Whirring Wings from Matt and Shannon Heaton

Musicians use all sorts of tools with which to tell their stories.

At times those tools include words. Other times, they do not.

There are always stories in the music, though.

Matt and Shannon Heaton are songwriters, singers, instrumentalists and composers. They most often draw in the music of Ireland for traditional music to play and as inspiration for their original music.

The husband and wife duo are based in the Boston area.

Though they often choose a mix of elements for their recordings, for their album Whirring Wings, they’ve decided to place focus mainly on tunes, that is, instrumental pieces without words,

It makes a lively storytelling journey they invite listeners to join.

Matt’s main instrument is guitar, Shannon’s is flute.

For this album they take journeys through original and traditional tunes in thoughtful combinations and sequencing.

The title for the album, Shannon explains, comes from the one song they have chosen to include, a piece by Scottish poet Robert Burns.

Shannon sings lead. It is called Westlin Winfs (the song is known by several other names too). The story it tells has to do with autumn, hunting, a lovers walk, and other things, including the whirring wings of birds.

Matt and Shannon took that reference to whirring wings, Shannon explains, “as an invitation to find some lift and freedom in some of our very favorite old and new tunes, and to try our best to convey the way these tunes make us feel by arranging them with sparkle and space.”

Among the stories the tunes and sets tell are a waltz to recall their son’s last days of fourth grade, a march to remeber and honor a musician who had passed away and her twin sister, inspired by a visit of two cardinals to their backyard, and a set that starts with a tune Matt and Shannon were inspired to learn by requests from members of the the community which has developed around the couple’s onine Virtual Guided Session (known as VGS for short).

There’s a full slate more, both original and traditional tunes in jig, reel, walyz, and march time. There are slips jgs and an hornpipe in the mix, too, alongside that song from Robert Burns.

Whirring Wings is a project well worth your repeated listening. Whetjer you listen to learn the tunes, to appreciate the musician ship, or to explore great flute and guitar work, you will find much to enjoy.

There’s a tune book available also, with notation, guitar chord ideas, and short essays about the songs. Both album and tune book include an intriguing and thoughtful cover painting by artist Vincent Crotty.

You may also wish to see
A bit of backstory on Two Cardinals as part of the Sunday Sessiosn series
Matt and Shannon Heaton offer quite a bit of instructional and educational Irish music content on line - including archives and live broadcasts of that Virtual Guided Session, on Shannon’s YouTube Channel
This is the sixth album Matt and Shannon have released as a duo. Tell You In Earnest is another; so is Fine Winter's Night You can hear each of them sing, too, on these albums...
They each have other projects on the go, too. Matt has several albums focused on younger listeners; Shannon has a solo album and [ast episodes of her podcast Irish Music Stories. More about all this at Matt and Shannon Heaton's web site
Another Irish American musician whose work you may enjoy: learn about the album Through Wind and Rain from Cathie Ryan

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Third week in Advent: Music, friendship, connection

Winter can be a season for connection of many sorts.

There could be gathering with friends and family we see often, and with those with whom we visit just a few times in a year, or do not see for several years.

It can be a time for thinking of an connecting with freieds at distance, too, those we may not see in person but whose love and connection yet is a vital presence in our lives.

Whatever form connection may take, the winter season is a good time -- a good excuse, if one is needed -- to connect, to reconnect, to reach out to people you’ve not seen in some time, or that you see of and say: I was just thinking of you.

Music to go along with these ideas

Carrie Newcomer’s song Gathering of Spirits is an honoring of friendship, of lasting love and respect.

Mairead Ni Mhaonaigh wrote a song in Irish (she is from Donegal and a native Irish speaker) for her daughter called Mo Nion O. Cathie Ryan, who is also a mother, translated the words into English and uses both languages in her version of the song. In both languages, it is a blessing for the present and an idea of hope for the future.

In Shannon Heaton’s song Fine Winter’s Night, she contrasts the cold bright of stars and snow with warmth and connection beckoning within. Shannon and her husband Matt, who joins her in the song. chose the song for title of their winter themed album.

On her album Songs of Christmas. Scotland based musician Emily Smith brings in a lively version of a contemporary carol you may or may not know. It is sure to bring a smile though, and perhaps you will join in singing it with thosoe near and far. It is called Little Road to Bethlehem.

You may also wish to see
Second week in Advent
Gifts of Winter
Gift ideas in music, at Perceptive Travel

While you are thinking of gifts, if you enjoy what you are finding here, consider -->

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Gifts of Winter: 5 recordings to explore

Reflection and creativity are both part of winter, and of the Advent season.

With those two things in mind, here is a bit about several long time favorite recordings which go along with winter time.

Seasonal music not your thing? No worries, there will be more to come of non seasonal new releases and old favorites, good for holiday gift lists as well. Also check out the links toward the end of this piece...

The title track of Cara Dillon’s album Upon a Winter’s Night was written by Cara’s musical partner and husband, Sam Lakeman, and their son Noah. It’s a piece which evokes, among other things, the ideas of changes and celebration which go along with the Christmas story. It has a lively chorus to which you may find yourself singing along, as well. There is also outstanding uillean pipe contribution from Jarlath Henderson.

There are two more original tracks along with a selection of well known and perhaps lesser known songs on the recording. There is one piece in Irish, Rug Muire Mhac Do Dhia, and a fine take on O Holy Night for which Cara is joined by her sister Mary Dillon. Sam plays guitar or piano or bodhran on most tracks and several other musical friends sit in, including Niall Murphy on fiddle and James Fagan on bouzouki. Cara Dillon brings to this music a bit of the stillness and the joy of winter in her native Northern Ireland.

Matt and Shannon Heaton make their music at places where the music of Ireland and the folk traditions of North American music intersect.

On their album Fine Winter’s Night this is well in evidence with song and tune both reflective and upbeat. Both Heatons song and both write songs; hearing them trade lead and harmony on songs both traditional and original is one of the things to enjoy about this recording. Each is a fine player and a composer of tunes as well, which you will hear, for example, on Dust of Snow, and in their version of the Shetland tune Da Day Dawn. Shannon’s principal instrument is the flute, Matt’s are guitar and bouzouki.

You hear those on the tunes of course, and they well know how to weave their gifts on their instruments into songs as well. Shannon’s title track Fine Winter’s Night is a fine recognition of the brilliance of cold winter nights and the welcome of warmth within. In First Snowfall of December Matt draws listeners in to a tale of Victorian era New England Christmas time. The duo offer well known songs too. While keeping to the spirit of the season, they give carols including O Little Town of Bethlehem and It Came Upon the Midnight Clear a fresh dusting of creative ideas.

