America’s system of national parks is a national treasure. Incredible natural phenomena and breathtaking vistas are preserved so that future generations can experience the same sights we see today.
Each year, the parks inspire millions of visitors from around the country and across the globe to travel—often great distances—to witness wonders of the natural world that can be found nowhere else. The parks also inspire artists of all kinds, from painters and photographers to musicians and poets, to creatively express that sense of awe which draws us, again and again, into nature.
One such artist is musician Gigi Love. Love has written 20 songs about different national parks, 11 of which are compiled onto a CD called National Parks Centennial Songs. This passion project, which started spontaneously over a decade ago in Yosemite National Park with the song “Yosemite Gold” has taken Love to places she never expected to go.
All aboard the trails and rails
One of these unexpected places turned out to be a long-distance Amtrak train, when Love was an ambassador for the national parks through a program called Trails and Rails.
The journey all started when Love had an opportunity to perform in the Bright Angel bar in Grand Canyon National Park. As fate would have it, the team of people who coordinated the Trails and Rails program also happened to be in the bar that evening. Trails and Rails is a partnership between the National Park Service, Amtrak, and Texas A&M University to place volunteers on trains to talk to passengers and raise awareness for the parks.
The team liked what they heard, and before long Love and her guitar were riding the rails. As the countryside zipped by outside the train window, Love performed for a captive audience, who were generally thankful for entertainment as they traveled from Los Angeles to Seattle, or from Tucson to New Orleans.
She found that her music opened doors for conversation, not just between her and her audience but among the passengers themselves. Walls came down as people from different walks of life shared their experiences exploring nature and tips for where to go next.
During her time as a Trails and Rails ambassador, Love also hosted a podcast called Trains Trails and Troubadours. Each of the 14 episodes features interviews with a variety of interesting people she met, from fellow train passengers to park rangers.
Sadly, reduced funding for the Trails and Rails program currently prevents Gigi Love and her husband and manager, Peter Nicholson, from riding the rails like they did in 2017. She hopes for more funding in the future and more opportunities to share her message with Amtrak passengers.
A message of preservation for the future
Love describes herself as both a musician and an environmentalist. Her message is not just about taking advantage of the incredible resources of our national parks for recreation, but also about our responsibility to preserve them.
She mourns the current trend toward reducing acreage at many national parks and the relaxing of restrictions on drilling, fracking, and other industrial processes that put these pristine environments at risk. She hopes that her songs can inspire people to treasure America’s natural resources, as well as start conversations about environmental issues such as clean air and clean water.
The time Love spent as a Trails and Rails ambassador has opened doors for her to perform in national parks, which generally restrict performers. Her success hasn’t happened overnight, but her passion, humility, and perseverance are slowly paying off. She now gets opportunities to play at visitor centers and ranger programs, and even occasionally for junior ranger programs. As a former teacher, she is perhaps most passionate about these opportunities to sing for kids and talk to them about the importance of caring for the earth.
“My passion is teaching kids,” Love says. “They’re the ones that are going to be in charge of our environment. It’s going to be on them. I’m trying not to scare them or put too much pressure on them, but I’m trying to encourage the kids to have a hands-on experience in the parks.”
Escaping the treadmill
At the age of 29, Love discovered that talking all day as a teacher was damaging her voice. She was forced to decide between teaching and music, which she explains as a choice between security and following her dreams. She chose music and spent years trying to “make it” as a performer.
Despite some success, such as opening for the Dave Matthews Band and performing at the closing ceremonies of the Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, for years she felt like she was on a treadmill. “[At that moment] I just started letting go of the idea of fame or money and started writing the songs that mattered to me,” Love explains. “And I realized those were the songs about the earth. This whole album was like a rebirth for me.”
Lately, she’s been cooperating with Park Smarts for Kids to create an educational activity book to complement her CD, set to release this September. In the meantime, she’s continuing to tour and perform in the national parks, and has no plans to stop.
What grander stage could there be, after all, than the North Rim of the Grand Canyon, or the red rocks of Zion? Happy to be upstaged by the splendor of a glacier or a fuming volcano, Love hopes to continue performing in the parks for many years to come.
She may not be a household name yet, but Love is lending her voice to speak for national treasures that cannot speak for themselves, while also giving a voice to that feeling of awe that the parks inevitably inspire in each of us.
You can catch Gigi Love at her next performance in Rocky Mountain National Park or follow her on Facebook for future performance announcements. For music samples, visit gigilove.com.
