I had the privilege yesterday of meeting Mike Nobel and the privilege of hearing a group of talented and enthusiastic elementary school students perform some of his songs. Mike Nobel is a singer/songwriter/composer from Gorham, Maine, near the place in Maine we used to call home. When we still lived in Maine, my wife used his stuff with her primary students and my daughter grew fond of singing his songs at home.

Mike Nobel has produced a number of different collections of songs for school children: songs about smoking prevention, songs about abuse prevention. But the songs I know and love, the songs my daughter still sings are the songs from Color Me Green, a collection of songs about environmental awareness and environmental activism. Here’s an excerpt:

Come on people all around the world
Mommas and daddies, boys and girls
This old planet’s in a terrible state
Getting more polluted day by day

In every city, in every town
You gotta stand up (Stand up!) and look around
The earth is in trouble, you know that it’s true
Well this is the future talkin’ to you

You got to stand up (Stand up!) for mother nature
Stand up (Stand up!) for a greener future
Got to stand up! (Stand up!) Stand up! (Stand up!)
And help the world to be pollution free (Pollution free) Pollution free!

For the birds and the bees, for the fish in the sea
For the fuzzy little animals hiding in the trees
For the earth and the water, for the air we breathe
Don’t wait ’till we face an emergency

Hand to hand, and brain to brain
Little by little we can make a change
Across the nation, around the globe
Workin’ together, ’till everybody knows ….

You got to stand up (Stand up!) for mother nature
Stand up (Stand up!) for a greener future
Got to stand up! (Stand up!) Stand up! (Stand up!)
And help the world to be pollution free (Pollution free) Pollution free!

The music is fun and often exquisite; the message is powerful and passionate; and the subject matter — this beautiful earth, God’s good creation — is a subject near and dear to my heart! Thank you, Mike, for sharing your passion for the earth with us through your music. Thank you, Lynne, for bringing him to Iowa. Thank you, children of Price Lab School, for making the songs (and I hope the passion for the earth they express) your own!

You may find out more about Mike Nobel and his music at http://www.freewebs.com/mikenobel/.