Kathy Mattea has two wintery albums out. Good News and Joy for Christmas Day.

On Good News, there are two songs form the tradition, Christ Child Lullabye from Scotland (with Scottish troubadour Dougie Maclean joining in) and and Brightest and Best. The eight contemporary cuts include Mattea’s own memorable Somebody Talkin’ About Jesus, along with the haunting title track written by Ron Mahes. and perhaps the best known songs from the album: Mary Did You Know? and New Kid in Town.

On Joy for Christmas Day, Mattea puts her own thoughtful stamp on O Come O Come Emmanuel, and offers a Christmas Collage of carols, featuring the guitar and arranging skill of her longtime guitarist, Bill Cooley. The eleven tracks are a mix of traditional and contemporary music for Advent and Christmas time. Among them are When the Baby Grew Up, O Come, All Ye Faithful, and the reflective Straw Against the Chill

Emily Smith chose a mix of traditional and contemporary music for her album Songs for Christmas, too. Smith comes from Scotland and is a fine songwriter as well as a singer and player of accordion, piano, and guitar. She’s joined by her musical partner and husband Jamie McClennan who plays guitar, fiddle, and is a singer and songwriter as well. Their musical journey winds from historic carols to contemporary Americana to Scotland based stories. All are well worth repeated listening. That said, listen out especially for Little Road to Bethlehem, Christ Has My Hairt, Ay, and Smith’s originals Find Hope and Winter Song.

Each of these albums is a winter season classic, well worth your listening for musicianship, creativity and, indeed, grace of the season.

Image by Jerzy Górecki from Pixabay

You may also enjoy
Three more albums of winter, from Jay Ungar and Molly Mason, Hanneke Cassel, and April Verch and Joe Newberry.
First story of this season’s holiday gift ideas: Albums from Sarah McQuaid, the Spell Songs Singers, and the band Staran
A story about A candle in the window, at Perceptive Travel
Music for Starry Winter Nights, at Wandering Educators
Second in this season’s holiday gift ideas: music from Graham Rorie, David Milligan, Karine Polwart
Advent: music, silence, and winter

In times when you are able to listen to much music at no cost, take this as a gentle reminder that if you enjoy this music, help support the work of these artists and the cause of good, thoughtful music everywhere by purchasing their music and merch. Direct purchase from an artist’s site is one way. Bandcamp is also a platform which supports artists’ work.

Speaking of support, if you’re in a position to do so this holiday season (and beyond), your support for Music Road is most welcome. Here’s one way:

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Now More Than Ever: The Katie McNally Trio

Playing traditional music -- whatever the tradition -- requires choices.

How much do you stay with what’s been handed down and taught? How do you bring your own ideas into the music you create?

Those are among the questions the musicians of The Katie McNally Trio navigate on their second album, Now More Than Ever. The core traditions in which they work are the musics of Scotland and Cape Breton.

The trio comprises McNally herself on fiddle, Neil Pearlman on piano, and Shauncey Ali on viola. McNally and Pearlman come from New England; Ali is based in Wisconsin..

They have each loved and learned and studied and played many aspects of Scottish traditional music, and spent time in Scotland as well as in that Celtic Heart of North America, Cape Breton in Nova Scotia.

Just from their geographies you may imagine that they bring distinct approaches to the music. Add in experiences including Latin jazz, Galician music, and bluegrass to name a few, and you’ll expect they have a wide range of musical choices when the three get together to play.

Scottish tradition is at the heart of what they do, though . A lively and creative heart it is.

The nine tracks on the album range from lively sets to quiet reflective tunes. There’s a good helping of originals from each member of the trio, as well as music from the tradition and pieces from contemporary traditional composers.

It’s a well sequenced project, with music rising and falling and taking turns and twists much as a conversation between friends does.

That is another thing at the heart of Now More Than Ever: musical connection, friendship and respect intertwined.

You will hear that in the fast flying interplay between McNally’s fiddle and Pearlman’s piano with dimension added by Ali’s viola on the opening set of the album, which comprises Fletch Taylor/Marcel Aucoin’s/Matthew Robinson’s, tunes composed by New England musician Flynn Cohen, the late Cape Breton master fiddler Jerry Holland, and Pearlman himself respectively.

It is well worth allowing the stories the tracks offer to unfold as the artists and producer Anna Massie have arranged them, as every track is a keeper. Two favorites I’ll point to, though:

John and Maurizio’s Wedding March, which McNally composed for her Uncle John and his husband Maurizio after they got married in Italy. The tune is paired here with Dr. MacInnes’s Fancy by Pipe Major Donald MacLeod. It’d be easy to imagine couple having a stately walk/march down the aisle. following on with they and their guest doing some some lively stepping to the pipe major’s tune. McNally, Pearlman, and Ali sound as they are having a fine time playing both tunes, too.

The Acadia March set finds the trio in a reflective mood. The title track of the set, by McNally, came abut when she and Pearlman went hiking in the namesake national park in Maine. As it happened Neil had locked his keys in the car. While they waited for assistance, Katie wrote this tune to pass the time. They pair it with Neil’s Brunch Tune. Both allow the trio to show the graceful and quiet side of their playing.

“Now More Than Ever is very much a story of where we all come from and yet how far we’ve come,” McNally reflects.

The project was recorded in Scotland. There are no guests on the album, but the trio enlisted Anna Massie, whose work you will know from Blazin’ Fiddles and RANT, to produce. It was recorded by Angus Lyon (you will know him from Blazin’ Fiddles too) mixed by Iain Hutchinson, and mastered by Stuart Hamilton.

All that came about as travel restrictions came into effect, and that has also meant limitations on live performance. McNally reflects “With this album, we have grown in confidence to fully be ourselves, musically speaking.  

“The title of the album also reflects a communal feeling among us that we need to continue to collaborate with each other, make music and embark on projects that nourish us. As a band, and as members of the wider cultural community, we need to share our music and cultivate our artform in as many ways as possible during these difficult times.”

Times may indeed continue to be difficult. The recording Now More Than Ever from the Katie McNally Trio is bound to bring hints of joy, reflection, and connection into the times, though, much like a thoughtful conversation with good friends.

