New tracks: Renewal 2008 (full album!)

First things first: there is a single track highlighted at the top of this post called Renewal, but we are also giving you the full album from the January 2008 tour of the ensemble called Renewal–go to this Google Drive folder to download all 20 tracks! Track list and info is at the end of this post.

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1emf1aoeGTtAKIXoFjhnWn5GXlpNlMil9?usp=sharing

Also: Don’t forget our Patrons-Only Livestream happening on Zoom, Saturday Jan 23, 3pm ET! Zoom link and more info in this post: Patreon.com/posts/save-date-only-45981574 

Why are we giving you music that isn’t Windborne? Here’s the backstory:

When people ask us how we in Windborne met, we usually say it was at Village Harmony singing camps when we were teenagers, which is only partially true. The full story is, the four of us were never at a camp session all at the same time. Lynn, Will, and Lauren did a few sessions together and then a few sessions separately in the early 2000s, and in 2004 we gave our first concert as the trio called Windborne, mostly performing music we’d learned at camp. Jeremy also attended several summers of Village Harmony both in the US and abroad, so Village Harmony definitely brought us together in the sense that it gave us a shared familiarity with traditions of harmony singing from different parts of the world (primarily music from Georgia, Corsica, South Africa, and the Balkans), even if we didn’t know the same songs. 

There’s the whole additional backdrop of the New England folk music and dance scene (contra/morris/sword dance, shape note/pub sings, Pinewoods dance camp, etc), where our families overlapped in various circles, but that’s a story for another time.

Which brings us to Renewal: The Renewal Chorus was a group of Village Harmony alums who were all in college at the time, which meant a few things: 

1. We all missed singing and the community of Village Harmony like crazy

2. We had aged out of the Village Harmony teens camps, and the mixed age international sessions were often too expensive for college students who needed to work summer jobs

3. We all had a similar schedule, with a long winter break in January

A few enterprising folks realized that, “Hey, we actually know a lot of songs already–what if we got together and taught them to each other, then gave a few concerts? It would be like our own self-organized mini Village Harmony session!” So we rented a little ramshackle house at Mission Farm in Killington VT (in the days before AirBnb!), sent a lot of emails organizing logistics, scheduled a handful of concerts, and gathered 12 singers a few days after Christmas for our rehearsal week. For our first tour (Jan 2007), we were flabbergasted at the end of our six concerts when we counted up all the ticket sales and realized that we had not only covered all our expenses, but made enough for each person to take home ~$30! That year, Lynn, Will, and Lauren sang with Renewal, but Jeremy was still in high school(!) and couldn’t take the time off. However, he contributed in another important way: he came up the name Renewal!

Having determined that Renewal was a resounding success on all fronts, including the ever-important aspect of financial self-sufficiency, we were ready for round two the following winter. The group grew a little, and luckily included Jeremy that year! The album we’ve shared here is the recording of that tour in Jan 2008, which is special for us because it is the first time the four of us from (current) Windborne sang together. There’s a track list at the bottom of this post with a little bit of info about the songs. 

There is one piece, however, that merits a little extra introduction: the song titled Renewal. It was written by our very own Will Rowan in a modern shape note style, dedicated to (you guessed it) the Renewal Chorus. The text is Isaac Watts, with a final verse by Ben Bath, and this text influenced the final verse we later wrote for The Song of the Lower Classes. While Watts and Bath invoke divine retribution for sins of greed, vanity, and falsehood, we decided to write instead of the triumph of the common people in solidarity over their oppressors.

Here is most of Renewal 2008 busking outside Cool Jewels in Montpelier, VT

For five more years, Renewal toured for a few weeks in January, but as we all aged out of college it got harder and harder for a critical mass to take the time off of the rest of our lives. Renewal’s run came to a natural close after its final tour in 2012, but that meant that in 2013, there were all these communities in New England that had been trained to expect a concert of vocal harmony traditions to kick off the new year. Windborne (still a trio at that point) saw an opportunity: we could do a tour then! We invited Jeremy to join us because we wanted to sing some four-part music that year, and he just never left… but we think overall he’s been a good addition, no? 🙂 Ok, there is actually a way more interesting story (American Music Abroad!) but this post has gotten long enough so we’ll save that for another day. 

