MADE OF WATER - CD by Tom Wisner

Songs and stories by: Tom Wisner (except Shenandoah, Wendy's Tune and poems on tracks 2, 8, & 19)

Produced by: Tom Wisner and Jim Fox
Recorded, Mixxed and Mastered by: Jim Fox at LION and FOX Recording, Washington, DC, www.lionfox.com

Performed by: Tom Wisner with John Cronin, Al Petteway, Frank Schwartz and Teresa Whitaker, a host of children's voices, Mary Sue Ross, and Dram Tree-o

ADDITIONAL MATERIALS
The following are available in addition to this CD: a Karaoke, additional lyrics and music notation on all of the songs, with commentary and occasional sketches. If you are interested in additional copies of this CD or any of the above complements, I hope you will choose to buy rather than copy them. Your purchase will help the Chestory programs to continue. If you choose to copy the CD, you are breaking copyright and under-cutting support for our non-profit work. Please take the added step: send a tax-exempt contribution to CHESTORY, Box 1462, Solomons Maryland, 20688. Also let us hear from you about your use of this CD and its value to you. Thanks!

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
These works are the modest product of, and creation for, all my relations: mitakuye oyasin! Many of these relations have been acknowledged in dedications and tributes throughout the text. I am grateful for my relationship with Kathy Glaser and the ethos of the Hollywood School where for many years I had the privilege to work with Betty Brady and her remarkable teaching practices affirming the creativity in the whole community of life. Additionally, it is important to note that this album would not exist without the, encouragement, brought to all of its contours by my colleague and friend Sara Ebenreck. To the list of good folks who have given financial support and safe harbor through the years, my gratitude! I hope the gift of this work begins to balance the books.

DEDICATION
These songs are presented here in tribute to my relation to the regional waters, the ancient Muddy Katie river and interactions with the journeys of my elder mentors: Gene Cronin, Gilbert Byron, Art Sherwood, Captain Watt Herbert, Captain Alex Kellam, Captain Sussanna Brinsfield, Lois Stewart, Pete Seeger, Dick Price, Rachel Carson, Aldo Leopold, Matthew Fox and Thomas Berry, great tributaries who have integrated their lives into the landscape and moved deeply into the tidal vacillations of this awakening creative spirit.
I think of this recording as part of the Great Work referenced in the vast imaginings of Tom Berry. In keeping with the dedication in his book of that title, The Great Work , these songs are for all the children of the Atlantic Coastal river lands. The children who swim beneath the marshlands, adjoining seas, embayments, estuaries and fresh running waters. Those who live in the soils of forest and field. The children of the Shadblow, among our first blossoms of Spring, and all the flowers that follow. For all those children who are bound into and made of the soils as well as those who thread their lives into the winds riding the great continental airs. To the human children too in the hope that the singing of these and other songs like them may encourage joining with all the other children in living consciously within the evolving story of the Universe.

INTRODUCTION
Most of the native peoples of the world, like the Kayapo’ of the Brazilian Amazon know when they are dancing that they will “preserve and sustain the structure and integrity of the entire natural world...... they believe that without the performance of the prescribed rituals the world would collapse: crops would not grow, children would not be born, the sun and moon would cease to travel across the sky.” * For some of the people of Malaysia “the very act of singing breathes life into the network of subtle interconnections between human beings and the entire natural world. Song somehow links all things in nature together, in the process of honoring and participating in nature’s sacred, mysterious whole.” * *

Here in Southern Maryland, in modern day North America, a free Cherokee rises early each morning before the sun. She goes to a chosen spot in the forest surrounding her home and sings a song to invite the sun to lift itself above the horizon. She tells me that there are people all around the world who do this. They sing the sun up for us, each and every day. These actions help to maintain continuity with the forces that compel the sun and the earth in their relationship to one another and to us.

