"The foundation of Wild Sweet was born out of a loop pedal improv on a New Year's sunrise set at a small festival many years ago. But the song was fully written during our recording process together in Asheville. Each of us was tasked with bringing two original songs to record. While I had a few options of lullabies to bring, and even started recording 1 of them, I felt something else wanting to come through. Tina encouraged me to keep searching and in the wee midnight hours, I rediscovered this melody from the archives of my recordings. One of our songwriting prompts during our group mastermind had been ‘polishing an old gem’, so I dove into polishing this song seed. The lyrics came swiftly, inspired by the energy of being in the cocoon of staying at home during lockdown, as well as the cocoon of our songwriting immersion, and the magic of recording this album together. It was the final song to be written during this cycle of our collective song-catching journey and captures the essence of what we were gathering. Wild Sweet sings to the emergence of widened wings after a deep season of rest, just as humanity is re-emerging into a new season of becoming." ~ Ayla Nereo

Cradle

Wild Sweet

Into The River is a song for acapella vocals and the interplay of harmonics that can happen when you open up to the spontaneity of the voice.  Meant as a collective song, it was written by Chloe from Rising Appalachia whilst sitting by a river listening to the rhythm of the moving rocks and churning water.  Repetitive.  Playful. Overlapping and overlaying so as to be new each time it is sung. Starling Arrow sang this song in free form for the album, with less notes and arrangements than some of the other tracks and more of a vocal jam type air.  It is a joyous homage to laying ones tired body down in the water and letting trials and tribulations be washed away, a theme found in gospel music and traditional music from around the world.  As rain finds the rivers, our voices found one anothers for this sweet collaboration and merged into one.

Into The River

This song, written by Tina Malia, is based on the title of the upcoming album, Cradle, out February 2023. It is languid and warm, meant to hold the listener in the feeling of home. It is a winter song with the spirit of the holidays within.

By The Jordan

This song was written by Marya Stark inspired by bones and a time before the internet. ‘Fly Away’ is evocative of prophecy, dreams, and the magic at midnight.

By this point, it was towards the end of summer months of 2020, several waves of chaos into the lockdown, and we were riding the many uprisings and divisions within the culture. 

Leah threw out the idea of needing respite from all the internet dumpster fires that were wreaking havoc on our online communities, and called for a song to reach into the healing power of our ancestral magics. Thus, the topic we chose was ‘bones’, with the style being that which was way before the internet. 

This song tells the story of a dream of a young woman who is being called into an initiation at the temple. She has visions of her sacred women kin dancing around in a star-stepping pattern as a practice of oracular divination and invocation prayer.

Fly Away

A real-life lullaby, for the real-life parent in the final battles of sleep deprivation. One written about the moment when you have tried EVERYTHING to just get your child to GO TO SLEEP!! Part playful, part honest attempt to pull that final transition to rest… drifting away in harmonics and by the celebratory end, swooping us all away to an actual dreamscape. Written by Leah Song.

Oh Darlin'

"Name of the Wind came from a moment of being on the California coast and seeing a whale out in the ocean. We had a song prompt that week, to create a wind lullaby. So as I watched the whale, and felt the wind rushing in my ears, I listened. And the notes of the chorus came through clearly, very literally on the wind as it whistled against my ears." ~ Ayla Nereo

Name Of The Wind

This song was written during our first week. Our topic was 'what the nature spirits have to say about coronavirus'. This song was written from the perspective of a person going through the waves and confusion at the onset of lockdown, and receiving sweet messages from the nature spirits in conversation.

Hush Hush

"Taken from the wonderful pulse of the southern gospel voice that was such a part of my urban southern upbringing, I wanted this song to be written as an elemental gospel anthem. A celebratory nod to the worship of the wild world around us, the hums of the stream, the chimes of the bell tower, the power of song to wash over our human toils and strains. I wrote it to remind us that we are bigger than our singular human conscience." ~ Leah Song

Swoon And Wander

"Rock Me is a lullaby written to my mountain home, a song of place, a song of nurture, a song of being still long enough to love where you stand.  It's a timeless love song of sorts, written to a forested mountain right outside my window that will long outlive my worried mind.  A song of geological belonging, of dirt worship and the strength one can gain from the natural world. When I stopped moving so fast I realized the intricate and intimate beauty of the things around me and garnered great strength in watching them change throughout the seasons and withstand the tests of time. Humans are so noisy. This song sings to the utter peace in knowing you can simply step outside and find right relationship with the natural world." ~ Chloe Smith

Rock Me

"Volar means 'to fly' in Spanish and was written during our "wind lullaby" week.  Leah and I both speak Spanish and I love using 2 languages to explain a feeling through song." ~ Tina Malia

Volar

All The Pretty Horses is a traditional lullaby, beloved by several members of Starling Arrow from our childhood. We chose to add this haunting lullaby to our record to round out the collection.

Pretty Horses

At the end of each night of recording, we would gather at midnight to sing 1 improvisational hum track. This one was our favorite, a sweet way to end the album, letting people drift into dreamtime.

Midnight Hum

Starling Arrow is an all-star cast of spirit-folk songstresses featuring Leah Song and Chloe Smith of Rising Appalachia, Ayla Nereo, Tina Malia, and Marya Stark. The members of the female-fronted super-group Starling Arrow share a common devotion for the love of songwriting, which they elegantly captured in their debut album, Cradle, coming out in January 2023. These artists are brought together by a deep mutual love of beauty, the power of music as a sanctuary, and the deep joy of encountering the muse. Powerhouse songwriters in their own right, and innovative leaders within the industry, this joining is a potent gift of synergy.

Pre-save ‘Wild Sweet’ out Friday, Oct 7 - https://sym.ffm.to/wild-sweet

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