Written by Rebecca Folsom and Sally Barris

This song gently walks us forward into the whole album. It invites listeners to face the imbalances and humanitarian problems that are challenging us today. I co-wrote this song with dear friend and Grammy®-nominated Nashville songwriter, Sally Barris.

Nonprofits making a real-world difference: The Hendricks Institute, Boulder Morningstar Zen Center

Written by Rebecca Folsom

This song was created from listening to the heart-touching stories of people who were experiencing or had experienced homelessness. How did they get there? What was their experience like?

Feeling into the rough edges and the vulnerable hearts, I wove their stories with what I learned from the staff at Boulder Shelter for the Homeless. As I dropped in further to write this song, the deep waters brought me to my own and my sister’s story of homelessness. As I interlaced all these experiences, Mercy was born.

Nonprofits making a real-world difference: Boulder Shelter for the Homeless, National Alliance to End Homelessness, National Alliance on Mental Illness

Written by Rebecca Folsom, Kim Crecelius, Sally Barris, Nick Forster

This title track encompasses the overall message of Sanctuary: every voice is valuable, each individual can make a difference, and we have the potential to become and create sanctuary every day, everywhere we go. This stellar recording happened live in a renovated church, The Temple of Transformation, in Dallas, Texas.

I collaborated with 6-time Grammy® winner Shaun Martin (@shaunmartinmusic) and the Saul Gates Chorale. Each of these singers is a powerhouse with a unique and powerful voice. Huge heartfelt thanks to Suzy Batiz for generously offering her home, her exceptional team, and her brilliant light to this song. Suzy’s exceptional team was headed by video producer Paul Levatino.

Nonprofits making a real-world difference: The Sanctuary Project, Boulder County Arts Alliance , Let’s Choose Love

Written by Rebecca Folsom, Heather Kawamoto, Dee Moore

Co-written by three women of three different races (Black, Asian, and White), this song shines light on the real-life stories of those marginalized by race and brings to the forefront everyday acts of racism. The song carries the intention of finding a human bridge for all races through the perspective of a mother’s eyes.

One of the writers, Heather Kawamoto, is a race education facilitator. When I asked to co-write the song with her, she had me study race history and contemporary writings. She also challenged me to examine and address my own beliefs and blindness to systemic racism. After 9 months of this study, we jumped into writing the song and brought in brilliant co-writer Dee Moore. It was an honor to create this song with these women.

Nonprofits making a real-world difference: , Soul 2 Soul Sisters

Written by Rebecca Folsom and Mark Oblinger

This song began when I first stepped into a men’s prison. I moved past the glint of spiraling barbed wire and the clang of multiple closing gates behind me. Remembering to breathe in the moment-to-moment movement through checkpoints, I took in each guard’s unique face.

I was a guest of the staff at The Realness Project. It was a life-changing experience. The Realness Project educates and shares real-life skills with prisoners. In my experience, the Realness Project brings a humane and much needed skill set to these prisoners.

The song expresses many of the points that the prisoners shared around isolation, their need for connection, communication, and healthy expression of feelings, and the human need for love and appreciation. As we wrote this song, we pulled from the many beautiful solutions offered by the Realness Project.

Grammy®-nominated producer Mark Oblinger co-wrote and co-produced the song. I have my first production engineer credit on this song. In the end, we went back into the prison and I recorded the prisoners live, sharing their own stories in their own voices. It was a beautiful and powerful expression of regret, redemption, and humanity.

This song also was a beautiful collaboration in singing and in video production with my beloved brothers John Scott Clough and Mike Clough and my sister Amy Jacquemard.

Nonprofits making a real-world difference: The Realness Project

Written by Rebecca Folsom

A particular line in this song is one I have wanted to write into a song for over 20 years. It was a message shared from a dear friend on his deathbed. He popped out of his morphine stupor and said he came back to tell me something. “Everything is a garage sale item-our degrees, houses, money, accomplishments,” he said. “The only thing light enough to take with you is love.” He then laid back down. That was the last thing he spoke to me.

