Skip to main content

Sing-along Café Thursday, April 9th, 2026

Spring is wild and wonderful. It was one of those days yesterday when rain was forecast, and it was cold in the morning, cold and grey. I had my umbrella but left it in the car. I regretted it, saying that it would for sure rain now, my fault! The rain didn’t come, but the sun came out strong instead! We laughed on arrival and laughed as we left. Spring weather here is something about "our home town" that we can bond over; it builds community, like a quirky aunt.

When I got home, I had the most amazing afternoon sitting on my deck in the sun, listening to more music and just luxuriating in the feel of the sun on my skin. I took my socks off and pulled my leggings up to my knees. I had a mini vacation. It was only 18 degrees Celsius but it felt like summer.

It was a very easy transition from a theme of Home and Family to Earth and Peace. Spring awakens us to the beauty of the Earth, the home we share with everyone everywhere. I’ve been following the news from the astronauts of Artemis II. They very obviously love our Planet Earth and are so eloquent and delightful to watch. Their unique perspective is shared not only in still images but in their many recordings and live conversations in transmissions broadcast widely on social media. So inspiring! 

There’s a lot of music still on the Home theme, hours of it, but we’ve switched to Earth and Peace, and we’ll continue with that theme for at least another week. 

We talked and sang so much that we hardly had a bite of my blueberry muffins. It was a lovely afternoon in lovely company.

Here's some of what we sang and listened to:

  • A Thousand Miles by Vanessa Carlton 
  • Hey, Soul Sister by Train
  • My Hometown by Bruce Springsteen 
  • Heal The World by Michael Jackson 
  • For the Beauty of the Earth by BarlowGirl
  • All Things Bright and Beautiful by The Countdown Kids
  • All Things Bright and Beautiful by John Rutter by the Cambridge Singers
  • What a Wonderful World by Louis Armstrong and by Anne Murray
  • Colors of the Wind by Vanessa Williams
  • Big Yellow Taxi by Joni Mitchell by Counting Crows  
  • Mercy Mercy Me by Marvin Gaye
  • Everything is Beautiful by Ray Stevens and by Gaither and Gordon Mote 



Comments

Post a Comment

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...
Post a Comment
Read more

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!" ...
Post a Comment
Read more

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...
Post a Comment
Read more