For the past thirty five years I have been singing daily, the songs of Chesapeake. I started in the mouth of the Patuxent river at Solomons Island while I was working at the Chesapeake Biological Laboratory as an educator. Dr. Gene Cronin was my mentor who encouraged me to make river education the work of my life. I am the son of Katie Anderson Jones Baber, descended from the elemental folk of Virginia. They farmed, fished and logged the Piedmont and Coastal Plain of the James River basin. The songs about her family’s life have always been a part of my life. As the issues of the life of the river became a part of my professional life, the songs of the river entered into my process. I didn’t find many songs about the river so I began writing them to fill the longing. It didn’t occur to me at first that this was an unusual process or that it was breaking any modern paradigms. It certainly didn’t occur to me that this process of expressing the “inexpressable” longing for a deeper connection to the river would have anything at all to do with maintaining its integrity or saving its life. In those days I believed, as I was taught, that only science, and technical know-how applied through the ‘politically-active’ stance could bring healing to a river. I was taught that artists, poets and singers had little or nothing to do with compelling changes in the workings of the natural world.

My views have altered dramatically. A natural tendency to make story and song a part of my experience of regional life has brought new perspectives. I’ve learned from my Cherokee friend that singing these songs has helped to maintain my relationship with the life-giving forces that compel the sun, the moon and the earth. I have learned from the science of ecology that the quality of the relationship is fundamental to the quality of life. In short, I have learned that “you’d better watch the songs you sing, they’re gonna make you who you are !”*** I am confused and saddened by the relation of our modern world to the workings of the natural world. We live in a culture that is singing a different tune. It is a culture that lives in a story that is not connected to the life of the river. I sing these songs with the motives derived from a deep longing to learn more how to live in the story that is in harmony with the river. I hope you will choose to join in this singing. *Suzuki and Knudtson ,Wisdom of the Elders, Bantam Books1992 p208.

MADE OF WATER : DISCOGRAPHY, NOTES AND LYRICS
The singers and sounders on this CD, listed generally in their order of appearance, are......John Cronin on guitar, Tom Wisner-vocals and rhythms, Teresa Whitaker-vocals, the Carolina Wren (Gilbert), Frank Schwartz on vocals and bass guitar, Varied Waters in motion, a Thunder Storm, The Wind in the rigging of the Stanley Norman, The Huntingtown Elementary Chorus, Thousands of geese rising over the upper Patuxent, Al Petteway on guitar, a drum called Kirsten, The Dram Tree-O, Mary Sue Ross, The Hollywood Elementary Chorus, The Arthur Middleton Elementary Chorus, Jevan Whitaker and finally, several Angus cattle bellowing in response to a Harford County cattleman’s call introduce a story from Maryland’s Eastern Shore.

(1)EQUAL EACH BEFORE ALL KIND [4:29](© Tom Wisner 2001) Vocals-Tom, Teresa, Frank, a Carolina Wren (Gilbert) recorded at Woodburn Hill Farm Summer 2000; Guitars-John; Rhythm Guitar- Tom; Bass-Frank.

This song is for Teresa who sings life into life, my Cherokee friend who keeps the sun alive, and my daughter Karen who is the lifetime companion of Nekonah, featured in this song, who rides the flower-sided horse Tremchamblin into the dreams of her people.

(The ending chorus in each verse varies as follows: )
Verse (1) They had a song for each life of the land
to honor all in nature’s plan,
woven in a tapestry divine.....equal each before all kind !

Verse (2) She had a song for each life of the land
to honor all in nature’s plan,
woven in a tapestry divine....equal each to her own kind !

Verse (3) Each life to have a song to sing
about the value that they bring
to the tapestry divine.....equal each before all kind !

(2) I LIVE MY LIFE IN GROWING ORBITS [0:48] Rainer Maria Rilke (from Selected Poems of Rainer Maria Rilke , tr. by Robert Bly. © 1981 Robert Bly. Recorded by arrangement of HarperCollins Publishers, Inc.)

Spoken by Tom and the Carolina Wren along a stream off Tom’s Mountain at the headwaters of the Susquehanna. To the memory of Gilbert Byron, the renowned Chesapeake Poet of San Domingo creek.

I live my life in growing orbits
which move out over the things of the world.
Perhaps I can never achieve the last,
but that will be my attempt.

I am circling around God, the ancient tower,
and I have been circling for a thousand years,
and still I don’t know if I am a falcon, or a storm,
or a great song.

