Celtic music for autumn

The cycle of seasons turns toward autumn here in the northern hemisphere. As the angle of shadows changes and the quality of light takes on a different aspect, as the stars across the night skies wheel in a changed patterns, it’s a time for contemplation and preparation, thought and action and enjoying the world of nature.

As good companions for those journeys, here are three Celtic recordings

Alasdair Fraser and Natalie Haas cross the Celtic world in the tunes which comprise the title set for their album Highlander's Farewell, moving across meter and time and space from Scotland to Ireland to the mountains of the American south in that story. Fraser, on fiddle, and Haas, on cello, specialize in exploring the lively and thoughtful dialogue which may be created in conversation between the big fiddle and the little one. Here they do that through several of Fraser’s own tunes, as well as music from Scotland, Cape Breton, and Galicia.


Aoife Clancy holds equal love for the music of her native land, Ireland, and her adopted homeland of the United States. Both loves come through clearly on her album Silvery Moon There’s a song which talks of the deepest gifts of love by American songwriter Mark Simos, called Giving. There’s a song which talks of the troubled conflicts in Ireland and sees a way beyond, called Hope, written by Aoife’s cousin Robbie O’Connell, and the lilting rhythm of dance in the melody of a song which would fit on both sides of the ocean, Rosehill Fair.


Moya Brennan, Mairéad Ní Mhaonaigh, Tríona Ní Dhomhnaill and Mairéad Ní Dhomhnaill each count time spent in Donegal, in the far northwest of Ireland, as part of their years growing up. In Donegal Irish is spoken as readily as English, and the music includes fiery fiddle playing along with songs in English and Irish shaped ny the rocky coast, the wild mountains, and the the border with the North. All of that comes in to play on the album the four women have made together, T with the Maggies. That’s also what the four call themselves when they play music together. After those childhood sessions in Donegal each went her own way. They all have made high level professional careers in music, and as they crossed paths across the years. they’d think of getting together again to sing. T with the Maggies is a result, a project grounded as much in the spirit of long time friendship as it is in the spirit of longtime love for the music of Donegal. There ae songs in Irish and in English, music from the tradition and music they’ve written. Through the album, their harmonies both respect and extend their individual voices. It’s all worth the hearing, but standout cuts include Wedding Dress, Mother Song, and Domnach na Fola.


the photograph is of a hillside in Louth, in Ireland, on an autumn day -- a rare clear day. it is copyrignted, and I thank you for respecting that

while you are thinking of things Irish and Celtic, letting you know that Music Road has been nominated for Best Arts & Entertainment site, at the Irish Web Awards


thanks for the nomination, and welcome to all who have arrived here by way of that listing. judging is taking place at present and results will be announced later in October.
and note: our friends at
Irish Fireside, Shalom b&b, and Altan are also nominated in various categories. congratulations to them, and to all the nominees.



you may also wish to see

Music Road: Muireann Nic Amhlaoibh: Daybreak/Fainne an Lae
Music Road: Altan: 25th Anniversary Collection
Music Road: Song of Solstice: music for changing seasons

and

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

India to Indiana: Everything Is Everywhere from Carrie Newcomer

“I think I have a very midwestern voice,” says Indiana based musician Carrie Newcomer. “ As I’ve gone on in my career, that voice has become stronger and deeper, and I’m happy with that.” Happy, in Newcomer’s case, includes being freer to explore ideas and questions which intrigue her. “ I think I’m really restless an artist,” she continues “ There are themes that I keep thinking about, ideas that fascinate me. Finding something sacred in an ordinary day, something extraordinary in the day to day, that’s a topic that keeps coming back to me. The idea of the moment, of being present in every moment of our lives, that’s another thing I keep coming back to.” Those ideas run through the work on Newcomer’s album Before & After

But what happens when you take that midwestern voice, that thirst for spiritual inquiry, the reflective nature of a writer and musician, and add in an unexpected month of teaching, touring, music making and experiencing the vast country that is India?

Everything is Everywhere, Newcomer’s latest album, is one result. On it, Newcomer brings in the gifts of master sarod players Amjad, Amaan and Ayaan Ali Khan along with her Indiana based musical friends Gary Walters on piano and Jim Brock on percussion. What these artists create together are songs which are distinctly in Newcomer’s artistic voice but with added colors and dimensions of what she learned and experienced in India.

