Lady Bird Loved Wildflowers

A musical about gardening and Austin needs a song about wildflowers! This song is about wildflowers and is dedicated to the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center. It started when our flag flew at half-mast back in July 2007, written as a little farewell to Lady Bird - just two verses saying 'Adieu' to the inspiration and founder of this remarkable place. Then the verse became a song... one that sat on the back burner for awhile but is now live on YouTube because after a long drought, it's time to celebrate bluebonnets in Austin, Texas.

The production on this song is very simple - an old piano, an old singer, a free recording program & a $15 mic, layered with photos of wildflowers taken in several Austin parks, our garden, and of course - at the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center. I don't know which character from Roots in Austin gets to sing this song - but sure hope you like it.

Annie~Kathy

Salvia, Salvia, Save Me

The character named June gets this song - one I wrote in 2004 and put on YouTube in spring 2008. How could there be a musical play about gardening in Texas without at least one song that mentions deer? The genus Salvia deserves its own song - their non-sweet fragrance may keep them ranked as second rate for cut flowers inside but in the garden they guard and grow.




This song is not about the Salvia that's used for enhancing experiences or getting high...that's Salvia divinorum, and I don't think it has much landscape use in Central Texas. The Salvia species I sing about are garden plants like Salvia leucantha, greggii, coccinea and guaranitica.

Can I Recover Christmas?

More than a year ago I decided to add some dramatic tension by putting character Caroline through a breakup in late fall, giving her the opportunity to sing a very sad song as she faced Christmas without her love, and giving me the opportunity of writing a very sad song for her to sing. If this were part of the play on a stage it would be Caroline's song, and it would be about a broken romance. But there are many kinds of loss that must be faced when holidays approach, and the video of this song demonstrates that the same lyrics can have more than one set of meanings.

My Austin Entomologist - The Bug Geek Song

Although it's just me singing for this video, the song "My Austin Entomologist" would belong to a character named Loralynn in the play. In my imagination she's like some of Marilyn Monroe's characters - every male is a potential target, and while sometimes appearing to be a dumb blonde, when she allows herself to pursue knowledge as well as romance, the results can be surprising.

This copyrighted song was composed and performed by "Annie in Austin" and the video was made by Philo in Austin. Fellow Austin garden blogger Vertie's posts about her classes in entomology and nature photography, especially the post "Work It, Grasshopper" provided much inspiration!

The Pond Song

I want to go to the water..... go to the ponds and to the streams...

"The Pond Song" is meant for the hot days of summer, when humans and wildlife crave the many man-made ponds and streams that dot the Austin landscape.
The Roots In Austin characters to whom this song belongs are a mature couple who are both gardeners. It would work well if they sang at least the final refrain together. I haven't given them names yet, but they sound a lot like Annie and Philo, don't they?



This copyrighted song was composed and performed by "Annie in Austin" and the video was made by Philo in Austin.

I Don't Want to Live in Texas When It's May

"I Don't Want to Live In Texas When It's May" is a family collaboration - I wrote a poem which became lyrics once my son Ted set them to music. For the video the instruments are all played by Ted, Diane is in charge of images and your blogger "Annie in Austin" is the singer.

But for my play Roots In Austin this song belongs to the character Caroline.

I don't want to be in Texas when it's May ... no, the place I long to be is far away.

She may be having fun as an Austinite now, but she misses Illinois when the lilacs bloom at Lilacia Park in Lombard.






Most of this song sounds like a rollicking beer joint tune, but one stanza was designed for flower geeks. If you can't catch some of the lilac names, here's a transcription:

Just the list of names is wonderful to me -
"Ludwig Spaeth", "President Lincoln", "Charles Joly".
The Syringa roam worldwide -
let petite "Miss Kim" inside,
Happy members of one great big family.

All songs, performances and videos are copyrighted. This video made for station stsrec.

Spinning, Spinning, Spinning Underneath the Christmas Tree

Dinah, the character who sings "Arizona Ash", also gets to sing "Spinning, Spinning, Spinning Underneath the Christmas Tree" - one of the Christmas songs I wrote for the play Roots in Austin.

It's a sweet and simple tune about a pleasant Austin custom. Several generations of Austinites have gone to Zilker Park in the days before Christmas to spin themselves dizzy under a Christmas tree made from many multi-colored lights suspended from a Moon Tower. People like Dinah were once spun in circles by their parents - now they spin their own children.







Spinning, Spinning, Spinning Underneath the Christmas Tree