A Garden of My Own. Patricia wrote this song at the retirement party for the first woman supreme court justice in Minnesota. The song appears in Worship In Song: A Hymnal for Friends.
Red Is the Rose is a traditional Irish song with a very similar tune to "Loch Lomond". Peter once asked Tommy Makem when the Irish wrote new words to the Scottish song and Tommy replied: "What makes you think that the Scots wrote it first?!"
For Mickey ("Maybe Mickey was an angel...") Annie wrote this song for a close friend who died while she was in high school.
My Roots Go Down. Sarah Pirtle is a children's musician who lives in Northampton MA and runs a program called the Discovery Center. When we perform the song we invite those in the audience to make up new tree verses on the spot. When we were traveling in New Zealand, we began singing "Pahukatawa is calling out to me..." about one of the loveliest traditional New Zealand trees which has bright scarlet blooms at Christmas time.
Lone Wild Bird. Peter & I sang this song during our wedding (which was held in London Grove Friends Meetinghouse in 1983).
Come to My Table I had a vision during worship of Jesus inviting me to a spiritual feast. This came to me during a meeting of the Working Group on Gifts, a group that was teaching groups to identify and nurture the spiritual gifts of members of their faith community.
The Trees of the Field is a wonderful folk hymn from the Catholic folk mass tradition. It is also in Worship in Song.
Green, Green Rocky Road is one of my favorite songs to perform! It was originally collected from the children of Lilly Chapel School in York, Alabama, but I learned it from a Dave Van Ronk recording.
Quite Early Morning is one of our favorite Seeger songs. We learned it first from the singing of Guy Carawan. Holly Near has also recorded it among others.
The Hills of Isle au Haut. Gordon Bok's songs about the Maine Coast are full of longing and mystery. Isle au Haut is now a national park.
Little Red Rocking Chair is one of my favorite banjo tunes.
Branching Out, John Gorka's wonderful song about an ash tree's dream of becoming a baseball bat.
You'll Sing to Me Too - Seeger's song of singing across the generations has become wonderfully fulfilled as he performs with his grandson Tao.
Lay Down Brother I first heard this at a memorial service for a friend. Because of that I have always thought of it as a "goodbye song".
Annie Patterson's first solo folk recording. The recording includes two original songs and a mix of other composed songs and traditional material. Annie's voice is light and beautiful. The songs are deceptively simple but rich in their spiritual and emotional power. Annie accompanies herself on banjo and guitar. Deep Roots is currently only available on cassette. $5.00.