Music first came into Seth Glier’s life in second grade, he says, when he “got really interested in singing the national anthem before my sporting events.” He was 12 when he wrote his first song, using a light-up toy Casio keyboard. He wrote it on Sept. 11, 2001, he says, as a way to “capture and communicate” his tumultuous feelings about the violent events of that day.
“I don’t hold it up as a great song,” Glier says. “It was six minutes long and probably had a rap breakdown.” But no matter — the song was a breakthrough for him. Music, he realized, could give him a way to navigate the rest of his life.
Glier released his first album, The Trouble With People, in 2009. Since then, he’s produced five more, receiving a Grammy nomination for his 2011 record The Next Right Thing. He’ll be performing his original music at Eastham’s First Encounter Coffeehouse on May 17, joined by Canadian musician Taylor Abrahamse on guitar and vocals.
Glier grew up in Shelburne Falls and now lives in Holyoke. He got his first guitar when he was 16. By that time, he had replaced his toy keyboard with more grown up digital weighted keyboard. He didn’t take lessons on either instrument — instead, “I was a YouTube University kid,” Glier says. He used free videos online to teach himself to play the blues. He learned that most blues standards are structured on just three chords: C7, F7, and G7. In the piano world, he took inspiration from Professor Longhair, James Booker, and Dr. John. “They’re New Orleans piano encyclopedias,” Glier says.
The accessibility of the blues allowed Glier to “be in community with other musicians very quickly,” he says. But the songs he was writing himself weren’t in the blues style — he felt drawn to the singer-songwriter genre, he says.
In the past five years, Glier has focused on environmentalism in his life and music, he says. While some of his earlier albums, like the 2017 release Birds, had songs that “spoke to a spiritual relationship with nature,” he says, his most recent record is a concept album entirely about the Earth.
Everything, released in 2024, was inspired by the podcast How to Save a Planet, hosted by journalist Alex Blumberg and marine biologist Ayana Elizabeth Johnson. “It highlights all the best things that are being done for the planet,” Glier says. “It reframes the conversation from doom and gloom to the communities and people who are cultivating solutions.”
“Rise,” the first song on the album, is about the concept of rewilding. “It’s definitely the most strident, optimistic song on the record,” Glier says. “It sets the stage for what I believe in.” Over finger-plucked acoustic guitar and a percussive shaker, Glier’s voice is distinct with its high pitch and bluesy rasp. “What if this is the beginning,” he sings, “not the beginning of the end?” The song expands with the low thrum of electric bass, like something is waking up. “If you could stand still enough to listen,” Glier sings, “you’ll hear a symphony of little things.” His lyrics are rich with imagery of old growth forests, wild creatures, and rushing water. The song peaks with a repeated line: “We all belong to the river, so rise.”
“Rewilding can look like a lot of things,” Glier says. It could look like preserving a meadow or putting the bends back in rivers that were straightened for agricultural purposes. “Right now, it’s my back yard,” Glier says. He’s practicing “no-mow May.”
The musical arrangements on Everything include strings, woodwinds, drums, electric bass, guitar, and synthesizers. “It’s still mostly an acoustic album,” Glier says, “but often those acoustic instruments are manipulated with a warble or other surprising elements.”
“Mammoth,” written from the perspective of an extinct creature being brought back to life, was the first song Glier created for this project. He wanted the track’s piano part to sound like it was “buried under permafrost,” he says. He covered the top of his 1925 Steinway grand with 20 blankets, then pushed microphones into the blankets. The result: a muffled, faint piano melody rumbling under Glier’s vocals. For the same song, he enlisted a friend in Montana to record snow falling. “It sounds like the gentlest kind of footsteps,” he says.
The track illustrates a more subtle climate solution than some of the others on the album: feeling empathy for other creatures, even extinct ones. It’s a sad song — the mammoth doesn’t want to be resurrected. “I was trying to tap into the hubris of the human being,” says Glier. “I sometimes think the idea of resurrection takes away from the essence of living and being human.”
“Birches,” a song about the phenomenon of birch trees’ gradual migration north because of warming temperatures, is sung a cappella. Glier wrote it for a five-part choir and collaborated with Windborne, a four-person vocal group known for its arrangements of polyphonic music from around the world. Glier opens the song with a solo line: “The birches have fallen.” Then, Windborne joins him in resonant harmony, repeating that line. Short and sweet at just over one and a half minutes, “Birches” sounds like a lament. Glier and Windborne are like an ancient Greek chorus reciting a tragedy. The song isn’t about a human solution to climate change; instead, it describes the natural solutions that other species find to survive.
The album’s final track, “It’s Everything,” was inspired by a moment in the woods a couple of years ago after taking up mushroom hunting. “I’d spend a lot of time in the woods foraging, trying to figure out what I could identify, what was edible, and what would make me talk to God for a week,” says Glier. One day, he came across a patch of chanterelles — one way to identify the species is by its sweet, apricot-like smell. “I brought a mushroom up to my nose,” Glier says. “As soon as I breathed in, I felt this tingle go down my spine.” For a few seconds, he experienced an intense feeling of déjà vu. “Everything in my body was telling me I had done this before,” he says.
He wrote “It’s Everything” based on that feeling. The song begins with plucked guitar, a steady, gentle drumbeat, and wordless, airy vocalizations. Glier starts to sing — his lyrics tell a story of wandering through and witnessing nature. “The air was raining down messages,” Glier sings, “answering every question.” The song is about re-energizing his relationship with nature, he says. “It’s no longer a place that I go and visit. It’s something I’m a fluid part of.”
Something that’s missing from the climate activism movement is joy, Glier says. “It’s Everything” glows with the tranquility and clarity that comes from spending time in wild places. “There’s meaning in what each moment brings,” Glier sings. “Doesn’t seem like much, but it’s everything.”
Earth Tones
The event: A performance by musician Seth Glier
The place: First Encounter Coffeehouse, 220 Samoset Road, Eastham
The time: Saturday, May 17; doors open at 7 p.m., show at 7:30
The cost: $25 at firstencounter.org
