Best music 2013, part 2

Music at its best is a conversation, a connection between musicians and listeners and in some cases a wider world. Take a listen to conversations these musician offer.

This is part two of a three part series on best music of 2013 here at Music Road. Here is part one. Music Road: best music 2013, part 1

note: clicking on the text links and album cover images will take you to longer reviews of the recordings/and or places where you may hear bits of the music.

Ruth Moody, Canadian songwriter whose name you may know from her work with the award winning group The Wailin’ Jennys, is also a fine solo artist. She has the gift for weaving the spiritual into love songs and other experiences of day to day life in her lyrics, and the musicianship to invite you in. You may find all this, along with musical guests including Mike McGoldrick, Mark Knopfler , and Jerry Douglas on her album These Wilder Things.

Ron Block often puts questions of life illuminated by questions of faith front and center in his solo work too. In his case the ideas and the music are infused with bluegrass, which makes sense when you know that Block is a long time member of Alison Krauss + Union Station. Both as aspects of his interest come into his album Walking Song which includes a number of collaborations with new found songwriting partner Rebecca Reynolds.

You might know Heidi Talbot from her work with other musicians, as well: she was lead singer with Cherish the Ladies, and has been know to sing backup to Eddi Reader. Talbot is a fine solo artist as well. Her earlier albums have leant toward music draw for the deep reservoir of Celtic tradition (Talbot is Irish and lives in Scotland). On Angels Without Wings she walks farther into adding her own songwriting voice to the mix, and it proves as powerful and as gracious a one as is her singing voice. Notable cuts include When the Roses Come Again, I’m Not Sorry, and My Sister the Moon.

Childsplay is a gathering of musicians who come together in the Boston area, centered around musicians who play violins made by Bob Childs. The music they make on As the Crow Flies is by turns Celtic, Americana, and contemporary, some original compositions, some from those traditions. It’s not just violin and fiddle, either -- they bring along musical friends including flute player Shannon Heaton and guitarist Keith Murphy as well as Lissa Schneckenburger -- she is one of the fiddle players to be sure, and also lends her fine voice to tracks including Dear Companion and As the Crow Flies. Fiddle players you’ve met here along the music road include Hanneke Cassel and Katie McNally, and Nic Gareiss brings the percussion of his dancing feet as well.

The Paul McKenna Band are rising stars of Scotland’s music. Their album Elements, recently released in the United States, makes clear why this is so: creative tunes, thoughtful songs, a good blend of fast paced and slower tempo, and through it all the taste of Scotland lingers. Standout tracks include the instrumental set Flying Through Flanders , the fast paced song Mickey Dam, and the quiet reflection of the song Indiana.

Dervish know well how to balance music between high flying tunes and time for that quiet side side of things too. They are from the west of Ireland, and a number of the songs they have on The Thrush in the Storm are ones they draw from time as band in residence in Leitrim. The stories they tell in the liner notes are almost as interesting as the ones they tell in the songs and tunes. Listen out for The Rolling Wave set and Shanagolden, which has particularly fine singing from Cathy Jordan.

Therese Honey does not sing a line on her album Summer's End: her instrument is the harp. It’s a fine collection of original and traditional tunes in Celtic tradition, some lively, many inviting reflection. It is a recording you’d do well to let play through as the musician has sequenced the tunes for you.

John Reischman’s instrument is the mandolin, and while on Walk Along John he shows just about every color of it in folk, bluegrass, and Americana music, it’s the power of story, and of the journey he creates for the listener, that shines even more brightly than his skill on his instrument. It’s mainly original music with a few well chosen traditional tunes mixed in. From the Itzbin Reel to A Prairie Jewel though to Anisa’s Lullabye, Reischman will keep you engaged in his musical journey.

Joy Dunlop has a journey to bring you along on, as well -- in her case it is through her native Argyll in the west of Scotland. Whether Scottish Gaelic is your language or not, you’ll follow along with the humor, sorrow, joy, celebration, and other emotions Dunlop shares on Faileasan/Reflections, No worries if your Gaelic is not fluent -- or if you have any at all -- Dunlop tells the stories of the songs and a bit about how they came to her in the liner notes, in English. You’ll recognize the names of several of her musical friends -- all with connections to Argyll -- among them Donald Shaw, Karen Matheson, and Mary Ann Kennedy.

photographs are by Kerry Dexter, and are copyrighted. thank you for respecting this.

you may also wish to see
Ireland's music: two voices
Winter's grace

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best music 2013, part 1

Music which tells good stories and asks and invites good questions, which holds past and resent both and celebrates their intersections, music which speaks of passion and peace, of individual voice and of community, of place, of history, of trust, of faith, of joy: that may seem quite a bit to ask. It is these qualities, though, which pull through and connect the music we explore here along the music road.

