Mary Price (now Golden) and I were in different La Leche League groups but met a few times at some of the LLL Leader functions. I really don’t remember how it came about, but she invited me to come to a Song Circle being held at her house. It would have been early 1990s—I remember that Adrienne was around two years old (Erica would have been four and Sarah seven.)
It was magical—everyone getting a turn, all the songs, some of which I knew, some of which were new to me but delightful…but it was the harmonies that seduced me into becoming a regular attendee. So many voices blending together to one purpose—singing with the people in that basement during those moments transformed all the pettiness of daily life and touched the heart of the universe.
One of the circles, not that night, but on a New Year’s night where there had to be well over fifty people in Rich’s basement—I can still feel the gloriousness of Tom Kastle leading the room in “Shenandoah”—a song I’d never especially cared for—but that night, with all the voices—it was transcendent.
I kept coming back with my girls. I had songs I wanted to share with others filling in the harmony, songs other people sang that I wanted to join in with, songs that I wanted to learn. I bought a copy of ‘The Blue Book’ and went through it looking for songs I knew so I could tell everyone what page the lyrics were on.
We nearly always stayed to the very end, even if it was one in the morning—around ten we’d put some pillows on the floor in the center of the circle and Adrienne and Erica would fall asleep. (I found a note in one of my journals that in 1996 there was a song circle that lasted for eight hours!)
I had no idea that going to song circles was going to change my life, much less how it was going to impact Sarah’s—
From the beginning Sarah brought her violin and would quietly fiddle around on it to create an accompaniment to the singing. Before long she was able to hear a verse and a chorus and then join in with a spontaneously created harmony line. We didn’t know then this was developing her talent for improvisation that would become a hallmark of her professional music career—she was just having fun! We didn’t know she’d find some mentors—Bob Burger, Gary Plazyk, and Rob Middleton—who shared their love of making music for the pure joy of it and who would be major influences in her life.
Bob Burger invited her to perform with him at Grandpa’s on St. Patrick’s Day 1995 for her first paying gig, and she never looked back.
And then the craziest thing happened—I was inspired to pick up the guitar I hadn’t played since I was sixteen because I wanted to join in with the tunes. And because of that, when Sarah wanted to continue performing I was able to be her partner, and we formed ‘O’Carolan’s Daughters,’ playing Chicago area coffeehouses and Borders Books. We billed ourselves as performing silly songs and Irish tunes, and it didn’t take too long for Erica and Adrienne to join us.
From the 1990s through mid-2000s we rarely missed a song circle. We would decide in the car on the way over what songs we would sing that night, and on the ride home we would talk about which moments had been the most perfect, which songs had that moment of silence after someone finished when the crowd had to catch their breath before starting the applause. Those moments were why we had to be there.
When Sarah went off to college in 2001 I kept coming with Erica and Adrienne until both of them moved out of state. I had to stop attending then—it hurt too much to sing our songs without them. Rich and Sharon kept inviting me though, and in 2016, after not touching my guitar for several years, I decided I would learn a new song, one that I’d never sung with my girls, and sing it for the song circle.
Because of that I rediscovered the joy in making my own music and have been attending song circles whenever I can since. Because there is nothing like a room full of voices joined together.
Thirty years—thank you everyone.