Get Out 1 Get outget out get out get out

Get outside!

© 2007 Amy Martin Vocals – The Missoula Coyote Choir, Amy MartinDrums & Percussion - Allison MillerBass – Todd SickafooseKeys – Julie WolfGuitar – Adam Levy

Ask the Planet

I Want to Be Like a Tree 2 I want to be like a treeI want to dig down deep in the dirtMake my home right here on EarthThat’s what I learned from a tree

I want to be like a treeIn the sun and rain, sleet and snowI give shelter to everyone I knowThat’s what I learned from a tree

Hey, look at me!I’m wild and free, free, freeI’m reaching out, I’m rooted deepHey, I’m like a tree

I want to be like a treeWith my brothers and sisters all aroundPassing notes to each other undergroundThat’s what I learned from a tree

I want to be like a treeChanging colors right before your eyes I might even photosynthesizeThat’s what I learned from a tree

Chorus

I want to be like a treeI can learn how to bend, how to sway‘Cause I know that I’m stronger that wayThat’s what I learned from a tree

I want to be like a treeEven after I fall, after I’m goneThe seeds I made will keep living onThat’s what I learned from a tree

Chorus

© 2007 Amy Martin Vocals – The Missoula Coyote Choir, Amy MartinDrums & Percussion - Allison MillerBass – Todd SickafooseKeys – Julie WolfGuitar – Adam Levy

Ask the Planet

Ask the Planet 3 You got a problem?Are you having doubts?You got a question that you can’t figure out?You’ll find an answerOr two or fourAll you got to do is step out your door and

Ask the planetPose a question to a posyAsk the planetDon’t worry, it won’t think you’re noseyAsk the planetAsk the ocean or the prairieAsk the planetSomething scaly, something hairyAsk the planetIt’s been here a really long timeYeah the planet can help you withWhatever’s on your mind

How do I stay warm in the cold and the snow? (ask a snowshoe hare)How can I travel over the Gulf of Mexico? How can I build a house under the sea? (ask an abalone)How do I get my friends to listen to me?

Ask the planetInterview an ibexAsk the planetTake a lesson from a T-rexAsk the planetAsk the tundra or the desertAsk the planetSomething slimy, something feathered

Ask the planetIt’s been here a really long timeYeah the planet can help you withWhatever’s on your mind

I want to stand outI want to blend in I want some time aloneI want to make friendsI want everybody to learn how to get alongI want to sing my own special song

Ask the planetGet a lecture from a lemurAsk the planetGet subliminal messages from your femur

Ask the planetAsk the swampland or savannaAsk the planetMaybe something that eats bananas Ask the planetIt’s been here a really long timeYeah the planet can help you withWhatever’s on your mind

© 2007 Amy Martin

Vocals – The Missoula Coyote Choir, Amy MartinDrums – Allison MillerBass – Todd SickafooseKeys – Julie WolfGuitar – Adam LevyTrumpet – Tanya DarbyAlso featured – elephant

Ask the Planet

Keep Our Cool 4 Hey there sunshineAre you getting warmer?Hey there glacierYou’re melting too soonHey there oceanAre you getting higher?Oh what can we doTo keep our cool, cool, cool

Hey there songbirdWe haven’t heard you singingHey there polar bear we’re worried about youHey there penguinIs that a warning that you’re bringing?Maybe it’s time to chooseTo keep our cool, cool, cool

La la la…

Hey there sisterLooks like stormy weatherHey there brotherHere’s a hand to hold ontoAnd hey everybodyWe can make it togetherBut we need to chooseTo keep our cool, cool, cool

La la la...

Hey there futureWe’re singing for your seasonsHey there creaturesWe’re singing for youHey there childrenDo we need another reasonThan our love of youTo keep our cool, cool, cool

La la la…

Hey there sunshineAre you getting warmer?Hey there glacierYou’re melting too soonHey there oceanAre you getting higher?There’s a lot we can do To keep our cool, cool, cool

© 2007 Amy Martin Vocals – The Missoula Coyote Choir, Brandi CarlileDrums – Allison MillerBass – Todd SickafooseKeys – Julie WolfGuitar – Adam Levy

Ask the Planet

School of the Wild 5 There’s a school I know that’s kind of crazyThe principal is a chimpanzeeThe teachers are turtles and tigers and storksAnd some of my buddies have tongues that fork

School of the wildSchool of the wildEverybody’s living in the school of the wild

I never know what clothes to wear‘Cause sometimes we have class in the ozone layerThen it’s into the ocean for gym with the sharksAnd music in the meadow with the pines and the larks

Chorus

Have you ever asked a flea how it jumps so high? Or studied navigation with a butterfly?Have you listened to a speech given by a rock?Or interviewed the insects living on your block?

