GBP
Kaibab Summer (first listen) on the The Joy Formidable Music Club or Substack
When you’ve made quite a conceptual album and/or written a bunch of songs… how do you decide which one to share first?
It can be a tricky decision or something extremely intuitive.
For me, it’s always the track I still feel most connected to, even after eight months of writing, mixing and re-listening. Kaibab Summer sits at the album’s heart and carries a message of love: love for sunlight streaming through the leaves at dusk, love for the rhythms that make our bodies sway, love for open skies and lying on the forest floor with your favourite human.
If you’ve ever visited the Kaibab National Forest, you know how special it is, all those hidden trails winding through groves of mullein and cliffrose. You can step out from the shadows of the forest onto the North Rim of the Grand Canyon and catch some of the most beautiful sunrises and sunsets of your life.
As I write this, I’m heartbroken to hear that it’s burning. My prayers go out to the firefighters, and all the little creatures of the forest. It reminds me just how fragile these wild places are. The planet, too, needs our wider love right now and we need to stop valuing money over our shared home.
I hope the winds die down and the fires go out. I hope the forest thrives again. And maybe one day, we’ll meet there among the wildflowers and giant pines.
Cariad, SW x
https://shywestern.substack.com/
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