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Salmon Returning Home – a Song for You to Sing

Salmon Leap – Illustration by Jane Valencia

As we’re swimming with the Salmon, thematically speaking here in Forest Halls, by way of blog posts and my radio show,  I thought I’d share with you one of my favorite Salmon songs.

Salmon Returning Home was composed by my dear friend Kristina Turner, and is a wonderful song to sing with kids, families, and in community.  Kristina has generously agreed to share her song here so that you can sing it too.

Here’s what Kristina writes about the birth of the song:

The song has a story – it arrived on Summer Solstice during 24 hour prayer-vigil drumming at Burton Hill on Vashon. It is a healing song, dedicated to salmon fisherman and friend, John Schindler.

Listen to the song here

And here are the lyrics!

Salmon Returning Home – Lyrics and Music by Kristina Turner

Swimmin’ upstream
With my belly in the river
I’m salmon returning home

repeat verse –  you can sing it call and response.

CHORUS
Makin’ my way
From the sea to me
I’m openin’ up to the powers that be
I’m swimmin’ upstream
With my belly in the river
I’m salmon returning home

Verse 2:
Wrigglin’ over rocks
With my belly in the water
I’m salmon returnin’ home

repeat verse

CHORUS

Verse 3
Swimmin’ upstream
To the place I began
I’m salmon returning home

repeat verse

CHORUS:

finish by repeating the last line 2 more times
Salmon returning home
Salmon returning home

Song etiquette:

Please remember to credit Kristina when singing this song. Please do not record/distribute it for personal use or profit, or change it without contacting Kristina and discussing your idea and intention with her. You can reach her here.

And I invite you to take a moment to get to know Kristina! She is a wonderful creative, wise woman who knows how to play! Her questions and insights help me pause and wonder, and to dig into my internal landscape with curiosity and delight. Kristina knows how to follow the Salmon — of one’s passions, creative vision …  — and help others to follow them too. I’ve harvested many a hazel nut of illumination by way of her, and found my way to new streams of possibilities.

Thank you for sharing this song, Kristina!

Kristina Turner
Kristina Turner, composer of “Salmon Returning Home.” Visit her at kristinaturner.com.

PS. Watch a performance of Salmon Returning Home in the video Heart of Vashon  – Telling Our Story. Find it at 1:19:50. (yes, that’s me leading the singing).

A Final Salmon Note: I hope you’ve had the chance to listen to the latest Forest Halls Celtic streaming radio show, Show 38 – Salmon Return, which is a river of music, musing, poetry, and a tale with this amazing creature. If not, I encourage you to listen sometime this week, as this episode will cease being available for listening as of Dec. 8.

 

 

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Radio Show – Episode 36 – October 27, 2019

One thing I love about producing Forest Halls Celtic is that I have times each week when I go “foraging” for music that is new to me. I’m especially eager to discover younger voices, and not just choose from my favorites of 20-30 years ago (though I enjoy playing those too!).

I’m especially delighted with some of my discoveries this time round:  One is Scottish contemporary folk singer, Kris Drever, singing  a song based on John Steinbeck’s articles in 1936 called the Harvest Gypsies, about the lives of the migrant workers of California. This song is lively and a joy to listen to, even as it presents a harshness of life that is still the reality of many groups of people today. Another is a piobaireachd — the classical music of the great Highland bagpipes — beautifully arranged by pianist Chris Gray. And let’s not forget the harps! We hear from Maeve Gilchrist, Julia Lane, Rachel Newton and Seckou Keita (kora, a 22-string African harp), and Cécile Corbel. In Cécile’s piece we hear a melody commonly played by beginners to the harp turned into a whole new version!

12:00: Forest Halls Celtic – Show 36/Spookytree – Lochaber No More
12:01: Annie Grace – Jock O’Hazeldean
12:04: Maeve Gilchrist – Peerie Joel’s Waltz (Ale Moller)
12:09: Kris Drever – Harvest Gypsies
12:12: The Bothy Band – The Strayaway Child
12:17: Nicola Benedetti – Coisich a Ruin (Walk My Beloved)
12:23: Julia Lane & Fred Gosbee, Castlebay – All Soul’s Night/Lament for Owen Roe
12:29: Rachel Newton – Here’s My Heart Come Take It
12:32: Rachel Newton and Seckou Keita – Willow
12:37: Chicouté – Go to the Ewe-Bughts, Marion / Tourbillon matinal
12:42: Cécile Corbel – Brian Boru
12:48: Chris Gray – MacKintosh’s Lament (Cumha Mhic an Toisich)
12:57 William Coulter, Edwin Huizinga & Ashley Broder / Two Trees

We’re also hearing right now Show 15, “A Wondrous and Spooky Samhain.”

Listen to both for the next two weeks — as well as Show 21 — snuck in on the air today by a tech-pixie!

 

P. S. I just realized that this is the birthday of the small harp featured in this photo. Not the harp’s actual date of completion, but the day it showed up on my doorstep after a long journey from Scotland and Ardival Harps,  across the ocean and continent, with delays due to 9-11. This little harp is 18 years old. Happy birthday, Snowy Owl!

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Hildegard von Bingen: Mystical Chants of Earth and Her Elements

Meet 12th century German abbess, composer, physician, author, visionary, and saint,  by way of her mystical chant.

Concert: Sunday, October 6, 3pm.

Location: Church of the Holy Spirit, 15420 Vashon Highway SW, Vashon WA. Across from VCC.

Immerse your spirit in this one-of-kind meditative musical experience in which Hildegard’s heavenly chant expresses the spiritual illumination of the elements and heaven within earth. This concert brings together a talented group of singers and harpists from the island, as well as internationally-known harpist and special guest Christina Tourin, founder and director of the International Harp Therapy Program to perform the music of Hildegard.

Voices: Erin Durrett, Fiore Grey, Barb Adams, & Amy Cole

Harpists: Christina Tourin, Deb Knodel, & Jane Valencia

Suggested donation: $15. No one turned away for lack of funds.

Find out about the Hildegard Music and Plant Medicine workshop.