"Medicine” is a song-anthem honoring the traditions of folk medicine; plant-based medicine as a tool for empowerment and healing. It is a call to action to support the voices of the herbalists, healers, and teachers… the roots, plants, trees, and stones… the arts, the spirits, and the wild ones. It is an honoring of all the many ways that we can be well, and the radical and traditional ways in which we can steward health within ourselves. 

This song is a direct tribute to the people around the world who are holding and teaching these ways of herbal plant-based medicine, educating us all to know our gardens, our forests, our plants and our own bodies... to bring wellness back into our own hands and communities. It is not a dismissal of modern medicine, but a gratitude and honoring of its ancestry and foundations within folkloric traditions. 

This release comes on the New Moon after the Fall Equinox. As we are moving into a new season, a new time, and a new chapter, we offer this song as a ritual anthem for this transition and time of great change.

"Medicine" Lyrics:

Wise men say that rushing is violence
and so is your silence
when its rooted in compliance
To stand firm in loving defiance,
make art your alliance
give voice to the fire

Move people to the beat of the wind
Gather yourself and begin
to dance the song until it ends
We are winners, champions of the light
forming in numbers and might
keep the truth close in sight...

Chorus:
Medicine Woman, Medicine Man
walking with grace, I know your face, and I trust your hands
Medicine Woman, Medicine Man
walking with grace, I know your face, and I trust your hands

Find your teachers in the voice of the forests
unplug you cant ignore this
wisdom of the voiceless
Remedies are bountiful and surround us
from the garden to the farthest 
prayers made of star dust

Find your healing in the music that calls you
the voice that enthralls you
what do you belong to 
Eyes out theres the setting of the sun
give thanks to each and everyone
the lesson is the...

Medicine Woman, Medicine Man
walking with grace I know your face, and I trust your hand
Medicine Woman, Medicine Man
walking with grace, I know your face, and I trust your hand  
 
Poem:

I believe in bending backwards and extending
in my tracks 
trip back
until the lesson is in action and
your yard is feeding
stop stark the disbelieving
cause the garden holds the shards 
the medicine is in the seeds when

We hold tight to our right to protect and
we know our might is 10-fold in connection
our elders hold them bright lights 
we protect them
the medicine is evident 
the wolf, the hawk, the bear clan

We hold tight to our right to protect and
we know our might is 10-fold in connection
our elders hold them bright lights 
we protect them
the medicine is evident 
the wolf, the hawk, the bear clan...

Medicine Woman, Medicine Man
walking with grace, I know your face, and I trust your hands
Medicine Woman, Medicine Man
walking with grace, I know your face, and I trust your hands

Download

Medicine

rosemary phelan (vocals), emilyn stam (piano), and bryden baird (flugelhorn, trumpet)

words & music by r. phelan; piano arrangement by e. stam, horns arranged by bryden baird. recorded by jason laprade @ crystal clear sound, toronto.  From the album What Sings In The Blood.

Hymn For the Innocent

A new song, written on October 18th, 2014.  Recorded on November 14th, 2014. 

"With Me" is dedicated to a Canadian veteran, Johnny Duffney, who suffered from PTSD.  For more on Johnny's story see http://www.thestar.com/opinion/commentary/2014/11/10/fallen_soldier_was_the_bon_vivant_of_gananoque.html).

The song was written one day before Johnny took his own life was inspired by re-stringing my late brother's banjo (in picture on the right) and tuning it to sound of love I felt in that moment - his gentle presence.  Rick died from schizophenia  - took his own life in 1990 at the age of 29.

After learning about Johnny's tragic death (his partner is Linda Yaxley - who I went to high school with), I felt compelled to record "With Me".  My hope is that this song will help her cope and give her some measure of comfort - a reminder that he will always be with her and at times she may feel him close by...

I had the good fortune to share his company a few times since I moved home to Kingston in May of 2013.  Johnny made a big difference in the lives of those who knew him and loved him.  He was a beautiful, compassionate and kind soul and we feel his loss deeply. 

Linda heard this song for the first time on November 16th at a beautiful celebration of Johnny and his life in Gananque.  I performed it live - and managed to stave off tears.  

Duncan Holt and Doug Reansbury of Concept Audio helped me lay down this track.  Just me, my baritone Appalachian dulcimer and Duncan on Djembe. 

With Me

Live on 4ZZZ for Break Your Fingers Laughing.
Recorded @ Brisbane Jazz Club for broadcast by Eoin Clements and Sep V on Sat Feb 7th @ 4ZZZ studio, Brisbane QLD Australia.

Official Site

Ann Vriend | Greatest Killer

Sing We The Virgin Mary

Blackbird - Leah West cover of The Beatles Paul McCartney. Guitar by Tom Stinson. Synths by Brigitte. Recorded at Music City Studio with Mike Pederson of Kelowna, BC, Canada. Mixed by Marty Rifkin in Santa Monica, California.

Blackbird - Leah West cover of The Beatles Paul McCartney

Lyrics to "I'm Still Standing":

See these lines on my face?
They're a map of where I've been
And the deeper they are traced,
the deeper life has settled in
How do we survive
living out our lives?

  And I would not trade a line
  Make it smooth and fine
  or pretend that time stands still
  I want to rest my soul
  here where it can grow without fear
  Another line, another year
  I'm still standing here

See these marks on my skin?
They are the lyric of my life
Every story I begin
just means another end's in sight
Only lovers understand
Skin just covers who I am

  Chorus

    See these bruises, see these scars?
    Hieroglyphs that tell the tale
    You can read them in the dark
    through your fingertips, like Braille

  And I would not trade a line
  Make it smooth and fine
  or pretend that time stands still
  I want to rest my soul
  here where it can grow without fear
  Another line, another year
  I'm still standing here
  I'm still standing here
  I'm still standing here!!

c. Rude Girl Pub. All rights reserved. Lefts are still open.

I'm Still Standing

Once At A Carnival,,, Finee

Stranger for Gord

Handsome Molly (released on the winter solstice 2017), is a beautiful old courtship ballad our father used to sing to us when we were little girls growing up in Georgia. It has its roots in both traditional Irish and Appalachian ballad singing and tells the universal stories longing, leaving, the quest for a homeland, and the perils of love. We sang this song with the lovely Peia  as we all crossed the Salish Sea by sail boat, reworking every nautical melody we could find, and coveting the old sea shanties. This one fit perfectly, and you can hear the creaks of the boat in the background.

Handsome Molly - featuring Peia

Recorded live in Grafton, Ontario in 2004
lyrics by Mark Finnan
music by Aengus Finnan

Irish Settler Lad

Singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, recording artist, mental health advocate.

With Me

Sandy Stubbert

Recent comments

janolssonmusic

Related tracks