Shelley Marie Motz
Storyteller. Poet. Essayist.
Category: Music
There is joy here on earth
There is joy here on earth. There is joy in every handful of dirt. With these words, Coco Love Alcorn opens up her song Wonderland. It is a reminder that I often need to hear. All too often, I fail to see the beauty…
Reading New Boy? Check out the soundtrack.
New Boy, the soundtrack: Let Roberta Flack, The Jackson Five and Three Dog Night transport you to 1974. Tracy Chevalier, author of nine brilliant novels, has created a soulful playlist to accompany New Boy, a retelling of Shakespeare’s Othello. Check out other playlists, including one for Chevalier’s novel At…
Just in time for Valentine’s Day
Who says Canadians aren’t romantic? CBC Radio has released Northern Love, an epic list of Canadian love songs that will prove those naysayers wrong. From mainstream classics sung by the likes of Joni Mitchell, Sarah McLachlan and Leonard Cohen to alt rock hits penned…
Let the music play v.2
When I started co-facilitating a group that discusses spiritual concepts like invitation, blessing and creation, I found myself compiling a soundtrack of sorts.
A Movement Needs A Song by Esther Nelson
I’m back in Las Cruces, New Mexico, spending the break between semesters in the spot where I plan to eventually retire. When I was here last summer (2016), I visited the Unitarian Universalist Church so decided to join the people gathered there on Christmas…
Listening to “Come Sunday” on the eve of Martin Luther King Day
“Come Sunday” was written by Duke Ellington in the blistering heat of the civil rights era, in 1965, and his song bears the terrible weight of history as he–and his people–were living it.
Let the music play
I was born in the 70s. K-Tel Records–As Seen on TV–provided the soundtrack for my early years. Growing up, I wanted to be the person who produced those classic collections.
