Winter meditation

Winter is a time when dark comes early. We light the lamps and fires to bring light inside, and go outside to reflect on the stars in the night sky, and perhaps, the fall of snowflakes. It is a time for remembering and sharing well loved stories, and singing songs handed down across time. A time for gathering, and a time for solitude, winter is also a time for appreciating and reflecting on the roads traveled the changes made, the friendships which last, the lessons learned, the winter season is as much a time for mediation and planning and dreaming of what’s to come as well as recalling what’s past and enjoying what’s present. Whether you make resolutions at the turning of the year ot at some other time, or not at all, music is a fine companion for the reflective aspects of winter.

Music to go along with these ideas

note: clicking on text links and album cover images will take you to places where you may read more about the music and/or hear bits of it. photographs above are by Kerry Dexter and are copyrighted. thank you for respecting this.

Matt and Shannon Heaton offer Shannon’s song Fine Winter's Night which evokes the clear winter skies, cold nights, and the warmth of connection and music which also mark the season, as the tile track for their seasonal album Fine Winter's Night

It might seem touch unusual to suggest an album called Summer's End for winter meditation, but I think you’ll find Therese Honey recording of original and traditional Celtic music on the harp a good choice, as well.

Al Petteway and Amy White employ guitar dulcimer, keyboard and other instruments as they explore the Appalachian side of winter in Winter Tidings.

Gretchen Peters does a fine job of working with a song of Appalachia too, I Wonder As I Wander. It is on her album Northern Lights. which contains fine traditional and original music of the lights and shadows of winter.

Hanneke Cassel is a fiddle player and composer who has a number of albums that go well with winter reflection. The music of Scotland is her inspiration but in both interpretation and composition, her music is all her own. At this season, I’d suggest Some Melodious Sonnet

and from Carrie Newcomer, a musician whose work you’ve met before here along the music road -- a song inspired by a drive home on a winter's night

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