Sometimes a song just comes to you in a moment, like a gift from that place and time. This song came from one of my favorite places in the world, one that I refer to just as “the listening place.” It is at the top of one of the hills in the Mount Holyoke mountain range in Amherst that looks out over this vast expanse of forest; as far as the eye can see there are just these rolling hills trailing off into the horizon. Red Tailed hawks play on the wind, gliding and diving in an endless dance, and the air is filled with the music of nature at work. In the stillness of that place the chorus poured into and just grabbed hold of me, and on the hike down, as I pondered our necessary connection to the land and wondered why we trash and brutalize Mother Earth the way we as a society do, the rest of the words came bubbling up like a mountain spring. This song was originally written back when I was playing regularly with The Alchemystics - back when Demse and Ras Jahn were still with us, and the world didn’t seem so cruel - and so many of the rhythmic and melodic elements came from that time, when my musical vocabulary was being expanded by playing with Demse and Garret. It seemed only fitting to have The Alchemystics’ own Ilana and Force (as well as John Corda, their current keys player) join in on this one. Force’s verse here is so loaded with his signature multi-layered wordplay, and still blows me away after hundreds of listens.