You may also wish to see
Katie McNally’s website
The Katie McNally Trio’s debut album The Boston States
Katie McNally’s album Flourish
Learn about Neil Pearlman’s duo album with Shetland fiddler Kevin Henderson Burden Lake
Neil Pearlman’s album Coffee and the Mojo Hat
An album from Hanneke Cassel with whom Katie McNally studied (and whose music you have met often here along the Music Road) For Reasons Unseen
Learn about Farsan, another band of which Katie McNally and Neil Pearlman are part

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Boston Celtic Music Festival: Song, Tune, Dance, and Friendship

Boston has long been a place where people from Ireland, Scotland, and Atlantic Canada traveled, sometimes settled, and often played music. These varied strands of music flourished in the Boston area. For a long time, though, despite what these Celtic strands had in common, these music scenes flourished but rarely interacted. That is until Shannon Heaton, who plays Irish music, and Laura Cortese, whose background is in the music of Scotland, were discussing this one day as they walked through Davis Square.

Maybe, they thought, they could do something about it.

“We thought, what if we had a session? a big party?” Heaton recalls. “Then, what if we had a big weekend? What if we had -- a festival?”

This year, the Boston Celtic Music Festival, BCMFest for short, marks year seventeen 16 through 19 January with workshops and concerts filling up venues around Harvard Square in Cambridge. World renown musicians and dancers from the New England area and beyond will take part.

The First Round concert kicks things off on Thursday evening at Club Passim. Fiddlers Leland Martin and Jake Brillhart along with pianist Janine Randal will present A Cape Breton Trip through Time: the quartet The Ivy Leaf brings song and tune from Ireland, England, Scotland, and America, and the Hanneke Cassel Trio, on this outing comprising Cassel, Keith Murphy, and Jenna Moynihan, will share music from Scotland, Newfoundland, and Cape Breton. There is sure to be original tune and song drawing from these Celtic traditions along with traditional material.

Once things wind down at the main concert, music keeps going with musical from across the weekend joining up in special collaborations. The Festival Club takes places on both Thursday and Friday nights.

Friday evening sees two longstanding favorites of the BCMFest annual schedule. Roots & Branches is a concert which showcases a range of styles from across Boston Celtic community, with performers including Louise Bichan and Yaniv Yacoby. The Boston Urban Ceilidh offers a chance for dancers of all experience levels or none to take the floor. Among those providing tunes for the dancers are Laura Cortese & Friends, with Hanneke Cassel as dance caller.

Saturday is time for Dayfest, a range of performances and sessions taking place at Club Passim, The Sinclair, and Harvard’s Smith Center.

Among the performers will be Sean Smith, who explores Irish, Scottish and English traditional song and tune on guitar. Rakish, who are the duo violinist Maura Shawn Scanlin and guitarist Conor Hearn will also take part. They perform Irish and Scottish music they grew up with and with, as their name suggests, their own slant.

Matt and Shannon Heaton make Irish music with their own distinct style and original tune and songwriting, too. Both are gifted singers and songwriters, with Matt playing guitar and bouzouki and Shannon playing flute and accordion. Coming down from Cape Breton, Gaelic singer Mary Jane Lamond and fiddler Wendy MacIsaac will take part in an in the round during Dayfest, as will top Irish dancer Kevin Doyle, who comes up from Rhode Island.

Dance performer, choreographer, and educator Kieran Jordan will return to the festival this year. “One of my favorite aspects of my life as a dancer is just to sit with a couple musicians around a kitchen table and map out a set list or brainstorm ideas — try out some tunes, fit some steps together, drink tea, see how it all unfolds. It’s the friendships and the shared love of music that really make the magic happen later on stage,” Jordan told the BCMFest blog. That sort of creativity, and appreciation for friendships formed and nurtured through music, are hallmarks of BCMFest that run through the performances each year.

Another BCMFest tradition, the Nightcap Finale Concert, ends the evening on Saturday. This year it takes place at The Sinclair, and will include performances from Kevin Doyle and Friends, The Treaty Trio, Laura Cortese and Friends, and Mary Jane Lamond and Wendy MacIsaac.

In another BCMFest tradition, that’s not quite the end, though. There’s almost always something going on on the Sunday of the festival weekend. This year, there’s the BCMFest Brunch at Club Passim, with music from Eamon Sefton and friends. In addition, Mary Jane Lamond will offer a workshop on Cape Breton Gaelic work songs and Wendy MacIssac will offer a workshop on putting Cape Breton tune sets together.

Tickets to individual events are available, most in the $10 to $25 rage, except the Sunday workshops, which are $40-$45. There are Irish and Scottish sessions at Harvard’s Smith Center on Saturday afternoon, which are free; reservations for a meal at the BCMFest Brunch are advisable but there’s no additional ticketing charge. For more information and ways to purchase tickets online, the BCMFest website is the place to go.

Photographs are, respectively, Hanneke Cassel, Sean Smith, Shannon and Matt Heaton, Wendy MacIsaac, and Mary Jane Lamond, with Corrina Hewat on harp in background; photo of Sean Smith courtesy of the artist. Other photos by Kerry Dexter. Thank you for respecting copyright.

You may also wish to see
Matt & Shannon Heaton: Fine Winter’s Night
Travels in Music, which includes Hanneke Cassel’s album Trip to Walden Pond
Sounds of Cape Breton from Mary Jane Lamond and Wendy MacIsaac
Canada in Music:3 Recordings to Explore, which includes Keith Murphy’s album Land of Fish and Seals
Winter’s Gifts: Music, which includes Jenna Moynihan’s album Woven

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Listening to Winter: Aine Minogue, Cara Dillon, Matt Heaton

Winter. It’s a time of gathering in, of reflection, a time for preparation and anticipation, a time for solitude and for community.

Music goes well with all these things.

Aine Minogue gathered musical friends to help with her new single, Winter, Fire, and Snow. The Tipperary born artist draws on her deep connection to the mystical aspects of Ireland, and of music, in her work. She has visited winter before in her work, in albums and dvds including Winter: A Meditation.. This, however is a new offering for this season, a song written by Brendan Graham. Minogue's instruments are harp and voice. Seamus Egan of Solas and Eugene Friesen of the Paul Winter Consort are among those who join Minogue on this mediation on the changes of winter.

Cara Dillon’s album Upon a Winter’s Night began with an idea that she and her husband and musical partner Sam Lakeman had to make a gift for their children. “As musicians and singers we thought it was important that our kids grow up knowing isn’t all about Santa,” Dillon told Belfast Live. When the couple first released the album, they booked a small Christmas tour – which has now become a well loved tradition, for their own family and for others. When people have spoken to Dillon after these shows many of them “have said it brings the magic back into Christmas a wee bit because it’s the more traditional reverent songs,” Dillon says. Those songs include O Come O Come Emmanuel, The Holly and the Ivy, The Darkest Midnight, and Infant Holy Infant Lowly.

