By Chuck Putney

Jim Scott, who has performed around the world and with the Paul Winter Consort, will present a mixed-media performance on Jan. 7, 2 p.m., at the UU Meetinghouse.

Mixing powerful songs and beautiful projected images, “The Year to Save the Earth” takes us from celebration to grieving, protest to positive vision for the planet. The program was developed under a National Endowment for the Arts grant.

Suggested contribution is $20, at the door.

Jim Scott’s lyrical melodies and outspoken poetry celebrate what’s beautiful, amazing, and fragile about our Earth. As well as hard reality, the program’s message is one of optimism with many invitations to join in the singing. Facing the urgency of the environmental crisis, the musical and visual experience challenges us to feel, to learn and to act.

Prolific composer guitarist Jim Scott brings a warmth and humor with his jazz and world music influenced songs. A life-long Unitarian Universalist, Jim has played at over 700 UU churches in four decades and his songs are included in UU songbooks. Formerly a member of the Paul Winter Consort, Jim was composer of their celebrated Missa Gaia/Earth Mass and sang their anthem song Common Ground. He has toured the world, recorded nine CDs of original music and published a growing line of choral works. One of the originators of the Unitarian Universalist Church “Green Sanctuary” program, Jim also compiled the Earth and Spirit Songbook, an anthology of over 100 songs of Earth by many contemporary composers.