"River of Music" by Denison Witmer, Saturday, June 12, 2021

Lancaster, Pennsylvania native Denison Witmer has an over 25 year career working as a singer-songwriter. Raised in the Mennonite church, Witmer recalls the rich sound of hymns sung in 4-part harmonies in the farming community church. Witmer's early career was Christian music adjacent: signed to labels like the Christian-owned The Militia Group, Tooth & Nail Records, and Mono v. Stereo, an imprint of Toby Mac's Gotee Records, before his current label, Sufjan Stevens' and Lowell Brams' Asthmatic Kitty Records, the former being a longtime collaborator with Witmer. Witmer has been included on several television soundtracks, has been acclaimed by publications like Pitchfork, and performed at festivals like SXSW, Wild Goose Festival, and Cornerstone. But unless you're looking for slow, fingerpicking music in the vein of Cat Stevens, you've probably never heard of him. He's both prolific and kind of obscure.

BY THE MIDDLE OF THE WEEK... HOW MUCH CAN I TAKE? Starting my song-a-day project two years ago has been a reminder of how much I need music. When I got the idea at the end of 2018, I was going through a bit of depression as I thought about my future. I've talked about the power of music that helped to pull me out of my 2011 student teaching depression. My episode in 2018 wasn't as deep as that. In 2011 the question was if I could teach. Could I keep up with all of the expectations of keeping students passing the tests? In 2018, I believed I could do all of that, but the question was, is it enough? And furthermore, how is doing my job well benefiting my future? I was doing well now, but I'm just a principal change away from going from "the golden child" to the ostracized teacher. I saw that happen at work with the vice principal's vendetta against the teachers I was working with. One teacher he said was too "strict and lazy." However, over the years, he's been unable to get rid of her. I was shocked by how badly he treated her. She had been teaching for 20 years, which was quite a bit of time on my career. Another teacher, he got rid of after six months because another, less qualified teacher had applied for the position. In 2018, I was questioning my career choices in Korea. Wasn't it only a matter of time before I aged out of the "foreigner charm" and I too was labeled "strict and lazy."

THEN A SONG COMES ON... I KNOW THAT I'LL MAKE IT. I failed in making the 2019 playlist. The 2020 playlist lasted until November in my GoodNotes, but there was a terrible back up incident. I'm hoping to finish the project this year. I've sacrificed time with my Korean studies, exercise time, and other things I could be/should be doing in the evening. But as imperfect as this blog is, writing about a song every day, allowing it to play as a soundtrack through my memories, makes me analyze my thoughts and beliefs. It opens me up to sharing my story, which is really the only possession I have. Writing about music makes me think that writing isn't such an obstacle. When I heard "River of Music" today, I remembered all the times that music got me out of a hard time and how much it keeps me sane this year in one of the hardest years of teaching. While music makes me nostalgic for the past, it usually transcends the past and challenges me to be more like the times when I was younger and had more of an edge to me. Back when I thought there were fewer obstacles in the way. It makes me take new approaches to my problems. "We live in a difficult time/ Where are you going spend your love?" Music doesn't give us these answers, but it helps us to make up our minds.

https://genius.com/Denison-witmer-river-of-music-lyrics