Chorus

Sometimes things get a little loudWhat with the juncos and the jaguars and the mandrill crowdSo the sea horse and the serval and the rabbits say hushYou’ll scare us away if you talk too much

Chorus

Like the birds and the bugs and the big blue whalesThe scallops and slugs and everything with a tailBe like them, get educated, childSpend your days in the school of the wild

Chorus

© 2007 Amy Martin Vocals – The Missoula Coyote Choir, Laura Love, Bill Sims Jr.Drums & Percussion – Allison MillerBass – Todd SickafooseKeys – Julie WolfGuitar – Adam LevyAlso featured – chimpanzee, ape, meadowlark, baboons, elephant, marsh

Ask the Planet

Riddle 6 Sometimes I disappear right before your eyesI fall down to the earth and float up to the skyI can move mountains with enough timeI join places together I am also a dividing line

What am I? What am I?

I look through your windows and come into your homeI belong to no one everyone can call me their ownI sit very still and I run over the groundI have many voices but I don’t make a sound

What am I? What am I?

I was just born today, I’m a billion years oldI live where it’s very warm and where it’s terribly coldWhen there is too much of me I can make things toughBut you won’t last long if I am not enough

What am I? What am I?

Every single living thing depends on meI’m over half of the planet over half of your bodyI know you will ask for me when the days get hotterDo you know my name? Call me by my nameDo you know my name? I am ___. I am ___. I am ___.

© 2007 Amy Martin Vocals – Bruce CockburnDrums & Percussion – Allison MillerBass – Todd SickafooseKeys – Julie WolfGuitar – Adam LevyViolin – Jenny Scheinman

Ask the Planet

Take Care 7Take care of the place that will take care of your children*Take care, take care.Take care of the place that will take care of your children

*This line paraphrases Janine Benyus’ statement that successful life forms “take care of the places that will take care of their offspring.”

© 2007 Amy Martin Vocals – The Missoula Coyote ChoirDrums & Percussion – Allison MillerViolin – Jenny ScheinmanCello – Marika Hughes

Ask the Planet

Wise Like You 8 Grandma, Grandma and Grandpa sing to meGrandma, Grandma and Grandpa sing to meI want to know how to grow wise like you

TuataraYou are a-mazingYou’ve been here for 200 million yearsAnd you can hear without an earYou’ve got three eyes If we sit at your knee will you tell us a story or two?

Chorus

And tortugaI know you-a been swimming In our beautiful seas since dinosaur timesHow do you find your way back homeAfter you roam the globe If we sit at your knee will you tell us a story or two?

Chorus

Oh ginkgoI think you know a secret One of your trees lives for one hundred human generationsWhile our nations fall and rise you have survivedIf we sit at your knee will you tell us a story or two?

Chorus

© 2007 Amy Martin Vocals – The Missoula Coyote Choir, Laura Love, Dar WilliamsDrums – Allison MillerBass – Todd SickafooseKeys – Julie WolfGuitar – Adam LevyCello – Marika Hughes

Ask the Planet

Have you heard the story of the day the kids broke freeFrom the evil oppressor known as the TV Yes, there used to be these boxes inside every homeThat melted kids brains and turned them into drones

The kids they were helpless in front of the tubeWhatever TV told them they would go doThey never went outside except to go to a store And no matter how much stuff they bought they always wanted more Until the great TV rebellion of 2010 When all the kids turned off their TVs and never turned them on again They said enough with all this ya-hooey I’m going out to playAnd all the TVs could do was sit there and watch them walk away

Well most kids were held captive in this TV-induced haze Except a few of the very wildest ones that no TV could tameThere was Britney of the Badlandsand Joshua of the Swamp Maria of the Desert and Mike of the Vacant Lot This noble band joined forces with the pigeons and the squirrels

And sent a message of revolution to every boy and girl:“From the bondage of the black box let everyone be free Kids of the world, rise up! And turn off the TV!”