On his recording Snow Day , Matt Heaton mixes songs that share the joy, the connection, and the fun of the holiday season, There are songs kids will enjoy and songs parents and other adults will like too. There’s a really good answer to that question of when you should say Happy Holidays, in the song with that name. Have you met The Sneak? Always good to know about during the holidays… There’s a song for Hanukkah, one that celebrates Christmas Movies, a funny and gentle lesson in Can’t Judge a Gift. There’s warmth and connection in Christmas Eve With You. Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer is around and so is Winter Wonderland. Original songs and traditional ones, Heaton has created a collection of music which should become a well loved part of the winter season.

You may also wish to see
Aine Minogue Winter Through a Musician’s Eyes
Cara Dillon Wanderer.
Matt and Shannon Heaton Another Fine Winter’s Night

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Scotland meets Americana: Elias Alexander & The Bywater Band

Oregon, Scotland, Vermont, New Orleans, Boston: each of these places plays a part in the geography of Elias Alexander’s music, and of Bywater, the band he formed with musical friend Eamon Sefton, Kathleen Parks, and Patrick Bowling.

Alexander grew up in Oregon. On a family visit to Scotland as a teenager he fell in love with the sounds of Scotland’s music. Beginning with whistles (which he still plays), he went on to learn Highland and border pipes, and fiddle. Back in Scotland one day, on a break from work planting trees, he sat by a stream. He had his whistles with him -- good thing, too, as jigs and reels and all sorts of songs and tunes came pouring out. That was when, he says “I knew that traditional music was going to become... something I was wholly dedicated to.”

It wasn’t quite a straight forward path always, though, and for a time he felt he’d lost direction. Dropping out of university in Vermont, he ended up in New Orleans. Busking on the street, he found ways back to the music, leading him to return to Vermont to finish his university studies at Middlebury College. Then he moved to Boston to join the thriving Celtic music scene there. It was tin Boston, too, that he met up with the three friends who’d become the Bywater Band.

The album Bywater, Alexander and the band’s debut recording project, shows how he and they have taken ideas from Celtic traditions along paths which respect that yet create something new. The Reclamation, for instance, begins as a march which leads into bluesy solo turns from pipes and from fiddle. It was written, Alexander says, “in support of those taking back their culture and their land.” The set Murray’s comprises a Gaelic song learned from Gillebride MacMillan (whose music you’ve met here along the music road),a tune from Alexander first pipe teacher, a piece written by the band to honor the place where Eamon Sefton grew up, and a tune called the best session ever, which, Alexander writes “happened in Boston after Hanneke Cassel and Mike Block’s wedding.” You’ve met both Mike’s and Hanneke’s music here before too.

Sunset run is, as its title might suggest, a quieter, more reflective set, which the band handles equally well. The name Bywater is meant to honor both Alexander’s experiences in the New Orleans district and his time by the stream in Scotland, and their connections in Alexander’s life. That thread of connection to water plays out also in the song Earth and Stone, as Alexander sings of his family’s story of emigration, a thoughtful piece that asks good questions as well as tells good stories.

The tunes and songs on the album range across tempo and idea, though they remain grounded in the music of Scotland. Each of the four band members is well accomplished at both taking lead and supporting the other three, and in creating arrangements which allow their talents together and individually to shine. Bywater is an engaging debut> Each of the band members works on other projects, and it will interesting to see what path they take when next they join up.

You may also wish to see
Hanneke Cassel: For Reasons Unseen
A story about the album Mary Ann Kennedy and Na Seoid, with information about Gaelic singer Gillebride MacMillan -- you will have seen him as the bard in Outlander, too
Katie McNally: The Boston States
A bit about bagpipes --mainly Highland pipes -- at Percpetive Travel
Web site of Elias Alexander

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Katie McNally Trio: The Boston States

Across history, travelers and emigrants have carried fiddles with them. It’s one of the most portable and versatile of instruments. That is one of the reasons that people coming form Scotland to Atlantic Canada brought their fiddles and their music across the ocean. People from Nova Scotia and other parts of the Maritimes, heading south to New England in search for work, brought heir tunes and songs and dance steps and their fiddles along too.

It’s that legacy and connection across landscapes and communities in New England, Atlantic Canada, and Scotland that Katie McNally has chosen to honor in her album The Boston States. In Boston, McNally learned the fiddle with renown Scottish style fiddle player Hanneke Cassel, studied at Tufts University, and listened and played at sessions and dance halls where the musics of these landscapes met and mingled.

With her trio members Neil Pearlman on piano and Shanucey Ali on viola, McNally went to Cape Breton make the album, and enlisted top class Cape Breton fiddle player Wendy MacIsaac to produce the project.

The trio kicks things off with music from contemporary Cape Breton composers Dan R. MacDonald and John Morris Rankin. The tunes Colin McIntosh and Black Horse offer a lively introduction to McNally’s fiddle playing which proves to be at once strong and graceful,. The set also showcases the fine way Pearlman’s fast paced piano and Ali’s low notes on the viola combine with McNally’s lead to create a set that evokes fast flying dance steps while showing the musicianship is in good hands with all three members of the trio.

Each musician has varied strengths and musical backgrounds, which work well together across the ten tracks on the disc. Pearlman’s understanding of Cape Breton piano and the way that interacts with fiddle music is bone deep -- yet he also brings in subtle touches of his other interests and projects in Latin msuic and in jazz. Shauncey Ali studied classical music and moved into playing bluegrass. McNally, in addition to learning fiddle in Boston, studied ancient and modern Scottish Literature and Scottish traditional music at Glasgow University and The National Piping Centre in Glasgow.

The three musicians are thus well prepared to take on traditional music of Scotland -- although, as McNally points out in her notes, they often favor versions which came their way through the playing of Cape Breton musicians including Joe Cormier and Troy McGillivray. The trio’s gifts for bringing these ideas together are apparent in the set pairing the jig Scotty Fitzgerald from Cape Breton fiddler Sandy MacIntyre with the traditional tune The Hills of Glen Orchy.

Another good place to hear that at work is the track which joins Scottish composer Niel Gow’s strathspey The Fir Tree with a fast paced piece of McNally’s own composition, Batmoreel, which, does, yes, have a Batman connection which can learn of it the liner notes.

