Have you found yourself thinking about Linda Waterfall lately?

You are not alone, my friends. Within a six-month period, three separate creative projects – two record compilations and a movie – have requested to license Linda Waterfall music. Three different songs, all from the same album – her third, released in 1979, called “My Heart Sings.”

You may or may not know about this album, which was released fairly early on in Linda’s musical career. Each licensor told me, separately, that they’ve had a secret love for that more obscure album in the Linda Waterfall repertoire.

“I’ve hosted a radio show since 2003 where the main focus is on lesser-known female singer-songwriters from the 1970s-1980s. I always have my eye and ear out for new-to-me discoveries,” says Taylor Rowley, of Dream Songs, says Taylor Rowly of Dream Songs, who music supervised the recently released movie “Good One.”

“One day back in 2021, I was trawling my Instagram feed and saw that a record label I like, the wonderful Séance Centre had posted about “My Heart Sings” along with a clip of song “My Name Is Maya.” I was hooked immediately! I played it on the next episode of my radio show and have been a fan since.”

Specifically, Rowley says, there is a scene in the film where the characters stop at a roadside diner on their way to a camping trip in the Catskill Mountains.

“The diner is kind of stuck in time, all wood-paneled and vinyl booths,” says Rowley. “When I was considering the kind of music that would play in a place like that, I envisioned 1970s soft rock. I thought of artists like Jackson Browne, Phoebe Snow, Janis Ian. Linda Ronstad’s music also came to mind. Once I thought of her name, I was like “Wait! Linda Waterfall’s music would be *perfect* here!” I laid it under the scene and sure enough, it was. I presented the filmmakers with a handful of songs by different artists and they landed on “My Heart Is Gonna Break” just like I hoped they would. It was a unanimous decision and I can’t imagine any other song in that spot now.”

“Good One,” written and directed by India Donaldson, premiered at Sundance this January to stellar reviews and will be released nationwide this summer. I am SURE Linda would get a kick out of the fact that her music was scoring the film of a female independent filmmaker.

Two other songs from “My Heart Sings,” including “My Name is Maya” and “Clarity” will be released on DJ compilation albums coming out of the UK later in the year. More details on those albums including titles and where you can buy them will be released this fall.

“On discovering the ‘My Name Is Maya’ track … from the ‘My Heart Sings L.P.’ I did a deep dive into Linda’s back catalogue only to find a host of lost gems unheard by many for years,” says Micky Browne, a 30-something record producer and DJ with RE:WARM Records in the UK “It felt like discovering lost treasure or stumbling across a forgotten tribe that were only too happy to welcome you into the family.”

Linda herself had this to say about “My Heart Sings:”

“Manny Hadlock, co-owner of Bear Creek Studio  where the album was recorded, told me “You should call this album “Crazy Quilt,” because there are so many different patterns and styles.”

It was a sentiment echoed by Tom Corddry (of former KZAM radio fame), Linda recalled: “(He remarked) that I was like a new fledgling, flexing my musical muscles in a dozen different ways. Everything from a rock tune, a jazz tune, a folk tune and short coral piece that became the seed for my first choral music grant from the Seattle Arts Commission. (La Cigale et la Fourmi, performed by the Seattle Chamber Singers in 1984).

Some great news:

We have some vinyl copies of “My Heart Sings” and want to make it available to you! Please click the “Add to Cart” button to order the album, and we’ll ship it to you.

I taught songwriting at Cornish College of the Arts from Autumn 2004 – May 2012. In 2004, the school asked for an interview to post with the announcement of my hiring. I just stumbled across it, and felt that it makes a good introduction if you’ve never met me before, so I’m posting it as the first installment on my blog. You can also see some “historical” photos from my musical past, on the Photo Album page

Which courses do you teach? Songwriting.

Why do you teach? I teach with the idea that I’m passing along the inspiration and guidance that made it possible for me to become an artist. In a hunter/gatherer society, everyone is an artist, integrated with the work of daily life. That’s in our DNA. We’d have a better society if that was still going on.

What brought you to Cornish? Chuck Deardorf called me. I’m grateful.

Where do you draw inspiration from? I’m inspired by spending time out in the wilderness. I like to read about science, especially cosmology and quantum theory. I’m inspired when I perceive excellence, in all artistic disciplines. Excellence is hard to pin down, but for me, it would include both a satisfying level of complexity and some kind of emotional impact and coherence. I also have a meditation practice which is very important to me.

What drew you to your field? I grew up in a musical family. I’ve been breathing it all my life.

Tell us about your creative process. First and foremost, it’s a mystery. Beyond that, I can say that I experience it as a ping-ponging back and forth been logic and intuition. Also, that a musical piece feels to me like an entity of some sort. The form I choose for it needs to honor “what the entity is asking for”. If I try to “paste something on it” that it doesn’t like, it will just fall off, sooner or later. Sometimes that can be a stuck place –preconceived ideas.

What projects are you currently working on? In September ’06, I am releasing a new recording — 13 tracks, 6 originals, 6 traditional songs that I have arranged, and one Beatles tune that I arranged rather differently from the original. So right now, I’m paying alot of attention to the process of releasing a recording. I have some fledgling compositions “in the nest”, which I’m noodling around with.

What do you do for fun? I love hiking. I do watercolors. (I have a degree in visual art) I like to read. I enjoy cooking. Renting dvd’s of standup comics.

What do you like most about Cornish? I’m totally thrilled by the inspiration of being in the Cornish community. When I accepted the position here, I assumed that I would find the students’ work interesting, but it has truly surpassed any expectations I had. Interaction with the other faculty members is also fascinating, and the special events…..I guess “wow” kind of covers it.

Anything else you would like to share? My hopes for the spiritual evolution of our species.