Healing Songs

This topic identifies songs about healing, comfort for the dying, and life changes such as aging. 

There is a chapter in Rise Again on Healing & Letting Go that is devoted specifically to this subject. This chapter includes a number of songs used by hospice choirs that sing with individuals nearing the end of life to ease this greatest of all transitions for them and their families.

Other chapters that may be helpful are:

• the Hope & Strength chapter is Rise Again
• the Hope chapter in Rise Up Singing
• the Time & Changes chapter in Rise Again
• the Time & Changes chapter in Rise Up Singing
• the chapters on Faith, Gospel, and Lullabies in both books

Here are some of our favorite healing songs for those who are sick or deeply troubled:

• Balm in Gilead (African American spiritual)
• Can I Stand Here for You? (Kate Munger)
• Mi Shebeirach (Debbie Friedman - part of the Jewish liturgy)
• Let It Be (Paul McCartney)
• Sanctuary (Eliza Gilkyson)
• Thanksgiving Eve (Bob Franke)

Here are some of our favorite songs on aging & life changes:

• Circles (Harry Chapin)
• The Dutchman (Michael Peter Smith)
• Forever Young (Bob Dylan)
• A Garden of My Own (Patricia McKernon Runkle)
• Lies (Stan Rogers)
• Old Friends (Mary McCaslin)
• Old Friends (Paul Simon)
• Sunrise, Sunset (from Fiddler on the Roof)
• Tide & the River Rising (Cindy Kallet)
• Turn Around (Malvina Reynolds)
• Turn, Turn, Turn (Pete Seeger)
• Who Knows Where the Time Goes (Sandy Denny)

Here are some of songs for those facing death or major illness:

• Across the Great Divide (Kate Wolf)
• Angels Hovering Round
• Breaths (Ysaye Barnwell)
• Crossing the Bar (Alfred Lord Tennyson & Rani Arbo)
• Farthest Field (David Dodson)
• Gone, Gonna Rise Again (by Si Kahn)
• Love, Call Me Home (Peggy Seeger)
• Safe in the Harbor (Eric Bogle)
• To My Old Brown Earth (Pete Seeger)
• When I'm Gone (Phil Ochs)

Lullabies can also be comforting for both the ill and the dying, e.g.:

• All Through the Night
• John O'Dreams (Bill Caddick)
• Lullabye (Cris Williamson)
• Tender Shepherd (from Peter Pan)

You can find another list of Hospice Songs here. Threshold Choirs are a nation-wide network of hospice choirs founded by Kate Munger.