Magical Earth

A Few Words From Sarah: 'For me, 'magical' in Magical Earth means creative, spontaneous, healing. Since we are all a part of the Earth, we can have all of these qualities as well. The title song begins, 'Come out of your house and walk on the land. The trees are all talking, you can understand. The mountains are calling and the streams and the wind. The bear and the deer are inviting you in.' That's the way that I experience the Earth, as inviting us to come and listen. My connection to the Earth feeds me and I tried to bring that spirit to the whole recording. The Other Side Of The World gives snapshots of what children all around the world are doing simultaneously...like having pillow fights before be while others are running to greet their friends at sunrise. Dolphin Drummers grew out of an experience I had in the Florida Keys swimming with dolphins. I learned that some seacoast peoples in the Greek Isles drummed on the oceans' surface to ask the dolphins to drive fish into their nets. When I was in the water with eight-foot-long dolphins, I got a feeling for what that must have been like. White Whales is a true story of people and whales in cooperation, but it is from the present. It tells of Russians freeing a thousand trapped beluga whales with the help of an ice breaker. On that song you can hear an ocean drum, which has two drum heads that enclose ball bearings. As they roll inside they make a swishing sound like waves on a beach. Brian Melick, a wonderful percussionist, drove up to the recording studio with literally a hundred different instruments in his van, like that ocean drum. For Mahogany Tree, Brian brought rainsticks, gourds dipped in water and shakers of all kinds. I played marimba and he added udu drums made of clay that boing and bounce like a tabla rhythm. Talk It Out is a zydeco song. I wanted to use zydeco because the accordion, electric guitar and trap drums really fit the excitement and anxiety that surrounds conflict resolution...you have a conflict with a friend that gnaws at you but you are afraid to actually sit down and deal with it. The song shows two friends breaking through their reluctance and finally talking things out.' ABOUT SARAH: Sarah has been honored as one of the country's most important writers for young people. Her first recording won an American Library Association Award and her next won the Parents' Choice Classic Award. Sarah is also the author of several books including the Young Adult novel, An Outbreak of Peace, which won the prestigious Olive Branch Award. Sarah trains students and teachers nationally in conflict resolution skills development and bias awareness. 'If you want to hear some of the best children's songs out there today, listen to Sarah Pirtle!' - Pete Seeger.