Heatherlyn Releasing 'Songs Of The Season' EP
Heatherlyn releases her Christmas EP 'Songs Of The Season' on November 29th 2019, on all major digital music download and streaming sites worldwide.
This beautiful deeply personal and honest solo acoustic EP features two of Heatherlyns original tributes to Christmastide. With these songs USA singer/songwriter (and member of the acclaimed Nine Beats Collective) Heatherlyn creates space to explore the wonder and truth of this season, the honest ache of unfulfilled dreams and the nostalgia of joys past.
Listen and allow your heart to be well acquainted with the very present depth of desire for peace and justice, uncontrived comfort and genuine joy to reign all over the earth. Allow yourself to be present to the scarcity many experience and open you heart to how you might participate in the abundance of this season. Grieve the losses and receive the gifts. Lament injustice and consider how you might embody justice to our world.
She shares, "For me as a little Heatherlyn, Thanksgiving to Christmas was actually the most wonderful time of the year. Growing up with a single mom who had a high school education, we were often under resourced. I wore hand-me-downs and we received the churchs Thanksgiving dinner baskets. During that time, we visited with my aunts, uncles, cousins and Grammy. Grammy had a small fake white Christmas tree that I loved to decorate and until she died, these were the best of times. Since we didn't have a whole lot of money, my mom, being very crafty herself would also find a project for us.
Every thanksgiving we would begin creating Christmas ornaments from beads and chenille sticks! And we would make a gift - the same gift but personalized - for each of my Aunts families. For me, these are some of my most cherished childhood memories, some of the best quality time with my mom, and the season felt abundant because we were creating together, and the gifts we made were material symbols of all the love and gratitude with which we had created them. "
On the songs Heatherlyn says, "Winter Cardinal: In our most difficult years, living the starving artist story, Decembers were always the hardest. Living in Minnesota, one could feel the cold creep into the bones. It would make you hunch over, closing your spirit in on itself. I felt the most despair in these Decembers because we could hardly pay our bills let alone even afford materials to create small and simple gifts for family and friends. It felt very bleak and I did wonder if I I was wrong about my calling to make music and sing. That winter red cardinal birds kept appearing to me in our yard and I was reminded of the words of Jesus, saying: Look at the birds, free and unfettered, not tied down to a job description, careless in the care of God. And you count far more to Him than birds. (Matthew 6:26 The Message). It felt like these bright vivid red cardinals which contrasted with the dirty snow were being sent to me as a message to take heart, have courage and carry on.
I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day: I love the melody of this tune, and when I first heard it, I was drawn in because its not a common Christmas carol. I did some research on the background and learned it was written about the USA civil war with the words written by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow on Christmas Day in 1863. He was a stanch abolitionist whose son fought in the war.
Warmth of Your Eyes: I wrote this song one December when I was really missing my mom and our plans to spend Christmas together had fallen through. So this song is somewhat biographical, but not exactly. I'm grateful to know its been a comfort to many folks who are missing someone they love, especially during this season. "
