How Can I Keep From Singing?

from In The Quiet Of The Waiting by Elly Lucas

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about

"How Can I Keep From Singing?" began as an old hymn, but was beautifully reworked and added to by Pete Seeger and Doris Plenn in the 1960s. Music is and has always been incredibly important to me and my mental wellbeing through trying times, as it has for so, so many others, and there was something about this song which just seemed particularly fitting for the strange days we're in.

Featuring as the backing for this track are a series of field recordings from a sunny walk along the Rivelin Valley in Sheffield; a gentle meander, marvelling at how many more layers of birdsong I could hear with the microphone gain turned up that little bit higher.

lyrics

My life flows on in endless song
Above Earth's lamentation
I hear the real, though far off hymn
That hails the new creation
Above the tumult and the strife
I hear the music ringing;
It sounds an echo in my soul
How can I keep from singing?

Although the tempest loudly roars
I hear the truth, it liveth
And through the darkness round me close
Songs in the night it giveth
No storm can shake my inmost calm
While to that rock I'm clinging
Since love is lord of Heaven and Earth
How can I keep from singing?

When tyrants tremble, sick with fear
And hear their death-knell ringing
When friends rejoice both far and near
How can I keep from singing?
In prison cell and dungeon vile
Our thoughts to them are winging
When friends by shame are undefiled
How can I keep from singing?

credits

from In The Quiet Of The Waiting, released January 2, 2023
Trad. with reworked lyrics by Pete Seeger & Doris Plenn. Arr. Elly Lucas.

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Elly Lucas Glasgow, UK

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