The title track begins by evoking the sounds and tastes of a sunset on the Arabian sea and the colors of India, and moves to the sounds and sights and corn and beans of a farmer’s market in Indiana and a comforting bowl of soup shared with a friend, drawing these vivid journeys together with the reflection that

There is still so much work to do
Armloads of sorrow yes this is true
But I take heart when I despair
Miracles are everywhere

That interest in being in the moment comes through in a song called May We Be Released, which might be a prayer, might be an anthem, could be a comment on daily life, in India and in Indiana. As with all the songs on this album, the words are clearly Newcomer’s vision, set in melody and rhythm that both honor and extend her ideas. The sarod is a stringed instrument from India capable of great emotional depth and resonance, to which the Khans bring centuries of family immersion in playing classical Indian music and thinking about the connections among music and spirit. That is a shared connection that made it seem right to follow up an afternoon of sharing music in India with a deeper collaboration as Newcomer began to write the songs which would come out of her time in the country.

Not that she went to India seeking inspiration for a new album: Newcomer was in the midst of finishing up work on Before and After and scheduling tour dates to support it when the call came from a family friend inviting her to be a artist in residence during a week focusing on peace and justice at an international school in New Delhi. Then, the American Center learned of her invitation and started talking with Newcomer about visiting other places in India as a cultural ambassador in a program sponsored by the US State Department. All of this was coming up in a short window of time around which she had intense work planned “but I thought, I’m not going to say No! I’m not going to India! I’ll make this work,” Newcomer says. She had a question for the officials, too. “I have to say my first thought was: do you know what I do? This is
the state department, right? and I’m an activist folk singer type...” As it turned out the people at the American Center and the American Embassy in India did know. “The answer came back, and it was beautiful,” Newcomer recalls. “They said, we’re looking for music that builds bridges. There’s plenty enough walls out there, we’re looking for music that builds bridges, and your music does that.”

So she went, for what would prove an intense and moving month. “During the day, I’d be visiting schools and community service organizations, sometimes two and three in a day, and then in the evening give concerts,” she said. “And they sent me all over the place! I was in Kolkata, I was in Delhi, I was in Bengal, I was in the central part, I was in the very south, I was in Chennai, I was in Mumbai. India is a huge country, and just like the United States, different parts all have different foods, customs, dress, politics. It was an amazing experience. It was a life changing experience, and one I think I’ll be processing for a long time.”

Newcomer brought with her her own songs of family, the search for peace, reflection on the spiritual in the everyday, “and I found when I sang about those things, about grief, about family, about love, that the thread pulled through. The thread of connection pulled through. I have a song called Geodes, about Indiana rocks. It’s also about finding the shining heart of things, and that connected.” She also found listening to be part of her work.


“I’d go into these situations asking asking myself how can I serve? What am I here to give? and sometimes it was just to bear witness. They need to be heard, they need me to hear them and take that hearing and seeing them on, “ she said. She recalled a time when she’d been to a home for women and girls who were making new lives after difficult circumstances. “They sang songs to me in Hindi, and then they sang We Shall Overcome to me in Hindi and I sang it back to them in English, and we sang together. And I cried! I think I wept so much they were probably saying what is it with this American woman, she weeps, she sings, she weeps --”
Newcomer says, laughing. “But I think part of the work of the artist is to bear witness, too.”

That is part of what is going on in Everything Is Everywhere as well. With the music on it, from the vivid images in the title track to a song about forgiveness inspired by a poem from American poet Mary Oliver to an Indian raga from the Khans to consideration of love, hope and mystery wrapped in images of the everyday in I Believe, what Newcomer offers is an unfolding, a celebration, and a different way of seeing things in the world that connect us, across language and country and time and faith. Music that builds bridges, indeed.

You can hear excerpts from the music on Everything is Everywhere at Carrie Newcomer’s web site.

You may also listen to excerpts from the songs on Everything is Everywhere at Amazon.



Proceeds from Everything Is Everywhere will go to benefit the Interfaith Hunger Initiative, a program which works to end childhood hunger in Indiana and overseas.



photograph of Carrie Newcomer by Kerry Dexter and is copyrighted. thank you for respecting this

you may also wish to see
Music Road: Carrie Newcomer: Before & After
Music Road: season of change: music for autumn
Music Road: Songs of the Immigrants

Song of Solstice: music for changing seasons

What is the sound of seasons changing? It could be what you hear as you listen to Song of Solstice from Jennifer Cutting’s Ocean Orchestra.

With a gathering of music from Celtic traditions along with songs she’s written, Cutting offers a vision of that which invites contemplation and celebration, consideration of darkness and light in both spiritual and natural realms that accompanies the turn of earth’s time from autumn through winter and back to spring again. To do this, she weaves in strands of musical ideas from Celtic to classical to steampunk, and creates a sound that’s immediately inviting.

