The journey begins with the sun rising in the atmospheric haze of ‘Dawn’ – an instrumental track, composed by new-age innovator Iasos. Gospel singer Walter Hawkins soon drops in with a soulful funky ‘Metropolis,’ a yearning for life “back to the land,”  backed by a heavy array of session musicians with Patrick Gleeson, Ed Bogas and Tom Salisbury all adding their own misty magic to the album.

The beautiful “Water Cycle” track is another instrumental, including nature sounds, really quite evocative and easy to listen to.

Side 1 finishes with ‘Mountain,’ a peaen to the landscape where “my years to her are seconds in hte blinking of her eyes.”

Side 2 begins with a turning from the “celebratory” aspect of side 1, to the environmental tragedies facing nature and humankind in the late 20th century. In ‘Manchild,” the lyrics have Mother Nature speaking beseechingly to her “Manchild” who had “everything you wanted” but “deep within your cities… you have somehow lost your balance.” The message is clear: “You were a child blessed with wisdom /unlike the world  had ever seen./What has happened since you left us in the trees?” But a solution is proposed: “I am the wind, the rain, the summer, I am the wide open land – / Is it really all that bad to be a part of me?”

The second song on Side 2, “Flight of the Egret,” is another instrumenal, featuring percussion, alto flute, guitar, and bass.

The third song on Side 2, ‘Windsong’ again celebrates the mountains, with vocals telling of “invisible musicians” performing a mountain Mass with yellow aspen and evergreens, where “After days of mountain music you just begin to see all the naturalness we’ve lost in all our painted cities…”

The penultimate song of the album is its crescendo: ‘Before I’m Gone’ really powers the primary message of the album, calling on ourselves to “put an end to all we’re losing,” and to “give up being spoilers of the land.” See complete lyrics for this song below.

Finally, the album concludes with a brief 1 1/2 minutes reprise of ‘Manchild’  with Mother Nature calling to her wayward children to “come home.”