[Music]
[Applause]
that was a little snippet of the deep
river blues which is a tune that Chris
and I discovered we both knew and loved
when we met for the first time a few
months ago to begin sharing the stage
preparing to share the stage here today
throughout my life I’ve been fortunate
enough to be in many situations where
social connections and a sense of
community were fostered through making
music growing up I would sing with my
family in church every Sunday in sixth
grade I picked up the trumpet and joined
the school band program playing in jazz
band and marching band effectively gave
a shy non-athletic kid like me a social
life during middle and high school band
offered me a place to belong in a way to
work towards a common goal with a group
of my peers in college I became
interested in playing folk and bluegrass
music on stringed instruments which
opened up a whole new world of musical
community visiting a new city I can find
a bluegrass jam online show up at a bar
cafe with my mandolin and have a shared
language an instant connection with the
room of people I’d never met before
often with decades of difference in age
playing over the years I’ve been
continually amazed by musics ability to
dissolve interpersonal barriers forge
friendships and cultivate a sense of
shared identity when I began teaching as
an environmental educator I discovered
another realm where I could share music
leading evening sing-alongs with rowdy
groups of middle school students
officially we were supposed to help the
kids wind down and prepare for bed but
more often than not these so-called
quiet sings were rather spirited affairs
this mandolin experienced more than a
few scratches and broken strings as I
played two auditoriums of fist-pumping
13-year olds
all of us singing at the top of our
lungs such campfire classics as the eye
of the tiger song killed every time
literally I also at this time recognized
a songwriting opportunity I began making
up Tunes to share with my students that
reflected the ecology lessons I tried to
teach during the day in the woods
songs that pulled the life histories of
some of the creatures we encountered
with a dash of dramatic anthropomorphism
thrown in for good measure
in addition to being a fun excuse to
make up goofy Tunes to sing with kids I
hope these songs could help my students
remember some of the remarkable
adaptations and ecological value of some
generally underappreciated organisms so
I’d like to share one of these songs
with you today I’d like to ask you right
now to take a moment to conjure up your
inner twelve-year-old for some of us
this might not be very hard to do and I
want you to imagine that you’re away
with your classmates for a week at
nature camp and you spent the day hiking
in the woods
catching salamanders playing
team-building games probably had too
much dining hall pizza for dinner and
now it’s time for some singing before
bed and I’d like to share a little tune
with you about that
friendly popular subject for hit songs
the dispersal behavior of spiders as you
may or may not know spiders have an
incredible ability to actually use their
thread to fly through the sky and
colonize new habitats which is called
ballooning so this little tune I’m going
to share with you today does have some
audience participation I’m going to
teach you how to sing along with the
chorus and some other things so your
part in the chorus is very very easy it
goes like this the sky is filled with
tiny little spiders let’s do it all
together ready go the sky is filled with
tiny little spiders and I sing for Lunan
above all breadth of the
again the sky is filled with tiny little
spiders so easy that sounded great also
while you’re singing that you should put
your hands in the air kind of make a
conducting motion to the beat and wiggle
your fingers as if the auditorium were
in fact filled with tiny little spiders
and if your inner twelve-year-old rebels
against this idea thinking it to be
uncool just remember if we all do it it
becomes cool speaking of cool you also
have a yodeling part at the end of each
verse you have a yodel that comes in
just like this your left let’s try it
all together all right a little bit
louder that’s pretty good so Chris will
signal the yodels to help you remember
at the end of each verse I’ll signal the
beginning of the chorus with a leg kick
in the shade of a maple by the banks of
a pond the dutiful mother stands godoh
her young she’s wrapped them up snug in
a silken cocoon and she knows that their
hour of hatching is soon you might
expect her wee little spiderlings
finally emerge they stretch their eight
legs and they build up better to leave
their mother their weapon their home and
sail away into the wide world
you’re lucky they crawl up to the tops
of leaves and the twigs letting out
silken long little ring threads of
grease comes and catches their silk like
a kite and those spider liens arrives or
up and take to the sky your left will
the sky is filled with tiny little
spiders ballooning above all breath of
the wind the sky is filled with tiny
little spiders ain’t no telling where
they might landed he hand tell me little
spider the places you’ve been way up in
the sky with the clouds and the birds
are dutiful travellers gaze down all the
earth don’t any getting that many get
lost oh you just might hit the arachnid
jackpot you’re lucky one flew to Peru
and another to bet one flew to Zimbabwe
her brother Quebec one found a small
