15 blogs to explore, and a blog award

A classical violinist, three chefs, a reporter who has made freelancing in the digital age her beat, an essayist who writes about cooking, gardening, and India, an Irish American musician who thinks in metaphor, two Scottish songwriters -- and a partridge in a pear tree? Well, not exactly. Vera Marie Badertscher, who writes the blog A Traveler’s Library, recently honored Music Road with an award as ‘A Lovely Blog.’ Turns out this is a bit of a tag team event -- if you are given such an award, one of the conditions is that you then pass along the recognition to recently discovered blogs you enjoy. Some of these aren’t exactly new discoveries for me, and a few of them stretch the definition of blog a bit, but they are each worth checking out.

Leap Little Frog is an occasional series of thought provoking musings, sometimes funny, sometimes reflective, sometimes poetic, and sometimes all those at once, by Irish American musician Shannon Heaton

Hilary Hahn: journal Hilary Hahn travels the world as a classical violinist. Look in on what she thinks about music, life, and the places she visits.

Blog: Speaking of Faith Speaking of Faith is, to borrow from their tagline, public radio’s conversation about religion and why it matters. In the blog, the show's producers, staff, and the host, Krista Tippett, talk about what goes on behind the scenes, how they make their decisions, and other ideas related to what they learn while working on the show.

Mary Pat Kelly is the author of the book Galway Bay,
a novel based on her family’s history. Here she writes about what she’s learning and experiencing while promoting the book.

Joel Carillet photography and thoughts from travel writer Joel Carillet, about his journeys in southeast Asia, the middle east, and elsewhere.

Word Count: freelancing in the digital age Michelle Rafter is a west coast based reporter who makes the intersection of reporting and electronic media her beat -- how freelancers work in this world, what they think about it, what’s going on now, what might be next.

Laurie Niles at Violinist Laurie Niles is also a journalist, and a classical violinist. She reports on and thinks about the world of music and music education through those perspectives

A Life Divided Sue Dickman lives in western Massachusetts, when she’s not in India. She writes about both those places, along with cooking, gardening, and other subjects.

A Year in Bread Farmgirl Susan, Kevin Weeks, and The KitchenMage trade recipes, tips, and ideas about all sorts of baking.

Emily Smith, a singer and songwriter and accordion player from Dumfriesshire in Scotland, writes about her life and music career with insight and humor at this blog on her myspace page

Flyover America travel writers Jenna Schnuer and Sophia Dembling trade observations and insights from their travels through the US between the coasts

About Last Night Terry Teachout writes about the arts, mostly but not always drama, mostly but not always in New York City

The Artful Manager Andrew Taylor writes about the business of the arts

Eddi Reader is a folk based muscian whose work has ranged from rock to Robert Burns. At the blog on her myspace page, she shares news about her music and gigs as well as thoughts about life which are often funny, offbeat, and poetic. not unlike her music.

IrishBlogs.ie is actually a blog aggregator -- ‘what Ireland is talking about today’ is one of its taglines. well, maybe not -- except when they feature Music Road, of course. still, varied views on all sorts of topics from the Emerald Isle including a section about Irish people on Twitter, and a section of blogs as Gaelige


you may also want to see

here's Badertscher’s list

Music Road: Reflections: five of the best