(3) WENDYS TUNE...[3:14] (©1999, 2001 John Cronin) Guitars-John. John writes.... “in memory of my father, Gene Cronin, a true man of the Chesapeake, written for his favorite niece.” Added note by Tom: I first heard this music by John at a memorial service for his dad and I was deeply moved by its velocity reaching to the heart. Its elegant carriage, dignity and depth of feeling bring to life the memory of the special qualities of Gene and the generosity he shared with the great soul of our regional waters.

(4) MADE OF WATER [0:37](words ©1979, 1997 Tom Wisner) Tom speaking into a thunderstorm from beneath a tin roof at Woodburn Hill Farm--Summer 2000. To that solid and simple old Amish-built main house and the good souls at Woodburn Hill who provided the haven from storms beneath that metal roof where a few of these songs and all of the arrangements of this album were nourished into existence.

(5) MADE OF WATER [3:49] (song ©1979, 1997 Tom Wisner)
First version published on the Folkways (now Smithsonian-Folkways) Album 32410, Chesapeake Born, 1979. The version for this CD includes: Vocal-Tom and the Thunderstorm from track 4; Guitars-John; Bass- Frank. ( see the comments on track 21 for its dedication)

CHORUS
I’M MADE OF WATER / FLOWING WATER
SUN AND SALT / AND WINDS THAT BLOW.
THOUGH MY BONES / WERE FORMED IN MOUNTAINS,
IT’S THROUGH MY BLOOD /THIS RIVER FLOWS.

For the gang at Sifel’s Luthier shop and Pearl Works where they continue at “ building weapons for the peace movement.” For all guitars and especially for that ‘Bay Built’ Sifel guitar hanging out on some of these album tracks with Al Petteway. Written at Church Point on the Saint Mary’s River in memory of my late good friend Kenny Stewart who helped me to value my impulses. John Cronin helped me to realize the runs I could hear but could not produce. I hope future guitars may choose to continue to develop it!

CHORUS.... Destined to Ramble, Destined to roam!
This guitar is a home away from home!

(7) WIND IN THE RIGGING [0:20] taped on the Stanley Norman,
during a night run before the wind from Annapolis to Betterton with Cap’m Ed Farley. Part of a cruise for the Chesapeake Bay Foundation enacting the return of Captain John Smith to ports from Hampton Roads to Havre de Grace, speaking of his shock in seeing the modern world of Chesapeake.
Placed here in tribute to Will Baker and the gang at CBF and Fran Flanigan and the Bay Alliance folk -- great sails trimmed to capture the winds that propel us into the work to insure continuity between the rich quality of our heritage and the character of our future.

(8) FREEDOM IS A RIVER: a medley of river song and poem [7:32] SHENANDOAH Chantey and Song (traditional); THE GIFT OUTRIGHT by Robert Frost ( From The Poetry of Robert Frost. edited by Edward Connery Latham. ©1942, ©1970 by Lesley Frost Ballantine, ©1969 by Henry Holt & Co. Used by permission of Henry Holt & Company, LLC) FREEDOM chorus of the rivers and verses ( Published in many sources © 1979, 1982, 2001 Tom Wisner), THIS DARK FERTILE LAND (© 1987, 2001Tom Wisner; Lyric rewritten from THE LAND MARY-LAND Published in A Cooke Book : A Seasoning of Poets. Michael S. Glaser, Ed. Scop Publications College Park Md. 1987) (Medley arrangement ©2001 Tom Wisner); Vocals-Tom, Frank, Teresa and the Huntingtown School Chorus, Donna Boylan directing; Guitar-John; Rhythm Guitar-Tom; Bass-Frank.

The inspiration that drives this work evolves from my experience of Robert Frost reading at the Kennedy inaugural. The piece is included here in the memory of comrades who returned from Korea in flag-draped coffins carried before us down the gangway of the Daniel Sultan in San Francisco in 1954. Frost reminds us that “The deed of gift was many deeds of war” The medley is a ritual to honor the mysterious river that is the symbol of the sacred flow of life and the myriad numbers of dear men, women and living rivers who have given full measure before the relentless forces of our technical ethos.

