Celtic Colours online and in person

Celtic Colours International Festival is on 11 through 19 October, with concerts and community events all across Cape Breton.

Cape Breton is in the northern part of the province of Nova Scotia in Atlantic Canada.

That’s great, you might be thinking, but I am not near there at all...

However --> several festival concerts will be streamed on line. There is no cost to watch, but as the festival is a non-profit, you may want to consider making a donation to keep things going.

No worries if you cannot join at the time of broadcast, you should still have time to watch. In the past concerts have been left up through the next day at the festival's website and YouTube channel.

...and you will want to watch. Celtic Colours celebrates and draws on music mad on Cape Breton and from Scotland, Ireland, First Nations, Acadian, New England, and other aspects of Cape Breton heritage.

Artists from those places come to share their music, as do musicians from all across the Maritimes and from many other places in Canada as well.

Celtic Colours is known for its innovative collaborations as well as its respect for heritage.

Each concert is an ambassador concert of sorts: there are several acts on each bill. They each present a set on their own, and all join up to share in a finale. Sometimes, artists can’t resist sitting in with each other on the way to that finale, as well.

All this makes for concerts filled with heritage as well as filled with surprises.

There’s another surprise: there’s not an announced schedule of which concerts will be aired; what will be on is usually announced shorty before showtime each evening.

A word of respect must be said to festival artistic director Dawn Beaton, who puts all these collaborations together, and to the folks at Novastream, the Cape Breton based company whose people handle the broadcast of the shows. It’s no easy thing to shoot and direct live music, as I well know from experience; these folk know their stuff

Okay, but who might you see?

No guarantees, because, as mentioned, shows to be broadcast are not announced in advance.

However, a bit about just a few of the artists set to perform at Celtic Colours this year:

JP Cormier is a singer, songwriter and player of many instruments. The Cape Breton native will be at the opening concert and several other shows during the festival, including one which will feature JP and musical friends playing through music from his album Another Morning.

Mary Jan Lamond, also from Cape Breton, is a world renown Gaelic singer. Her friend fiddle player and step dancer Wendy MacIsaac joins her on stage at times; their duo album Seinn is well loved classic of Cape Breton music. This year, Wendy will be appearing on her own and as a memebr of the top rated band Beolach.

The three musicians who make up The Once bring top class singing to music which shows influences of Ireland, Scotland, Americana, and bluegrass over from their home base in Newfoundland.

Speaking of Americana, Jay Ungar and Molly Mason return to Celtic Colours with the decades of musical stories to share through song and tune; also from the US, Molly Shawn Scanlan and Connor Hearn as the duo Rakish walk the line between folk and classical as they make their Celtic Colours debut on fiddle and guitar.

You may find Dawn Beaton playing the fiddle, as well as playing keyboards and dancing. Often she on her siter Margie perform as a duo. Their heritage and practice in music inform their off stage creative practices as well, Dawn as artists director of Celtic Colours and Margie is in charge of school and college reatiosn and marketing at The Gaelic College.

Rose Morrison grew up and began her music career on Cape Breton. After some eyears living away, she’s returned, expanding her renown as a fiddle player to include songwriting and singing.

First Nations artists are always part of Celctic Colours, from drum circle members to dancers to fiddle players to songwriters this year Alex Kusturok of the Metis tradtion and Morgan Toney, who connects his Mi'kmaq heritage with Cape Breton style are among those from First Nations taking part.

Ireland is always well represented at Celtic Colours. John Doyle, Mick McCauley, and Oisin McAuley form u a trio to bring song and story from Dublin, Donegal, and Kilkenny to Cape Breton.

Cape Breton has strong connections to Scotland; it is one of the few places outside the Highlands and Island of Scotland where you will fidn Gaelic in daily use. It is natural then, that artists from Scotland always form a highy anticiapted and enjoyed aspect f Celtic Colours.

Among those joining in this year: top guitarist (she handles other instruments and is a singer, composer, and producer as well) Anna Massie; lengendary songwriter Archie Fisher; rising fiddle masyer Ryan Young; awatfd winning Gaelic singer Julie Fowlis ever creative five piece band Breabach, with special guest Moynihan joining in.

There;s msuch more to be explored, and there will no doubt be surprise in store as well as familiar friends to meet again in the broadcast concerts, or,if you have the opportunity, in person.

