When the news of the world is too much, I listen to this music of the people

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• Patients discharged from Alberta hospitals to motels
• Panels flying off airplanes
• Cockpit controls tripped accidentally by the pilot’s elbow
• Tornadoes from Texas to Ohio
• Missiles landing in Ukraine
• A so-called election in Russia
• Relief ship heading to Gaza
• People dead from fire in an illegal Air B’nB in Montreal

This was the list of top international headlines in a recent evening’s newscast, and I found it hard to believe the anchor wasn’t accidentally reading the script from an absurdist play. I wanted to cover my eyes and close my ears.

How can the world be in this state?

How can we bear the stupidity, the selfishness, the deceit and destruction?

Sometimes I can’t bear it any longer, and that’s when I turn to music.

I can shift my mood by turning away from the news and leaning into music that lifts my heart. This doesn’t, of course, change the state of the world, but it does change the state of my mind.

I share my current top three favourite diversions below and, by compiling it for today’s post, I have realized why I have been playing them on repeat for a while now: Each one is a collective creative collaboration — several musicians coming together to create music magic. No solo performers here. Maybe one lead, but many collaborators to make it whole.

To my ears, anyway, these songs are music magic; I wonder if you have your own.

Allison Russell is a Juno- and Grammy-award-winning singer-songwriter. She says, “Nothing can change in our story if we can’t imagine it first”, and she knows of what she speaks, given the wretched experiences she had in her Montreal childhood and the good life she has built despite them. Her music is often lively and upbeat, but listen closely to her lyrics and you will hear her sing of abuse and neglect — and also of joy in finding a new life in a chosen family and an intentional community of musicians and artists. Her “Tiny Desk Concert” with NPR (America’s National Public Radio) is a 4-track powerhouse of rhythm, lyrics and energy that inevitably brings a smile to my face and a lift to my heart.

Listen through to the end to hear Allison’s closing comments to the Tiny Desk audience:

We are not alone
We are not what we have lost
We are more than the sum of our scars
We are the dust of the stars
We are the arc of art
We are the love in our hearts
We lift each other up
And we are the beloved community
Every single time we choose to believe —
I believe —
I believe what Alice Walker wrote,
“We are the ones we have been waiting for.”
. . .
I hope you’ll lead with empathy
I hope you’ll lead with love
Because they are not weaknesses
They are super powers

Find the NPR Tiny Desk Concert on Allison’s website under the VIDEOS tab here.

Abigail and Shaun Bengson, known as The Bengsons, certainly lead with love. I first heard them during the pandemic when I stumbled across their “Going On Song”, with its catchy tune and compellingly simple lyrics — just keep going. I listened to that song on repeat for days in 2020. Then I discovered their earlier work and now watch the video of them recording the title track to their musical called “Hundred Days”. Abigail’s voice has immense power and range, and her drum playing is inspiring. Together with a group of musicians that includes a cello and an accordion player, Abigail and Shaun sing of their first one hundred days together: They met, fell in love and married within three weeks, then learned he was seriously ill. Shaun is alive to tell the tale, and the lyrics speak of joy and transcendence. That's how I interpret the words and understand the story, anyway. 

We are stars (never coming back again, never coming back again)

We can burn forever (never coming back again, never coming back again)
Before we're gone (never coming back again, never coming back again)
Before we're gone (never coming back again, never coming back again)

I want a hundred days
Of bright light, hey, hey, away!
A hundred days, you're my man
Of bright light, away, away, hey!

Find the song/video here and find the ‘how it came to be’ video here.

My third pick is Canadian phenom Choir! Choir! Choir! Their performance with the iconic Patti Smith singing “People have the Power” in NYC with Stewart Copeland (find it here) never fails to energize me and reorient my thinking to what is possible when we come together to do the right thing.

I awakened to the cry

That the people have the power
To redeem the work of fools
Upon the meek the graces shower
It's decreed the people rule

The people have the power
The people have the power
The people have the power

The people have the power

Sometimes, the right thing is music and singing and raising our voice with others. Which I do when I put on any of these three mood-shifting mind-lifting soul-enriching musical experiences.

And then I’m ready, once again, to see the world as it is (news ’n all) — and to do my bit to bring change to it.

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Land acknowledgement: I respectfully recognize that I live on the original lands of Anishinaabe, Cree, Oji-Cree, Dakota and Dene peoples, and on the homeland of the Métis Nation.