There are five more tunes by McNally herself on the album and one by Pearlman, which stand in good company with the tunes which they have chosen from the tradition. Many of the sets are lively music, but the trio does well with slower pieces also: listen out especially for the traditional tune Down the Burn Davie Lad.

Katie McNally’s family roots go back into Atlantic Canada and to Quebec, and her experiences encompass neighborhood dancehalls in Boston where Cape Breton and Scottish tunes ring out, as well as studying and teaching at fiddle camps across the United States, in Scotland, and elsewhere. As a player and as a composer she understands and respects how these strands come together. On The Boston States, McNally and musical partners Neil Pearlman and Shauncey Ali have created a collection of tunes that will set your feet dancing, and your spirit dancing as well.

You may also wish to see
Katie McNally: Flourish McNally’s debut album
Scotland's Music: Hanneke Cassel,The Paul McKenna Band, Alba's Edge
Hanneke Cassel: For Reasons Unseen
Sounds of Cape Breton: Wendy MacIsaac and Mary Jane Lamond
Katie McNally’s web site
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Scotland's Music: Hanneke Cassel,The Paul McKenna Band, Alba's Edge

Hanneke Cassel is a fiddle player and composer whose base in the music of Scotland also encompasses her love for bluegrass and what she’s learning from her travels to share her music in places as diverse as China, India, Kenya, her home state of Oregon and her longtime home base in New England. The Paul McKenna Band fuse the energy of their own explorations of Scotland’s traditions with their own travels to North America and beyond and their love for stories of journey told in word and melody. Alba’s Edge combines elements of the music of Cape Breton and Scotland with flavors of the vibrant New England jazz scene in a debut album that proves engaging and thought provoking. Listen to their differing takes on creating new music and interpreting older pieces that grow out of their shared love for the sounds and stories of Scotland, and where those stories have traveled.

Hanneke Cassel’s recording Dot the Dragons Eyes takes its title, and the inspiration for its title tune, from time she has spent in China.There she learned the idea that when an artist puts the last bits of color in the eyes of a dragon it brings the art work to life. As a woman of faith and imagination, Cassel saw the parallel with with the Biblical story of God bringing man to life from an image in clay -- and she went to create lively and uplifting tune that works just fine whether you know or believe anything about either of those ideas. It makes a fine introduction to a set of tunes, almost all of Cassel’s own composition, that range from waltz to jig and take inspiration from family members, friends, the Boston Marathon, and the students at One Home Many Hopes in Kenya, where Cassel has often traveled to share her music. Cassel has been a US National champion in Scottish style fiddle playing, studied with Alasdair Fraser and the late Buddy MacMaster, and worked with musicians from Irish American singer and songwriter Cathie Ryan to early music group Ensemble Galillie. Through all that and with all that, she has a distinctive tone in her playing as well as a gift for composition that is rooted in and respectful of the varied elements of Scottish tradition, while speaking entorely in her own voice on her instrument. Really you should listen to the whole of Dot the Dragons Eyes as it is sequenced -- every track is a keeper. If you are just wanting a taste, though, listen out for The Captain, Lissa and Corey/The Sunrise, and Jig for Christina.

The Paul McKenna Band is a high energy bunch, anchored by McKenna’s voice and often driving guitar. With bandmates Davis McNee on bouzouki, Sean Grey on flutes and whistles, and Ewan Baird on percussion including bodhran (they each sing too) and aided by guests including Mike Vass on fiddle and banjo and Jarlath Henderson, on Elements they offer songs and tunes from the tradition, from their own writing, and several maybe not so expected covers, creating a fine mix that proves engaging from first to last. One of those covers is of Canadian writer James Keelghan’s Cold Missouri Waters, which the band makes entirely their own with fine lead and harmony. Fast paced Mickey Dam, a song from the tradition, shows off their ability with songs from the past, while the Flying Through Flanders set, comprising tunes from Vass and Grey, proves their taste and prowess with instrumental pieces. The band can handle slower songs with finesse as well, evidence of which is offered on the returning to home in Scotland song Indiana.

The four members of Alba’s Edge -- Neil Pearlman on piano and vocals, Lilly Pearlman on fiddle and vocals, Doug Berns on bass and background vocals, and Jacob Cole on percussion and background vocals -- like the idea that the world alba in the band’s name means Scotland in Gaelic and dawn in Spanish. Playing a bit off that, they open and close their debut recording Run to Fly with short pieces called Rising and Setting, which serve, respectively, to set a mood of anticipation and quietly to draw things to a close and bid farewell. The eight tracks in between offer thoughtful engaging, intelligent music that weaves in the Scotland and Cape breton backgrounds of the Pearlmans (they are brother and sister) with their explorations of Latin, irish, Americana and other genres. Their fiddle and piano lines are framed by low end work from Burns and Cole, who bring respectively, backgrounds in playing Latin, funk, and Afro beat music and jazz and ska to the table. That said, such fusions often don’t work, or at least, don’t work out well enough to inspire interest. These four have that covered, though -- you don’t have to know anything about the background of any of this music to enjoy it as works that’s at times lively, at times soothing, at times thought provoking. At just the right moment, too, they draw the strands of tradition together by singing the traditional Scottish song of the sea, The Diamond. Run to Fly was produced by top class Scottish fiddle Player Aidan O’Rourke, who has worked with the innovative Scottish group Lau as well as the traditional stalwarts Blazin’ Fiddles.

Aside: should you ever have the chance to see any of these artists play live, take it. They all tour internationally, so that may come your way -- Alba’s Edge, for example, will be part of the Boston Celtic Music Festival in January, and the Paul McKenna Band will be appearing at Celtic Connections, while Cassel is doing several holiday appearances with Ensemble Galilie and appears at festival, teaches at fiddle camps and does concerts with her own trio as well.

Photograph by Kerry Dexter. Thank you for respecting copyright.

You may also wish to see
Coffee and the Mojo Hat: Neil Pearlman
Scotland's music: Katie McNally: Flourish
Aidan O'Rourke: Sirius

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Ireland's music: Matt and Shannon Heaton: Tell You In Earnest

For their album Tell You in Earnest Matt and Shannon Heaton decided to choose songs framed in conversation between two people. The reason for that choice, Shannon says, was twofold. For one thing though Matt and Shannon both have been and continue to be involved in bands and side projects, for a good while now, “ and now maybe more than ever,” Shannon says -- the husband and wife have made their duo performances and recording their home base in music. The second reason, she explains, builds on that.