You may also wish to see
Brush you your knowledge of Cape Breton music
Venues on Cape Breton where you can find traditional music

Photographs: Julie Fowlis and Mary Jane Lamond courtesy of Celtic Colours; John Doyle by Kerry Dexter; Anna Massie courtesy of Innes Campbell Communications

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Celtic Colours At Home: Connecting across landscapes, culture, and time

Celtic Colours: for twenty three years now this international festival has been celebrating culture, landscape, and above all music on Cape Breton Island in Nova Scotia in Atlantic Canada.

Warmth, welcome, music, and community spirit will all be part of the festival’s twenty fourth year 9 through 17 October. Things will be a bit different, though. You will be able to experience its unique atmosphere and offerings in your own home, through online events. This is Celtic Colours at Home.

Challenges: moving the festival online

Though it was not an easy decision to move on line -- and for logistics alone it was a decision which had to be made many months in advance of the the festival’s mid-October dates -- Celtic Colours had several things going for it in the transition.

Artistic Director Dawn Beaton has the responsibility of programming the festival. Celtic Colours usually presents more than fifty official concerts over its nine day span, and there are dozens of events including meals, ceilidhs, art exhbits, and more offered by community partners as well.

“Many factors were unknown,” Beaton said, “so I tried to approach the programming with the possibility that things could shut down again entirely, given October marshals the way for the traditional flu season. Even within family bands, if they were spread out over three or more households, back in March, that would have been impossible to present them on stage...For much of it, it was important to look at family clusters, duos or trios that would easily be accommodated on stage, to allow for physical distancing. Had things shut down, I felt confident we could still deliver the music as planned through other means.”

In addition to a strong presence of artists from Cape Breton, Celtic Colours always features artists from across Nova Scotia and the other Maritime provinces. Artists from elsewhere in Canada, along with overseas artists from Ireland, Scotland, and other places whose traditions have influenced music and culture on Cape Breton are integral parts of Celtic Colours as well.

It was important to keep this international aspect of the festival going, Beaton knew, in whatever ways they could figure out to do it.  “In the end, it came down to the artists, and to community,” she said. Respect for Beaton, who is herself a top class fiddle player and step dancer in addition to her admin roles with Celtic Colours, no doubt played a part too. “Sometimes the plans didn't work out,” she pointed out, “but we have such a great group of artists who love the festival and wanted to do whatever they could to make it happen.”

There were many factors at work as festival staff adjusted to the idea of an entirely online event. “What was in our favour was the fact that we as the festival had been doing live-streaming [of one concert of the six or more presented every night] since 2011, so we knew we could continue in that capacity,” Beaton said. “We looked at a number of options; could we still travel around the island? Could we have an in-house audience? If not, would we need a paywall for the sake of the performances? Much was discussed and many things had to be ascertained in terms of government aid to see if we could proceed. When I look back at March and April, there was just so much uncertainty in what would be, come October,” she continued.

Collaboration and connection

Uncertainty, yes, but there were some things that were clear, both in vision and and practicalities. “We wanted the look and feel of our online presence to match prior years.  That meant hiring a venue we've used in past years for the [in person] online portion, one we knew had strong internet and a stage capacity to give us the room for proper physical distancing, both on and off the stage. That came in the form of the Membertou Trade and Convention Centre, and it meant supporting our industry as well.”

As well as more than fifty concerts all across the island offered in person in past years, non profit groups and organizations and businesses offer community meals, walks, talks, informal music sessions, art exhibits, farmers’ markets, and other events. “We knew we weren't going to sell in-house tickets to any of the shows, so it meant fewer folks on the ground, putting our Community Cultural Experiences in jeopardy. It was also important for them to feel safe and stay healthy. That was first and foremost in all of our thoughts and actions, so for all of those reasons, we couldn't incorporate those wonderful experiences into the festival this year. And that was another tough blow,” Beaton said, “as economically, having our festival patrons here helps to bring revenue to these not-for-profits as well.”

Festival staff worked out a way to include some of this, though.“This will be an area we ensure comes back of course, but until then, we wanted to highlight a few of those great partners and approach this year as a chance to tell some of the stories of the island and what we love about it.  Each night of the festival, our Outreach Coordinator, Yvette Rogers, takes us around the island to focus on a different region and speak to the history, the scenery and of course the people,” Beaton said.

Music at the heart

As with the in person festival, music remains at the heart of the online event.

So who are some of those artists you may hear at Celtic Colours at Home?

Internationally renown Gaelic singer Mary Jane Lamond is a longtime Celtic Colours favourite. Emma Stevens, who is still finishing up her high school course on Cape Breton, was a hit at last year’s celebration as she sang Blackbird in her native Mik’maq language, trading verses with Julie Fowlis from Scotland, who sang in Scottish Gaelic.