I still struggle with that part of myself that insists on the transition from
4/4 rhythm in the versing to the 3/4 time in the chorus of the rivers. I leave it in the tracks, as is, aware of its challenge to the singer and knowing that it is a symbolic reminder of the disjointed connection between the driving 4/4 forces at work in our culture and the 3/4 rhythms of the ongoing life of the river. It is a story about coming into deep relation with the life of our continent – a story of a longing to come to America with the integrity with which she came to us.

Lift the anchor, and haul away
Haul away.... hardy lads now
We’re bound away, we’re bound away
Across the wide blue ocean.

The land was ours before we were the land’s.
She was our land more than one hundred years
Before we were her people. She was ours
In Massachusetts, in Virginia,
But we were England’s, still colonials,
Possessing what we still were unpossessed by,
Possessed by what we now no more possessed.
Something we were withholding made us weak
Until we found out that it was ourselves
We were withholding from our land of living,
And forthwith found salvation in surrender.
Such as we were we gave ourselves outright
( The deed of gift was many deeds of war )
To the land vaguely realizing westward,
But still unstoried, artless, unenhanced,
Such as she was, such as she would become.
(Note: the reading on the CD was concluded at line eleven with permission of the publisher)

Oh Shenandoah, I long to see you /Far away you rolling river Oh Shenandoah I long to see you, / Away, We’re bound away Across the wide Missour-ah.
Long flow the rivers that carry the names /of the people
from England who sailed up the James, /and the red men who lived here before singing songs that are heard here no more. /Those we denied who unjustly died for our Freedom.

And a river will ramble from the East or the West /nourished by rain on its undying quest. /It’s a journey in search of the sea
/like a people here would seek to be free./ In the land where the rivers flow down to the mother of waters. Oh Freedom.....

THE FREEDOM RIVER CHORUS
In our song there is a power, giving life to every word
and high above the Chesapeake the wind is often heard.....singing:

Susquehanna, Wicomico, South, Severn, Nanticoke, Choptank and Elk; we are born of Potomac out of old Shenandoah, and the York, Rappahannock and James!
(Note: There are over 40 rivers entering into the tidal reaches of the Chesapeake; 12 are included in this chant. Names of other rivers near your locale....as ‘Patuxent’or ‘Patapsco’ or ‘Chester’ etc. can be sung in place of the lyrics “we are born of” to bring the total number of rivers to 13.)

And we chained the black people for two hundred years, building castles called Freedom in their pain and their tears slowly learning that our rivers run dry, /when a people here are chained to a lie. /And the great river James ran down red like the color of mo(u)rning. Oh Freedom........

Freedom is a river, long and she’s wide. /The marrow and blood that flows deep down inside /of my body, my heart and my mind /giving courage to my kin and my kind. /And those who were crying for those who were dying for Freedom.
Oh Freedom.........

And the rivers are dying it is time for the test, /we have marched o’er this land from the east to the West /and it’s time we were making amends, /giving freedom and life to our friends. /It is time we were giving the freedom of living to the river. /And the creatures there-in. It is time! It is time! It is time! In our song there is a........

(9) GOOSE MOOSIC [0:43] From a taping in November 2000 of
over 3000 geese on the evening rise out of the fields of the Merkle Wildlife Refuge to resettle for the night in the upper fresh, tidal reaches of the Patuxent River. Placed here in memory of Dick Price, co-founder of Esalen Institute, being mindful of the gift of Edgar Merkle and the work of Rich Dolesh and his kind who maintain such sanctuary for all of us.

(10) ESTA TIERRA DE LOS AGUAS [5:06] (© 1997 Tom Wisner)
Set into Spanish by Julian Jasso. Vocals-A large honker leading the goose gang up out of the Merkle fields, Tom and the Huntingtown Elementary Chorus, directed by Donna Boylan; Guitar-Al Petteway; Rhythm Guitar-Tom; Bass-Frank; Percussion-Tom.

