“The beauty and effervescence of the songs on Ashokan Songlab, Vol. 1 leave us hopeful that a second volume of songs will soon follow.” - Folk Alley
for release April 22, 2021
Songs Inspired By Nature and Resilience, Co-Written by Youth at Ashokan “Songlab”
In the fall of 2020, a handful of homeschooled students ages 7-12 began collaborating with local Hudson Valley musicians Mike + Ruthy of The Mammals at the Ashokan Center’s open-air pavilion. They called it a “Songlab.”
Some of the kids were already budding songwriters, some just wanted to run around in the crisp, autumnal sunshine, and a few were excited to turn up the volume right away and jam! Playing, writing, observing, and creating, this loose environment and sense of exploration in nature birthed six new songs, recorded in the winter months, and being released as an EP on Earth Day, April 22nd, 2021.
The Ashokan Center is a 385-acre nonprofit in Olivebridge, NY with the mission to teach, inspire, and build community through shared experiences in nature, history, music, and art. In 2020 as the pandemic had stopped nearly all on-site activities, a small team of Ashokan staff were building a series of resilience-themed Virtual Field Trips and educational videos to reach schools & students remotely.
The proposed titles of the field trips became writing prompts for the Songlab: Power of Pollinators, Forest Mysteries, Birds of Prey, Ponds & Streams, and Managing Stress & Worry. That last title immediately resonated with the young writers and inspired the first two songs, Worry is Natural by Ida (pronounced EE-da) Stoever and Make You Happy by Guinness Van Meter, both aged twelve at the time. The other songs were group co-writes including lyrics from the group’s younger siblings Opal Merenda and Saskia Van Meter and epic grooves and arrangements sparked by drummer, Lee Collins, who’s positivity and feel permeate the recordings and bassist, Will Merenda, who broke his arm sliding into second base at little league resiliently shifted to playing experimental one-handed keys for the recording session.
The students also collaborated with the Ashokan video and education team and prominent community members to film videos to enrich the Virtual Field Trips. One experience was filmed on location in the lush Shokan, NY gardens of local pollination expert and “Butterfly Lady” Maraleen Manos-Jones. Another took place at Ravensbeard Wildlife Center where animal rehabilitator Ellen Kalish shared her rescued birds of prey. Facts and feelings from these inspiring encounters found their way into the verses of Bees are Buzzin’ and Shy Hawk, and the videos, shared within live Zoom lessons from Ashokan, were made even more exciting by incorporating the children’s new, original songs as soundtrack.
The Ashokan Songlab “Vol 1: Resilience” EP will be released April 22, 2021 on Bandcamp with free streaming and all download proceeds donated to the Ashokan Center. The group hopes that these songs will inspire greater love and respect for nature’s beauty through the healing force of music, and encourage more peaceful coexistence between all of the animals, plants, trees, and human beings who share the Earth.
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INTERVIEW & MEDIA REQUESTS
Mike Merenda humbleabodemusic@gmail.com
Steam & Download The EP - https://ashokansonglab.bandcamp.com/
Learn About Ashokan’s Virtual Field Trips - https://ashokancenter.org/virtual-field-trips/