Drawing on the gifts of artists from her own Ocean Orchestra as well as a range of guests, many of them from the thriving Washington DC area music scene, Cutting offers complex and layered arrangements which serve the music and open new ways of hearing it. Complex does not mean stuffy or hard to understand: there’s a very good chance you’ll be singing along with several of the pieces, and that the music will stay in your mind long after you've played the recording.

Song of Solstice, the title track, offers a rousing take on celebrating the joys of the colder seasons of the year, and gives a nod to wisdom to be gained from contemplation and patience in the calendar’s darker seasons. As well there's an affirmation of the joys of friendship, whose gifts are often strengthened by winter’s connections. Christmas Day in the Morning, a traditional tune from Shetland set as a quiet instrumental with harp from Sue Richards and bodhran from Myron Bretholz, leads into Song of Solstice, a paring which enhances both.

Green Man is another piece you’ll not forget, a lively song whose origins Cutting drew from ancient Celtic tales as well as ideas that appear in the story of King Arthur. You do not have to know anything about either of those, though, to enjoy Steve Winnick’s cheerful and inviting lead vocal. He is backed by Highland bagpipes, bouzouki, electric guitar, fiddle, bodhran, other percussion instruments, and vocal harmony. Turning of seasons, death and rebirth, and the vibrancy of nature in the midst of winter are just a few of the things touched upon in the song, which offers a fine mood and beat for dancing and drumming as well as for singing.

Time to Remember the Poor suggests a different avenue for contemplation. Gothic steam punk psychedelia fusion is what Cutting had in mind. The words are from a Victorian era broadside, set to a haunting soundscape of voice, guitar, keyboard, samples, bass, and drums, It all seems quite contemporary yet evokes the the atmosphere of Victorian times and the thoughts in the lyrics as well. Lisa Mosciatello is the voice, Al Petteway plays electric and acoustic guitars, Juan Dudley is the drummer, Rico Petrocelli plays bass, and Cutting provides the samples and plays keyboards on the piece.

Putting classic, folk -- especially Celtic -- and rock ideas in conversation and collaboration with each other is a a way of approaching music which has long interested Cutting. For ten years she was bandleader for the award winning Washington DC area based British folk rock group The New Saint George. Later, Jennifer founded The Ocean Orchestra, which has allowed her to take her composing, arranging, and performing ideas of creating music drawing on varied genres in a more Celtic direction, and to invite in the talents of changing casts of musicians in the United States and overseas. “Celtic music for ancient moderns” is how she describes her work.

“I think of myself as a soundscape architect -- I try to get the structures and textures from my imagination out onto the recorded sound canvas, with the help of many amazingly gifted people who all add their own genius into the mix, “ Cutting says. “Creating a song or an arrangement is a lot like putting up a building or designing a landscape, except that my materials are instruments and voices. Hearing it build layer by layer is the ultimate thrill.”

Listening to the result is fascinating, too. Song of Solstice includes six originals by Jennifer Cutting, and varied other works, among them pieces from Celtic tradition including music from France and from Shetland. As with a well designed building or landscape, all the elements enhance each other and invite repeated exploration.

Listen to excerpts from Song of Solstice


photograph of Jennifer Cutting by Irene Young

you may also wish to see
Music Road: Another Fine Winter's Night: Matt & Shannon Heaton
Music Road: Oceans & Journeys: Road Trip in Maryland
Music Road: late summer, early autumn, music, Ireland

music and healing: September memories

These recent days, people across the world have been remembering and reflecting upon the attacks in the United States on 11 September ten years ago. One of the interesting stands of reflection is that in the aftermath of the attacks, as people came to terms with the effects both personally and in a wider sense. they chose to and were able to turn to the arts -- music, Theatre, visual arts, dance, writing -- both as ways to help understand their own and others’ feelings and thoughts about the changes these events brought, and also at times to take a break from wrestling with that. It was a sense of community that brought people out to Broadway when the lights went back on several days after September 11, and it was a sense of hope and healing that brought them to the large benefit concerts and the small coffeehouse gatherings where people shared music and poetry and stories, at that time, and since.

September eleventh is, in my life, also two friends’ wedding anniversary, a child’s birthday, memories of making food for a Mexican American fiesta with friends in Texas, and the day before another friend’s birthday. That reminds that we do celebrate, and learn, and go on from hard experiences, both personal and global. Music and all the arts help us understand, connect, and heal.

