Tree of Life

©Eric Peltoniemi, Arranged by Ed Trickett

        Last year in Minneapolis, I had the opportunity to see a wonderful play entitled Plain Hearts: Songs and Stories of Midwestern Prairie Women, performed by a seven woman cast. Its producer, Lynn Lohr, wrote the following about the play:

"Behind the seven women on stage, who are the Plain Hearts Band, stand thousands of other women. They are our prairie mothers and grandmothers and their single women friends - farm women all. They stand in the sun, in the dry wind, and in the blessed rain after a drought. Some of them are holding flowers in their hands, lilacs or humble cosmos or yellow bush roses. Some are carrying pails of eggs or milk, some are carrying children. They are not very well dressed. They are wearing work clothes. They are all beautiful. They are all very proud. They have come to hear their stories again. Plain Hearts is offered in gratitude for their hunanity, their hard work, and their humor.

Plain Hearts was written by Lance S. Belville; music and lyrics by Eric Peltoniemi. Eric wrote "Tree of Life" as part of the play, and I appreciate his willingness to allow us to record it. The first two verses are comprised entirely of the names of quilting patterns. I first sang the song with Cathy Barton and Dave Para, who made important musical contributions to its current state. (ET)

Beggar's Blocks and Blind Man's Fancy,
Boston Corners and Beacon Lights,
Broken Stars and Buckeye Blossoms
Blooming on the Tree of Life.

Tree of Life, quilted by the lantern light,
Every stitch a leaf upon the Tree of Life:
Stitch away, sisters, stitch away.

Hattie's Choice (Wheel of Fortune) and High Hosannah (Indiana),
Hills and Valleys (Sweet Woodlilies) and Heart's Delight (Tail of Benjamin's Kite),
Humming Bird (Hovering Gander) in Honeysuckle (Oleander)
Blooming on the Tree of Life.

Tree of Life...

We're only known as someone's mother,
Someone's daughter or someone's wife,
But with our hands and with our vision
We make the patterns on the Tree of Life.

Tree of Life...

Tree of Life is recorded on the CD Fashioned in The Clay