Welcome

Solstice 2022: Welcome to Crawford.

I’m glad you’re here. It is thrilling for me to invite you into Crawford—the middle path through the three intertwining song lines of my given name: Elizabeth Crawford McIntosh. As a songwriter and radio host I used the name Beth McIntosh. That name was (and is) a sturdy and magical vessel.

Crawford emerged during a simple, stark moment in January 2020. Aided by the indomitable Jo March of Little Women, I was able to reach down and pick up the small, smooth stone with my name on it and put it into my pocket.

The great Lisbon poet Fernando Pessoa had a relationship with his 70 heteronyms that expands—no, explodes!—the meaning of the adage: “What’s In A Name?” Pessoa’s genius (and demise) around the vivid people that filled his pages opens the mind to the outrageous possibility of what we are, who we are.

Pessoa’s journey moves me and resonates, but Crawford is not a heteronym—it is me. Feeling the comforting Crawford stone in my pocket soothes me; it is ballast from one of my ancestral threads. The Crawfords are a lively and mysterious bunch—creative and untamable. A Wild Crew. Writers. Dancers. Musicians. Steamboat travelers, Latin scholars, social workers. Stuff I’m proud to have in my bones. And Crawford is a vessel that suits me in the present and offers passage into a vivid and deeply pleasurable future.

We change, we change. We change whether we are aware of it or not. We emerge each year, each season, each day—forged by the forces around us and our choices. Crawford honors my changes through COVID, through the losses and triumphs of middle age, and through the expansion of my work. Crawford is a prism refracting focus into rainbows of what’s possible.

During my Crawford day I host sessions with other creatives—people who are curious about expanding their experience with the written word and music. The “Your Wild Music” limited series intensive is the latest offering here. Please visit the Curricula section of this website if you’d like to know more and/or apply for a spot. I spend loads of time following fiction characters, catching poems and transcribing melodies that fly through my WildRain studios (or through the ethers wherever I may be). I study the works of the greatest writers of songs, poems and stories. I try my hand at different languages (Portuguese at the minute).

Beth McIntosh is still alive and well, and also not a heteronym—it is me. My honed body of work is available through recordings and select performances. Please visit the Beth McIntosh tab if you want to check out the bona fides.

I’m really glad you’re here.