Chorus

It was planned for April 22nd, 4 o’clock in the afternoonEvery kid in the whole world knew exactly what to do

Act normal, just sit there Like a lump on the couch But the when the clock strikes four Run for the door And turn the TV OFF on the way out

Oh the TVs tried to fight back but they had been unplugged And all the kids were out in the wilderness with their toes in the mudThey were climbing trees and scraping knees and making secret fortsThey were collecting stones and bruising bones and making sculptures of all sortsThey were acting out their own storiessinging songs in their own styleAfter the great TV rebellion Kids…went…WILD

Chorus

© 2007 Amy Martin Vocals – The Missoula Coyote Choir, Ani Di-FrancoDrums & Percussion – Allison MillerBass – Todd SickafooseAccordion – Julie WolfGuitar – Adam LevyTrumpet – Tanya Darby

The Great TV Rebellion 9

Ask the Planet

No Such Thing as Garbage 10 Here we sit in primordial stewDoing what bacteria like to doAlthough there are billions and billions of usYou will notice we don’t make a muss, ‘cause

There’s no such thing as garbageIt hasn’t been invented yetThere’s no such thing as trash you stash and then try to forgetThere’s no such thing as garbageWe make what we need and no moreOne critter’s waste is another one’s entrée du jour*

We are mammals and insects and amphibiansBirds and reptiles and fungi, manWe’ve no need for landfills or stinky trash cans‘Cause what one of us can’t use another one can

There’s no such thing as garbageWe’ve been recycling all of our livesOne species’ junk is another one’s lunch and then becomes fertilizerThere’s no such thing as garbageWe make what we need and no moreOne critter’s waste is another one’s en-trée du jour

Oh remember when humans were terribly plaguedBy the syndrome called “throweverythingusaway”For a few hundred years there

they just didn’t thinkThank goodness that garbage has now gone extinct

There’s no such thing as garbageWe learned it just in timeBack when the planet could hardly stand it we started to learn this rhymeThere’s no such thing as garbageWe make what we need and no moreOne critter’s waste is another one’s entrée du jour

* This line, the best in the song, was written by Adam Levy

© 2007 Amy Martin Vocals – Adam Levy, Allison Miller, Amy Martin, Bryony Schwan, Janine Benyus, Julie Wolf, Jon Miller, and Todd SickafooseDrums – Allison Miller Bass – Todd SickafooseKeys – Julie Wolf Guitar – Adam Levy

Ask the Planet

Thanks 11 Thanks for the oxygenThanks for the frogsThanks for the fleas and thanks for the dogsThanks for the sunshineThanks for the iceI gotta say the color scheme you’re using here is really nice

Thanks for the butterflies Thanks for the laughsThanks for armadillos and thanks for giraffesThanks for the rainThanks for the windYou’re so dang amazing gotta say it againThanks!Yeah thanks!

Thanks for the swoosh Thanks for the plunkThanks for the stripes on the back of the skunkThanks for volcanoesThanks for earthquakesThe motion of the ocean and the music that it makes

Thanks for the rainbowsThanks for the starsThanks for what we was and thanks for what we are

Thanks for my bellyThanks for my heartFor giving every living thing a special kind of smartsThanks!Yeah thanks!

Thanks for bacteriaThanks for the rocksThanks for a little black cat with white socksThanks for the geysersThanks for the bugsWhen I look at all the beauty oh my heart just fills with love

Thanks for the continentsThanks for the polesThanks for the mountains and thanks for the molesThank you for gravityThank you for nightFor weasels and wallabies and eagles in flightThanks!Yeah thanks!

Thanks for the buffaloThanks for the tickThanks for the way that the gecko feet stickThanks for the flippersThanks for the finsThe paws and the claws the teeth and the chins

Thanks for the puddlesThanks for the sky

Thanks for the how and thanks for the whyThanks for the honeybeesThanks for the flowersFor cow’s milk and spider silk and termite towersThanks!Yeah thanks!Thanks!

© 2007 Amy Martin Vocals – The Missoula Coyote Choir, Erin McKeownDrums & Percussion – Allison MillerBass – Todd SickafooseKeys – Julie WolfGuitar – Adam Levy

Ask the Planet

Do I belong here?Where are my friends?Who is my family?Am I one of them?Sometimes I look aroundAnd I feel so aloneSometimes I can’t find my way home

Open your doorCome outsideTake a deep breathOpen your eyesEvery creature every leaf, every stoneIs singing this, this is your home

I am listeningI’m trying to seeA path I can walk downAnd the lights to guide meWhat I need is a stillnessSo I can hear an old songWhat I need is to know I belong

Chorus

My heart gets heavyMy mind gets tiredEveryone’s so busyEverything’s so wiredWhere can I lay down?

Where can I rest?Where is my own safe little nest?