“It’s great to play with a whole band, it’s lovely,” she says, “ but there’s something just really intimate and spectacularly expressive about a conversation between two people. Maybe a third party wanders into the story in a song, maybe a cello wanders in, but ultimately it’s about the essence of two people and what they can say to each other and how they can listen to each other. So I think,” she continues, “ it was meant to be this overt demonstration, musically, of what a duo is, which is a bunch of different conversations in a bunch of different moods.”

Different moods and different sources, too.

To open the recording, there’s Cruel Salt Sea, a song which had its origins in the traditional ballad Outlandish Knight. Shannon describes the evolution of the song to the version on Tell Me in Earnest. “That song always grabbed me. I always thought it was the outlandish knight, like the craaazy knight! But he was from the northlands, the outlands,” Shannon says. From the traditional version she’s learned on a recording by Shirley Collins “I started changing the words around - of course -- first because I wanted to condense some of the verses. People aren’t going to listen to twenty five verses. So to condense, I have to rewrite a little bit, and then I always like to change any super weird vernacular stuff. But there were still a lot of verses, and so I felt like there had to be resting places, so I added the repeating lines, and then I added a bridge -- I really like the bridge -- and then before I knew it I’d taken away the words outlandish knight and added the words cruel salt sea. So I changed the title. Tinkering around, that’s what trad musicians do!”

Giving their own stamp and creativity to music from the tradition as well as creating their own music is indeed what the Heatons do. On Tell You in Earnest focusing on the idea of dialogue or conversation songs (“Each song is like a mini play,” Matt says), they also take on the Child ballad Gallant Hussar, following mostly traditional words and melody enhanced with original instrumental breaks. There’s Richard Thompson’s classic set of conversations between a guy and a girl about a bike -- and much more -- in Vincent Black Lightning 1952. There’s the dialogue between mother and son that creates a powerful anti war message, all the more powerful when you realize it was written some centuries back -- called Mrs. McGrath. There is a mostly traditional version of a song called The Demon Lover, framed in a conversation with the devil and its consequences, and on a happier note, an over the top Thai love song, Mon Rak Dawk Kam sung in Thai, blending the Heatons’ understanding of Irish traditional music with Shannon’s longtime connections with Thailand. That song, whose title translates as The Enchanted Flower of Kam Tai, proved to be a way into an aspect of this recording the Heatons had not expected. Shannon credits her time spent as an exchange student in Thailand with opening the door to her love of traditional music -- her own heritage tradition of Irish music -- by immersing her in another set of older traditions from another culture. In recent years, on occasion they have worked some of this in to their Irish music repertoire. “As we were thinking about conversation songs, Mon Rak Dawk Tam Kai is a beautiful conversation song, so we thought let’s try it. We were messing around with the idea of including a Thai song on the album and then it got a little deeper. We realized, you know what, that’s part of who I am. And Matt -- he loves electric guitar, he loves surf guitar, he’s played in rock bands since he was a kid.” Parts of that aspect of Matt’s music come out on his work on On Rak Dawk Tam Kai as well as his funny original Easy Come East Go and the well traveled traditional ballad Edwin of the Lowlands Low. In the past, they have included touches of these things here and there in their bedrock devotion to Irish traditional music. “But this time,” Shannon continues, having those touches in their music on this album “That’s really our authentic musical expression, that’s really who we are.”

Matt and Shannon Heaton met in Chicago, when flute player Shannon was called for a wedding gig and needed a guitar player to accompany her. Matt grew up in Pennsylvania, turing the pages for his father;s professional concerts before heading off into his own explorations of rock, surf, tango, and Irish guitar. Shannon’s parents took their kids with them as they lived in several different countries; it was as a young child in Nigeria that she first fund herself drawn to the flute. Later, she studied classical music and ethnomusicology in addition to spending that time in Thailand.

All that may not sound exactly like the background you would expect for two of the most highly regarded players, composers, singers, and teachers in contemporary Irish music. That is a the strong strand of their heritage, however, and they have spent time learning music in Ireland as well as immersed in the vibrant Irish music community of their home base in New England.

The characters in the songs on Tell You in Earnest come alive through the conversations in the lyrics, and through the conversations opened up through the Heatons’ lead and harmony singing, and through their thoughtful and well conceived melodies and intros and instrumental breaks as well. They offer a range of human experience, from the hauntingly poetic murder ballad Edwin of the Lowlands Low to Matt’s funny original song Easy Come Easy Go, in which he imagines what could happen if a bit of story often found in traditional songs went awry. There are grim conversations and supernatural elements, over the top love songs and funny ones, all told in conversations framed in the Heatons' always creative take on carrying tradition into the present.

Give a listen -- these are conversations you will want to return to again and again.

Photographs of Matt and Shannon Heaton (with guest Mike Block on cello in the top one) by Kerry Dexter. Thank you for respecting copyright.

You may also wish to see
Lovers' Well: Matt and Shannon Heaton
Another Fine Winter's Night: Matt and Shannon Heaton
Listening to Ireland: Patrick season

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Autumn music

Leaves are changing color. The winds that sets them drifting through the air holds an edge , a hint of deeper days of autumn and winter yet to come. The look of clouds at sunrise and angles of light as evening shadows fall are changing. It is autumn in the northern hemisphere. A time for harvest, for gathering, for celebration, for connection, for reflection.

Music to go along with these ideas

As the Crow Flies is a gathering of songs and tunes, many with a Celtic tinge, several from the song bag of American folk music, and a number of fine original pieces which draw on these sounds. It is a music made by a gathering of musicians too -- a core of fourteen fiddlers who play instruments made by Bob Childs, and gifted few who bring other instruments to add to the sound. You’ll have met several of these musicians here along the music road before.

note: click on the cover images or the text links to the title to hear samples of the music

Lissa Schneckenburger is indeed a gifted fiddle player, but it is her gifts as a singer which are to the fore onAs the Crow Flies, especially on the country blues tinged folk song Dear Companion. You’ve met Keith Murphy here before too -- his guitar and piano give tasteful backing to the fiddlers and his tunes give them music to work with. Listen out for the crossing Celtic borders set Childsplay Strathspey/Black Diamond/Putney Mountain Polka and for Child Suite, a set of four tunes Murphy composed thinking about the children of Childsplay members. Hanneke Cassel composed and/ or arranged several of the pieces here too-- the full fiddle sound of the group she brings in on her composition The Last Alleluia is one of those. You’ll have met Cassel here along the music road more than once, as you will Shannon Heaton, who gives Childsplay several tunes as well as adding her flutes and whistle in to the mix. You’ve also met Katie McNally, who joins in on fiddle, as well as Ariel Friedman on cello, and Nic Gareiss , who contributes the sounds of his step dancing feet. The there’s Liz Carroll, who produced the album, and wrote a tune -- the title tune -- for the ensemble.