Piano and fiddle combinations are characteristic of Cape Breton music, whether other instruments are included or not. Hilda Chiasson is one of the most creative and in demand of Cape Breton pianists. She will be show up playing with a range of artists across Celtic Colours concerts.

This year’s Artists in Residence each have a long history with the Festival. Fiddle player Troy MacGillivray, is from Antigonish County, Nova Scotia, and flute player and singer Nuala Kennedy, is originally from County Louth and now living in Ennis in Ireland. They have enjoyed performing together before, and word comes that they have been planning out surprises for this online event, when Nuala will join in remotely from her home in Ireland and Troy will be onstage in Cape Breton. Troy will be joined by siblings Kendra and Sabra MacGillivray, while Nuala’s performances will include Tara Breen on fiddle, Tony Byrne on guitar, and dancer Siobhán Butler.

Guitarist Kaia Kater will join in remotely too, from Ontario. She will be bringing her creative musical ideas which fuse and blend Caribbean, Appalachian, and Canadian elements.

Beolach, a group whose core members are Mairi Rankin, Mac Morin, and Wendy MacIsaac, brings deep knowledge and love of Cape Breton music as well as its heritage in the musics of Scotland and Ireland. Last year they shared Artist in Residence honours with the band Breabach, from Scotland.

You may also recall the members of Beolach becoming part of The Unusual Suspects of Cape Breton, a Celtic big band project led by Corrina Hewat and Dave Milligan. No big band this season, but Hewat and Milligan will be joining in with their own music from their home in Scotland.

Innovative Cape Breton fiddle player Ashley MacIsaac will be part of the opening concert, and he’ll be a part of a continuing Celtic Colours tradition of including up and coming artists, as he shares the stage with We’koma’q First Nation fiddler Morgan Toney, Mary Beth Carty, and Stoney Bear Singers from Eskasoni First Nations for a cross cultural collaboration.

Scottish, Irish, Manx, First Nations, and Acadian music will all form part of the festival as musicians make their ways through concerts called, among others, Right at Home, Bell without a Tongue, and Through the Generations. Things will conclude on the final night with a concert featuring French Canadian band Vishten and along with long time festival favourites The Barra MacNeills, who created and channel Cape Breton and Scottish music in English and in Gaelic. This concert is called The Bright Side. If you’re up for it, an after hours festival club will close out the last night of Celtic Colours at Home.

Celtic Colours at Home: connecting across miles, culture, and time There will not be listeners in person in seats this season, but there will nevertheless be community and connection.

“It's showing others, be it folks that always came to our live performances, or new folks that have never ever heard of the Celtic Colours International Festival what Cape Breton is all about, what shared ancestry we have, and to celebrate the differences amongst us too,” Artistic Director Dawn Beaton reflected. “I hope folks will celebrate great music and camaraderie and maybe find new favourites this year.  And as always to show the importance of culture, as a means of inclusion, never to divide us.”

Celtic Colours at Home: adapting to different circumstances, it it remains a celebration of connection, community, and music in the unique place that is Cape Breton.

Photograph of Dawn Beaton by Ryan MacDonald. Photograph of The Barra MacNeills courtesy of the artists. Other artists photographs (Anna Massie and Kristan Harvey, Cathy Peterson and Mary Jane Lamond, Julie Fowlis and Emma Sweeney, Wendy MacIsaac and Mac Morin, Corrina Hewat) by Corey Katz, courtesy of the Celtic Colours International Festival

There will be one concert on each of nine evenings, 9 through 17 October. On the two Saturdays in this span, there will be a second concert, honoring the Celtic Colours tradition of late night festival club celebrations. Some artists will be on stage and others will join in virtually. The concerts are produced in partnership with NovaStream and Soundpark Studios. Celtic Colours at Home is presented by TD Bank Group, with the support of ACOA, Canadian Heritage, the Province of Nova Scotia, and its many other partners. For information on this year's Festival, artists and the schedule, visit the festival’s web site at https://celtic-colours.com

You may also wish to see
A look back at Celtic Colours 2017
At Wandering Educators, Geography of Inspiration: Music and Place includes music from Dawn Beaton and her sister Margie
At Perceptive Travel, Exploring Cape Breton Island through Celtic Colours
Another musical collaboration which may be of interest: The Lost Words: Spell Songs

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You can also

Creative practice: landscapes again

Landscapes are part of what inspires me to create. We are all rooted in them, after all, and paying attention to that, in whatever way that works, often results in creative thought. Two of my own photographs, remind me of landscapes which work in all these ways for me: autumn leaves in Newburyport and winter sunrise in County Louth.

