🎸🎶 Somewhere to Begin 💭❤️

Written in April 2023

🎶 Prologue ❤️

Earlier this year, my first cousin Jeanie wrote me that she likes the song Somewhere To Begin, sung by Sara Thomsen and written by TR Ritchie. It became my favorite song for weeks. I listened to it endlessly and sang along until I knew all of the lyrics by heart.

I had never heard of Sara Thomsen or TR Ritchie before, but I have been enjoying more of their music lately.

In "Somewhere To Begin," when pressed about how he can sing and perform music while surrounded by such tragedy and pain in the world, singer-songwriter TR Ritchie acknowledges that dramatic changes do need to take place, but that "at least for a fool such as I, a song is somewhere to begin." Offering his defense smoothly but with a mixture of righteousness and defiance, he takes the stand that we all should do what we can to make the world a better place and that his artistry is his means of conveying his efforts for betterment.

🎸🎶 Somewhere to Begin ❤️💭

Click on the image of Sara Thomsen below to hear her singing TR Ritchie's song. The lyrics are below it if you would like to sing along.

🎸 Sara Thomsen 🎶

Dubbed in her local press as “one of Northern Minnesota’s best kept secrets,” Thomsen’s home base is in the Lake Superior region near Duluth.

“The Twin Ports folk singer picks up the torch carried by the balladeers of decades past: Joan Baez, Pete Seeger, Holly Near, Ronnie Gilbert, and Peter, Paul, and Mary,” writes the Duluth Reader Weekly. “She could make Conan the Barbarian drop his sword and collapse blubbering.”

Thomsen has released six solo albums: Song Like A Seed (her latest), Somewhere to Begin, Everything Changes, By Breath, Fertile Ground and Arise.

“Thomsen’s soulful voice, poetic lyrics and unforgettable melodies cut through to the heart and the soul of human experience,” proclaims the Minnesota Women’s Press. With a voice rich as the best mid-west soil, Sara's songs carry you inward and outward – in, to the particulars of your own life, and out – into the shared humanity of us all. Her performance style is easygoing and full of humor and depth.

Sara is also member of the trio Three Altos, with Rabbi Amy Bernstein and Paula Pedersen (Thomsen 's spouse). The trio has released two CDs: Camaradas and One Voice. Thomsen and Pedersen released a duet album titled Winter Wanderings.

Sara is a graduate of the Ubuntu Network's Community Choir Leadership Training. In addition to her solo work she is the founder and artistic director of the Echoes of Peace Choir, a community choir in Duluth, with a repertoire of world music and a membership of 70+ voices.

🎸 TR Ritchie 🎶

Songwriter, touring musician, part-time graphic artist, photographer, tinker and thinker…as well as artist and poet. So reads his self-description at the end of his first book, Works on Paper.

TR Ritchie (1946-2014) died in Bellingham, Washington, after a brief battle with cancer on January 29, 2014, one day after Pete Seeger. He was 67.

Eleven days before TR passed, musician friends from all over the country drove and flew into Bellingham for a very powerful TR Ritchie concert, in which some favorite songs by TR were sung back to him. It was a stunning performance, and he enjoyed it immensely. It was a wonderful tribute, not only to TR’s great art, but also to the strong connections he had forged in the music community and beyond.

TR was active in Peoples Music Network. He lived for many years in the Northwest and spent his last years in Bellingham.

His CD discography includes Not Just Another Pretty Songwriter in 1984; Changing of the Guard in 1990, Homeground in 1995 which contains his song Somewhere to Begin; My Father’s Wildest Dream in 2001 and Wild Horses in 2009, as well as his book of poems, Works On Paper in 2011.

🎸 Epilogue 🎶

I really love the songs and lyrics that TR Ritchie wrote. In my opinion however, his voice is not as great as that of Sara Thomsen on her cover of TR's song Somewhere to Begin.

🎸🎶 The End 💭❤️