Skip to main content

Sing-along Café Thursday, March 19th, 2026

What a wonderful afternoon! We had the largest group in a long time, and it was fun to have all that extra energy. We still managed to do quite a bit of talking about life and music. 

I went on a bit about the Persian new year, happening tomorrow morning. It's the first day of spring. The vernal equinox happens at 10:46am. That is the astronomical spring, the moment the sun crosses the celestial equator – a line directly above Earth’s equator. So, our theme was Spring (as advertised), but my playlist was Songs about Celestial Events and Change. 

Winter has been very long this year, long and cold. So, a celebration right now is a very good thing. I'm happy to be celebrating Nowruz, the Persian New Year with my family tomorrow. I talked a bit about the Haft Seen, which I love, the table of symbols, things that represent wishes or hopes for the new year, like abundance and prosperity, health and love. Here's a link to an article about the Haft Seen table. Spring is about new beginnings, but also a reminder that every end is a new beginning. After winter and after darkness, light returns. And spring reminds us that our lives go in cycles like the seasons

Easter is on its way, and that's another big moment for fresh starts, light after dark, and symbols of spring and rebirth. I think we'll continue with this Spring theme. There are tons of songs on my list, and our Canadian spring is messy; we'll see winter and spring fighting for attention for the next couple months still.  

I forgot to bake. It's been a busy time for me. So, I brought mint Girl Guide cookies again, and grapes. We nibbled and sang and chatted in lovely company.  

Here are some of the songs we sang and listened to:

  • Aquarius/Let the Sunshine In by the 5th Dimension
  • Here Comes the Sun by the Beatles
  • Sunrise, Sunset by the cast of the Original Motion Picture Fiddler on the Roof
  • The Circle Game by Joni Mitchell
  • Turn! Turn! Turn! by The Byrds and by Walk off the Earth
  • I Dont' Want to Live on the Moon by Ernie (of Sesame Street)
  • Walking on the Moon by The Police
  • Total Eclipse of the Heart by Bonnie Tyler
  • Rewrite the Stars by Michael Gerow (and a bit by the cast of The Greatest Showman)
  • The Hallelujah Chorus from the Messiah by the Choir & Orchestra of Pro Christe 


 

 

 

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Sing-along Café Thursday, October 30th, 2025

We are ready for Halloween!  My theme today was Halloween. I found a couple of playlists of Halloween music on Apple Music, and we started with the one that is designated as a sing-along playlist. Apple Music Sing is a feature that I don't have on my devices, but there are playlists that are made for it, so all the songs on the playlist have scrolling lyrics. That's good enough for us.  We started with a song that we loved singing, but we wondered what made it a Halloween selection. The others were pretty obvious. I made a connection with newer songs about love being magical and the singer feeling like he's under a spell and two much older songs, by Frank Sinatra and Sammy Davis Jr. There were a lot of similarities. And, we noticed that those older songs are pretty hard to sing along with. Sometimes we think that new songs are tricky. We laughed about how we "know" lots of songs and can sing the chorus, but have no idea what the words in the verses are, maybe beca...

Sing-along Café Thursday, October 23rd, 2025

It was a lovely afternoon in lovely company!  The first afternoon café was very nice, but we really hope to see more people there next week. It's a good time of day for singing, and one hour is a perfect amount of time. Parking is a bit more difficult during the day, and we have to remember that we cannot enter the parking lot behind the church, the manse lot, because of the small children there. Leave some time to find parking, or park down by Riverwalk Commons, lots of spots there.  Today’s theme was instrumental parts of songs that we sing along with. "Songs with Instrumentals that we Sing" is the name of my playlist. Sometimes there’s a big brass fanfare or a drum fill or an electric guitar solo that’s so good that we sing that in addition to singing the words, and sometimes it’s the best part, where suddenly everyone is singing (they might not even call it singing, but it is!). Imagine a bar band playing Sweet Caroline. The whole bar sings the "ba-ba-ba!" ...

Thursday Singing Night Reviews- on hold for now

My usual practice to write a review of our Thursday singing nights, Sing-along Café, is on hold.  I haven't felt secure about this 'ministry' of mine. In my mind, it's a wonderful and important thing, but it's not taking off. And, I've been wondering if my music ministry at Trinity should move in a different direction.  I suggested adding a choir practice in this time slot, for a pop/contemporary Sunday choir, which I could run with a volunteer accompanist, since it is the traditional, usual time for church choirs. Another choir was not feasible, so that's not happening (yet/ I'm still hopeful). I have been asked to work with the drama club on the music for the Christmas Pageant again, and those rehearsals have moved from Wednesdays to Thursdays. So, I'm now wondering how to manage my Thursday nights with that added in.   One possibility is to start the Sing-along Café at 6:30, at the same time as the drama club. We could invite the parents/guardians...