Did any of you ever see Renewal perform? We’d love to hear your memories in the comments!

RENEWAL 2008

1. Mbaola o ba tshesa (South Africa) – In the Sotho language. Translation: “It’s hot out. The women wear short pants and sneakers. It’s hot”
2. Leander/Jefferson (aka Leanderferson) (shape note) LEANDER: Tune: Tennessee Harmony 1818, Words: Isaac Watts, 1707, JEFFERSON: Tune: Tennessee Harmony 1818, Words: John Newton, 1779
3. Lamentation (Megan Henderson) Text Isaac Watts
4. Kalos Khelkhvavi (Georgia) – Harvest song from Guria. “St Gregory will come and abide in our fields, and bring much wheat for us. He will come and go again.”
5. Ganatldi (Georgia) – orthodox chant “Shine, shine, o new Jerusalem. Today we glorify the lord. It is for you that it shines. Comfort and proclaim to Zion. Now you in heaven, o mother of God, rejoice in the resurrection of your son.”
6. Ocheshkhvei (Georgia) Harvest dance song from Samegrelo, in the Megrelian language
7. Trouble All About My Soul – Recorded by The Kansas City Gospel Singers, 1950
8. House Carpenter (Trad. Scottish/Irish/American ballad) Arranged by the Renewal women
9. Going to the West (Trad.) First known from Guntersville, Alabama. This arrangement is based on a recording of Suzannah Park, Emily Miller, and Jeff Fellinger.
10. Un Vivantate (Corsica) – This paghjella (couplet song) would traditionally be sung in three parts, but this arrangement features a more modern fourth part (the highest voice). The song says, “Don’t be overconfident. Even the swiftest deer will be caught, for the hunters are always lying in wait.”
11. Bacho Nikola (Bulgaria, Arranged by Ensemble Balkana). Translation: “Why are you pacing around the yard, brother Nikola, looking up at the Balkan mountains towards the two beech trees, towards the well?” “How can I not look, sister Lalke? There my band is waiting, loyal and united. They’ve lit a fire and slaughtered a ram and are waiting for me to bring news from the golden city of Kolofer. It’s better for one mother to cry than for twelve mothers to cry, sister Lalke.” “Oh brother Nikola, great sorrow, brother Nikola, mother’s tragedy.”
12. Janka prez gora vurveshe (Bulgaria) This village song says, “Janka went into the forest and she said, ‘Green Forest, do you have any herbs for me? My love is sick and his head is lying on a white stone.’”
13. Sherburne (shape note) Tune: Daniel Read, 1783 Words: Nahum Tate, 1700
14. Taunton (shape note) Tune: William Billings, 1770 Words: Tate & Brady (Nahum Tate & Nicholas Brady) 1696
15. Renewal (Will Thomas Rowan) Text: Isaac Watts and Ben Bath
16. Mission Farm (Don Jamison) Written for Renewal and Sarah Allard.  Text Isaac Watts
17. Lord I Walked – Recorded in 1943 by the Middle Georgia Four 
18. Almost Home (Appalachian) Based on the Ralph Stanley recording, and features the Primitive Baptist practice of “lining out” the song on the chorus.
19. Sesi We (South Africa) This song in the Sotho language says ‘I came with my family and gifts to court you and we were turned away at the gates.  Now that I have a car and money, now you want me.  Well it is too late, the time is up.’
20. Thaba Chueu (South Africa) In the Sotho language. Translation: ‘I went up to the top of Thaba Chueu mountain and saw a pretty girl with dimples on her cheeks and a slender waist.  Boy, pack up your bags and go back to the top of Thaba Chueu and get me that girl.’