There are other musicians as well, ones you could be be meeting for the first time, among them the maker Bob Childs himself, Mark Roberts on banjo and bouzouki, and long time Childsplay members Sheila Falls and Bonnie Bewick on fiddle. The dozen tunes and songs and song sets move from fast paced to contemplative, full on orchestral sound to graceful spare arrangement. From the sounds of Ireland to the heart of Scotland to the hills of Appalachia to the roads of New England, from voice and guitar to banjo and flute and bodhran and at the heart of it, fiddle, the music flashes and shimmers and changes much like the light of early fall. As the Crow Flies makes a fine companion for listening in this early autumn time.

photograph of autumn leaves is by Kerry Dexter, and is copyrighted. thank you for respecting this

You may also wish to see more about the music of several of the people mentioned above
Music of Maine: Lissa Schneckenburger
Another Fine Winter's Night: Matt & Shannon Heaton
Hanneke Cassel: For Reasons Unseen
Scotland's music: Katie McNally: Flourish
music of Vermont: Nightingale with Keith Murphy
Liz Carroll & John Doyle: Double Play

-->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.

Boston to Ireland to Thailand

Matt and Shannon Heaton make music where Ireland meets America, drawing from and respecting and creating with the traditions which arise from this. The Boston based musicians are recording their fifth album as a duo. It will be a collection of dialogue songs, songs where there is conversation in the lyrics. Based on their earlier albums and their concerts and their teaching, it’s bound to be filled with great music, and include a few surprises.

One of those surprises is that they are planning to do a CD release concert in Thailand.

Boston, Ireland --Thailand? How’s that again?

It’s come about because Shannon spent her first year of college as an exchange student in Suphanburi, Thailand. There, her experience with the traditional music of Thailand and the people who played it led her to look more deeply to the music of her own heritage -- Ireland -- and played a part in setting her on the path she’s followed since, as a professional working in Irish music. Several years back Shannon reconnected with her Thai friends, and was able to introduce Matt and later, their son, to the country which played such a part in her life.

Now, they want to give a free concert to the people of Suphanburi to launch their new CD -- and you can help them do so by contributing to their project at Indie GoGo.

Listen to Matt and Shannon tell their story about this and hear a bit of their music:

Certainly they have many nice rewards should you choose to contribute -- and they’ve decided to give ten per cent of what they raise to the charity Mercy Centre, too. At this writing they’ve raised about a third of their goal, and have just a bit over a month left to meet it.

One thing you could do to help which won’t cost you a thing is to invite people you know over to this story, so they can learn about the project as well.

photo by Kelly Lorenz

You may also wish to see
Lovers' Well: Matt and Shannon Heaton in which they include a Thai love song in with the Irish music, and make that work just fine
Another Fine Winter's Night: Matt and Shannon Heaton about their winter holiday concert
Shannon Heaton: Oil for the Chain Shannon's book on learning music -- not just for flute players.
my favorite Matt and Shannon Heaton album -- so far. click on the image to hear samples of the music.

-->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.

Scotland's music: Katie McNally: Flourish

Right from the first moments of the opening track on Katie McNally’s recording Flourish there’s a sense of invitation, a sense of engagement, a sense of adventure, all of which she sustains through the music she’s chosen for the album. McNally’s instrument is the fiddle, both the conventional one and the hardingfele. She bases her music in the traditions of Scotland. That’s a base and a matter of respect, to which she brings her own gifts as an interpreter and a composer.

That first track sees Waulking of the Faud from the tradition joined with McNally’s own tune called Lillian’s, a graceful, lively, and inviting beginning to a journey which leads through to a set of original jigs and into a pair of tunes from the tradition. There’s a tune from iconic Scottish fiddler James Scott Skinner and music from contemporary Scottish composer Phil Cunningham, whose work you’ve met before here along the music road. There’s an original waltz, and a set that pairs a jazz inflected tune with one that heads right for tradition, along with the intriguingly titled Bad Soup/ Riff Raff and Widget set, and Da Unst Bridal March from the tradition.

It’s all good stuff, music which finds McNally well able to negotiate tradition, and compose in it, while forging her own style within it. It is a style that respect her own experience as an American as well as it does her love of Scotland and its music. She has created music which will make good listening any time of year, but this recording seems an especially good companion for late winter musing and reflection -- and dancing too, the lively tunes may well have you going for that, or picturing those from bygone days doing so.

Katie McNally co produced Flourish with Hanneke Cassel, a fiddle player and composer you have met more than once here along the music road. Cassel sits in on harmony fiddle, and other musicians whose names may be familiar support McNally as well, among them Eric McDonald on guitar, Ariel Friedman on cello, and Corey DiMario on bass.

you may also wish to see
Hanneke Cassel: For Reasons Unseen
Cathie Ryan: The Farthest Wave
Long Time Courting: Alternate Routes

-->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.

BCMfest: celebrating community

It all started with a conversation between two friends as they walked through Davis Square in Somerville, Massachusetts. Ten years on, the Boston Celtic Music Festival, which kicks off on 11 January, is one of the most creative and community minded festivals in New England.

“We were walking by The Burren, which is known for its great Irish music sessions,’ Shannon Heaton recalls. She and her friend Laura Cortese got to talking about how though their musics shared many traditions and values -- Heaton is an Irish flute player and Cortese a Scottish style fiddle player, both them internationally renown touring musicians -- they never ended up at the same sessions. They started to think about all the people they knew in common from Irish, Scottish, and Cape Breton traditions. “We thought, wouldn’t it be great if we could all get together and play?” Heaton recalls, “and I said that’ll never happen, we’re all so busy,” but the friends talked on. “We thought what if we throw a big party? and from that, what if we have a big weekend? then,what if we have a bunch of concerts? and then -- what if we make it a festival?” Heaton says.

“We weren’t thinking about long term outcomes back then,” she says, “ but what we did d think about, quite a lot, was the situation in Boston, and in other communities, where you have all these incredible traditional musicians, you have Irish, Scottish and Cape Breton players --, and we never meet or see each other. Yet our music, our communities, are so related we share so many values and experiences. So we had this idea, what if we could throw this big weekend party -- it could forge new connections. That was the big picture for us when we started the festival.”