During the making of this album, my husband of 43 years was diagnosed with cancer, and we almost lost him in surgery. This song feels simple and potent, and it came from the depths of my heart. The beautiful grand piano and lyrics are at the center of its sonic beauty. It shares the human message that, with all the complexities of life, it all comes down to the sanctuary of love and kindness.

Nonprofits making a real-world difference: National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization

Written by Rebecca Folsom

After the mass shootings in Parkland, Florida, I wrote this song as a way to integrate all the feelings I, and those around me, were having-numbness, intense grief, and anger and more. I was amazed how quickly I turned away from the whole situation a couple of days later and moved on. I was struck with how I often see disasters on TV and then feel distant like it has nothing to do with me.

This song addresses the feeling of separation that removes us from other people’s suffering and attempts to bring sustained compassion to each other. It’s a story of how we all live in our own little or big town and share humanity no matter where we live or what culture we live in.

Nonprofits making a real-world difference: Everytown

Written by Rebecca Folsom, Steve Szymanski, Carli Zug

Written out of deep love for our beautiful planet, this song is intended to be an exquisite sonic landscape weaving the multitude of feelings we as humans are experiencing about environmental impact. This song speaks to how living in “The Myth of Separation” (that we are not connected to each other and our surroundings) is creating a devastating impact.

I co-wrote this song with Carli Zug, a lover of nature and emissary of the trees, and Steve Szymanski, a music wizard and festival producer with a no-waste track record. Together, we wrote this song in the depths of the pandemic isolation. Writing together was a nourishing light of connection in the midst of so much isolation.

Many people and organizations are woven into this song. Katie Hendricks (a woman who loves the earth to the point of tears and has lived a life of bringing consciousness to humanity) and Joe Robinson (ocean lover and dear friend) supported deeply with mind blowing information, connections, and resources.

Nonprofits making a real-world difference: One Tree Planted, Ocean Conservancy, Mission Blue, The Nature Conservancy

Written by Rebecca Folsom and Dana Cooper

This song was written in the midst of the political frenzy to build the wall between Mexico and the United States. It ended up addressing more broadly how we build walls by labeling and judging those different from ourselves. This was written with songwriter extraordinaire Dana Cooper in Nashville, Tennessee. It was a pleasure and honor to write with him!

Nonprofits making a real-world difference: Doctors Without Borders, American Civil Liberties Union

Written by Rebecca Folsom and Bob Lecy

This song came into being when I heard two men speak at a benefit concert I played on the anniversary of 9/11. First, I listened to Robert Bellows speak, and I was deeply moved. Robert is the founder of Warrior Storyfield. He shared his mission of fostering community among veterans, bridging veterans with civilians, making astounding art, and in their words, allowing the unspoken, even the unspeakable to be spoken. Then, I listened to veteran Bob Lecy share a small piece of his story of being a medic on the front lines in Vietnam. I was moved beyond measure.

That night, we agreed to write this song. Robert, Bob, and I sat outside on a chilly autumn day dwarfed by intricate and powerful 20-foot metal sculptures of a phoenix and a dragon. Snow and ash were flying as we plumbed our way into the depth of his story. I was moved to goosebumps and tears over and over. His story is a reflection of many soldier’s stories.

Nonprofits making a real-world difference: The Warrior Storyfield

Written by Rebecca Folsom, Raqaya Alfaris, Mireille Bakhos

Writing this song was a journey. I collaborated with Folk Alliance International (FAI) and The International Rescue Committee (IRC). With IRC in the lead, I began by facilitating “Open Your Voice” workshops with teen refugees. Participants wrote their stories then shared them through their written word, singing songs, and presenting native dances from their homeland. What an honor to hear and witness their stories.

These workshops started with a tangible awkwardness, as people from communities that don’t usually talk to each other came together. Moving beyond culture, age, and language barriers, the workshops enabled brave and thoughtful sharing and deep listening. All of the workshops ended with joyous and celebratory sharing of stories through the creative arts.

