About
This is the fifth book of songs and poems I have gathered, and the title says what this season has felt like: overwhelmed with gratitude. These pages were written between shifts at the Port, between classes, between Sunday services and Saturday mornings. Every one of them is a thank-you for being able to do the work at all.
The book moves through several rooms of the same house. Running through it are the weekly spiritual principle poems-simplicity, sincerity, solitude, stability, steadfastness, thankfulness, thoughtfulness, timeliness, and more-each one a practice to carry for a single week. Near the front are the love songs and smooth jazz serenades, written for slow evenings and the people who share them, along with the Velvet Window EP.
Then come the albums. Empowered, Encouraged, Elevated was written for the CME Church Department of Ministry to Men. One Drum is five songs for djembe and voice. Everybody's Got a Graveyard Shift and Graveyard Shift carry the songs of the Graveyard Shift Academy book series. An Injury to One speaks the waterfront and to Local 10, written by a longshoreman about the people he works beside. Bayview Sunday comes from the pews at Bell Chapel. Fourteen Units to the Stage follows a working man back into the classroom. Fourth Saturday is for the men around the breakfast table. One Hundred Forty-Four Doors is the companion album to my novel Spiritual Principles.
The last part of the book rolls out of the garage. Two graduation songs celebrate everyone who has walked across a stage, from pre-K to trade school to a college degree. Knock of the Bay is a car dance album-cruising songs, engine songs, and a shout-out to the mechanics who keep us rolling. In God We Trust brings the collection home with songs about the cars in my own driveway, in two editions, Trunk Mix and Sunday Drive, before a final set of weekly poems closes the book.
Each song is printed the way it was written to be sung, with its section markings, and many include the style notes used in production. Read them, sing them, or play the recordings alongside the page.
Thank you for reading, and for being part of the rhythm.
S Scott Jr.
Oakland, California
The book moves through several rooms of the same house. Running through it are the weekly spiritual principle poems-simplicity, sincerity, solitude, stability, steadfastness, thankfulness, thoughtfulness, timeliness, and more-each one a practice to carry for a single week. Near the front are the love songs and smooth jazz serenades, written for slow evenings and the people who share them, along with the Velvet Window EP.
Then come the albums. Empowered, Encouraged, Elevated was written for the CME Church Department of Ministry to Men. One Drum is five songs for djembe and voice. Everybody's Got a Graveyard Shift and Graveyard Shift carry the songs of the Graveyard Shift Academy book series. An Injury to One speaks the waterfront and to Local 10, written by a longshoreman about the people he works beside. Bayview Sunday comes from the pews at Bell Chapel. Fourteen Units to the Stage follows a working man back into the classroom. Fourth Saturday is for the men around the breakfast table. One Hundred Forty-Four Doors is the companion album to my novel Spiritual Principles.
The last part of the book rolls out of the garage. Two graduation songs celebrate everyone who has walked across a stage, from pre-K to trade school to a college degree. Knock of the Bay is a car dance album-cruising songs, engine songs, and a shout-out to the mechanics who keep us rolling. In God We Trust brings the collection home with songs about the cars in my own driveway, in two editions, Trunk Mix and Sunday Drive, before a final set of weekly poems closes the book.
Each song is printed the way it was written to be sung, with its section markings, and many include the style notes used in production. Read them, sing them, or play the recordings alongside the page.
Thank you for reading, and for being part of the rhythm.
S Scott Jr.
Oakland, California