Music to go along with these thoughts:
Have a read of this piece I've written for Wandering Educators, called Geography of Inspiration: Music and Place with music from Caroline Herring, Natalie MacMaster, Dawn and Margie Beaton, Carrie Newcomer, and Hamish Napier.

-->Your support for Music Road is welcome and needed. If you are able to chip in, here is a way to do that, through PayPal. Note that you do not have to have a PayPal account to do this. Thank you.

Road Trip Music: Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving across America: it is a season of gathering in, of hope, of reflection, of family -- and of exploration and landscape and travel as well. Music is always part of this. Here are three recordings to go along and perhaps open up new ideas for you.

Midnight Special, Goodnight Irene, In the Pines, Stewball, House of the Rising Sun, Pick a Bale of Cotton: chances are, you know these songs. Whether you’ve heard them from rock stars, blues musicians, country singers, folk storytellers or schoolteachers. Chances are too that the reason they and you know these songs today is because of Huddie Ledbetter -- Lead Belly. From prison inmate to in demand artist in the folk music revival, from a childhood in the deep south to stages in New York City and Europe, he became, as Eric Bibb writes in the liner notes of Lead Belly's Gold, “the most famous Black folksinger ever, bringing the attention of millions to the power of African American song, well outside the boundaries of his own community.” Lead Belly, Bibb continues, “...owes this extraordinary status to his uncanny talent for bridging gaps.“

That’s a talent Bibb and his collaborator on Lead Belly's Gold, JJ Millteau, share in their individual careers, and that they each bring to their appreciation and understanding of the sixteen tracks they’ve chosen for this project. They open with Grey Goose, which could among other things be seen as a poetic allegory for immigration and refugee issues.

Bibb’s melodic voice with an edge of growl works well on this and other cuts, in fine counterpoint to Milteau’s bluesy with a helping of jazz and folk harmonica lines. Where Did You Sleep Last Night, a folk/blues song from the deep south also known as In the Pines, is one of the many songs Lead Belly learned from southern blues and folk tradition and made his own. Milteau and Bibb put their own stamp on it as well. There’s a fine combination of When That Train Comes Along and Swing Low Sweet Chariot. An original by Bibb, When I Get to Dallas, stands in good company with the older songs. The first eleven songs are live recordings from a performance before a small audience at The Sunset in Paris. The last five, among them Stewball and Titanic, are studio recordings. Bibb and Milteau conclude the disc with another original song from Bibb, which finds Lead Belly musing on his life and legacy, called, appropriately enough, Swimmin’ in a River of Song.

Dulcie Taylor knows about that river of song. In her recording Dulcie Taylor and Friends: Wind Over Stone she offers songs touching on love, family, travel, changes, time, courage, and other things, all done with lyrics which combine a clear poetic sense with a clear down to earth sense of connection and communication. Most are written or co written by Taylor, who sings the lead on many of them in a fine soprano.

She also has the confidence and good will to step aside and share the spotlight with her equally talented friends and longtime musical collaborators. Tony Recuipido and George Nauful each have songs on the collection and they take the lead voice on those, with Taylor adding harmony. The California based songwriter, whose songs could fit in with Americana, folk, country, and other sorts of playlists, is a fine guitarist, as well. At this Thanksgiving season, you might want to listen out especially for her songs When the Cherokee Roamed and Not Here, Not Today.

Songs with story are and long have been a hallmark of Kathy Kallick’s work. A moving force in the west coast and national bluegrass scene, her work is rooted in bluegrass, but contains much to appeal to lovers of all forms of good acoustic music. Foxhounds leads listeners on a journey from the title track, inspired by a time when Kallick sat with bluegrass icon Bill Monroe listening to his foxhounds run to the closing song, In Texas, a spare and visual evocation of a journey that didn’t turn out the way it might have, inspired by a conversation Kallick had with her daughter.

Along the way are other fine originals from Kallick including My Montana Home and Snowflakes, fiddle player Annie Staninec steps into lead singing on a pair of high energy songs, there is a Bill Monroe tune and there’s a song from not so bluegrass musician Richard Thompson. Through the journey Kallick and her fine band -- in addition to Kallick herself on guitar and vocals, and Staninec on fiddle and vocals, Cary Black is on acoustic bass and vocals, Greg Booth ads vocals along with banjo and dobro, and Tom Bekeny sings and plays mandolin -- Foxhounds is a fine and thoughtfully sequenced work that that calls in past, present, and future of bluegrass, one of the forms of American music to celebrate at this Thanksgiving season. .

