New year's eve, and into a new year: 3 songs for company

At the turning of the year, thoughts and ideas of change, of regret, of hope, and many more things arise.

Accept them all, send the ones which need to go, as a friend of mine says, up in the smoke of a new year’s blaze.

Embrace the good ideas, the community, the hope.

With all that in mind, music to accompany you in to the new year

Here’s one to honor looking back and looking forward, and to honor the hope found in community. It is called Just a Lot of Folk, sung by Olivia Newton-John. You will find on an album from the early folk/country days of Olivia’s career, called Clearly Love.

Thrift is a plant that grows at the edge of the sea in Scotland, hanging on through all sorts of weather and circumstance. The song Thrift celebrate hope, persistence, and other good qualities such as that. Karine Polwart sings lead, and in this video you will see her with her musical friends who form the Spell Songs singers: Rachel Newton, Beth Porter, Sekou Keita, Jim Molyneux, Kris Drever, and Julie Fowlis. Engineer/producer Andy Bell, part of the collaboration, is there too. You will find the song on the album Spell Songs II: Let the Light In.

It may have been inspired by the Orkney legend of a witch who sold fair winds to sailors, but...Jeana Leslie, who wrote the song Fair Winds and sings lead, and her friends who form the band Fara have turned it into a song of hope. Kristan Harvey, Caitriona Price, and Rory Matheson -- the other musicians who make up Fara-- join Jeana on the song, which you will find on their album Energy Islands.

Band members tell the backstory of the song ...

You may also wish to see
More about the album Spell Songs II:let the Light In
At Wandering Educators, Music for peace, undertanding, and connection (there’s another Spell Songs video in this, too)
The album Laws of Motion from Karine Polwart,
Thoughtful songs from Ireland’s Cara Dillon: Wanderer.

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