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Celebrate Earth Day with our new video, and Awards!

Sultans of String and Dr. Duke Redbird Release New Single “Our Mother the Earth”

‘Our Mother the Earth’ is a collaboration between legendary Chippewa/Anishinaabe Elder Dr. Duke Redbird and Sultans of String. It is the third single of the upcoming album entitled ‘Walking Through the Fire’ (Sept 22, 2023 release), a CD and concert of collaborations with First Nations, Métis, and Inuit artists across Turtle Island.

Redbird was inspired by the idea that every country has a national anthem, yet there is no anthem for Our Mother the Earth.  Redbird said, “if people included an anthem to the Earth along with their national anthem at every event, it would serve to acknowledge our identity, values, and sense of pride in the fact that we are all children of the Earth.”  With this idea in mind, he wrote the poem Our Mother the Earth.

Our Mother the Earth

A Great Mystery
Created the Universe
And manifested a blue geosphere
A radiant planet
The marvelous Earth
The Mother who gave us birth
The genesis of all, we hold dear

With all the billions of stars in space
Only the Earth could create.
The perfect human birthing place
A little sphere of cosmic dust
Was the spark of spirit given to us (…)

“We can use our imaginations, innovation, creativity, and capacity to evolve in a cooperative way with nature, in a symbiotic relationship.  The definition of love is when another entity’s happiness is essential to our own. Right now, the happiness of the Earth is not essential to those industries that are exploiting her resources purely for profit. When we realize that we, as humans, are born fully integrated with the spirit of the Earth… we will replace exploiting with exploring and begin to truly love her.”

Please click here to Pre-order CDs, and learn more, including how we are including cultural safeguards in our work on this project: https://igg.me/at/sultansCD

and click on the video above – or download from your favourite DSP here https://sultansofstring.lnk.to/OurMothertheEarth

AAAANNNDDDD!  The CFMAs!!

On behalf of fellow Sultans of String members Kevin Laliberte, Drew Birston, and Chendy Leon, we thank the Canadian Folk Music Awards for recognizing our album Sanctuary as GLOBAL ROOTS ALBUM OF THE YEAR, and also PRODUCER OF THE YEAR went to John Bailey and me!
Huge thanks to our families and our incredible team, including Lisa Weitz, Christine Bode, Fontana North, Crossover Media Music Promotion, and Eric Alper. We also must thank Canada Council for the Arts | Conseil des arts du Canada, Ontario Arts Council – Conseil des arts de l’Ontario, Toronto Arts Council, Arts & Culture Council of Burlington, and Rick Chester and Marianne Chester
But really, we need to thank our collaborating artists, each and every one of them is amazing, and you can check them out here!

https://tinyurl.com/sos-spotify

Thanks for reading, and looking forward to seeing you at a live show soon!