Name: Lange Estate Winery and Vineyards
Start: 2023-04-23
End: 2023-04-23
Location: Dundee, OR

May is for flowers!

And new albums, and pretending it’s not my birthday!

Yes I am obsessed with these little flowers!

Good morning, friends and fellow music lovers!

Spring is coming on in full force and the sand lillies are popping up everywhere around here – it’s magical! I hope you are taking in some magic of wildflowers and sunshine wherever you are.

Some fun news: I made a new CD for my Patreon community! It features twelve new unreleased songs recorded with just me and my guitar in beautiful Grange Recorders studio here in Sisters. It felt like a great way to celebrate what a blessing this community has been. The support and encouragement and connection, especially during this last year, has been so incredibly meaningful. You can join my Patreon community for as little as $1 a month, and I am offering this album as a gift to anyone who signs up in the month of May! Click here to read all about it.

I’m so excited about these fun events coming up in May… I hope you’ll join me!

Thursday, May 6 – She’s Speaking Livestream Concert: Songs for All Moms! She’s Speaking – songs about women, by women, for everyone – is celebrating moms and grandmas with a special livestream concert! We’ll hear live performances of original songs from Bre Gregg, Kristen Grainger, Susan Gibson, Mai Bloomfield, Emily Aldridge, Karyn Ann, Natalie Jean, and Naomi LaViolette along with stories of how the songs came to be and the amazing moms and grandmas who inspired them. Come join us as we share songs and laughter and tears and a little conversation in celebration of moms everywhere! It will be similar to my Joyful Measures livestreams, but with 9 people instead of 2 or 3!

Tune in to the livestream on our She’s Speaking Facebook page. (You do not have to have a Facebook account to watch.) It is free and open to all, and donations for the artists will be joyfully accepted! Donate $20 or more and you will automatically be entered into a raffle for a gift certificate for an Andante Vineyard‘s Wine Tasting Experience for 4 Adults!

7 pm Pacific / 8 pm Mountain / 9 pm Central / 10 pm Eastern

Saturday, May 8 – Birdsongs for Audubon – A Livestream Concert. Celebrate the return of our migratory birds with Birdsongs for Audubon – a livestream concert featuring music from internationally touring folk artists Beth Wood, Jack Williams, and Still on the Hill! This concert, benefitting San Diego Audubon Society, features the songs of performers who have been inspired by birds.

A special bonus for bird-lovers: we will be birding the concert! Each of the featured performers will be singing songs that are either about birds or have birds in the songs. Listen for the birds mentioned and share your list with us! Find the most species and be eligible for a prize! Prizewinners will be informed on May 9, 2021. Submit your checklist by May 9, 2021.

$20 per viewing device. Multiple people can watch from one device. Additional donations welcomed. All proceeds benefit the Conservation, Education and Sanctuary programs of San Diego Audubon Society. 6-8 pm Pacific time. Click here to register.

Wednesday, May 14 – Monthly Virtual Song Circle. Songs need to be heard, and songwriters need community! We can’t meet in person, so let’s meet on Zoom to gather by the virtual campfire and share some songs! Attendance will be capped at 10 people, and the circle will go for two hours maximum. Please email me at bethwoodmusic@hotmail.com to reserve your spot. There is no cost to attend. Free-will donations of $5-10 will be joyfully accepted (Venmo: @bethwoodmusic or Paypal).

I had so much fun bringing poetry to the schools here in Sisters last week in celebration of Poetry Month! Huge gratitude to the Sisters Folk Festival for giving me the opportunity to work with 5th graders. Young minds are open, curious, and thirsty, and we had a blast making stuff together. We wrote class poems about hope, and they are making beautiful art with their words on painted canvas! Thank you to Ms. Patton and Ms. Fuentes for making it so fun! And I’m thrilled to have an artist residency bringing poetry to the Black Butte school this month. This is the kind of work I never would have imagined for myself, but I absolutely LOVE IT! We have much to learn from young ones, and I am listening. 🙂

Speaking of poetry, I was honored to be a part of the Celebration Circle, a multi-faith community virtual gathering, this past Sunday along with one of my favorite poets, Naomi Shihab Nye. You can read her beloved poem “Kindness” here. I was honored to share a few songs and be a part of that beautiful ceremony. Here’s a link to the video in case you missed it.

And finally, here’s a song I wrote for my friend Catherine, but it feels like it is for all of us now. I love the Mourning Dove backup singer at the end. 🙂