Music Thursdays: Alastair Moock’s Singing Our Way Through

By Nathan Young on July 11, 2013

This week, I wanted to talk about a special musician that you need to watch! Alastair Moock is a musician and father whose life took an unexpected turn when his twin five-year old daughter Clio was diagnosed with Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia last July. Although the diagnosis was hard to take in as the parents walked around wondering what to do. Alastair turned his sorrow and fear into music by picking up his guitar! Here is one of his songs titled “When I Get Bald.” This is some great music!

Over the next hospital-bound month, Alastair sang to Clio almost every day. When she felt up to it, she sang with his father and they even started to write songs together. After Clio returned home and cancer treatment became the new normal for the family, Alastair continued to write and collect songs that reflected their experience – the love, the pride, the surprising amount of joy, and some of the struggles too. It was his way of working through what they were facing and of trying to give his daughters the tools to work through it too. Music’s a big part of Alastair Moock’s life. He is still amazed by the transformative power of what they created together in that hospital room. In Alastair’s words “music truly can heal.”

Eventually, he realized he had an album’s worth of material on his hands and Alastair started a crowdsourcing campaign to cover recording expenses and help him get the finished product into the hands of kids around the country. He asked for $10,000; he got $30,000! In January of 2013, he went into the studio to record Singing Our Way Through: Songs for the World’s Bravest Kids. Some songs featured some work from other well-known musicians such as Chris Smither, Rani Arbo, Mark Erelli, Aoife O’Donovan, The Okee Dokee Brothers, and Elizabeth Mitchell. Another great song from Alastair Moock is “These Are My Friends.”

Alastair also pulled together a chorus of patients and siblings—kids who knew better than anyone what these songs were all about. It was near the end of the recording process when they came into the studio and let their lights shine. When they did, he knew they had something special on their hands. Alastair’s mission now is to get Singing Our Way Through out to as many hospitals, clinics, and music therapy programs as possible so they can share it with their patients. You can listen to the songs for free and purchase the album at: http://alastairmoock.bandcamp.com/music

Alastair Moock hopes his new album will inspire sick children and their families to use music as medicine and know that they can beat their diagnoses and not let their disease define them. After listening to some songs from the album like “When I Get Bald”, “Walk On”, “Take Care of Your Grownups”, and many more! I can tell you that Alastair Moock’s new album is a listening pleasure! His music will serve many generations to come as other people are looking for something to take the pressure off of a diagnosis. This music is inspirational, well-produced, and well-written for any age. These songs will inspire you and move you to do something to make a difference. I encourage all of you to listen to the music from Alastair Moock!

Maybe Geek Alabama can do a special interview with Alastair Moock in the near future about this great music! Stay tuned! To learn more about Singing Our Way Through and Alastair Moock, go to: http://www.singingourway.com. Follow Alastair Moock on Facebook at: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Alastair-Moock-Music/43677062968 and on Twitter @AlastairMoock.

Follow him on YouTube at: http://www.youtube.com/user/moockmusic and on Google Plus at: https://plus.google.com/u/0/109504019679740869642/posts