Top songs

Top songs, by user votes. Click the titles for lyrics and more song details; click the play widget to hear the song. And vote!

  1. counting the moon

    A happy ode to sitting still.

    The title and chorus for this song came to me in early 1990 just after I finished up my previous album, “the flower grandchildren’s quiet transformation.” I knew at that point that it was going to be the title track for my next album, but it wasn’t until two years later, when I had most of the remaining songs for that album written, that I actually got down to writing the verses for this one. During those years I was diligently sitting quietly for a half hour each morning, often accompanied by my cat. It was a nice thing to do. read more...

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    Your rating: None Average: 4.8 (8 votes)
  2. souvenirs

    Written February 24, 2014, as I walked to work. A goose was flying overhead. My uncle was dying, and I was thinking about my memories of him, and about how mysterious memory is, and how we create them for each other, and what going away really means. What’s the difference between a memory, a dream, a plan, and the present moment? Sounds like the beginning of a Buddhist joke. read more...

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    Your rating: None Average: 4.6 (13 votes)
  3. side by side

    I wrote this while sitting on the Cornell arts quad during my daughter’s band rehearsal. The campus symbolized my past, and her future. She was almost as old as I was when my father died. All that led to some writing, and then this.

    (Edit: Followed by another version, quite different.)

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    Your rating: None Average: 4.3 (12 votes)
  4. calling the maid

    I wrote this in 1995, when a book by a medieval Zen master seemed to intersect with a romantic relationship. The story and metaphor are from the book, though the author was applying it to religious conversation and here I’m applying it to relationship conversations; I think the same principle is at the root of both.

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    Your rating: None Average: 4 (5 votes)
  5. growing up in the garden

    This is about my roots in Woodstock, New York, where natural beauty and proximity to New York City pull in different directions.

    I wrote this on my way back for a visit. It recorded unusually quickly. It has lot of local references, but I think the idea is a universal one. read more...

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    Your rating: None Average: 4 (5 votes)
  6. wind and river

    A blessing: May the nature-of-things hold you in the palm of its hand.

    My brother Matt was married in July of 1989, and I was his best man. I went on a road trip to Maine with my friend Betsy over the July 4th weekend, and wrote this as a wedding toast along the way. (I remember practicing it outside our tent in a campground.) I sang it at the reception the following week, then recorded it in a few takes after I got home.

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    Your rating: None Average: 4 (5 votes)
  7. Living Downstream

    I have now officially given up trying not to write songs about water. Maybe it’s because they always come to me in the shower? This one started in yesterday’s shower, second verse in today’s (26 Oct 2009), and third verse kept me walking around town until it finished up, on a balcony overlooking the creek.

    I decided not to write it down until it was finished, which added a sense of urgency and may have helped streamline the lyrics. read more...

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    Your rating: None Average: 4 (5 votes)
  8. Shenandoah, river of my dreams

    A contemplative version of the old folk song about leaving, separation, and longing for return.

    This song took me seven years to record. I did some tracks in 1993, of which only the harmony vocals have survived. I did some more work on it in about 1996, including recording the piano intro at a place where my friend Sharon was house-sitting. I redid all the lead vocals in October of 1999, then all the instruments in January 2000.

    It’s a mysterious song, Shenandoah. I’m told it’s a sea chanty, yet it talks about inland rivers. Maybe it’s addressing the river, or a region, or a person. read more...

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    Your rating: None Average: 4 (4 votes)
  9. as it must be

    An offering of peace for the times when life brings pain.

    The winter of 1990-91 was rough. People around me were getting hurt in accidents, dying of cancer, committing suicide. I was living out in the country, alone much of the time. read more...

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    Your rating: None Average: 4 (4 votes)
  10. side by side (2018)

    I wrote this while sitting on the Cornell arts quad during my daughter’s band rehearsal. The campus symbolized my past, and her future. She was almost as old as I was when my father died. All that led to some writing, and then this.

    This track is quite a different approach from the first one; it’s all synths plus vocals, and a much more active texture.

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    Your rating: None Average: 3.8 (10 votes)