Credit: Courtesy of Tara Piasio, Boulder, CO
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Sarah Kelton's voice has been featured on TV stations like NBC and Fox and in the MTV reality show "Making the Band."
The folk singer's song, "The River's Tears," is now helping generate awareness about climate change. Makes sense. Her voice is warm and vulnerable.
"I wrote it as a reminder that there is not a need to overly focus on problems or setbacks, and to remember that you will get to where you want to go, if you keep going," she says of the song.
Perhaps world leaders attending the Copenhagen climate change talks in December can learn a thing or two from this one.
"The song also suggests looking up from the ground and around at how beautiful your life actually is, and how many blessings there are that you may be missing, or not really acknowledging.
"It is easy to get overwhelmed or to think a situation is everything, when it is just a situation that will change."
Sarah Kelton is offering "The River's Tears" as a free mp3 download on the Sierra Club's Climate Crossroads social network.
"Nature is a healer," Kelton says. "In this song, I saw the river as taking stress away, taking anything that needed to be released and washing it off and dissolving it.
"Don't bother crying all the tears that the river will happily cry for you. Maybe that is a complex idea, but to me it is a simple one. You can give your problems over to the river or to the ocean or to the wind and they will not complain."
Kelton just got back from a year living and playing in Nashville, Tennessee.
"I moved there temporarily to explore the industry possibilities, and to learn about the songwriting that is taking place there," she said.
"I was amazed at the focus and depth that is placed on songwriting in Nashville. Musicians are living and breathing songs every day and obsessing over every word. I loved that."
Climate Crossroads is "the go-to site for people eager --- after eight years of inaction on global warming --- to share ideas, information, opinions and opportunities to make real and urgent progress on climate change," according to Sierra Club. Those who register can join groups that appeal to a range of interests, including bicycling, car-sharing, renewable energy, teachers and vegetarians.
Kelton is living in her hometown of West Chester, Pennsylvania. She eats mostly organic foods and dances to keep herself in shape.
"Health and wellness is the foundation of my life," she says. "Wellness is a broad word that can cover so many topics, but it seems that wellness of the body and wellness of the natural environment inextricably go together. Paying attention to the earth, to our animals, to each other, to our own bodies, minds and spirits is what I find to be most important above all else."
Kelton plans to record a full-length album in Colorado in the spring with three-time Grammy award-winning producer Tom Wasinger of Lost Angel Studios.
She previously worked with Wasinger while in a band called Mystic Highway.
More from Planet Green
This Song is Trash
Howard Jones: Still a Buddhist, Vegetarian, Music-Making Activist After All These Years
The Earth's Got the Blues
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