Barbara McAfee
https://www.barbaramcafee.com/
Barbara offers voice coaching to help people find their voice and developed the 5 Elemental Voices framework we use regularly as part of our LRC warmups. We highly recommend watching her TEDx talk and checking out her book, Full Voice: The Art and Practice of Vocal Presence.
Kaitie says: So much could be said about Barbara McAfee, a human I am blessed to call my friend, mentor and colleague. She has provided me with incredible inspiration and support over the years, both personally and professionally. But perhaps my favorite summary is this quote from her homepage: Barbara McAfee is a one-woman Burning Man Festival! – Parker Palmer, Author & teacher. I wholeheartedly agree.
You can listen to her on the video below, or on her Community Songs library: https://www.barbaramcafee.com/community-songs.html
You can also purchase her album, World of Wonders, which contains this song. https://www.amazon.com/World-Wonders-Barbara-Mcafee/dp/B00GJX671S
Lyrics:
Low:
Every time I go into the darkness, I return with fistfuls of jewels
Middle:
Midnight velvet wraps all around me; stars glitter brilliant above
High:
Dreaming darkness, dreaming light
Barbara’s notes on the song:
This song grew out of a conversation I had with a voice coaching client many years ago. The person was struggling to heal after a traumatic brain injury and thought singing would help her brain recover. It did. Meanwhile, when she was having a particularly hard day, I heard myself saying these words to her: “Every time I go into the darkness, I return with fistfuls of jewels.” It didn’t feel like me talking, but some larger and wiser being. I filed the line away in my memory. Then in a hot tub under the stars on the south shore of Lake Superior, it found a melody and a second line: “Midnight velvet wraps all around me; stars glitter brilliant above.” The third line arose in a community song circle. This song baby has traveled far and wide and is a winter solstice favorite in many communities.