Dedicated to the authors of the many tongues spoken in unison with these waters through time in tribute to each and every God and Goddess held in the esteem of each of those peoples. The voice of thousands of geese rising is for me, the voice of all gods ...all goddesses. A perfect symbol of the rise of the greater hopes and aspirations of all people through....all time.
CHORUS...ESPAÑOL / ENGLISH Esta Tierra de los aguas /
For this is the land of the waters
de la Madre, de la Madre de Diossa /
of the mother, of the mother, of the goddess.
Guardo un poquito cario en tu Corazon para Rio Madre, /
Save a little love in your heart for the mother river,
Y poquito de verde para Dios ! /
And a little green for god!

(11) CHESAPEAKE BORN [4:42] (©1979, 80, 97 Tom Wisner) First version published on the Folkways (now Smithsonian-Folkways) Album 32410 Chesapeake Born 1979. A new version (preliminary to this one) was released on the State of Maryland Bay Folk album (1990) now out of print. Words to this song have been printed and sung in more than 50 publications and media releases over the past 21 years. A version was used as the title song for the 1986, National Geographic Special, Chesapeake Borne and it has been featured in other versions on Charles Kuralt’s CBS show: Sunday Morning documenting the Tri-State Governors’ conference on the Initiatives for the Improved Quality of the Bay Waters and NBC’s 1976 “Bicentennial
Series” on The Today Show . Vocals-Tom, Mary Sue Ross, Dram Tree-o, and the Combined Hollywood (St. Marys County) and Arthur Middleton (Charles County) Elementary School Chorus, directed by Betty Brady and Mary Sue Ross; Guitar-Tom.
I enjoy a fascination with what-it-is-about-this-song that always works. It clearly works! A good singer! In the 1979 release it was dedicated to the integrity of the life of the Chesapeake. Think of this song and hear the rich voices of the thousands of folks who have sung its responses over the past 30 years. I am reminded of the geese rising and of the potential power of the spirit that is manifest in our united voice. It is offered in this updated version with the hope that it may serve as one effective symbol of the VOICE for the life of the waters that, ultimately, will accumulate and prevail.

CHORUS
I’m Chesapeake born, Chesapeake Free
Chesapeake bound, and flowing with ease.
I’m Chesapeake born and bound to thee,
Deed I am, Chesapeake free.

(12) CAP’M GONE [3:26] ( ©Tom Wisner 1997) Vocals Tom, Teresa, and Frank; Banjo-Tom; Guitar-John; Bass-Frank.

A celebration of those unique men and a few women who have intimate knowledge of the Bay waters, many of whom, it is said, could navigate by the taste of her bottom muds. Written for Captain Martin O’Berry and mindful of all the creatures of the muds (the Benthos) of Chesapeake. Many other fine Captains come to mind. The memory of Cap’m Watt Herbert of Coles Point Va.; Cap’m Sussanna Brinsfield and Cap’m Winbon Joy, of Solomons Md. “To find men (or women) like them today? It’d take a long long time !”*

*(This line is from“Soft Crab Time in Crisfield” by Steven Ward of Crisfield Maryland.) How this boat gonna go down this old river? How she gonna find her way back home?
How she gonna know when the cold wind gonna blow?
Cap’m gone, that old Cap’m, Cap’m gone!

(13) SUNSHINE [4:08] (©1997 Tom Wisner) Vocals-Tom, Teresa, Frank, and Jevan Whitaker with the Huntingtown Elementary School Chorus, directed by Donna Boylan; Guitar-Al Petteway; Rhythm Guitar-Tom; Bass-Frank.

A celebration of the elemental fire : the primal source of life on this planet. This song is one of the best singer-friends I have. She, like her tribute-- the Sun, graces every room she enters with an immediate presence of community.

(CHORUS ) Sunshine! Over a deep blue sea.
Sunshine! Shine on me! Would you shine on me!
Put your life into this dark green land!
Sunshine! Take my hand! Would you take my hand?

