I spend a lot of my time dreaming up songs, and it’s common for the groove, the melody, and sometimes the lyrics to depend on my surroundings at the creation time. It could be a muddled phrase heard through a wall or the feeling of calm beneath a healthy tree canopy in Cherokee Park that spurs the feeling from which a new melody or thought comes to life. This is one way that the earth and its environment can inspire creation, for me, and a large part of my motivation to conserve and preserve it.

My band, Bendigo Fletcher, is lucky to share the Iroquois Amphitheatre stage with a beloved Louisville folk duo such as the Troubadours of Divine Bliss. I don’t yet know Renee and Aim Me yet (I’m looking forward to meeting them on April 21^st!), but from their music I get the sense that we, as writers, share a similar inspiration in nature. Their ‘roots’ oriented instrumentation complements their sincerity in lyrics that, like each revolving breath, deliver hope for soul redemption and the constant renewal of perspective. From the lyrical beginning of one of their songs  ‘Awakening to Love,” an honest reckoning with a battered spirit calls us to pay attention to our damages: “All these rooms in my Soul I’m so afraid to go behind the walls- secrets, scars and shadows.” Turning away from pain and damage sometimes presents itself to us as the easy road to recovery–every person with hope for a healthy environment knows that it can be difficult to call others to recognize the earth’s suffering, for one. The Troubadours seek restoration and rebirth when they go on to proclaim, “I will no longer feel this pain no longer be restrained Wild-eyed Innocence- let my Soul be born again.”

I am excited to meet the women behind such positive messages, and I’m excited for this year’s Earth Walk to be a strong symbolic and physical union of the Louisville community and the earth. This is our opportunity, as a unit, to show appreciation for the present environment and enthusiasm for a healthier one. I’m called to think about our city’s spaces and events that enrich and enliven our community, like WFPK’s Waterfront Wednesday, which sound the best across from a clear sunset over the Ohio, or free Shakespeare amid the towering maples and oaks in Central Park. I’m hoping to be overwhelmed by the amount of fellow music freaks and theater geeks at Iroquois Park on the Earth Day.