Dear Friends,
In the spirit of making hopeful things in difficult times...
I am filled with joy to get to share this tiny cover of the Sherman Brother's and Disney classic song, "It's A Small World." The song's out everywhere music is!! And a NEW episode of The Sleeping At Last Podcast all about it and more is out now everywhere podcasts are!
Everyone knows the chorus lyrics, which are of course appropriate today as ever, but what I love most about this song are the verses:
"It's a world of laughter, a world of tears
It's a world of hopes and a world of fears
It's time we're aware, there's so much that we share
It's a small world after all"
A couple weeks back I invited listeners to lend me their voices by sending in recordings of a C or G note! You guys not only turned up, but you blew me away by how lovely you sound! The beautiful chunk of text above is over 1,000 voices from all around the world, layered into the fabric of this song!! If you sent in your voice, thank you x infinity!! Your name should be able to be found on this incredible list!! It is beyond special to me that you guys were kind enough to be a part of this lil song! Xoxoxox
The gorgeous cover art for "It's A Small World" was painted by my pal Jason DeMeo!! Jason wrote this beautiful statement about the art:
SO fun to get to partner up on this! Check out Jason's other wonderful art, hang some on your walls!! Check out his website here.
BIG THANKS to Sharon Gerber & Anya Gerber for the stunningly beautiful strings you hear on the song, to Jason DeMeo for the beautiful art, to Daisy Klimala for helping assemble/premix heaps of voices and to Chris Bethea for also helping assemble/premix heaps of voices as well as mastering the song!! And to my manager Kim for helping sort out the overwhelming mountain of emails!
It's been a real long while since I recorded episodes of The Sleeping At Last Podcast and I'm so pleased to get to speak with you guys again! I'm making lots of new episodes that'll be coming right behind today's brand-new episode!! So excited to share. Listen now to hear how my lil "Small World" was made and why and what the heck I've been up to since the last episode of the podcast. Thanks for listening! Can't wait to chat more soon - to tell birth stories of my songs, share new music and soon, an overview episode of my Enneagram project! Today's episode is everywhere podcasts are!
Lastly - yesterday, my take on Bob Dylan's classic "Make You Feel My Love" was on Station 19 on ABC!! Hope you caught it!
The reason for recording "Small World" right now is because this whole situation we find ourselves in is deeply confusing and scary.. I wanted to record this “prayer for peace” (as its writer, Richard Sherman calls it) as my tiny drop in the ocean of hopeful things that are currently being put out into the world right now. Please stay safe!
Huge Love, Ryan - Sleeping At Last
1. Preemptive Love ($15 provides a week of food for a quarantined refugee family)
2. Shoal's Soul (check out my pal laura's wonderful magazine & site!!)
3. Blackberry Market (if you're in/around the IL west burbs, order curbside from BB!! my fav!)
4. SlashFilm (my fav movie news site)