This song that has had a strange and communal gestational time. And today it’s born! Allow me to take you back.
2 years ago: I heard the chorus of this song in a breeze while visiting a local prairie in Downers Grove, Illinois. The people of the prairie have deep roots. They understand and help the land soak up the water. They turn their faces toward the sun. Oooh deep roots! Get down, get down, get down deep.
1 year ago: I played a demo version of this for an oracle in Nashville. She said “Louise Kelly, this isn’t a song. It’s a show”
October 2021: I met with my friends at environmental education center, SCARCE, to see about making a show that is the song as an experience for kids. Jean Kent, Jackie Flanagan, and I began writing the script and rehearsing.
January 2022: Received funding through the Illinois Arts Council Agency as well as donations through a Go Fund me for the project. Secured costumes! An animator! A music producer!
Our dress rehearsal performance – in front of a live studio audience- was a hit on March 26, 2022. Our first school performance is slated for May 11, 2022.
And now- the song that started this whole crazy journey (that led me to spend more on an Eagle Costume than my entire wedding dress) has been born! I’d like to introduce her to you: Presenting “Deep Roots,” A song. An animated video. A love letter to the prairie of Illinois.