Letter to America, Lead Sheet (Music Notation)

PDF File

A downloadable lead sheet for “Letter to America,” a song by Cindy Kallet. Transcribed in music notation, along with lyrics and chord symbols. (To listen to the song, click the play button a little further down this page.)

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.

You can listen to the song below. (It may take a few seconds before playback begins.)

You may buy a download of this recording HERE.

We are donating half of the proceeds from sales of this lead sheet to these two charities:

National Immigration Law Center
Refugees International