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This episode sees Here We Are project leader  Sophie Bancroft and Ken Cockburn, from Autumn Voices , discuss how the Here We Are project started. It also hears from various choir members about their love of being in The Pathhead Choir, and  Sue Lewis,  one of the Here We Are project songwriters,  talks about her experience of being in the project and being involved in writing the song 'Tree Of Life.'

You can watch the video of the performance of Tree Of Life at 
https://youtu.be/cRUAqy56tTA

 TREE OF LIFE (a song created from The Pathhead Choir Songwriting Project - Here We Are) 

Lyrics by Sue Lewis with Sophie Bancroft and The Pathhead Choir Songwriting Group, 
Music by Sophie Bancroft 

You are drawn to me, my life, my age, my strength 
My ancient wisdom 
For I have seen more days 
Than you will ever know. 
Seeded, I begin as you do 
and my skin is scarred by life 
a life drawn in lines that show only when broken 

Rooted, to touch the sky 
Rooted, to spread my arms 
Rooted, in the soil I bend the battering winds 
The earth my holdfast 
But we all break sometimes 

Find healing in the green, the red, the gold 
of turning seasons 
And like me find renewal, 
autumn, fall and spring 
Until I stand no more
I lay here on forest floor 
Tho living yet the sleeping dragon
filling children’s dreams 

Rooted, to touch the sky......... 

You are drawn to me, my strength, my age, my life 
my ancient wisdom 
Long years I offer shelter 
to the young and old 
Though you’re drawn to me 
you don’t see the role I take 
to cleanse and to heal 
our beautiful world 

HERE WE ARE - The Pathhead Choir Songwriting Project saw Sophie Bancroft guiding a group of Pathhead Choir members aged 60+ to write original songs for The Pathhead Choir to perform. These songs were then arranged and notated for the choir by Pathhead Music Collective musicians and arrangers, rehearsed and performed by The Pathhead Choir, conducted by Sophie and choir co-leader Gina Rae, with Dave Milligan on piano. The choir gave three concerts around the Lothians in June 2023, performing eight new, original pieces. 

Full information about the project, and sheet music and choir arrangements can be found at https://autumnvoices.co.uk/projects/the-pathhead-choir/