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 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.

-->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.

You can also

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

If you enjoy what you’ve been reading here, a way to support more of it:

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

-->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.

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

-->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, big pictures, and details

As you are traveling this winter holiday season, keep an eye out, and ear out, for both the big picture and the details. Good ideas to reflect on and practice when you are staying close to home, as well. Also, ideas to think about when listening to music.

























music to go along with these ideas
Close to Home

Music Road: Carrie Newcomer: Before & After

Music Road: ten songs

photographs copyright Kerry Dexter, from Portland, Maine (chain), Letterkenny, Donegal (head), midlands, Ireland (sheep on hillside), Cambridge, Massachusetts (musician's hands)

you may also wish to see

Music Road: holiday gift list: Irish music

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

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.

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.

Harvest Time

Part of the work of autumn is gathering and sorting. Part of that is reflection, as well. These photographs, which were taken in Tallahassee, Florida, and Austin, Texas, remind me of these ideas and this work.




Music to go along includes Hanneke Cassel’s album Some Melodious Sonnet, and Jay Ungar and Molly Mason’s The Lovers' Waltz.


Neither of them is meant to be descriptive of autumn, but each holds within ideas which go well with this turn in the year's time. Ungar, who plays fiddle, and Mason, who is a guitarist, draw on landscapes and reflections and history to create a tapestry interwoven with searching, consideration, discovery, and continuation. Especially take a listen to Mountain House and The Contradance.

Hanneke Cassel’s music is grounded in Scottish style fiddle with flavors of American folk tradition and Irish music added to the mix. That is all well apparent on Some Melodious Sonnet from the lifting pace of the set that opens with Pauline Connelly's and continues through Dog Bites Chapman, and the set that links the Scottish trad of Pigeons on the Gate to Cassel’s original Mrs. Joyscream. There are quieter pieces as well leading to the closing hymn from which the title phrase arises, Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing. You need not know tune names or style, though, to find this recording, and Lovers’ Waltz as well, good companions for autumn’s work.

It is the turn of the year in Celtic legend, too. If you would care for some Irish music to go along, here are ideas for that.

you may also wish to see
Music Road: Hanneke Cassel: For Reasons Unseen
Music Road: reflections with Adrienne Young
Music Road: season of change: music for autumn


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

-->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.

Early autumn: music and transition

As the season turns toward autumn here in the northern hemisphere, sometimes the transitions are quite subtle: a red leaf among the green, a shift from summer’s vibrant greenery to a golden hue that presages autumn’s color, a change in the slant of light. Transitions in music, and in life, are often like that, as well: a slight shift in pattern, a different in angle of view, one small change that connects with what may come. Photographs are from Tallahassee, Florida, County Down, Northern Ireland, and Westchester County, New York. each is copyrighted by Kerry Dexter Music to go along with these ideas: season of change: music for autumn creative practice: autumn: spaces between Shannon Heaton: The Blue Dress you may also wish to see Delicious Baby's Photo Friday, where travelers offer new insights to the world each Friday

-->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.

Late summer, early autumn, music, Ireland

As the angle of light begins to change from late summer to a hint of autumn, the landscape at times calls for tunes such as Apples In Winter, and Hunter's Moon.

In Ireland (and elsewere) the mist begins to come down the mountain a bit more, and the colors of sunset begin to shift. It seems right to mention, too, the very often covered jig Mist Covered Mountain. There’s an interesting version of it on the pipes by Stephen Megarity, and Grainne Hambly offers a lovely version on the harp

Here is a set of songs well suited to this time of year, as well.

The photographs are from Slieve Foye in the Republic of Ireland.


you may also wish to see
while you are thinking about Ireland, will you help my mini guidebook to Irish music festivals advance in a competition? to do so, give it a star rating on this page - click on the stars and it will tell you how to sign in or sign up to do so. thanks for considering.

Music Road: Potato Music
and
and Delicious Baby's Photo Friday, where travelers offer new insights to the world each Friday

-->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.

Creative practice: autumn: spaces between

As the world moves through autumn here in the northern hemisphere, there is sometimes a standing at the threshold aspect of work, life, and relationships. Gathering in and savoring and celebrating the summer’s gifts, preparing for winter and wondering what it may bring, and savoring the moments of being in those places and spaces between. music to go along with these ideas Music Road: Gretchen Peters: One to the Heart, One to the Head Music Road: season of change: music for autumn Lauren MacColl strewn with ribbons photos taken in Tallahassee, Florida [tree], Cambridge, Massachusetts [doorstep]. and County Down, Northern Ireland [mountains], all good places to spend time in autumn

you may also want to see

other photo blogs at Delicious Baby's Photo Friday

-->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.

Work of autumn: music

The angle of light has been turning toward autumn where I am in recent days. The shadows in evening are long, the rim of light around the leaves and the people walking down the road has a golden cast, and every so often there’s a cool edge to the breeze. Mist hangs longer over the lake as the natural world gathers in for harvest time. Autumn is traditionally a time of harvest. It also marks a time of change, from the flourishing of summer to bringing that growth in and sorting it to savor. It’s a time of building bridges, too, between the open spaces of summer and the quiet, interior reflection which winter often brings. A lovely season, with many changes within itself, from these first bright days through rain and wind and gorgeous turning leaves to grey days and the peace and questions found along the paths of autumn. Here are three fine musical companions for these journeys: The Return Journey is the latest solo album from guitarist and composer Bill Cooley. His Irish music loving side comes to the front on Gang Forward, and Morning Poem is a reflective solo guitar piece perfect for these autumn days. The whole album is, actually. The music contains references to folk, jazz, country, and bluegrass. Claire Lynch just keeps on getting better and better. Through the music on her latest release, Whatcha Gonna Do, Lynch walks in the light and shadow of life with grace and thoughtfulness and dashes of humor - and she’s a singer with a lovely soprano who really knows how to serve whatever song she’s singing, be that based in bluegrass or swing, folk or country. She’s also building her skills as a writer. Two of my favorite songs here are Highway, which Lynch wrote with Irene Kelley, and Face to Face, which she wrote with Donna Ulisse. Every song on the record is a keeper, though. There is light and shadow on Matt and Shannon Heaton’s recording Lovers' Well, too. They’ve looked into Irish tradition -- and a bit further -- for songs and tunes which invite listeners to consider the kaleidoscope of emotion that two people bring with them and go through as they learn to love each other. There are lovers parted, lovers just finding each other, lovers reunited and lovers' questions. Songs and tunes alike unfold these stories in music that makes a fine companion for the season of change and turning leaves. you may also want to see Music Road: now playing: Kathy Mattea: Coal you’ll find Bill Cooley’s work on this fine record, too Music Road: season of change: music for autumn autumn music: harvest home, crossing bridges

-->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.

You can also