Music to go along with these ideas:

one of the songs I turned to on 11 September ten years ago was Amy Grant’s recording of This Is My Father's World. I didn’t go seeking it, it just to came to my hand. It is on her album called, appropriately enough for the circumstance, Legacy: Hymns & Faith

Irish music has a good way of taking in both the sorrow and the joy of life. I found Mary Black’s By the Time It Gets Dark and Out and About from Cherish the Ladies to be music good to listen to back at that time, too and still.

As for music which has come as a response to September eleventh, a song which stands out is I Heard an Owl, by Carrie Newcomer. It is on her album called The Gathering of Spirits and you may listen to a bit of the song I Heard An Owl by following this link

the photograph is of flowers and a stone wall in Country Donegal, Ireland, another way to look at renewal. it is copyrighted, and my thanks to you for respecting that.

Masters of the Irish Harp

If you have an Irish passport, there’s a harp on it. If you’ve coins from Ireland in your pocket, there are harps on those too. Then there are the pubs, the beer, and the tea towels: the harp is a powerful symbol of Ireland.

The power of the sound of the harp is a focus on Lyric RTE fm’ s collection Masters of the Irish Harp. There are sixteen cuts on the album, with music which ranges from Bach to O’Carolan, from newly composed works to those which come from ancient sources.

It is a varied and wonderful range of players represented on Masters of the Irish Harp as well.
You’ve met a number of them here along the music road, while others may be new to you. It goes from Grainne to Grainne in terms of players, opening with Grainne Hambly’s sparkling take on The Geese in the Bog and closing with Grainne Yeats’ reflective Carolan’s Farewell to Music. Both harps and harpers range across background, from concert harp to clarsach, from classically trained players to those from traditional background, and many who cross borders among those fields. Some of the pieces are newly recorded for this project, while others are selected from the artists’ previously released recordings. It is a well chosen and well sequenced collection, with appeal for those who know the Irish harp and its players well and for for those who are new to the sound of the Irish harp.

It’s certainly worth listening all the way through and as sequenced. That said, notable tracks include Maire ni Chathasaigh’s Reel for a Water Diviner, Cormac de Barra’s Monaghan Jig, Michelle Mulcahy’s Green Mountain set, and Siobhan Armstrong's Da Mihi Manum.

follow this link to listen to excepts from the tracks Masters of the Irish Harp and follow the link below which is called Elsafty Armstrong Browne to see a video of Siobhan Armstrong playing the wire strung Irish harp

you may also wish to see

Music Road: Scotland on the harp: Corrina Hewat
Music Road: harps and Celtic Connections
Music Road: Elsafty Armstrong Browne

Songwriters gather in Minnesota

It has been ten years since top Nashville based songwriter Jon Vezner first came across the North House Folk School in Grand Marais, Minnesota. A Minnesota native himself, Vezner found that the school's setting in historic buildings on the shore of Lake Superior and its mission resonated with his life and the way he approaches writing his songs. That mission is to enrich lives and build community by teaching traditional northern crafts, and to use heritage crafts as a way connect past, present, and future. So the idea for benefit concerts was born.

Ten years on, there’s a celebration called Northern Harvest coming up on 15, 16,17, and 18 September, with performances by many artists you’ve met here along the music road. In addition to Vezner, those include his fellow Minnesota native Sally Barris, also a top songwriter whose work has been recorded by many artists in country music, and well known folk and Americana musician John Gorka. Top notch guitarist and composer Bill Cooley will be there, along with Grammy winning singers and songwriters Tim O’Brien and Kathy Mattea. Cathie Ryan, whose thoughtful and thought provoking original songs which draw on her Irish American heritage are one of the reasons she has been honored as Irish Voice of the Decade, will join in as well.

Grand Marais is about half way between Duluth, Minnesota, to the south, and Thunder Bay, Ontario, to the north, and it’s a trip well worth the making. If you’ll not be making it out to the shows, however, there’s an especially nice touch: while they are all gathered in Grand Marais, Vezner, Mattea, O’Brien, Barris, Cooley, and Ryan will join up to share their music at a taping for the public radio show Mountain Stage. The show will be broadcast nationally in the US at a later date with excerpts available online by pod cast at that time as well. For more details on when the show will be available, keep an eye on the Mountain Stage web site.

