Steele the Show

In his early days of writing music, Davy Steele was drawn to the soul sounds of Aretha Franklin. As time went on, he got into writing country ballads, and in the circle of time, found his way to exploring traditional forms of music from his native Scotland. For subject matter, he drew on his well of experiences as a social worker, as a man who traveled often, a family man, and as a musician who’d played with the Battlefield Band and Ceolbeg, and founded several bands as well.

All of these things are present in the album Steele the Show For it, a roster of Steele’s musical friends and family gathered to record sixteen of their favorite choices from his song catalogue, and to remember their friend and his legacy in music ten years after health concerns caused his death as he was just getting into his fifties.Ian McCalman, Mairearad Greene, Dick Gaughan, Siobhan Miller, and and Andy M. Stewart are among the musicians who join in.

Even if you’ve never heard of Davy Steele before -- perhaps especially if you’ve never heard of him -- this is a good place to make acquaintance with his work, and fine and varied collection all on its own. Karine Polwart starts things off with Scotland Yet. This is frequently sung as an anthem, and it’s a good one, but Polwart’s understated take adds layers of depth to what is already a powerful song. Lost in the Long Grass, with Sally Barker handling vocals an guitar, is a lively bit of music with a melody and rhythm which invite singing and dancing along. Sliding, Davy’s wife Patsy Seddon points out in the notes , a song Davy always hoped Aretha would sing. Farewell to the Haven is of a traditional bent in melody and subject, as his Heave Ho Yo, a rowing song. Just One More Chorus is a bring the evening to a close sort of song which has become a popular way to do just that in New Zealand and other places around the world. This collection has just one more song, though: a recording of Davy himself singing a song of love and hope, Long Hellos and Short Goodbyes.


you may also wish to see
Music Road: Eddi Reader sings more of the songs of Robert Burns
Music Road: darwin song project
Music Road: now playing: Carrie Newcomer: The Geography of Light

Music for changing seasons: Helene Blum

Unsettled weather often comes with this time at the edge of seasons. For music to go along with these times, one of my choices is the album Liden Sol, from Helene Blum.

It at first seems rather a winter facing selection of songs, with titles which translate (Blum sings in Danish) as Frozen to the Bone and It is white outside. Do not let that deter you from listening. however. Blum has woven a quietly gorgeous tapestry which includes strands of Danish traditional folk song with contemporary work and her own writing. The title track, for example, in a contemplative and sparely arranged song in which Blum sets a nineteenth century Christmas season text to a tune of her own devising.

Blum is well qualified to do that sort of thing: she is the first singer to graduate from the folk program at the Carl Nielsen Academy of Music in Denmark, and from an early age she has been an accomplished guitarist and fiddle player as well. Her debut album in 2005 won a top award in Denmark, and her Christmas concert tours are well received throughout Europe. Among her festival appearances are Celtic Colours on Cape Breton and Celtic Connections in Glasgow.

At the heart of it all, though, lies her thoughtful song choice and her inviting voice. Whether you understand the Danish language or not, Liden Sol makes fine listening wherever the seasons may find you at present.


To have an idea of what Blum’s work is like, follow this link to hear an excerpt from the song Glade Jul from one of Blum’s Christmas albums. I think you may recognize the melody.

you may also wish to see
Music Road: from Denmark: Helene Blum
Music Road: Julie Fowlis:Uam
Music Road: from Donegal: T with the Maggies

New Zealand musicians: Maori songs, opera, Robert Burns, and Scottish fiddle

What sort of music do you connect with New Zealand?

Writers and photographers across the world are joining in to celebrate the country and people of New Zealand. The people of New Zealand are making a special effort to let you to know that the best way to help them recover from the earthquake in Christchurch a month ago is to come for a visit, to explore their land of ancient and modern cultures, high mountain and crashing surf.

As you are planning that trip and taking it, you’ll want to explore music to go along. Consider these two artists, from perhaps rather differing parts of the musical spectrum.

Kiri Te Kanawa grew up on the north island of New Zealand. Her heritage is both Maori and English, and she was adopted as an infant into a Maori family. Not always, perhaps, the background you might expect for a woman who would go on to make an international reputation performing the works of Mozart and Puccini at the world’s top opera houses. That is exactly what Te Kanawa has done, however, building a career that has made her one of the world’s most well loved sopranos. She has created a foundation to assist musicians from New Zealand in realizing their dreams, as well. Te Kanawa’s classical music performances are widely available on record, and harking back to her early days playing clubs in New Zealand, she’s recorded show tunes, as well. For this trip, however, a recording that goes even deeper into Te Kanawa’s history is what I’d suggest: her album called Maori Songs.


Jamie McClennan grew up in New Zealand as well, playing the fiddle in the style of his Scottish heritage. Traveling the world with his music and adding guitar and other instruments to his songbag, he came to base himself in Scotland. With a nod to those world travels he called his first solo album In Transit. You may hear hints of those travels in the music there. Adoon Winding Nith finds McClennan in a duo format with Scots singer Emily Smith, recording lesser known gems as well as a few well known pieces from the works of Scotland’s national Bard, Robert Burns. McClennan also produced and plays on to Smith’s latest release, Traiveller’s Joy, about which you’ll learn more up ahead along the music road.


