the brief

a gospel song of wistful longing and homage to an old favourite

Apart from Sunday school, there was little music in my early years. I don't remember my parents listening to music back then. The radio was seldom on. There was no record player in the house. No musical instruments.

So the little music experience I had mostly came in Sunday school, singing Christmas carols, Sally Anne hymns and traditional songs like Kum bah yah. Joining Cubs and then Scouts added mostly silly campfire songs to my repertoire.

Mind you, I couldn't sing worth a shit so I mostly sang under my breath. But I did bond with a few songs that have stayed with me across the years. They were my vocal comfort food.

Towards the end of the 3.1 period, I began to get a new song based on the Kum bah yah melody and I guess wistful longings from those early years.

let me sing my lord let me sing
let me sing my lord let me sing
let me sing my lord let me sing
oh lord let me sing

someone's birthing lord let me sing your praise
someone's growing lord let me sing your praise
someone's dying lord let me sing your praise
oh lord sing your praise

someone's walking lord let me sing your love
someone's running lord let me sing your love
someone's falling lord let me sing your love
oh lord sing your love

someone's talking lord let me sing my lord lives
someone's shouting lord let me sing my lord lives
someone's laughing lord let me sing my lord lives
my lord lives and I am well

At the time the song was coming, I had become increasingly aware the songs were overtly but gradually teaching me how to sing. Opening my vocal mechanisms and deepening my connection to the song energies. This song, I saw, was a part of that overall instructional design. It was an étude if you like, a practice piece I could use to explore the fuller reaches of my own voice.

The song culminated with a final chorus that consolidated the new elements, a karosong pattern I'd seen before, particularly in the very early songs.

let me sing my lord sing your praise
let me sing my lord sing your love
let me sing my lord sing my lord lives
my lord lives and I am well

my lord lives and I am well

Post-script

Even though it is based on a traditional melody, Let me sing lord is classified as a 1.3 karosong because it is not an asynchronous collaboration but it came in the third phase.

Although I don't remember my parents listening to music in my early years, during my high school years they both became devoted to watching old time fiddle music on television, shows like Don Messer's Jubilee and The Pig and Whistle. My mother also made a CBC Winnipeg show called Hymn Sing a regular part of her Sunday mornings. Many years later, I found an affinity for fiddle music in groups like The Waterboys, Spirit of the West and Great Big Sea.