Chorus

I know I have gifts to bringI can feel them growing inside meBut where do I go To find my place in thingsI need a path and someone to walk beside me

Open your doorCome outsideTake a deep breathOpen your eyesEvery creature, every leaf, every stoneIs singing this, this is our homeThis is our home

I know I have gifts to bring I can feel them growing inside me

© 2007 Amy Martin Vocals – The Missoula Coyote ChoirDrums & Percussion – Allison MillerBass – Todd SickafooseKeys – Julie WolfGuitar – Adam LevyCello – Marika Hughes

Do I Belong Here 12

Ask the Planet

Start from Here 13 I know a placeDown by the creekWhere it’s messy and muddy and freeI sit real stillAnd drink my fillOf the silence that speaks to me

We can start from hereThrough my hands and feetI can feel the Earth’s heartbeat

Start from hereOpen my ears and my eyesAnd I start to come alive

I know a placeLike a table topWhere the sagebrush and cactus bloomI climb upLike a coyote pupAnd howl at the rising moon

Chorus

I have a dream of the human familyLiving clean and healthyAll nations, all creeds and all racesLearning and loving our places

I know a placeDown the blockFull of trash and weeds and junk But a vacant lotCould be a garden plotSo my friends and me We’re cleaning it up

Chorus

© 2007 Amy Martin Vocals – The Missoula Coyote Choir, Amy MartinPercussion – Allison Miller Bass – Todd SickafooseKeys, Accordion, Bongos – Julie WolfGuitar – Adam Levy Spoken word – Janine Benyus

Ask the Planet

What Kind ofAnimal Are You 14 Roll up like a hedgehogFlap your wings and fling yourself into the air Like a duck or a gooseGo ahead and let looseQuack quack quack quack, honk

Sharpen your claws like a tigerWiggle and squirm like a worm working hard in the dirtShake your fin and your tailLike a humpback whale

What kind of animal are you?What does that animal do?Where is that animal found?How does that animal sound?

Paddle around like a dugongKick the ground like a kiangWhat’s a kiang? (I don’t know!)We can find out thoughGalah and galagoThe world is full of critters that you may not have considered

Stick out your tongue like an echidnaGo for a run like a vicuña en los montañas de Peru

You’ll be a cutieWhen you’re an agoutiListening for the fruit falling from the forest canopy

Chorus

Do a somersault like an otterOr take a dive into the water like an osprey catching fishOr just hold really stillLike a wapiti willWhen it happens to be trying not to get noticed by a lion

Read a book and play the banjoTake a look through a telescope at a distant starPaint a picture of something you really loveThrow the ball in the basket Think of a question and ask it

Chorus

© 2007 Amy Martin Vocals – The Missoula Coyote Choir, Bill HarleyDrums – Allison MillerBass – Todd SickafooseKeys – Julie WolfGuitar – Adam LevyViolin – Jenny ScheinmanAlso featured – duck, humpback whale, lion, otter

Ask the Planet

“Bios” means life “Mimicry” means imitate

Life runs on some basic principlesDeep patternsDeep deep patterns We can study and follow those rulesChange our tunesing along to life’s beautiful song

Chorus

Every species that survivesFits in hereHey Homo sapiens it’s our timeWe might be youngbut it can be done

Chorus

It’s our turnWe can learn

Life is all around us

If we listenTo their wisdom

Teachers surround us

Chorus

© 2007 Amy Martin Vocals – The Missoula Coyote Choir,

Amy MartinDrums – Allison Miller

Bass – Todd SickafooseKeys – Julie Wolf

Guitar – Adam LevyTuba – Sam Pilafian

Ask the Planet

What’s Biomimicry 16

We Are Not Alone 17 Sometimes I get scaredAnd I need to cryProblems of the worldBearing on my mindPressure I can’t takeIt’s too much for meWhat if I make a mistake or try to fake it and everyone sees

We are not alone

Everyone was bornOf someone beforeIt’s a fact of lifeIt’s a metaphorA baby can’t surviveAll by its little selfAnd neither can a species We all need some help

We are not alone

I forget to look I forget to askI forget to noticeBecause I go so fastIt’s not all up to meGuidance all around

Just gotta admit what I don’t know I gotta humble down

We are not alone

It’s a miracleA gift that we’ve been givenThat we’re here at allSinging breathing livingI can melt the wallsI make in my headAnd remember that together is how it is – and how it’s always been

We are not alone

We have an effectEverything we doYou matter to meI matter to youIt’s called communityIt’s called relationshipThat’s why we clean up our mess and treat each other with respect

We are not alone

© 2007 Amy Martin Vocals – The Missoula Coyote ChoirDrums & Percussion – Allison MillerBass – Todd Sickafoose

Ask the Planet