I call your attention especially to these qualities in the recordings I point out to you as best of the year 2013.

To allow the music to unfold at its natural pace and to allow you time to listen and explore, this year I am choosing to present best of the year’s music over the course of three stories. This is the first of those. Stay tuned as January unfolds to find the full list.

Clicking on album cover images and text links will take you to longer reviews of the music and/or places where you may hear bits of it.

Best Music of the Year 2013, part one

For thirty years, Capercaillie has been celebrating, learning about, and taking the music of their home in Argyll in the west of Scotland to places across the world. To mark the three decades since they began as a band of high school friends, they have chosen to bring into focus heritage, history, landscape and present day, rising stars of the music of Scotland and what they share which is both time bound and timeless on the recording At the Heart of It All. Whether Scottish Gaelic is your language or not, you’ll be moved by songs such as S’Och A’Dhomnaill Oig Ghaolaich, which offers a love song set to the traditional rhythms of daily work. There are tunes as well, and the title song, an original piece in English, with calls to celebrate love of the land and all it may teach us..

Claire Lynch knows a thing or two about love of land as well. In her case that’s the hills and valleys, back roads and quiet fields of the American south. Often awarded for her gifts as a bluegrass musician, Lynch’s interests and talents span the range of what’s come to be called Americana music. Her gifts as both songwriter and singer run through the stories she tells through the songs on Dear Sister from the title track tale of a man in Civil War days thinking of his family at home to the love song that holds many meanings from romantic to spiritual in Patch of Blue.

Emigration, change, history, family: these are all part of the music the band Solas has to offer on Shamrock City When they were invited to play a festival in Butte, Montana, founding member Seamus Eagan took the chance to look into a family story about a relative who had gone to settle there. What he and his band mates found led them to create music that is grounded deeply in one man’s story and the story of one place at a time of change, and yet reaches far beyond those things. Stand out track include Far Americay and Welcome the Unknown.

“When I first moved back to Dingle, it seemed as though songs came flying at me from all sides, “ says Muireann Nic Amhlaoibh. She has, and still does, travel the world with her music as lead singer with the band Danu. It is the west of Ireland which is Nic Amhlaoibh’s home place, though, where she returns to draw on the wellsprings of music she grew up with, and where she returned to work on her second solo album, Ar Uair Bhig an Lae/The Small Hours Not that all the music is sourced from Dingle -- NIc Amhlaoibh's vision is large enough to include music she’s gathered in Australia and America as well as that learned close to home -- but all the music is told in the voice and flute playing of a true storyteller of Ireland. Tracks you may want to take a first listen to include An Buachaill Caol Dubh, Another Day, and The Bold Fenian Men.

Katie McNally is a story teller as well. In he case, the stories are told through the playing of her fiddle, and she draws on the music of Scotland and its intersections with the music of America. A sure hand, a distinctive touch and a creative voice as both composer and interpreter mark Flourish, McNally’s first album. Take note especially of the Jarvis Waltz, the Bad Soup set, and Da Unst Bridal march.

Maria Dunn’s family came to Canada from their native Scotland when she was young. That’s one of the reasons, the musician thinks sheis drawn to the stories of immigrants and how people find home in a new place. On Piece by Piece these stories come from women who came to Edmonton, Alberta, to work in a garment factory. Hearing the voices of the women themselves in interviews, Dunn created music which shares stories both personal and universal as each celebrated the joys and wrestled with the challenges of such circumstances. In Dunn’s hands these voices come clear.

Clarity and connection are features of what fiddle player Juhani Silvola and fiddle player Sarah-Jane Summers offer on their recording Sarah-Jane Summers & Juhani Silvola He’s from Finland, she’s from the Highlands of Scotland, they make their home now in Oslo, and there are bits of all that in the music they bring, which includes traditional tunes and original pieces. The graceful dialogue between their istrutments invites listeners in to the conversation and sends them away with a smile, a bit of laughter a quiet reflection. It is -- as are all these albums, really -- music which you should allow to play out as the musicians have sequenced it. Outstanding tracks, though, include Lassie An’ Siller An’ A’s My Ain, Portobello Smile, and the Outlaws Don’t Dance Waltzes set.

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

you may also wish to see
Winter's grace
best music, 2012
Songs for Valentine's Day

-->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.