-->Music to celebrate the season and for listening all the year around. blues, folk, Americana, country, and bluegrass: vibrant parts of America’s soundtrack. Take a listen and see what you find.

Top and bottom photos by Kerry Dexter, center photo by and courtesy of Skitter Photo. Thank you for respecting copyright

You may also wish to see these stories:
It would not be Thanksgiving around my house without the music of Jay Ungar and Molly Mason. Read about their albums that works especially well for this season: Music for Thanksgiving
Music of the First Peoples is appropriate to the season, too, as is music inspired by sharing with family. read about two albums which embrace these ideas: Autumn and Thanksgiving listening
Saint Andrew’s Day is on the way: Scotland’s Music: A Saint Andrew’s Day Tapestry at Wandering Educators
Advent is approaching too. A story for that: First week in Advent: music and journey

-->Your support for Music Road is welcome and needed. If you are able to chip in, here is a way to do that, through PayPal. Note that you do not have to have a PayPal account to do this. Thank you.

Celtic Intersections: Harald Haugaard and Low Lily

Fiddle player and composer Harald Haugaard grew up in Denmark; Liz Simmons, Flynn Cohen, and Lissa Schneckenburger, the musicians who make up Low Lily, are based in New England. There are Celtic connections in the stories they tell with their music, and they each bring aspects of their own landscapes and backgrounds to the mix.

Harald Haugaard had thought that he was working on an album that would be a rather dark collection of music. He’d positioned it as work about endings, the final part of a trilogy of recordings which began with Burning Fields and continued with Den Femte Soster. As he worked through what he wanted to convey, though, he found himself appreciating “ the beauty and light to be found in endings, in solitude, in autumn,” as he writes in the notes for the music which became Lys Og Forfald, which translates as Light and Decay in English.

It is music of journeys, to be sure, and music of reflection. There are new compositions as well as several pieces from earlier times reimagined. At varied points along the way he brings in members of his touring band as well as players from a former band of his, Serras, the German string ensemble Fraunhofer Saitenmusik, and musical friends including Hans Mydtskov, Brian Finnegan, and Helene Blum. It is Haugaard’s fiddle which anchors and guides the music, however.

He begins the journey in a clear and thoughtful reflection paring his fiddle with Roger Tollroth’s guitar, in, as Haugaard says, “The clear light of September.” As the music unfolds. in the pieces Prelude and Skye-Havnen there are modern day journeys of exploration, challenge, and discovery -- in a bit of a nod Denmark’s well known spinner of tales, Hans Christian Andersen. Consideration of community and connection that form part of ttravels that goes with being a musician come inot play in the tune Sostre og Brodre/Sisiters and Brothers. Port Orford, named after a small community in Oregon, finds Blume lending her voice to create sound rather than to convey lyrics in a piece considering solitude and wilder places.

As creating the music evolved, Haugaard chose on the one hand to comment a bit on past compositions and join up with musicians he’d worked with on other projects. Abne Ojne/Opne Eyes as a commentary one of Blum’s recordings and the tour they did with that music, Nacht des Unbekannten/Night of the Unknown a return collaboration with Fraunhofer Saitenmusik are among these. It is however the title track Lys og Forfald which became the center of the story, as Haugaard came to see change and ending much as the beauty of falling autumn leaves may let the light in to a woods. In what might be heard as a commentary on that, he ends the recording with his fiddle alone playing Morgen/Morning. All of the music on Lys Og Forfald is a journey well worth the taking and reveals new aspects with each hearing.

In just six tracks on their self titled recording Low Lily the musicians of Low Lily offer dynamic and intriguing expression of the music they make, a collection well worth repeated hearing as well. They kick things off with traditional song House Carpenter, with Liz Simmons taking lead voice in a version which manages to be both lively and moody as the enigmatic tale of promises and deception unfolds. Schneckenburger’s original song This Girl’s Not Mine tells a story you might find in the north woods in days past -- and in the present too. There is a fiddle solo in the midst of the song which adds to the storytelling atmosphere, and trombone lines which enliven the contemporary side of the song.

Mandolin from Cohen and fiddle from Schnekenburger lead the conversation in Cohen’s driving original Northern Spy -- you have to think of the crisp flavor of the apple as you listen. Simmons on rhythm guitar and Corey DiMario of double bass anchor the rhythm on this and other tracks on the recording.

Simmons and Cohen follow with an original piece each, each story having to do with travel and journeys and how those may be experienced. Simmons steps up to lead voice again on her song Adventurer, while Cohen’s is the lead voice on All Roads Lead to You. Contemporary songs both, but ones rooted in tradition in both idea and arrangement.

