Who is playing the harmonica? I like it.

Thak you and Mithril for making the song available online to share with others.

Thank you for composing this beautiful song. It communicates through music what cannot be expressed in words about what is happening in the Gulf and to an entire way of life along the Gulf Coast.

Hearing Mithril perform this at your recent concert at Laidlaw’s Performing Arts Center provided a quiet space in all of our souls. It was a musical respite from the shock, sadness and uncertainty that arrived in the wake of this BP oil spill.

The summer concert and Mithril’s heart-rending performance of this song was like an oil skimmer for our brains providing a glimpse again of the sugar-white beaches, and the rich blues and emerald green colors of the water. Mithril’s performance of your song laid out brightest orange ocean-level boom—a life raft for our spirits.

This song hits all the notes just right. In the beginning it has such a joyful, lilting tune reminiscent of children running in the waves, catching fish and playing on the beach.

In some ways, the middle of the tune reminds me of a spirited Cajun dance beneath a full silver moon somewhere along the bayou of Louisiana, or of Mark Twain’s Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn rafting down the Mississippi River— the innocence of childhood and appreciation for the beauty of the natural world, the heartbeat of the culture of the Gulf Coast— all put to music.

The melody moves to a more wistful, somber note. It expresses the ineffable and inexpressible feelings of uncertainty and loss as the cataclysmic oil spill takes its toll.

The original version of the song captures the tragedy of the eleven lives lost. The sadness and the poignancy of this tragedy and its ongoing effects as it continues to unfold– yet there is a solid base line of hopefulness expressed throughout the entire tune, like the sound of waves that keep returning to the shore.

“Cross Your Heart and Pray For Hope,” captures the persevering spirit of those who live and work along the Gulf Coast. It is like the deep lament of fishermen who once plied these waters and saw its morning shimmer, now a glimmer in their memories, as their livelihood turns from fishing the seas to skimming the thick oil covering the waters we all love.

The song is such a fitting tribute. It taps into that love we all share for the sea. By listening to your song, even those who do not live along the Gulf Coast can be moved by the beauty of these waters and experience in their hearts this feeling we all share.

Thank you for sharing the behind-the-scenes process of naming the song. Your story and song vividly demonstrate just how tied we all are to these waters and how that love of the natural beauty of this world is passed down to each generation.

From your mother’s initial idea and e-mailed comments, “We have to keep praying and holding on to our faith through this. So many are truly suffering,” and your father’s words, “your memories are my memories,” your work on the composition of this simple and elegant song, Mithril’s live performances and recording, to Lauren’s and Billy’s ideas for the name of the song.

Thank you, David and Tasha, Lauren, Billy, Mithril, Stephanie and Lee, John and the entire Hughes family for bringing us hope and strengthening our faith in so many ways.