About John K. Samson's Prayer For Ruby Elm (May We Grow Film Version)
Every year in Winnipeg, which is home to both John K. Samson and the largest population of elm trees in North America, the city battles the dreaded Dutch elm disease by locating trees that are already infected, spray-painting them with an orange dot, and then sending crews out to cut them down in the hope that the disease won't spread to other trees.
In 2013 director Erika MacPherson asked John to write a song for her film May We Grow, about interconnectedness, life and death, and the global forest, told through one of those condemned elm trees in front of her house in Winnipeg. John wrote “Prayer for Ruby Elm,” which later appeared on his 2016 solo album Winter Wheat.