island in a tropical sea yes those
spiderlings know how to travel for free
your leg
well the sky is filled with tiny little
spiders balloon and above all breath of
the wind the sky is filled with tiny
little spiders ain’t no telling where
they might land in the end tell me
little spider the places you’ve been one
came down in the neighborhood eat butter
than yours
and build her own web underneath the
back porch
she eats lots of skitters and flies
every day better think a little spider
for preventing go Clegg you’re lucky
well the sky is filled with tiny little
spiders ballooning above all the breath
of the wing the sky is filled with tiny
little spiders ain’t no tellin where
they might plant in the end tell me
little spider the place is you babe
wonderful singing everyone let me take
you down from ballooning in the sky with
spiders my yodeling friends and let’s
make a transition together from youthful
beginnings across a lifetime from child
to elder in a similar way that John uses
is music to educate and inspire children
I bring my guitar to senior homes and
serenade them with Americana folk music
guess you could say I make my living
playing guitar for grandmas and it is
very humbling and rewarding experience I
visit 100 communities a year and I play
folk music and for an hour’s time we
share a moment that’s very fun exciting
but sometimes a nursing home can feel
like a darker place 1.3 million
Americans live in a nursing home and the
best homes among them and the best
treatment and the best care can only
benefit them so much because medicine
has a limit there’s still going to be
folks that are depressed that are lonely
in those homes so what do we do well I
found that every time I serenade seniors
at nursing homes with my guitar it’s
less about the music
and more about the moment my grandmother
she lives in a nursing home
she’s 96 years old this year and every
time I go and visit her I bring this
guitar with me this is my grandfather’s
guitar he taught me how to play it and I
go and visit my grandmother I go into
the room I sit down right in front of
her and I say me mom do you remember
when Pop used to play this song for
[Music]
she looks up at me and she smiles and
nods her head
[Music]
now every time I play that song for my
grandmother I can see her expression
change I can see your whole physiology
relaxed almost as if she’s remembering a
moment when she first heard that song
now as I sit there with my grandmother
playing these old folk songs looking at
her she’s staring out the window I can
see something starts to happen not all
at once
but you can see in her eyes as if a veil
is slowly being lifted she’s no longer a
nursing she’s young she’s healthy and
she’s out there dancing with my grandpa
cuz in the end it really doesn’t matter
whether you’re young or old song wakes
we hope that by sharing about how we
both been able to weave music into our
lives our careers in our relationships
we can convince you that there are all
kinds of opportunities out there to
incorporate live music into social
settings that you may not have
previously considered we also hope you
leave feeling inspired to seek out ways
to participate in shared musical
experiences whether it’s a concert or a
dance an open mic or a jam session these
experience experiences really do
strengthen our connections our sense of
community and celebrate our common
humanity John and I got one more song
for you it’s one that we wrote
specifically for Ted’s a song that tells
two true stories that we feel captures
our message that a song can bring us all
squinting in the sunshine out of the
mouth alright
a big old semi truck pulled over to the
organ highway saw grab my instrument
gear upon the board greeted the driver
as hazel engine he was a big man maybe
fifty three he seemed unsure just what
to make of his young scruffy company
pulling it out my keys and said well can
you play sick of old same shit all the
so watching the Midland I played through
everything up to nine oof again after
many miles it isn’t old it you’re all
right
I’ll Drive you down to California Dubai
and then he started sharing stories from
his best school how he’d better pilot
down in Mexico and even smuggle cash how
he paid his honest wage is old truck but
never had the time to see grant is no we
talked for hours till our time take you
in it
and when I flopped out up if they’re
wealthy regret from all walks of life
kindred spirits candy found
and some can find a way to call me brown
ting can hold the power brick walls
inside of us down oh well my grandmama
notion and is six where to learn to hear
that guitar playing all those fancy ribs
she sits up and listens to the songs any
friends they do the same we sing
[Music]
we’re now my grandma’s at the nursing
home when you need some mixture help is
just way things gotta go
it’s not the same but she gets along
when she wants to feel at home though
she sings a song so I – nothing my
guitar and I played all of her favorite
songs to her I see in her eyes she’s
full of life and form oh she said son
we’re places she will go folks she’s
always known emotions are falling for a
town she’s not old for a moment
memories of her life from the darkness
the songs they bring her away sometimes
a song can come back through a simple
story inside noon conveys our ideas
around our hearts to reach each other’s
soft place to start to reach each other
some places are musics a common tone we
carried all along so thanks for
[Music] [Applause]