Whether your taste runs toward classical music, sounds of New Zealand's first peoples, inventive fiddle music, or music from Scottish tradition -- or perhaps all four -- you will find good companions among this music for your New Zealand travel plans.


you may also wish to see
Music Road: New Zealand: music for a trip
Sustainable living, do it yourself ideas and adventures, and thoughts on New Zealand life from Frugal Kiwi
plan your trip or start your dream of one at New Zealand’s official tourism site

New Zealand: music for a trip

As I write this, it has been a month since Christchurch, New Zealand, felt the shock of earthquake. New Zealand is a small country, and even as the people there reach out to help their Pacific rim neighbours in Japan with their troubles, New Zealanders are working to recover in their own country. And they have an idea for you as to how to help: come for a visit....

It is a gorgeous country, mountain and fjords and sea, welcoming people and varied cultures to learn about. There is a major presence of the Scottish and Irish diaspora in New Zealand too. These Kiwis have put their own stamp on the music, and many have journeyed back to northern Europe to share their view of Celtic music there. Over these next few days, as web sites around the world join in to celebrate the spirit of the people of New Zealand and encourage you to visit there and see their beautiful country and meet the people, I’ll be telling you a bit about music to go along with these ideas.

A good companion for any trip is the music of Grada. The tight knit group has members who hail from Galway to Wellington. Often on the road themselves with their music, many of the tunes and songs on their albums draw on their travels and their varied geography, framing all this in the lively energy of Irish music. For a taste of this, good places to begin are Grada’s albums Natural Angle, where they bring in a tinge of bluegrass and songs of many travels to the Irish mix, and


Cloudy Day Navigation, which includes the band's own fine compostion Cooler at the Edge (they tend to write the tunes working together) and a lovely version of Irish singer Susan McKeown's River. There's a six song dvd of the band in live performance included on Cloudy Day Navigation as well.

Band members Andy Laking and Gerry Paul both grew up in New Zealand, in Wellington and the Hutt Valley respectively.



you may also wish to see
Music Road: music and mystery

plan your trip or start your dream of one at New Zealand’s official tourism site

music and landscape: Ireland

Irish music often arises out of the landscape, and is cradled by it. A sense of home and family translated into images that give ways into singing and playing of home and family and love, perhaps.

I am writing this at a time of year, in early spring, when because of Saint Patrick's day people all over the world often think of the emerald isle, as it’s called. The landscape, though, often takes on aspects other than emerald , as it does here. These inspire just as many songs and tunes, too.




music to go along with these ideas
Music Road: exiles return: karan casey & john doyle
Music Road: now playing: Athena Tergis
Music Road: The Clancy Legacy
Music Road: Cherish The Ladies: A Star in the East

you may also wish to see
Delicious Baby's Photo Friday, where travelers offer new insights to the world each Friday.


photographs are copyrighted. thank you for respecting this.

music and mystery

Does music matter in times like these?

Yes.
That’s a good part of the reason I started writing Music Road, and a good part of the reason I began walking the music road myself long years back. Music is a connector, a conversation, a way of thinking about the world, a source of inspiration and imagination, and of healing. It is also a way to think about the questions of life. It is a way to live the questions. It is a way to live in the mysteries.

If thinking about music this way is unfamiliar to you, I encourage you to look around through the nearly five years worth of posts here at Music Road, to read about the musicians and ideas I introduce you to, and to listen to the music. Take your time with all of that. You’re very welcome.

If you are concerned about this hurting world at this moment, I’d encourage you to visit the web sites of the Red Cross and the Mercy Corps. Their people -- and those of many other fine groups -- are doing work of healing across the world and quite likely not that far from you, as well.

Music to go along with these ideas, and to get you started on your explorations

Music Road: Carrie Newcomer: Before & After
Music Road: Cathie Ryan: Songwriter
Music Road: music and hope: Derry
Music Road: Road Trip Music in Mississippi
Music Road: Julie Fowlis:Uam

Ireland elsewhere

Along the music road, Ireland is a frequent stop.
As everyone is tuning up for Saint Patrick’s day, here’s a chance to explore ideas about Ireland through stories I've told at other places.


Literary Landmarks in Dublin at Wandering Educators

The city of Derry: healing through the arts at Perceptive Travel


Eileen Ivers explores Irish and American history through music at Irish Fireside

An Evening in Belfast with musician Cathie Ryan at Perceptive Travel

road trips and road songs

After traveling from the coasts of Maine to the deep south, along the Mississippi, to the northern plains and the western ones, through the heartland, and to the many landscapes that make up the American west, including the far western states of Hawaii and Alaska, we’ve come to the stopping place on the great American road trip series. At least for the time being.

