Songs About John Muir

John Muir Tribute CD Now Available!

Each of the following links offers artist and album information, sound clips, and lyrics.

• The Legend of John Muir by Gayle Lynn Dreifus
• The Ballad of John Muir by Patrick Michael Karnahan of "Black Irish Band"
• Tribute to John Muir by Betsy Keithcart
• The Ballad of John Muir by Jeanne McDougall
• Muir and the Master Builder by Brian McNeill
• Muir Power to You , by Bill Oliver
• Me and Stickeen by Bill Oliver
• John of the Mountains, by Matthew Werner of "Mariposa"
• The Big Trees are Down by Douglas Wood

Songs Inspired by John Muir

• Hooray for Hetch Hetchy by Bill Oliver (off-site link)
• Mountain Days - Original Cast Recording - Features ten songs from the musical about John Muir's life.
• Climb the Mountains - Lyrics by Mary Bracken Phillips and music by Craig Bohmler (from Mountain Days: The John Muir Musical
• Creation's Dawn (Ode to John Muir) by Barry Hertz
• John Muir Suite by Dan Thomasma and Terry Yazzolino
• Range of Light by Sasha Matson, For Mezzo-Soprano (Catherine Robbins) and Chamber Orchestra Texts by John Muir - (offsite link)
• Range of Light by Walkin' Jim Stoltz
• Sierra by Kyle Vincent
• Two Little Feet by Greg Brown
• "This Grand Show is Eternal," music by Lee Kesselman - a setting of texts by John Muir, commissioned and performed by San Francisco Lyric Chorus in honor of their 10th anniversary.
• "Winds" composed by Richard Cowan,  Artist in Residence, Northern Kentucky University - a 25 minute piece for small orchestra and solo tenor, a quasi-operatic role that has John Muir as narrator in Muir's beautiful text A Wind Storm in the Forest.  In this orchestral -operatic work we follow Muir noticing the budding windstorm in a friend's log cabin, his climb up the mountain, shimmying up the tree,  enjoying the colors, scents and rhythms of the wind storm, and the slow descent in the evening, as the storm dies away. The world premiere of this operatic work will take place in July of 2006 in France, on Belle Ile en Mer, off the Coast of Brittany, as part of the Lyrique in Mer Festival, the largest opera festival in Western France.
• "River of Mercy," composed by Andrew Norman, had its world premiere in Oakland's Paramount Theatre on April 22, 2007. This 22-minute opus, commissioned by Michael Morgan and the Oakland East Bay Symphony, is a paean to the splendors of the Merced River. Using spoken excerpts from writings of the naturalist John Muir as a guide, it traces the river's course from the Sierras down to the sea. (Source: Review: "Aquatic imagery doesn't hold water in 'River of Mercy' by Joshua Kosman, Chronicle Music Critic, San Francisco Chronicle, April 23, 2007.

See also John Muir Bibliography, Music Section for annotations, and additional listings of instrumental music inspired by John Muir.

For more environmental songs, go to Harold's collection of Earth Songs (offsite link)

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