Liz Simmons, Flynn Cohen and Lissa Schneckenburger have individual careers which include solo projects, teaching, playing with musicians across the spectrum of roots music. They are each top notch at what they do. When they join up as Low Lily there’s even more to enjoy in the conversations they share in voice and instrument. They finish off the EP Low Lily with the instrumental set Cherokee Shuffle/Lucky which joins tradition and newly written tunes, and sets the stgae for more to come from this gifted trio.

Celtic connections and intersections inform the music of Harald Haugaard and the songs and tunes of Low Lily, as they bring together ideas from past and present, center and edge, to create music all their own.

You may also wish to see
Long Time Courting: Alternate Routes
Music of Maine: Lissa Schneckenburger
Denmark’s Harbor of Music: Harald Haugaard at Perceptive Travel
Winter and Music in Denmark: Helene Blum at Perceptive Travel

-->Your support for Music Road is welcome and needed. If you are able to chip in, here is a way to do that, through PayPal. Note that you do not have to have a PayPal account to do this. Thank you.

Music for Thanksgiving

Harvest. Gathering in. Gathering together. Preparing for winter’s colder days and nights. Watching the change of light, the changing color of leaves. Singing hymns of Thanksgiving, songs of harvest, giving thanks for grace. Songs of hope for a cold winter’s night, and a family gathered around. Whethter you live close to the land or you do not, close to songs of faith or not, with family or not, these things still form part of this time of year. A time, indeed, for thanksgiving.

James Galway, Jay Ungar, and Molly Mason have an album that is well suited to this time. It is called Song of Home. On it, with fiddle and bow, flute and guitar (Peter Ostroushko adds mandolin too), they travel from Cape Breton to the west and back again, finding common threads and contrasting colors in the celebration of what it means to come home.

The album is a meditative door opening to this season of sharing and connecting, and a fine companion through it. Music includes My Cape Breton Home, West Texas Waltz, Bound for California, and Oh Shenandoah/Shenandoah Falls. There are also selections from the Harvest Home suite, music which Ungar and Mason wrote following the urn of seasons across the land and the landscapes of life.

Ungar and Mason have another album well suited to this season of thanksgiving .It is called Harvest Home and includes music from the Harvest Home suite as well as original and traditional music. They have anew album out, too which focuses on the winter holiday season and is called A Fiddler's Holiday With The Jay Ungar & Molly Mason Family Band.

You may also wish to see

harvest time

Autumn music: preparation and presence

photograph of pumpkins is by Kerry Dexter. Thank you for respecting copyright

-->Your support for Music Road is welcome and needed. If you are able to chip in, here is a way to do that, through PayPal. Note that you do not have to have a PayPal account to do this. Thank you.

Music and memory

Music and memory: that’s a powerful combination. It’s also a powerful choice. Music can help us remember, and it can help us choose and understand what we remember.

It is also a way to reach across the loss of memory. I’ve a friend whose mother could not speak toward the end of her life, but she could sing, and loved to sing with her family as she’s always done her whole life long. Another friend’s grandmother was lost in her mind to Alzheimer's and did not know her granddaughter at all -- until her granddaughter began to sing to her, a song they’d both loved when she was small. Then, for the space of the song, recognition and love returned past the gates of lost memory.

Singing to a child -- to an adult, too -- calms when nothing else will, establishes that connection of voice and melody which, while it may use words, important words, connects beyond their meaning. Further along this line of music and memory, how many times have you had a fragment of a tune or a verse of song bring back to you in vivid detail a place, a time, a person you’d not thought of in many a long day?

Music can help us remember, and it can help us understand and connect with what we remember. How has this happened for you?

To go along with these ideas

Pádraigín Ní Uallacháin: Songs of the Scribe

Kathy Mattea: Calling Me Home

Cathie Ryan: teaching tradition

-->If you'd like to support my creative work at Music Road,
here is a way to do that, through PayPal. Note that you do not have to have a PayPal account to do this.Thank you.

Music for memory, and for dance

As the slant of light turns towards autumn across the northern hmeisphere, as the edge on the wind heralds the drawing in of colder weather to come, it is time to go on a musical journey, as Robin Spielberg takes fresh view of familiar classics, and Lissa Schneckenburger invites to the heart of history, and of dance.