More than a year ago, Vera Marie Badertscher of A Traveler's Library invited me to chime in with suggestions for music to go along as she took a virtual trip across the United States through books and film which inspire travel. Over at the Library, Vera Marie takes a look back at all the books and films she and her guest writers have enjoyed, and lets you in on her own favorites as well.

Along the music road, here are four which have been ones you have most enjoyed. They are among my favorites as well.

Road Trip Music : Oregon in which we meet a rancher who raises Christmas trees and cowboy songs, and an Oregon native who finds her inspiration in Scotland

Road Trip Music: Indiana where we learn of a songwriter who makes music connected to both land and spirit

Road Trip Music: Michigan in which we meet an Irish American songwriter whose music builds bridges between the two countries of her heritage.

Road Trip Music: northern California in which we meet a musician who has been a vital part of American folk music for decades, and is carrying it on

Thank you for coming along. There’s more ahead on music, creative practice, and especially the varied landscapes of folk, Americana, and Celtic music -- as well as ideas from other neighborhoods now and again.

When you’d like to travel through books and film, stop on over and check out the articles and the lively conversations which spring up about them at A Traveler’s Library.

Scotland's Highlands in music: Duncan Chisholm

Whatever your view or knowledge of the highlands of Scotland, you will most likely find your ideas expanded when you listen to Duncan Chisholm’s recording Canaich. “With instrumental music, go can go any place you choose, paint any landscape you like,” Chisholm,s says.

The landscape Chisholm chooses for his inspiration here is the Strathglass and Glen Affric area of the Scottish highlands. These are landscapes he has known since childhood, and ancestral lands where his family has long lived, as well. As the journey unfolds, Chisholm's fiddle leads the way from a quiet opening that suggests nothing so much as the mists that often cover those mountains. Theh there is Camhanaich air Machair, a good companion for a reflective walk, while Isaac's Welcome to the World is a lively and joyous tune in celebration of the musician’s son. It leads into Phil Cunningham’s lovely tune, The Gentle Light that Wakes Me. The other parts of the journey are just as varied and interesting, with just as much space for you to paint your own pictures. There’s a graceful connection among tunes from composers including Donal Shaw, Michael McGoldrick, and Niall Vallely with Chisholm’s own tunes.

It’s a journey well worth the taking, and one which will reveal new aspects with each return visit.

Canaich is the second of three recordings Chisholm has in mind to explore highland landscape through instrumental music. The first is the award winning album Farrar.



you may also wish to see

Music Road: Julie Fowlis:Uam
Duncan Chisholm often appears with Gaelic singer Julie Fowlis
Music Road: Sarah-Jane Summers: Nesta
Scottish musician Sarah-Jane Summers shares the best of the Highlands

Celtic Connections 2011: seeing music

Celtic Connections, held in January of each year in Glasgow, Scotland, is one of the world's premiere Celtic music festivals. There are hundreds of artists and listeners, many concerts and venues. Yet, with all that, the festival -- thanks to the good will of artists, listeners, organizers and venue workers -- keeps an air of welcome and focus on the gifts and connections shared through music.









these photographs were taken with permission of the artists and are copyrighted. thank you for respecting this

you may also wish to see
Music Road: Celtic Connections 2011: images, part two
Music Road: from Donegal: T with the Maggies

and

Delicious Baby's Photo Friday, where travelers offer new insights to the world each Friday.

Road Trip Music: Hawaii

Destination for this part of the great American road trip is Hawaii. As so many American states are. Hawaii is both a crossroads and a a place where music connected to the landscape flourishes.

Slack key guitar, steel guitar, and ‘ukulele are three instruments which, along with the sounds of chant and the the singing voice, help define the sounds of Hawaii. For the guitar part of things, a good sound track is from the island’s recent musical history, a collection of vintage popular island music from two guitar masters. It’s known just by their names Hawaii's Keola & Kapono Beamer


To learn more about the history of the ‘ukulele in the islands -- and it’s not what you might think -- I’ll point you to this history from Brad Bordessa. Explore his site Live ‘Ukulele while you are there: he has interviews with top players and lots of information on how to play the uke, too.

Israel Kamakawiwo'ole made his mark on the music of the islands too, often refitting popular songs from other styles to a distinctive island sound. Del Suggs, a musician you met back when the road trip was in Florida, offers a bit of the style of Iz, as Kamakawiwo`ole is known for short, in this video.

you may also wish to see
a place to keep up with Celtic music in Hawaii -- yes, there is Irish music in Hawaii, too.
Music Road: Road Trip Music in Louisiana
Music Road: Scotland & Cape Breton: tradition and innovation

This is part of The Great American Road Trip, in which I’m partnering up with A Traveler’s Library to add musical ideas to the book and film suggestions for journeys through the regions of the United States which you’ll find there. Stop by and see what the Library has in mind to inspire travels in Hawaii.
For more about the road trip (and a look at some great road songs) see Great American Road Trip: Music begins