The IRC was an incredible bridge. The individuals on staff were beyond caring and helpful. Over and over, the people who had found refuge in the United States spoke of how they wanted to move beyond the refugee stigma and be treated as equals. This song was born from this message.

Raqaya Alfaris stood out as a particularly bright light in these workshops as she shared her heartfelt poetry. She and I, along with IRC facilitator Mireille Bakhos, then began a dedicated journey of writing this song. When we finished it, we sang it at the FAI international conference in New Orleans to over 2,000 people. An administrator from the United Nations was there and became interested in booking us for a UN international tour. Then, the pandemic hit. We plan to bring the UN international tour back into fruition.

Nonprofits making a real-world difference: International Rescue Committee (IRC)

Written by Rebecca Folsom

I learned so much from each song on this album. The theme for this song is gender equality, and it pushed my edges a little harder than the other songs. I wrote and recorded two different songs for this theme before I wrote and landed on Brilliantly, Boldly Alive.

This is a song to bring each woman’s voice forward to be heard. In the process of writing and producing this song, I personally moved through many of the ways I don’t honor and hear my own voice. What is it to be a woman in my full power, in full voice? What do I run into that pushes against that, inside and outside of me?

At first, I wrote this song to be an anthem for all women and the many ways women are treated like second class citizens, such as through marginalizing policy, unequal pay, and lack of safety to name a few. As I dropped into my own experience of diminishment, sexual assault, being dismissed, and I embraced the healing and power to rise above it all, Brilliantly, Boldly Alive came into focus. This song unfolded and continues to surprise me. It is an anthem of women’s strength and our courageous vulnerability. It is a song of finding our power and shining in the full spectrum of ourselves.

Nonprofits making a real-world difference: National Organization for Women, Association of Women’s Rights, Center for Reproductive Rights, Colorado Women’s Education Foundation

Written by Rebecca Folsom

I first intended this song to be about how we are blind to aging adults and the need to bring them into view and hear their wisdom. However, after interviewing a robust and feisty group of aging adults, I slightly changed my course, and instead of writing about age blindness and judgements, I wrote on the life wisdom they all wanted to share.

This song is from the perspective of talking to one’s younger self about how to live life. Every aging adult I talked to said to not sweat the small stuff, to “go for it,” it is most often the things they didn’t do that they regretted, to relax around doing it wrong, be teachable, and to enjoy the beauty of it all. I hope I did them justice in putting their life wisdom into musical prose!

Nonprofits making a real-world difference: Meals on Wheels, Pets for the Elderly, Second Wind Dreams

So many people were part of and crucial in the creation of these songs: Roshi Sanchi Reta Lawler, Katie and Gay Hendricks, Brette Petway and Popscapes, Cynda Collins Arsenault, Chuck and Leann Roberts, Joe and Kim Robinson, Donald Davidoff, Suzy Batiz, Roger Folsom, Mike Clough, John Scott Clough, Amy and Jim Jacquemard, Karen Horan, Audrey Hazekamp, Everyone at BAC, Diane Israel, Anne Perret and Terry Zachard, Tom Wasinger, Susan Wasinger, James Tuttle, Alyson Bell, Charlotte DeLasso, Terri Stewart, Linda Buchner, Carli Zug and Steve Szymanski, The Folsom Family, Venn Wyld, Davis and Kathy Folsom, Gillian Ferrabee, Michael Moore, Margery Goldman, Lynn Israel, and every single grassroots donor who contributed.

Thank you for your love, light, deep care and for your amazing generosity that made this project possible. Some of you championed individual songs, some championed the whole album and project, some championed me as I moved through these experiences, and some championed all of the above.

Thank you writers and storytellers, poets and people who are leaning in to making life better for all. You are all in the bones of Sanctuary. All of you are championing Sanctuary with every song you listen to and share. To all of you I say a deep heartfelt THANK YOU! Thank you for believing in the power of this project! Thank you for willingness to wonder with me and for believing in positive possibilities! Thank You and Yes to the Power of Music!