Home on the Range, Aura Lee, Danny Boy, In the Good Old Summer Time: these are melodies and songs that cross generations and cultures and suggest a hand of comfort and connection from past to present. Robin Spielberg knew these songs growing up, and when she began teaching them to her daughter, she started to think of making an album of this music. Spielberg’s instrument is the piano. She’s known as a gifted composer with more than a dozen albums to her credit, sold out concerts at at Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall, and an extensive touring schedule in the United States and abroad.

Spielberg brings her gift for melody to the well known songs on Sea to Shining Sea: A Tapestry of American Music, creating and recreating memories and melodies, presenting them without words and giving space for listeners to add their own stories. There are twenty tracks on the disc, including three Spielberg originals, which stand up in good company with the well known pieces. Though she’s best known for her solo piano work, she heard these songs as ensemble pieces. She’s well supported by Catherine Bent on cello, Kate MacLeod on guitar, fiddle, and vocals, Nancy Rumbel on oboe, Paul Henle on percussion, and her daughter, Valerie, on marimba and bells. It’s a fine recording to play through as it stands, but especially worth note are a lovely reinterpretation of The Water is Wide, the lively I’ve Been Working on the Railroad paired with the quiet Oh Shenandoah, and the original Circle of Life.

Lissa Schneckenburger offers an instrumental journey as well, into the heart of New England fiddling. She grew up in Maine, absorbing the mix of Irish, Scottish, Quebecois, Cape Breton, Appalachian, and other styles that swirl together there. Some of her earliest experiences were playing at contra dances - something she still enjoys -- and for her album Dance she has gathered a fine collection, featuring tunes both lyrical and lively. Her sure touch on the fiddle leads the way through the Huntsman’s Chorus, the Lamplighter's Hornpipe set, Eugenia’s Waltz, and seven more equally engaging tunes, well suited for listening and dancing. She brings along an ensemble of musical friends as well, several of whom you’ve met before along the music road. They include Bethany Waickman on guitar, Keith Murphy on guitar and piano, Eric Merrill on viola, and Corey DiMario on double bass.

you may also wish to see
Music Road: creative practice: early autumn
Music Road: Mother: music celebrating mothers and motherhood: McKeown, Ryan, Spielberg
Music Road: Music of Maine: Lissa Schneckenburger

-->Your support for Music Road is welcome and needed. If you are able to chip in, here is a way to do that, through PayPal. Note that you do not have to have a PayPal account to do this. Thank you.

Ghosts and stories

Halloween is coming up, and it is certainly a time of year when imagination, shared or individual, plays a part.

Someone asked me the other day if I knew any songs about ghosts.

There are whole genres of ghost lover songs in folk traditions, no doubt at least in part a consequence of times not that long past when a person would set out on a journey -- down the road or across the sea -- and never be heard from again. The Bay of Biscay and She Moved Through The Fair come to mind. There are other ghosts in song too, usually of folk who have come to a bad end at some one else’s hand.

There are ghost trains and ghost ships, not to mention ghost cattle herds. The spookiest song with ghosts in it, to me, is called Greenwood Side, also known as Cruel Mother. Details vary through the traditions and I'll let you seek out the story on your own if you've a mind to, but the last verse of the way I learned it always got to me as a kid because of the years of things the woman in the song had to face as punishment for murder (the ghosts of those she murdered were the ones who let her in on this stuff, too). As an adult I’ve thought, on a more hopeful note, that this woman has great faith in the power of forgiveness.

The verse goes

...I’ll be seven years a bird in the wood
seven years a fish in the flood
seven years the tongue in the warning bell
and God save me from the flames of hell.

Update: Gretchen Peters has released a fine version of that song mentioned above. I learned it first from from the singing of Ian and Sylvia Tyson.

Then there's the story told in Wind And Rain (a fine way to hear it is sung in Gaelic and English by Julie Fowlis and Eddi Reader on Julie's album Uam)in which the murdered one's bones turn into a fiddle.

About those ghost cattle herds? Johnny Cash knew about those.

There are other ways to consider the unknown and scarier parts of life in song, though
To take a turn to another train of thought, take a look at

A song which came out of another sort of reflection in a graveyard, Audience Of Souls:

Another way to look at uncertainty, and to celebrate another season: season of grace

A different thought about Ghost Trains

[The photograph, of a twelfth century ruin in Ireland, is copyrighted, and I thank you for respecting that]

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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.

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You can also

Autumn music: preparation and presence

The week before Advent begins, Thanksgiving is coming, a friend's birthday soon, thinking about and organizing journeys long and short, and creative work asking for differing sorts of focus. A season of turning, a time of preparation, and of being present in the moment.


