Letter to America – Song Download

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If you’d prefer a physical CD instead, click here.

To listen to a simple or extended rendition of this song, click the play buttons below, or further down the page. (You may have to wait several seconds for playback to begin.)

Letter to America
Letter to America/Green Fields of Canada

Cindy Kallet wrote “Letter to America” after hearing about the refugees who, in late January 2017, just a week after the presidential inauguration, were found, barefoot and freezing, crossing the northern New England and New York borders into Canada, fearing for their lives if they remained in the United States. The song imagines one refugee’s view of a country previously envisioned through the lens of the inscription on the Statue of Liberty.

“Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”     Emma Lazarus

The song’s style pays tribute to some Irish ballads of emigration, which speak of America as the promised land.

We offer two recorded renditions of the song:
1. The song on its own
2. An extended version in which Grey Larsen adds a haunting Irish alto flute solo – a  slow air called “The Green Fields of Canada,” his wordless interpretation of a traditional Irish ballad of emigration

This song is available for purchase only on this site, so that the artists can earn more from the fruits of their labors and you can meaningfully support their ability to make a living.

In addition, Kallet and Larsen are donating half of the proceeds from this song to these two charities:

National Immigration Law Center
Refugees International

Letter to America
Letter to America/Green Fields of Canada

Cindy Kallet: guitar and voice
Grey Larsen: piano, low D tin whistles, Irish alto flute, harmonium and voice

A lead sheet (music notation) of the song is available HERE.