Beyond meditation and relaxation CDs, we often look to songwriters and artists to chill us out and take us to another place for a while amongst the raucous trivialities of our daily lives. They can also motivate us to change our behaviours and attitudes by stirring raw emotions and pulling on our heartstrings. Every heart that has felt compassion and affection for someone or something has surely been moved by one of the billion or so songs dedicated to love throughout time. And its best music inspires us to treat one another better.With this in mind more and more musicians are using music as a vehicle to communicate their concerns for the environment in the hope they will reach peoples sensitivities and move them to treat the earth with as much love as they would another.
Two of my all time favourite music makers are not only astoundingly talented but also environmentally conscious musicians. Californian Tina Malia has a brilliant song Heal This Land from her Silent Awakening album. If that doesn't shake your big green heart I'm not sure what will. ‘Let us walk together, take my hand, we will heal this land... if you could only believe...'
Brighton based, mother to be, Martha Tilston's Good World (from her Of Milkmaids & Architects album) is another that focuses on climate change and the impact we are having on this planet. Her lyrics are powerful and the chorus is so very simple but so very uplifting ‘it's a good world, it's a good good good good world.' If you ever get the chance to hear her live, this song, in particular resonates through the bones and stays with you long after the music stops.
Warnings that come by way of our musicians can be a whole lot more moving than via a newspaper article or activist's tongue. The hope is they will encourage more of us to take care of our warming planet.