Two songs that go along with this time of the year, for me,
each in its own way is about mystery:

The Castle Of Dromore from Cherish the Ladies, with Heidi Talbot singing lead, and I Do Not Know Its Name, from Carrie Newcomer.

These photographs are from a place not often associated with the turning leaves of autumn, the north and west of Florida. Tallahassee, to be specific.
















you may also wish to see

Voices: Cherish the Ladies
Music Road: Carrie Newcomer: Before & After


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

photographs copyright Kerry Dexter

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Autumn & Thanksgiving listening, continued

In the second half of autumn. there’s gathering in of harvest and looking back toward summer, while heading into the work of winter.

Autumn is a very fine season all on its own, though, with work of transition, and work of connection, work of creation and work of preparation.


As you walk through the season, good musical companions are Hanneke Cassel’s For Reasons Unseen and Jay Ungar and Molly Mason’s Harvest Home.

Harvest Home comprises an orchestral piece of that same name, done in collaboration with the Nashville Chamber Orchestra (now known as Orchestra Nashville), and a selection of tunes crossing landscapes of place and musical geography of the United States. . Ungar plays the fiddle, Mason is a guitarist, and other musicians you’ve met here along the music road sit in, among them Christine Balfa, John Kirk, Keith Murphy, and Paul Gambill, who conducts the Nashville Chamber orchestra for this outing. It’s a fine collection all around. Haymaker’s Hoedown, Prairie Spring, and Bound for Another Harvest Home are good ways to get an idea of the spirit of things, and you may very likely recognize another original tune, Ashokan Farewell.

Cassel’s album wasn’t designed especially for the harvest time of year, but the music she chooses for it holds a reflective idea, even in the fast paced pieces, that works well with the season. Cassel is a fiddle player, pianist, and composer whose work is grounded in Scottish tradition with dashes of Americana and Irish flavor , and in this case, music she learned while traveling in China, as well. Musicians you’ve crossed paths with along the music road sit in with Cassel too, among them Natalie Haas, Alasdair Fraser, and Lissa Schneckenburger. As is Harvest Home, For Reasons Unseen is an album to listen to all the way through, and with especial note of the Blackberry Meadow Footrace set, The Goat Whisperer, and the Dusky Meadow set.

you may also wish to see

Music Road: harvest time
Music Road: autumn skies

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Autumn & Thanksgiving listening

As autumn’s gathering in unfolds across the northern hemisphere and the season of Thanksgiving approaches in the United States, here are two quite different ways to approach this time through music.

Though stories vary as to just what happened and when, and just what was on the menu people, too, who had arrived from Europe to find new homes and members of Native tribes already living on the land joined to celebrate that early Thanksgiving. Since that times, connections and relations among the peoples have not always been as cordial. Joanne Shenandoah, who is of the Oneida-Iroquois Confederacy of New York state joins with Michael Bucher. of the Cherokee people, are both well respected songwriters and singers on their own. They’ve teamed up for Bitter Tears Sacred Ground, an album in which they offer original songs as well as giving the nod to three songwriters who explored the connections and disconnections of Native American life, Johnny Cash, Peter LaFarge, and Floyd Westerman. The musicians’ original songs and those of other times find connection, a connection only emphasized by Shenandoah’s singing of The Star Spangled Banner, which is offered almost as a lullabye.

It was thinking about passing along songs to her daughter, songs her parents had sung to her, that got Robin Spielberg started on what became her album Sea to Shining Sea: A Tapestry of American Music. Spielberg is a classically trained pianist and composer with many awards and albums to her credit. For this project, she did include several original pieces, but most of her selections are from the melting pot of popular American song. Let Me Call You Sweetheart, The Water Is Wide, Home on the Range, and Oh Shenandoah are just a few of the well loved songs that take on a fresh sparkle in Spielberg's thoughtful arrangements. Her guests include her daughter, Valerie Spielberg Kosson, on bells and marimba, Catherine Bent on cello, Kate Macleod on fiddle and guitar, Nancy Rumble on oboe and English horn, and Paul Henle on percussion.

here is another pair of recordings well suited for your autumn and Thanksgiving listening autumn & Thanksgiving listening, continued
suggestions for winter listening and holiday gifts to come as well, along with reflections on music and the season of Advent ahead here along the music road.

you may also wish to see

Music Road: autumn: music for memory, and for dance

Music Road: Top 5 Favorite Music Road Trips

Music Road: holiday gift list: music of Canada

-->Your support for Music Road is welcome and needed. If you are able to chip in, here is a way to do that, through PayPal. Note that you do not have to have a PayPal account to do this. Thank you.