🎶 Life is a Band - Find Your Voice and Build a Band (Musical or Otherwise)
More climate and other news and analysis anon, but here we pause for a musical interlude, starting with a program note: Join me for another Sunday Sanity show on Sunday October 12 at 7 p.m. with the Grammy-winning activist folk music duo Cathy Fink and Marcy Marxer to talk about their recent string of viral tunes confronting the Trump regime (there’ll be singing):Paste this post link in your calendar for showtime, then watch on Substack Live, Facebook, LinkedIn, X/Twitter or YouTube.Listen to “No Kings Here,” written and sung by Cathy Fink and Tom Paxton. And here’s “It Ain’t Gonna Go Away - Ode to the Epstein Files”:And now for my latest song, which is about the power of community - musical or otherwise.Most folks here know I’ve been a performing songwriter in the background behind my journalism for decades. Music is a fine counterpoint to reporting - giving me the ability to tackle issues, observations and questions that simply don’t fit into a “story.”Three years ago, I scribbled the line “life is a band” on a scrap of paper in a songwriting workshop at Bagaduce Music, a great hub for music making here in Downeast Maine. [Disclosure: I just joined the board.] That line has finally grown into a song, which is still being refined but is close enough to post. The lyrics and a YouTube video are below.Here’s what it’s about:I used to sing and strum up on the stage all by myself...I’d been a solo performer most of my musical life and only co-created a band for the first time around 2003 - a quartet and then quintet called Uncle Wade, centered on making “simple music for complicated times.” We avoided ego trips by each mainly playing the instruments we were least good at. For me that was fiddle and mandolin. This 2013 WFDU radio show appearance gives the story:In that band and others later, I began to appreciate the musical value of mixing personalities, instrumentation and voices, particularly when there were differences! (Lennon and McCartney were the ultimate expression of this phenomenon.) But “Life is a Band” didn’t solidify until recently. A few months back, I started frequenting a Monday evening “kitchen junket” - a potluck supper and singalong - at the Conscious Cafe in Ellsworth. This cozy eatery is tucked into a yoga center in an old house on a side road. Under chef Jesse Steiger, the mission is “to build community and connection through conscious food and living.” The regular crew ranges from octagenarians to youngsters, from tuba players to a saz player from Turkey.The junket began last January, with the music side cheered on and semi-organized by the marvelous fiddler, dancer and music educator Molly Gawler. Listen above or scan my lyrics below to see how the song relates to these sessions.And I hope you’ll consider starting a junket of your own in a living room or accommodating cafe.Here are the lyrics (which I’ve updated slightly since I made the recording!):LIFE IS A BAND - Andy Revkin, Oct 2, 2025
A D E A
I used to sing and strum up on the stage all by myself.
E A Bm7 E
Some Dylan and John Prine, Mixed with some songs of mine.
A D E A
But something was not there. Licks and lyrics were too spare.
Bm7 E
Customers drinking and scrolling and yapping, once in awhile some scattered clapping.
D E A A
Then walking home from a sleepy gig a fellow called my name..
Bm7 E A
He said I love the way you play, but there is a better game.
chorus
D A E
Life is a band, no more singing on your own.
D A E
Life is a band, grab a uke or saxophone.
D A E
Life is a band, tenor, bass or baritone.
D E A
Come add your voice. Let’s make it grand. Life is a band. (twice)
A D E A
He said right down the block there is a place you have to see,
A A Bm7 E
We gather every weekend for a potluck jamboree.
A D A E
Bring some wings or a casserole, a flute or mandolin.
Bm7 E A
Choose folk or blues or an Irish tune and then we start to sing.
chorus
bridge
E E
Like a town needs a mayor and a baker and a plumber
A A
A band has a singer and a picker and a drummer
Bm7
Each, on its own, is monotone.
E
Put ‘em all together for something better….
Put ‘em all together for something better….
Put ‘em all together for something……better…
chorus
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