Meanwhile, go explore the North House Folk School web site too. Just looking at the photographs will take you there, and there’s plenty to learn and explore.
Classes are are offered on timber framing, basket making, quilting, northern ecology, and many more subjects, with, as the school’s mission says, an intention to inspire hand, heart, and mind.


photographs of Kathy Mattea, Bill Cooley, and Cathie Ryan were taken with kind permission of the artists (in Nashville, Glasgow, and Portland respectively) are and copyrighted. thank you for respecting this.

you may also wish to see
Music Road: Kathy Mattea: Coal
Music Road: Tim O'Brien’s Americana: Chameleon
Music Road: Cathie Ryan: Songwriter

and

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

Newfoundland music: The Once

Trinity, Newfoundland, is a small fishing community in the northern part of Atlantic Canada, a place where people have been making their livings from the sea of centuries. It was in Trinity that Geraldine Hollett, Phil Churchill, and Andrew Dale found themselves charged with making an evening’s entertainment for tourists and people passing through. In doing that their trio, The Once, came to be.

Newfoundland, far to the north in Atlantic Canada, is a place where Irish emmigrants brought their music, and in meeting up with fellow settlers from England, Scotland, and France. formed a new music. Another powerful force shaping the music of the provnce is the sea. These aspects of the music of Newfoundland weave into the music of The Once, whose self titled recording comprises songs and tunes from the tradition along with music from contemporary writers including Leonard Cohen, Tom Waits, and Amelia Curran.

Hollett is the lead singer for most of the pieces. Churchill and Dale add backing vocals with Churchill on guitar, mandolin, violin and a bit of suitcase percussion, and Dale on a range of instruments from bodhran to banjo to accordion. The sound is tight and connected. Though the sound of music is quite different, it is the same sort of musical dialogue among the three artists that you hear in groups such as Alison Krauss + Union Station and Blue Highway.

The ballad of sea and loss called Three Fishers takes on an Atlantic Canada sound in The Once’s version, which showcases Hollett’s heartfelt lead vocals and the interweaving of instrument and voice that is a hallmark of the trio’s sound. America Curran’s thought provoking contemporary song What Will You Be Building was recorded as the trio sat around a living room floor, with a connection tot he heart of the song which carries through in the recording of it. The group kicks things up with the high energy story of a woman outwitting her abductors in The Maid on the Shore, and the trio’s a capella take on another song from the tradition, Willie Taylor, is likewise foot stomper. The song Marguerite is an intricate and intriguing tale from Newfoundland history.

In Newfoundland, the expression the once means a soon as possible, right away, directly. It’s a good chance that once you begin listening to the once, you’ll be drawn in right away.

you may also wish to see

Music Road: music of Canada
Music Road: Celtic Colours Festival on the way
Music Road: Alison Krauss: Live from the Tracking Room: A Hundred Miles or Mores

road trip music: three ideas

It is a time of year when people tend to think of taking road trips, as one season ends and another begins. By the very nature of their work, musicians spend a lot of time on the road, so there are loads of songs and tunes to do with travel. There are also, of course, songs and tunes that haven’t anything to do with that but which make good traveling companions in and of themselves.

I’ve been taking a bit of road trip travel back through time lately, sorting through recordings that had gotten to the back shelves and letting them bring back memories. One of those is Mary Black’s Looking Back. Mary has offered a number of retrospectives in her career, and really, all of them are worth your time. This is one of the early ones, which includes, I think, the first release of one of my favorite of her songs, Soul Sister. Among the other cuts are Summer Sent You, Carolina Rua, Columbus, and Only a Woman’s Heart.

American singer Nell Robinson takes a bit of a different sort of road trip back to her roots in Red level, Alabama. Original songs and classic country intertwine with narratives from family members for On the Brooklyn Road
in a weaving that feels as though you’re walking down an Alabama back road at dusk. Notable cuts include Red Clay Creek, Don’t Light My Fire, Sweet Sunny South, and I Saw the Light. Laurie Lewis and Rob Ickes are among those who support Robinson, whose voice calls to mind that of fellow Alabama native Emmylou Harris.


You might remember the Great American Road Trip, an idea started by Vera Marie Badertscher of A Traveler’s Library For more than a year, she wrote about books and films which inspire travel through the fifty US states, and I chimed in with posts here at Music Road to suggest music to go along with this virtual road trip.

Here’s a look at favorite music posts from those travels Music Road: road trips and road songs

photograph is of sunrise over the Irish Sea, and is copyrighted. thank you for respecting this.

you may also wish to see
Music Road: Mary Black: 25 years 25 songs
Music Road: late summer: two for the road
Music Road: Irish landscape: Davy Spillane's A Place Among the Stones

and


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