(14) TWO-LEGGED MUSINGS ON FOUR-LEG MOOSIC: “THEM EARS” [6:56] Every cattleman has a unique voice and connection with their cattle. These opening singers are Angus answers to the call of a Harford County cattleman. Fine singers! The original story is a concoction of the late Jim
McLane of Crisfield Maryland. He told it to me in a restaurant in Crisfield
in 1986 shortly after the passing of our mutual friend Cap’m Alec. I chose to adapt this version in the first person as I had many similar experiences in my travels with Cap’m Alec. Alec Kellam was a great story man! This story by Jim is a model of the subtle tracing of humor and insight in Bay country story styles. It also celebrates the incredible sense of connection that Cap’m Alec shared with all living details around him as well as his wonderful, outrageous sense of good fun and friendship with kin and kind:......all kind !

This song is for the Potomac River in memory of my dad, William Frank Wisner, and many steam boat journeys with him down Potomac from Washington D.C. It is also fashioned in the memory of my stepfather, Louis Hartley Bradshaw who was from Tylerton, Smith Island recalling many boyhood journeys on Potomac with him in his Smith Island, sailing crab-skiff

CHORUS
I am the old Westmoreland haulin’ down,
left wheel turnin’ right goin’ ‘round,
Eastward ramblin’, lord I’m homeward bound,
Mighty river quiet my storm, oh my home is water born(e). I’m Eastward ramblin’, Southern Maryland bound!

Come bring your voice down to my waters
Let your song turn ‘round in me
From sunny fields, into my laughter
I’m the singing river let my singing be.

(16) SONG OF THE WORD [3:49] (©1999, 2001 Tom Wisner) words published in Weavings 2000: The Maryland Millennial Anthology, Michael Glaser Ed.(Forest Woods Media Productions, 2000). Vocals-Tom, Frank and Teresa; Guitars-John; Rhythm Guitar and lead instrumental-Tom; Bass-Frank. I’ll long remember its first performance at the Orion Foundation Conference when we gathered 600 strong to light 1,500 luminaries to rededicate the sacred Antietam ground in keeping with the spirit of the
deep-ecology movement.

This song was written from and for the waters of the Antietam Creek, running clear as crystal on the hot day in summer 1998 when I bathed there. It is said in my family that this creek ran red with the blood of 23,000 casualties following the Battle of Antietam on September 18, 1862. These lyrics are mindful of our great grandfathers North and South who were consumed in the fires of Antietam and Gettysburg, my Father’s comrades from Normandy to Nuremburg, my own dear comrades in Korea, my sons Mark & Michael--warriors who have discovered alternative choices, and finally the many sons of our Nation who served in Nam and Desert Storm. This song is offered with the prayer that our grandsons may find their full potential in the means to become the fire rather than its tinder.

(first) CHORUS
Kin and kind, left their dreams and loves behind.
On a dusty road to glory,
In close-ordered ranks conspired,
To descend in contradiction, falling ever, reaching higher.
Consumed by word, by water, and by fire.

(Second) CHORUS
Word will turn, turning will conspire
To reach into the darkness
Awakening desire
Ascend from contradiction, reaching high, reaching higher. Become the word, the water, you’re the fire !

This song is for Suzy who lives in the streets near my boyhood home by the Library of Congress in Washington D.C. She is a living symbol of its dedication to the native mother beings of this land who have been deprived of their franchise by the unrelenting forces that compel our “progress” and its dissociation from the natural, native cycles.

CHORUS
Old mother earth walks alone in this land,
Head down and a bag in her hand.
There ain’t no one out there
Seems to know or to care if she’s crying,
No one out there seems to know or care if she’s dying.

My life-long journey alongside of the living river is at the heart of my mythic view in both reality and in symbol. This version is for my friend Roberta and the Ancestral Moon over the Muddy Katie River that flows through my imagination to the sea.
(All lyrics are presented here as there is no chorus as such)

I was born of water, sired by stone.
I’ve traveled with the moon alone.
Brother of the wind and Autumn fire.
And I’ve gone down where the river goes,
to learn all the songs that water knows,
in the silence of the woodland, from where it flows.

Down from mountain field and hill,
I’ve been captive of the water’s will
On this journey homeward to the sea...oh carry me!
Winding river water carry me!

