ecstatically, and while contemplating my conditioning around romantic relationships. This is a song to myself, to my partner(s) and friends, to the universe, and to whoever you feel called to sing it to ❤" -Jesse French (https://soundcloud.com/yetifree)

Recorded live at a Finding Our Voice community sing in the Texas State Capitol rotunda on 1.28.2019.

Slowly (Jesse French) - Live in the Rotunda

This original 3-part layer song by Gillian Spangler came through while she was biking along one of her favorite trails in Austin. She was inspired by some words of Jon Kabat-Zinn that she heard in an On Being podcast episode: "What if we lived as if each moment mattered." The other lines of the song are inspired by how the experience of singing can bring us into an embodied place of presence. 
PartI:
What if we lived as if each moment mattered
We lived as if we were here.
What if we lived as if each moment mattered
We lived as if time was dear.

Part II:
Can you listen to the wind
Can you feel it in your heart?
Do you know how to give in
To the moment as it parts?

Part III:
Be here, be here now
Be here, in this sound. 

When Gillian first taught this song at one of the FOV first/last Monday rotunda sings about a year ago, she stepped into the center of the circle with such confidence and competence, I (and many others) were sure she'd done this before. But in fact it was her first time leading a song! Since then, she's caught and lead many songs in the rotunda and elsewhere. This recording comes from her final (for now) community sing with us in Austin (which she lead as the night's guest song leader) before she launched on a sojourn to travel and farm along the West Coast. You can follow Gillian's adventures on her blog here: https://www.vaguelyveganvoyager.com/

Be Here Now (Gillian Spangler) - Live in the Rotunda

On this episode Kadijah Means returns to Hella Black and discusses trauma and non violent communication. Tap in!

EP 49: Non-violent Communication at a Glance with Kadijah Means

how can I ...

be a little more soft today
feel a little more connected today
get a little more grounded today
be a little more free today 
___ a little more ____ today

A part of the melody inspired by and based on "Faith's Hymn" by Beautiful Chorus

How Can I

Nanny's Niggun is an ode to the incredible resiliency of my grandmother, "Nanny" Dorothy. A Holocaust survivor, she endured unimaginable horror and summoned untold strength and endurance to survive four different concentration camps over the course of 18 months as a Hungarian Jewish teenager. 

I caught the initial threads of this niggun (Hebrew for a "wordless melody") while singing with/to her about a year before her passing. It's my attempt to honor her story in all of its pain and profound triumph while reminding me to remain committed to ending oppression for all - no matter the creed, gender, sexual orientation, or color. 

"Nanny's Niggun" was one of the last songs I sang to my grandmother at her bedside before she drew her final breaths in mid-October 2019. This is a recording of me teaching it to a group of about thirty-five community singers in the rotunda of the Texas State Capitol on 11.18.2019, a one month after her burial. 

This song is yours to carry if it helps you connect to your own resiliency and your own commitment to fighting the grave injustices of our time.

To read a more in-depth backstory of this song, become a Patron: https://www.patreon.com/posts/35685709

Nanny's Niggun (Joshua Blaine) - Live in the Rotunda

let it blow through
let it blow through 

open up the windows of your soul and let it blow through

hard times come and hard times go 

let it blow through

Let It Blow Through by Maggie Wheeler

to hear more community songs by ahlay, visit: https://www.alexandrablakely.com/songlibrary

The Neuroplasticity Song

Recorded live in the Texas Capitol Rotunda on 9/30/2019. 
 @JoshuaHBlaine leading about 80 people at the bi-monthly Finding Our Voice community sing, including members of the Just Worship conference. 
Song by Abbi Spinner McBride. 

LYRICS:
Sing through my voice
Play through my hands
Let the way
Be open

Let the Way Be Open (Abbi Spinner Mcbride) - Live in the Rotunda

Finding Our Voice is a project created and tended by Joshua Blaine (@joshuahblaine), a community song leader and organizer currently living on Narraganset land along the Atlantic Ocean. His songs are inspired by some of his favorite teachings and landscapes, from John O'Donohue to the Grand Canyon to mystical Jewish wisdom. Pre-COVID, he lead regularly community sings in the glorious domed rotunda of the Texas State Capitol in Austin, TX, where he lived for 8 years. Now, he continues to write and lead song in the virtual realm in service of collective liberation and systemic transformational justice and peace. You can support and follow his work more closely by becoming a patron at http://www.patreon.com/findingourvox and stay in the loop about his virtual song circles and other offerings on Facebook 
https://www.facebook.com/findingourvoiceproject/ or by joining his newsletter at http://findingourvoice.net

Be Here Now (Gillian Spangler) - Live in the Rotunda

Finding Our Voice

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