Today is Mental Health Action Day. And Black Belt Eagle Scout, the recording project of Portland musician Katherine Paul, has covered Grouper’s Dragging A Dead Deer Up A Hill highlight “Heavy Water / I’d Rather Be Sleeping” for Sounds Of Saving and the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline‘s Song That Found Me At The Right Time project. “Listening to this song helped me many times sing through my feelings and find calmness and soothing, just like the sound of the song,” Paul explains, adding:

Sharing a message of mental health support and suicide prevention saves lives. The suicide rate within Native / Indigenous communities is high and so it is very important to be able to speak out specifically for my community. There have been many times in my life where I needed that ray of sun coming out over the mountains on a stormy day. Luckily I have been blessed with support systems that have kept me alive and I have seen firsthand just how important these are. I want to be able to spread this awareness so that more people can see that ray of sun like I did.

The Songs That Found Me series has already led to Sharon Van Etten covering Johnny Cash’s “Hurt.” And now you can check out Black Belt Eagle Scout’s take on “Heavy Water / I’d Rather Be Sleeping” folllowed by a Q&A about mental health below.