The Long Cold Winter

The inspiration for Long Cold Winter came thru my weekly jam sessions with my long time friend and musical cohort guitarist Fitz-Hugh Jenkins. One afternoon while improvising this strong melody came in. It was like the whole song was there instantaneously. After playing and streaming onto FB Fitz and I shared our impressions of the music. Both of us felt a strong Eastern European feel to the music. We could sense that it was reminiscent of of a very difficult time of war during the winter. We both shared we could see in our imagination people that were hungry and struggling to stay warm. We felt that perhaps this music was about something that happened in the past like WW1 or the siege on Leningrad. You see this was 2-3 months before the war broke out. I was clearly guided that I needed to record this song while it was fresh in my consciousness. After the music was complete I received guidance to make a music video to bring the music to life. I enlisted the services of Sara Pozin a 20 something award winning animator living in Slovenia who I found on the internet. I shared with her my vision for the song and she brought it to life beautifully with her hand drawn animation. The story line of the video shows 3 sets of characters. A young Ukrainian girl and her little brother who live a peaceful life in a small village in the country side. Next is a 20 something romantic couple in love who live in Kiev and enjoyed sitting atop a hill over looking the capitol city. And then finally an elderly couple walking in the country side leaving their peaceful life behind and heading for uncertainty. . All their lives intersect in the unfolding drama of this terrible war. In the end my hope and prayer is that the warm sun will rise again over Ukraine! This music and video came from my heart and soul. I hope you enjoy!!

Composed and produced by Peter Sterling