As I write this post I’m beginning a week at summer camp where I’ll be playing music with friends and taking classes. Gathering up for the trip has gotten me noodling on the connection between music and resilience.
Resilience has many faces depending on the nature of the challenges we encounter and where we are in the process of moving through them. Consequently, I find that the songs and tunes I associate with resilience vary wildly depending on the day and the situation. From Bobby McFerrin’s Don’t Worry, Be Happy (which is sometimes perfect as a mood lifter, and other times makes me want to throw the radio against the wall…) to the theme from Rocky to The Who’s Behind Blue Eyes, there are songs that form the soundtrack to so many moments in life. I thought it would be fun to dig a little deeper, share some thoughts, and offer links to a few songs you might be less familiar with.
Challenges
There are songs that tell the story of someone else’s experience with a particular challenge. It can be tremendously helpful to recognize that we are not alone in the struggle. Behind Blue Eyes fits in that category for me, as a reminder that others, too, feel alone and angry and misunderstood. Here are a few others:
Robert Earl Keen’s song Shades of Gray is told by a young man who goes along with his buddies and gets into trouble with the law. I like this version by Cry, Cry, Cry.
So we turned 'round and faced our fate, hung over but alive
On that morning, Oklahoma, late April ninety-five
Nanci Griffith’s song Trouble in the Fields reaches back to the Great Depression and the Dust Bowl, and speaks to me because of the project I’m doing with my great-grandmother’s journals from rural Iowa during that same time. It helps me imagine some of the challenges she and her family faced. Here’s a lovely live version where Griffith tells the family history that inspired her to write the song.
But if we sell that new John Deere
And then we'll work these crops with sweat and tears
You'll be the mule, I'll be the plow
Come harvest time we'll work it out
There's still a lot of love, here in these troubled fields
I was telling a friend about writing this post; she shared Joan Baez’s song Diamonds and Rust as one that resonated deeply with her experience of a long-ago divorce.
Well I'll be damned
Here comes your ghost again
But that's not unusual
It's just that the moon is full
And you happened to call
The last example I’ll share in this category is Maria McKee’s After the Flood, which describes the aftermath of a natural disaster. Here’s her band Lone Justice with this song.
I’d rather be shovelin’
Through the slush and mud
Than to leave my home where I grew up
Life goes on after the flood
Hope
There are days when I am looking for a reminder of brighter times ahead, and uplifted by the voices of others who have found hope.
Karine Polwart is a Scottish singer & songwriter whose work touches on many social and political issues. Her song Rivers Run is one of my favorites in the “songs of hope” category.
And if the river should ever run dry
Somewhere the rain will still fall
Will still fall from the sky
Another one that keeps turning up on my playlist is Another Train, written by Pete Morton and performed here by British all-female traditional folk band The Poozies.
There’s another train, there always is,
Maybe the next one is yours,
get up and climb aboard another train.
The last one I’ll share here is an oldie, O-o-h Child, written by Stan Vincent and recorded in 1970 by the Five Stairsteps. I love this version by Beth Orton.
Ooh child, things are gonna get easier
Ooh child, things'll be brighter
Community
It’s also important to remember that we are not in this alone. Here are a couple of my favorite songs about coming together as we move through life’s challenges.
I learned Walk the Road from Irish singer Cathie Ryan a number of years ago at the music camp I mentioned earlier. It was written by Kate Rusby.
All the way through wind and rain
I’ll never deceive my heart again
Hand in hand, across the land
We’ll walk the road together
The Wailin’ Jennys are a Canadian trio—I love their harmonies and could listen to them for hours. Here’s a particular favorite called One Voice written by band member Ruth Moody.
This is the sound of all of us
Singing with love and the will to trust
Leave the rest behind, it will turn to dust
This is the sound of all of us
Resolve
The more I write, the more I realize that this could be a very long post if I don’t stop at some point. The last category of songs that I’ll talk about right now are those that help us prepare to face a challenge ahead. Rocky (Gonna Fly Now) fits in this category for me, and it’s helped me up many a hill. Here’s another that I love:
Dougie MacLean is a Scottish musician who has been broadcasting a lovely series of Wee Free Concerts from an old schoolhouse in his town during the pandemic. His song Ready for the Storm was particularly helpful to a friend as she prepared for some difficult times. Here’s a version of this song by Irish band Déanta.
…the lightning strikes and the wind cuts cold
Through the sailor's bones to the sailor's soul
Till there's nothing left that he can hold
Except the rolling ocean
But I am ready for the storm, yes sir ready
I am ready for the storm, I'm ready for the storm
I hope you’ve enjoyed this installment of Prosilience, and that it inspired you to listen to at least one new song and reflect on music that has been part of your own resilience soundtrack. I’d love to hear your favorite resilience songs/stories; there may well be a Part 2 of this post if I get enough responses!
