Americana Highways brings you this song and lyric video premiere of Alastair Moock’s “Planting Seeds Feat. Sean Staples” from the upcoming album Be a Pain: An Album for Young (and Old) Leaders. Be a Pain was produced by Anand Nayak, recorded and mixed by Andrew Oedel at Ghost Hit Recording in Holyoke, MA, with additional recording by Anand Nayak, Sean Staples, Mark Erelli, Kris Delmhorst, Brian Amador and Tom White. The album will be released on Moockshake Music on April 3rd. “Planting Seeds” is Alastair Moock and Sean Staples on vocals; Alastair Moock on acoustic guitar; Sean Staples on mandolin; and Jamie Walker on electric guitar.
The lyric video was directed and produced by Alastair Moock. If you’re looking for great music for all ages, and we mean all ages, try Alastair Moock’s latest on for size. With the quality music that frankly normally missing from so much of so-called “kids music,” this album will ease the cringe factor and bring smiles all around.
Sean Staples and I wrote “Planting Seeds” soon after the 2016 election. We had arranged to co-write something that day before we knew the results, and we weren’t necessarily planning to write something political in nature. Sean, who came up with the tag line, says, “As I kicked around ideas for us to work on, it occurred to me that Alastair’s history of sharing songs of struggle and hope with kids in schools was the perfect kind of response to where we were at in our country. The idea of planting seeds seemed a pretty good place to start lyrically.”
Writing political material that isn’t didactic and too on-the-nose is always a tricky business –– even more so when you intend for kids to be at least part of the listening audience. I like the approach we took with this one. We didn’t tie it to a time and place. it had a particular meaning when we first started performing it at the time, but you don’t need that context for the song to work. Ultimately, it’s just a song about putting your head down and getting to work –– whatever obstacles you might be facing.
Sean Staples has won multiple Boston Music Awards, including Outstanding Folk Act of the Year with his band The Resophonics. His songs have been covered by Ruthie Foster, Rani Arbo, Session Americana and many more. Alastair Moock is a 2014 Grammy Nominee and two-time Parents’ Choice Gold Medal Winner.
