2007 enviro song of the year

'Church', from Songs of Shiloh, shows some love for the planet

Posted by Kit Stolz (Guest Contributor) at 4:07 PM on 02 Jan 2008

Read more about: music

Often our culture equates caring about the planet with envisioning what could go wrong. (Think of dire visions of societal breakdown, disaster, and ruin -- Cormac McCarthy's The Road, for example.)

The Road is a powerful novel, but one can express love for our planet and our land in ways other than fear of a horrific outcome. (Imagine if the only way we could appreciate a loved one was to imagine his or her annihilation.) Music especially has this ability to express love, and perhaps the best "environmental" song I heard this year comes from a unique record called Songs of Shiloh.

Songs of Shiloh Reportedly found in a cassette demo tape on the floor of a small recording studio in northern California, these songs from an unknown singer named Shiloh inspired songwriter Marty Axelrod and singer Nicole Gordon to gorgeous results. Especially memorable to those who sometimes go walking in the woods will be "Church," which matches soaring vocals to the gentlest sort of love for what we call nature -- or something else.

Take a look at the lyrics below the fold -- or better yet, listen to the song (mp3 file).

Close my eyes, start out with a hymn
Life is here right now, I have only to join in

Sun through the trees like stained glass on fire
Birds sing together in harmony like a choir
Buzzing of the bees like gossip on the morning
Breeze in the leaves like an old pump organ

Wish everyone could be here in church with me
Sittin' this close to God, it feels like church ...

For story: 2007 enviro song of the year
8 Comments | Post a Comment

OK,

this song is perfectly pretty, but why does every song related to green matters have to sound like it's sung by a hippie around a campfire? Is that the aesthetic we still want to exclusively associate with? Why can no one write decent rock song, or god forbid a catchy pop song, about, I don't know, green roofs?

Seems to me green the issue(s) has left behind green the cultural/aesthetic phenomenon. Way behind.

grist.org

by David Roberts at 4:30 PM on 02 Jan 2008

agreed!

The reason that greens continue to appeal to the "annihilation" aesthetic is because nobody bought the arguement that we should save nature because it is pretty. Panda bears are cute, but spotted owls aren't all that charismatic. And yet we have to save spotted owls for a variety of ecological reasons that have their roots in prudence, not aesthetic taste.

"We are entering a period of consequences."

by Ekirky at 6:33 PM on 02 Jan 2008

Ummm ...

Let us go a bit further than DR: This is a mediocre song, no more than serviceable; the prevailing wilderness=church image is a cliche' ("the forest is my cathedral," and all that); "church" is a thin Mainline-Protestant nostalgia for stained glass, pews, and hymn-singing.

And whatever we may like about the song itself, the performance of it does it disservice: I have no problem with the "hippie around the campfire" aesthetic of the opening voice and guitar; but then, why suddenly deepen the sound 2/3rds of the way through, but also drop the voice?

By the way, in our on-going exploration of how environmentalism and Christianity intersect, Grist readers might be interested to know that the Grist hero and contributor Bill McKibben has reviewed two books on contemporary American Christianity (Protestantism mostly) in The New York Review of Books of January 17, 2008, one of them being "The Scandalous Gospel of Jesus: What's So Good About the Good News?," by Peter J. Gomes, pastor of Harvard's Memorial Church, and a Christian hero of mine. Being both African-American and gay, as well as brilliant and gifted, Gomes is a most appealing figure in the world of old established but socially progressive Protestantism.

To Ekirky:
If, after all these years, the spotted owls can be said to be "uncharismatic," that is the fault of the owls' unimaginative friends in the PacNW, not of the owls themselves. There are lovable owls in "Bambi" and in "Winnie the Pooh" -- not as cuddly perhaps as Piglet or Tigger or Roo, but still good guys who it is nice to have around.

Chickens deserve our true friendship! So do fish! So do other sentient beings! Let us learn to be kind.

by caniscandida at 11:06 AM on 03 Jan 2008

ouch!

Jeez. Not only is the song too hippie-ish, it's not apocalyptic enough, and not only is it too religious, it's nostalgic for the wrong religion! Ouch.

Well, I'm going to take David's question as just that -- a question -- and try to answer it.

It's true that when popular music takes on green themes, it tends to sound a bit like the acoustic Neil Young. There are exceptions (RealClimate, of all people, pointed out that "London Calling" by the Clash summed up the confused understanding of the threat of an ice age rather well at the time):

http://www.realclimate.org/index.php/archives/2006/10/glo ...)

And last year Thom Yorke put out a rumbling growl of a record about climate change that sold well.

http://gristmill.grist.org/story/2006/7/20/213758/350

I thought Yorke's record was good because the electronica sound matched the ominousness of on-coming climate change; similarly, I think this song is good because the music itself carries the theme, as much as the words. The beauty of the campfire sound fits the beauty of the woods; it's a natural match, like honky-tonk and juke joints.

But I certainly would like to hear more examples of environmental music...

by Kit Stolz at 12:33 PM on 03 Jan 2008

Another environmental Song

While we're talking about environmental songs, I thought I'd plug a environmental country song that actually got radio play a few years back: Seminole Wind by John Anderson. (And I don't usually like country!)

http://www.cowboylyrics.com/lyrics/anderson-john/seminole ...

by rljohnsufl at 1:25 PM on 03 Jan 2008

Hurray the Everglades!

Yes, RLJohnSufl, those are beautiful lyrics. And probably all good, honest "enviro songs" are going to be intimately connected to a particular landscape, and performed for the benefit of an intimately connected group. Grand ideological anthems appropriate to auditoriums and stadiums are always going to leave us cold.

So, Kit, so far as "enviro songs" go, "Church" is fine, just a bit weak with regard to art. With regard to religion, I could not care less. But it would be terrific if "Church" could move the Methodists to scrap their SUVs, and the Episcopalians to divest from Exxon.

Chickens deserve our true friendship! So do fish! So do other sentient beings! Let us learn to be kind.

by caniscandida at 2:19 PM on 03 Jan 2008

Flyin' without my wings again

Sharla June refers to "When You're Dead" as a cheerful environmental ballad.

When You're Dead
http://www.folkalley.com/openmic/song.php?id=3372

"When You're Dead" is from Sharla June's "Flyin' without My Wings Again" CD

You can listen to more from the "Flyin' Without My Wings Again" CD and read about Sharla June here ~
http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.view ...

Sharla June and the Mayhaws here ~
http://www.myspace.com/themayhaws

Grant Peeples' "New State of Florida Song" shouldn't be missed
http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.view ...

All four Florida songs at Grant's MySpace site are terrific.

More from Grant Peeples and the Baker Act here ~
http://www.grantpeeples.com/music.html

Sharla June and Grant are from Tallahassee, down in F-L-A.

by Karen Lee Orr at 3:29 PM on 03 Jan 2008

I take exception. . .

DR, I happen to like hippie camp fire music :)

"We must be the change we wish to see in the world." -- Mahatma Ghandi

by Green Granny at 9:30 AM on 04 Jan 2008

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