And when we’d travel home from school,
We’d linger by the streams and pools,
To sing a rosy minnow melody.
Talk to crawdads, dance with frogs,
We’d all walk across on wobbly logs
To celebrate the soul in every woodland thing!

One day round a shady bend
I became the water’s friend
We promised we would carry to the end...oh carry me now!
Winding river water carry me!

When I’m old and older still,
And all that’s left is water’s will
And winter comes to fill this sunny field
Earth in Autumn: fire is burning,
I’ll still sing of water turning,
Turning from the silence deep within my soul.

Ah it is a mystery,
How this water turns in me,
And in the morning stillness we are one....oh carry me!
Winding river water carry me!

(19) THE NEGRO SPEAKS OF RIVERS [1:15] by Langston Hughes
(©1994 by the Estate of Langston Hughes, used by permission of Harold Ober Associates, Inc.)

A tribute to the river folk: many lifelong colleagues who, like Langston, have most surely known these rivers. Spoken by Tom near the washing waters of the Bay on the beach at Calvert Cliffs. Gulls are scatting about and calling in the distance. It is a great place of healing: a sustained silence near the ancient deposits of the great whales and other forms of Miocene life that remind us of the continuity of our community in the fabric of time. We are linked to the legions of living cultures and communities whose lives have depended upon an intimate relationship with water.

I’ve known rivers:
I’ve known rivers ancient as the world and older than the
flow of human blood in human veins.

I bathed in the Euphrates when the dawns were young.
I built my hut near the Congo and it lulled me to sleep.
I looked upon the Nile and raised the pyramids above it.
I heard the singing of the Mississippi when Abe Lincoln
went down to New Orleans, and I’ve seen its muddy
bosom turn all golden in the sunset.

(20) WILD RIVER [4:17] (©1979, 1997 Tom Wisner) First version
of this song was published on the Folkways (now Smithsonian-Folkways) Album 32410 Chesapeake Born 1979, The version for this CD includes: Vocals-Tom and Teresa; Guitar-Al Petteway with instrumental break by John Cronin; Rhythm Guitar-Tom; Bass-Frank.

This song is at play in the waters of gods and goddesses. A devoted friend ! I often feel a sense of remorse when I finish with it and move on to the next....as though I were meant to live in its rhythms and intervals. Teresa’s
beautiful harmonies awakened me to its beauty in the 70's. This recording with Teresa coupled with the artistry of the guitars of Al, John and Frank is a best rendition of it. I place it here in tribute to the power of song to guide our lives in good cause and make home in that calling.

Hey there, wild river, teach me to flow!
Tell me your poems and all the songs that you know.
Touch me and wash me, and let me lie down
By the peace of your waters at night on the ground.

(Chorus)Deep flowing river, where are you bound? Tell me a story teach me your sound!
Hey there wild river, wont you teach me to flow?
Wont you stop a lazy moment while you’re rolling along,
And sing me your song?

You’re reborn each moment, yet old as the land, and No longer flowing when you’re cupped in my hand.
Join with my body as I drink life’s fill, and
Blend with these waters and flow as you will. (Return to chorus)

(21) MADE OF WATER [2:14] (song reprise) See discography on
track 5; Vocal-the Carolina Wren, Waters at the source, Frank, Teresa,& Tom all rising from the source.

Thinking of many years in this journey with the river, alongside of good companions, Joe Mihursky, Walt Boynton, Mebley, Tom Horton and Jupiter over Chesapeake. This song has been “blowed and tore and put up wet”.* It has traveled well. First written as a hard driven banjo piece and later adapted to an acapella styling with accompanying hand signs. John’s guitar helped settle it into its original drive on track 5. Here the call and threaded responses highlight the acapella quality of the piece. These words are true. We are made of the waters of this planet. The measure of their quality is the measure of our commitment to the quality of the community of life.
*( Line is from“Blowed and Torn” Folkways-Smithsonian, Chesapeake Born 1979.)

CHORUS
I’M MADE OF WATER / FLOWING WATER
SUN AND SALT / AND WINDS THAT BLOW.
THOUGH MY BONES / WERE FORMED IN MOUNTAINS,
IT’S THROUGH MY BLOOD /THIS RIVER FLOWS.