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Praying For The Peoples Of All Nations
All the planets are inhabited

public domain image credits: George Hodan, “Stars In The Night Sky”; Declassified image from Aeronautical Systems Division, USAF “Project 1794, Final Development Summary Report” (d.1956); various swirls and found art. 

 

Praying For The Peoples Of All Nations is a collaboration between indie songwriter Nick Blake (Excited States of America, Bluegrass Block Party, Good Little Monkey) and jazz groove artist Rich Schwegerl (Lou Rawls, Taj Mahal, Ensembles, Island Voyage). For the past year they have been meeting every few months for 24-hour recording sessions to record as many of their hundreds of originals as they can.

The album All the planets are inhabited features 8 diverse tracks from the several dozen songs they've worked on in their recording sessions thus far.

The album starts with the groovy "What planet do you come from?", followed by an alt-country review of Carl Sagan's book "Demon Haunted World" called "Carl Sagan's passed away". The third track is a minor blues standard-style, "When I'm blue", about embracing depression and pain, followed by the rage-rock track, "I don't have anger issues (you're just an asshole)".

The album switches gears halfway through with the prog-rock adapted prayer to Ganesha, "Om gam ganapataye namahah", then a soundscape titled "The day the craft descended." Finishing up the album is the short "I know", then finally the anthemic rock track "My sweet baby (the hypocrite)".

The artist name "Praying For The Peoples Of All Nations" is adapted from a Lakota First Nation prayer and reflects the artists' ardent wishes for well-being and mutual respect among all beings. The album title "All the planets are inhabited" comes from a cable sent by Desmond Leslie to his wife, as published in the Weekend Mail in the UK on 26 August, 1954. The album title reflects the belief that despite all our claims of superiority and scientific knowledge, the truth is that we know very little about the vast and often strange universe.

 

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