TOUR STOP: Siren Songs — “Edelweiss”

At the end of the day, we’re all going to need a lot of ingenuity to make it through what is already the worst global economic crisis since the Depression.
To zoom in on the micro, artists will need a lot of creativity to work around the restrictions we now have on live music. Siren Songs, a collaboration between Meredith Kaye Clarke and Jenn Grinels, are now on tour. But not on the road — just the information superhighway.
Adobe & Teardrops is proud to host the second stop of the duet’s physical tour with their cover of Roger and Hammerstein’s “Edelweiss.”
Their cover of “Edelweiss” (the Rodgers and Hammerstein song from “The Sound of Music”) earned praise from an actual member of the family depicted in the movie when Sofia von Trapp (great-granddaughter of Maria and Georg von Trapp) called it “beautiful,” and declared, “I love how peaceful it is.”
There’s a reason Siren Songs build such wonderful connections with their audience: a commitment to craft and a sense of fun. Read below about the duo’s touring adventures — and listen to their moving cover of “Edelweiss.”
Photo Credit: Chelsea Donoho

Thank you for stopping by Adobe & Teardrops on your digital tour! Tell us a bit about this song and why you chose to perform it for us.

JENN – Our arrangement of “Edelweiss” was inspired by a gentleman named Song Pak. His daughters support me through Patreon.com, and when he passed they requested I do an arrangement as a tribute to him – because it was his favorite song. So that’s what inspired our rendition. It’s really a tribute to him, to honor his memory, as well as his beautiful wife Mary, whom they lost a short time later. I changed the chord progression and the time signature, to make the song a bit more emotional.

MERIDETH – The song is from the musical “The Sound of Music.” Did you know? Jenn and I both made our stage debuts when we were little kids as Gretl, the youngest von Trapp! We both love musical theatre and find a ton of inspiration in music for the stage.

JENN – We’ve really enjoyed taking musical theatre songs and reimagining them. Especially songs like this one that are beloved by so many.

Where did you film this clip?

MERIDETH – We filmed the clip at Jenn’s place.

JENN – On my balcony! Overlooking the Willamette River. We took advantage of the gorgeous view.


Any stories to share about the shoot?

MERIDETH – It’s kind of a fun and worthy mention that in the video we have a spotlight a few feet from our faces! One of things we have to do when DIYing and filming our own videos is come up with all of the necessary lighting! We were really lucky because Jenn has her own spotlight that she owns and travels with when she’s performing; we had to put it up since we were so backlit by the sunset. And it even makes an appearance in the video!

JENN – Not like a ring light, but a big industrial spotlight. I think lighting is so important!

MERIDETH – Overall, we are all in a steep learning curve with regard to making our own videos given the current climate. We can’t exactly just call up our favorite videographers and have a crew stop over to make a legit video. This, on top of all of our shows being cancelled, propelled the need for us to keep doing what we can to create our own shows and keep the creativity flowing.


Any great stories to share from your experiences on tour in the past?

MERIDETH – We were doing a show up in Washington years ago and we brought our boyfriends along (who are now our husbands!), and afterwards the four of us went white water rafting.

JENN – We got the best rafting photo ever! They did the classic, professional photo of all of us at one point during the experience, like at a theme park, and we knew it was coming and we ALL did the Blue Steel face from “Zoolander.” The company actually used it in ads for a while. It was fantastic.

MERIDETH – It was one of those moments where we would have never otherwise been in that part of Washington. Music brought us there, to the Wenatchee River! It was a beautiful day and we had so much fun.