My Singing Family
I came from a family who got together often and sat around and sang three part harmonies, and played guitars and mandolin, and then electric guitars. My three uncles, my mother, my aunt, their cousins, my in-law aunts and uncles, and my many cousins, all circled around in someone’s living room and sang the old songs. The Woodring brothers sang 1920’s and 30’s radio tunes, which they played during the Depression to support the family–songs like Sentimental Journey, You Are My Sunshine, It’s Only a Shanty in Old Shanty Town, Good Night Irene (always sung “Eileen” for my little cousin), and When Your Hair Has Turned to Silver (“…I will love you just the same…”) They called this last one “Mama and Daddy’s song” for the grandparents who died long before I was born. Albert would sing it to Gertrude.
My grandfather Albert played 16 instruments, I was told. When he was young, his parents and all the kids traveled the wild country of Oklahoma and Texas in a covered wagon, and put on a medicine show. My first “Aha!” moment with harmony was riding in a car with my mother Lillian and her sister Dot, as they sang “Tell Me Why”. I wanted to learn to do that.
Now I sing that song and lots of others with my sister Joane, and my son Jesse, and his wife Hope. My husband Ken learned to record and produce albums, putting lots of music into the world through the Community Music Project he created. How lucky am I! View photos of my Woodring family.
How I Started Songwriting
All through junior high and high school, I sang in every choir and quartet I could, learning music theory there and in piano lessons. After traveling to Mexico at 22, on the way back across the border into Texas I bought my first guitar. Cheaper than its $25 case, at $15 my classical guitar (strung with steel strings) was not the finest instrument. It turns out that I came back with hepatitis, and spent a month in bed recuperating at my parents’ home in Houston. Still a little weak, when I got out of bed at last I picked up my new guitar. My sister showed me a picking pattern. I learned Carole King and Carly Simon songs during the next few weeks. But the biggest revelation was, as I practiced one evening by candlelight, I just started singing my own song. And I wrote two or three more.
I came back to North Carolina a budding songwriter. Ken and I were house parents at a group home for troubled teens, and I wrote songs about them, and about my experiences living in the country, and about my relationships, and I just kept on writing. I haven’t stopped yet.
Why I Write Songs…
- Because sometimes they just sing themselves into my ear.
- So that I can transform my own suffering into some kind of guiding truth.
- So that I can remember the hard-won wisdom I find.
- To celebrate my beloveds.
- To express my gratitude.
- Because it feels so good to share my heartfelt truth.
- For the sheer fun of it.
- To make something beautiful.
- To make a gift for my friends.
- To return some of the grace freely given to me, to others.
- To hear harmonies.
- Because I love doing it.
- Because I love sharing them with friends, and hearing the beauty they add to them.
- Because it’s so joyful, and deep.
- Because listening to them makes me cry, and helps me remember my own truest truths, and why I’m here, and that I am loved.
- To bring healing to myself and others.
- To connect to my deep self.
- To bring us together in community.
- To keep me singing.
- To share overflowing love.
Photo Albums
View scenic photos by Cynthia and Ken.
Voice Threads — A New Form of Storytelling
Ken and Jesse work with VoiceThread, a web application that allows you to tell your story through photos, narration, and more, collaborating with others to upload, share and discuss documents, presentations, images, audio files and videos. I have used VoiceThreads to share experiences with my friends, such as this A Winter Walk in the Woods January 2012, share travel experiences to India, such as this Visit To Neighborhood Temple, and teach folks about macroinvertebrates in the river, such as this Macroinvertebrate Identification Tutorial Demo.