Sunny Songs
Singing and songwriting across age and illness
Every month, we sing hit songs with an intergenerational group of singers living with chronic health conditions. The hour-long sessions are friendly and conversational, and promote emotional wellbeing and social connection for everyone involved. Sometimes we write original songs together, too.
“Time” (2022)
In 2022, we met Joanne. In our visits together, we sang some favorite songs, like “Does Your Mother Know You’re Out, Cecilia” by Whispering Jack Smith. We also wrote a new song together called “Time.”
When asked why she wanted to write a song about time, Joanne said, “Now, for me, time is getting shorter. I still don’t know what will make time—and my life—worthy of me.”
“Time” lyrics
Time is racing onward, it won’t look back
It doesn’t stop when I call it
Sometimes it’s beautiful, other times it’s not
It just keeps going, it won’t be caught
We’re searching, searching, searching for something we can hold
Time slips through our fingers as we grow old
We’re searching, searching, searching for our destiny
Rivers run their course ‘til they reach the sea
“The Wonders” (2023)
In 2023, we reconnected with Joanne. During our visits, we listened to our first song and wrote a second song together.
“The Wonders” is about re-finding our purpose in life as we grow and change. At 93 years old, Joanne says she’s “still trying to sort out what I want to be and to do in life.”
“The Wonders” lyrics
If I could slow down time and look at what it means
If I could open it up and find what it is I need
If I could sail it like the sea, and trust that it would carry me
Oh but I've never seen the wonders that I seek
What if I had chosen a different course across the ocean?
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Oh how could I have known the wonders that I'd reach
If a different course I had chosen, or never went across the ocean
Sunny Songs has received financial support from the Metropolitan Regional Arts Council (2021-2024) and Springboard for the Arts (2020).