Wednesday, October 06, 2010

Top 5 Favorite Music Road Trips

The Great American Road Trip has been winding from the quiet villages of New England to the Blue Ridge in Virginia, from the muddy Mississippi up to the shores of Lake Michigan. Right now, we are in the northern plains of South Dakota. Here are my suggestions for a musical road trip in North Dakota and South Dakota.

It’s also time to take a look back at which of the road trip posts you’re enjoying the most.

Tops on the list, in terms of numbers of you reading, is Road Trip Music: Michigan, in which you learn about Irish American singer and songwriter Cathie Ryan.

You’re also liking the story of the beginning of the road trip idea at Great American Road Trip: Music begins. autumn1 copyright kerry dexter

The midwest is holding your attention, with
Road Trip Music: Ohio, which features Wilderness Plots, an album about the history of the Ohio Valley from five contemporary songwriters, and Road Trip Music: Indiana, a look at some fine songs from Indiana native Carrie Newcomer.

Road Trip Music in Alabama: bluegrass, faith, and architecture rounds out your top favorites. Claire Lynch and her album Whatcha Gonna Do was a choice for our soundtrack through the wiregrass and red clay hills of Alabam’.


Your choice of Alabama gives me the chance to send out our congratulations to Claire, who was recently named female vocalist of the year by the International Bluegrass Music Association. That’s the top award in bluegrass music. Well done and well deserved Claire!


you may also wish to see
Looking for music from Ireland, Scotland, and Cape Breton? It is here -- check around for articles on The Celtic Colours International Festival, Heidi Talbot’s new album The Last Star, and the debut album from rising Scottish instrumentalist Matheu Watson, and loads of great stuff in our archives. There’s more to come, and more travels on The Great American Road Trip as well. Texas, California, Alaska and all the other states in the American West lie ahead.

and more music from the road trip


This is part of The Great American Road Trip, in which I originally partnered up with A Traveler’s Library to add musical ideas to the book and film suggestions for journeys through the regions of the United States which you’d find there. The Library is closed now, but I think you will still find the journeys through music interesting.

For more about the road trip (and a look at some great road songs) see Great American Road Trip: Music begins


UpTake Travel Gem

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Monday, December 31, 2007

creative practice: new year's eve









good wishes at the changing of the year's time

best music of 2007

a reflective song to revisit

and another, reels this time

Irish music, Irish landscape

a book about the grace of friendship

music for winter

two for the road

giving thanks

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Tuesday, December 11, 2007

now playing: best of 2007









It's that time of year....when the music world falls in love with polls and best of lists.
Over the years, I've come to regard polls as celebrations of the diversity of music. As Emmlylou Harris is reported to have said, "Awards are fun, but this is music, not a horse race."

That said, here are eighteen of the best. Some have been reviewed on this site, some yet to be reviewed. Music from Irish to country to bluegrass to Scottish to spirituals to Americana, and loads of great writing and singing and playing on guitars, flutes, bodhrans, whistles, bouzoukis, banjos, mandolins, basses, cellos, boots, and a drumship.

* Matt & Shannon Heaton Fine Winter's Night
* Eddi Reader Peacetime



* John Spillane Gaelic Hit Factory
* Carrie Newcomer, Tim Grimm, Tom Roznowski, Michael White, & Krista Detor
Wilderness Plots

*Alasdair Fraser & Natalie Haas In the Moment
* Gretchen Peters Burnt Toast & Offerings
* Grada Cloudy Day Navigation
* The Greencards Viridian
* Rani Arbo & daisy mayhem Big Old Life
* Alison Krauss A Hundred Miles or More
* Adrienne Young Room to Grow
*Athena Tergis Letter Home
*Jim Malcolm Acquaintance
*Luka Bloom Tribe
*Emmylou Harris Songbird
*Claire Lynch Crowd Favorites
*Nuala Kennedy The New Shoes
*Karen Mal The Space Between

-->If you'd like to support my creative work,
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.

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