Welcome! Thanks for coming to visit!
Greetings, my friends, on a lovely August morning! In the midst of so much chaos on so many fronts, I'm taking time to think about love. Scott and I are celebrating our 30th anniversary in a few weeks, so I'm taking time to think about the love we have shared through these many years. It seems like such an impossible thing, to hold together through the storms of life.
I wrote a song for Scott last year, and we sing it together. I've always loved his voice! Here's the chorus:
“Impossible things / Impossible things / Like me, without you / Impossible things”
I’d like to invite you to listen to the entire song below -
Last month, we were invited to sing Impossible Things at the wedding of our dear friends, Tom Rawson and Ellen van der Hoeven. That was a glorious wedding! And of course, it made Scott and me think of our own wedding in a packed living room at the Roeder Home on a rainy August day. Tom Hunter officiated. Jen and Kristin were an integral part of the ceremony. The photo to the right is my favorite one from our wedding, with thanks to Jack Kintner.
May you be surrounded with memories of love in your life this month, and always.
Linda
To listen to tracks and read about each song, click on the image above.
““Allen’s life work uncovers the injustice, focuses on that and brings song to help mend and move through our life cycles. Congrats to Allen on fifty years.”
”
“Linda Allen: Hear Her Roar”, Entertainment News Northwest, April 2019. Read the article here.
Back in the late 1970s, when I was newly arrived in Bellingham, I put together a CETA grant to create the Rainy Day Songbook and an accompanying cassette. I worked with the Whatcom Museum, the library, and a host of wonderful musicians, some of whom have now passed on. The Rainy Day Songbook is long out of print, but I recently found the master for the cassette, and Phil Heaven re-mastered it. With copyright considerations, it is not available to download, but you can listen to it all. The Songbook is only available used, but some of the highlights are also online.
I have just loved hearing these voices from out of the past. For a taste of the fun stuff that’s in this collection, click on on the audio track to “Silver Tip” just to the right.
To access all the songs on the album, go to our Washington, My Home link and click the ‘Listen” button.
Have fun!
In concert with Tom Rawson and Ellen van der Hoeven, in Port Townsend.
On Friday, May 31st, I shared the stage with Tom Rawson and Ellen van der Hoeven for a lively concert at the Friends Meeting House in Port Townsend, co-sponsored by KPTZ radio. Full house, warm welcome with lots of love, laughs, and history…so much fun! It was a wonderful way to finish a very busy month of May. For details about more upcoming events as I get them scheduled, go to my upcoming events schedule.
Here’s something new on this site. In 1993 and 1994, I did a series of interviews interspersed with music called By the Light of the Moon: Grange Hall Dances in Washington State. It was sponsored by the National Endowment for the Arts, the Washington State Arts Commission, and the Washington State Rural Development Council. It’s a radio show about thirty minutes in length. You can download it or listen to it here free of charge on your cell phone or computer. We recently uncovered the master, it was re-mastered, and it is truly a delight.
This summer my music will mostly surround my patients at Hospice of the Northwest. Not a day goes by that I don’t experience gratitude for the gift of being able to enter that sacred space of a dying room to offer music. I’ve been collecting many resources for those interested in the work of therapeutic music. You can go to my therapeutic music resources page to learn more.
My beloved husband Scott Slaba and I sing, “Impossible Things,” at Port Townsend.
Since much of my work has been devoted to telling the stories of women throughout history, I’ve put together a page where I’ve collected songs and resources for - to date - 99 years of Suffrage. Visit my Celebrating Women’s Suffrage page for a description of the multi-media program I do, plus resources including my Here’s to the Women! CD. We’ve recently added some amazing cards created by Meneese Wall, celebrating historic women. And you’ll be able to hear the traditional Suffrage songs that Kristin and I recorded: “Failure is Impossible”. You can download these songs for free.
Folklife Panel celebrating Pete Seeger’s 100th!
In these pages you’ll also find currently scheduled events, recordings, archival photos, and newsletters from 2001 to the present. Scott has recently completed an archive of lyrics to over one-hundred-sixty songs, organized by album and by category. We’ll be adding new content as the months go by, so please do come back and visit. We’ve added a category called Back Pages, which will include “Basement Tapes”, previously unpublished songs and poems, a page for Jen and Kristin, Washington History, Spirituality, and more!
You can also visit me on Facebook, where you’ll also be notified of my occasional newsletters, now posted at my Linda’s Occasional Newsletter page on this website. I am also in the process of developing a YouTube channel with old and new performances by me and others, recordings and more. We’ll keep you apprised of these developments as this continues to evolve.
May the summer winds warm and excite you!
