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about

Named for my daughter whose life and death inspired the entire album, this song came to me nearly complete in the days after her miracle birth on February 18, 2018. An astrological reading in Rishikesh the year prior had inspired us to try for another child, but I hadn’t written anything musically related to the experience of our travels through India until she arrived. Suddenly that spiritual energy was in the room, dancing through the San Francisco apartment we called home, and it hasn’t left me. I wrote song after song, including ‘Letter to Rishikesh’ which bookends the record, in the two short months of her life. The days after her passing were spent in hopeless grief, trying to understand the how and why of losing a child. But there was no consolation for us in the physical realm - so we turned our ‘eyes’ to the spiritual: our cosmic connection with Rishi. We returned to India to deliver her ashes to the Ganges — and through our sleuthing there, we discovered her power and our part in her greater purpose. That’s where I wrote and demo’d the rest of the music on this record — in Rishikesh, Haridwar, Jaipur, and Pushkar. When I was finally strong enough to get back into a studio, this was the first song attempted. In its construction, Joe and Roberto and myself established a precedent for what the record as a whole would sound like: rich and heavenly in synths, saxophone, and rhythmic textures, but also thrifty, raw and real with plenty of samples from my original demos — a marriage of the sacred and profane, the yin and yang. There would be no shying away from the heaviness of this song; I had to fully embrace its emotional weight to deliver it. Just as Rishi is so much more than the infant we knew, this music is much more than the notes recorded within its measures.

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lyrics

Rishi, send me down a Rishi
Send her from the skies
Rishi, come on baby Rishi, Open my eyes

On a map I might’ve missed it
Never known that it existed!
But a verse in the hymn of a song
Was my first clue
That led to you
On a nap I might’ve kissed it
Got a taste of the mystic
When I woke,
a saffron air
was still there
with her sage perfume In the room!
Rishi, send me down a Rishi
Send her from the skies Rishi, come on baby Rishi Open my eyes
Dogmatic crimes & convictions,
in nursery rhymes & pulp fictions,
they’re only passing phrases through the hazes of our youth (oh, sweet tooth!)
a monitor somewhere is beeping with consciousness never sleeping...
we had all the answers,
but we gave them up to get the truth
(a little sleuth!)
Rishi, send me down a Rishi
Send her from the skies
Rishi, come on baby Rishi
Open my eyes
While the world is in trouble —
I’ve been living in a bubble!
All the peace and harmonies we could need
All under one roof
(Then peek-a-boo!)
While we were drifting through the rubble
I saw life through the hubble
A hundred wars in the world
for us to fear
But you live in proof
We can keep a coo!

Rishi send me down a Rishi
Send her from the skies
Rishi, come on mama Rishi,
Open my eyes

credits

from Mixtape for Palestine, fundraiser for Middle East Children's Alliance for Peace (​$​25​-​125) / SCROLL DOWN to donate directly & get music, released January 1, 2024
'Rishi' - dedicated to Rishi Dhanivan Sweeney-Moradi, born 2.18.18 died 4.20.18. 'Rishi' (Hindi) = sage; seer; teacher
written & performed by Luke Sweeney.
backing vocals by Roberto Pagano & Joe Santarpia.

engineered & mixed by Joe Santarpia & Roberto Pagano produced by Joe Santarpia, Roberto Pagano, and Luke Sweeney
© & (P) 2022 Serious Sailboater Songs (ASCAP). All rights reserved.

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seaweed sway San Francisco, California

SeaweedSway is a collaborative evolving project by Jessie Woletz & many incredible friends over the years, encouraging community through music gatherings especially.

The poem of "SeaweedSway" sprouted in a convo between Karl Blau & Jessie in 2007, when Karl opened for BrightBlack Morning Light at the Great American Music Hall. The music encouraged seaweed-like movement in the room. ... more

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