It is a vision that’s worked. This year musicians from the traditions of Cape Breton, Ireland, and Scotland will share stages and projects and audiences, beginning with an opening night concert featuring compositions from three rising stars of Celtic tradition at historic Club Passim. That will be followed by what’s become a BCMfest tradition, the Boston Urban Ceilidh. “The Boston Urban Ceilidh is just so much fun. It’s probably the most participatory of all the festival’s events,” says Sean Smith, who has been a member of the festival steering committee since its second year, and played the festival as a artist. “You’ve got hundreds of people coming out to dance, not all of them necessarily experienced in Cape Breton dance or Scottish ceilidh or Irish set dance, you’ve got terrific music -- Laura Cortese and her Boston Urban Ceilidh Band have a rock and roll quality -- and Hanneke Cassel is often the caller, she has a unique way of directing people through their paces,” Smith says, laughing. There might be a parade between the concert and the ceilidh too. “Last year we had an epic parade,” Heaton recalls. “We had a piper on stilts. We went out into Harvard Square, and the busking percussionists on Harvard Square...the guys out there banging on drums, African drumming, they just joined in. It was incredible, it was impromptu, it was great.”

There will be plenty of chances for joining in through dance and song -- and maybe other parades as well -- during Dayfest events on Saturday. These will run all day at Club Passim and at First Church, and will include quiet acoustic interludes from musicians from the Celtic traditions, a sing along for kids, song circles where you can share songs or listen in, and jam sessions where you can play or listen, too and time to learn and watch dances. There will be a tribute to Fairport Convention, a concert by the guitar based group The Dead String Ensemble, a concert of Cape Breton songs and one of traditional and contemporary Scottish fiddle tunes, an hour that sees a mash up of Celtic music and surf rock, and a Cape Breton kitchen ceilidh. “There’s so much going on, I have to keep moving from place to place,” Smith says. “ Some of these performers I’ve seen before and others I’m not that familiar with, so I like to go around from stage to stage and build up all these impressions of what’s happening.”.

“This year is going to be a little bit of a celebration of all the things that we’ve done to date,” Heaton says, “so we’re going to have a lot of participatory elements --dance and music. We’ll have family events. Brendan Tonra, great fiddler in Boston, an older player and well known composer, has a new children’s book based on a tune he wrote, my husband Matt Heaton will be leading a sing along for kids, so we’ll have something for little kids, and participatory stuff for people of all ages throughout the day. We’ll have some of of our funny, fringey elements, there’ll be a tribute and usually a cover song slot -- and we will have parades!”

“The finale concert is always a big wind up,” Smith says of the concert which takes place Saturday evening at First Parish on Harvard Square. This year it will feature sections focusing the music of Cape Breton, Ireland, and Scotland, each of the three musical communities which have formed the core of BCMfest. “Each of them could serve as a concert unto itself,” Smith says.

It will make a fitting conclusion to a festival that’s all about celebrating the Celtic music communities of Boston and continuing to create connections among them. This year Shannon Heaton doesn't plan to be on stage. “I am going to be in attendance, just enjoying and watching the whole thing,” she says. “It cheers me to think that a collaborative, participatory, community minded festival like BCMfest has garnered so much support over the last ten years. I think it’s a real reflection of the type of music that I love so much, traditional music, and the values that are inherent in traditional music communities. This was meant to be a party for all of us,” she says, “and now we’re all throwing the party together.”

You may find out more about tickets and schedules for the Boston Celtic Music Festival at the BCMfest web site.
During the year, BCMfest also sponsors Celtic Music Mondays each month at Club Passim and participates in other activities. There’s information about those on the web site too. You may also want to check out the web site of Concert Window, where you may be able to see some of the events at Club Passim live.
photographs of Shannon Heaton and Maeve Gilchrist, and BCM Fest Parade by Michael Passarini, courtesy of BCMfest

You may also wish to see
Another Fine Winter's Night: Matt & Shannon Heaton
The Boston Celtic Music Festival: a look back

-->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.

Long Time Courting: Alternate Routes

Alternate Routes:
that is the name of a tune, a set, and a new album from the band Long Time Courting. It also works to give a hint of the music within, and the routes the four women of the band took to get to it.

The story of Maggie Dean starts things off. Maggie disguises herself as a man to sail away on a ship bound for America, not, as is common in such songs, to follow her man, but rather to seek a trade. She ends up making a life on the sea, not, as is also common in such tales, rescued by becoming the captain’s wife, but rather learning the seafaring trade herself and marrying a fellow sailor. A traditional melody carries this turn on the familiar story in words composed by Shannon Heaton.

Heaton plays flutes and whistles with Long Time Courting. Sarah Blair is on fiddle, Liz Simmons plays guitar, and Ariel Friedman plays cello. All four of the women sing. The New England based musicians also have other commitments from teaching to touring to playing in duos, trios, and other bands, and among them they have worked with artists ranging from the Eagles to the Clancy Legacy.

What they have created with Long Time Courting is not so much a blend of talents as it is a tapestry, with bright threads of voice and instrument weaving in and out, coming to the fore and supporting in the background through a series of musical conversations that comprise both song and tune. LTC is rooted in Irish music, but they bring in American roots and on occasion other threads of music as well. The song Barbara Allen is well known on both sides of the Atlantic and in many different styles. LTC offers it in slowed down form, almost as a lament, with a nod to Johnny Cash as as well as to tradition. It is also a very fine instance of how the women’s singing creates a whole that is more than the sum of its parts.

Their collaboration through their instruments is equally strong The Alternates Routes set, which bookends Heaton’s original title track with two traditional pieces, finds the meeting of rhythm from Simmons guitar, breath of Heaton’s flute and dialogue between the bright sound of Blair's fiddle and the darker tone of Friedman’s cello all carrying the story with no words needed. The York Street Stepper set is another place to note this, as the title tune from LTC founding member Ellery Klein kicks off the journey and weaves in to two pieces from the tradition.

Each of the songs -- there are five of them, including My Johnny Was a Shoemaker, from the tradition, and Islander’s Lament, a contemporary song written by Robbie O’Connell -- offer strong story, engaging voice, great harmony, and thoughtful playing. The six tune sets deliver as well, and all show greater depth which each listening. A well woven tapestry, this, and a thoughtful musical journey, one which reveals more color and depth with each listening.


you may also wish to see

Music Road: Another Fine Winter's Night: Matt & Shannon Heaton
Music Road: The Clancy Legacy
Music Road: Shannon Heaton: The Blue Dress
Music Road: Cherish The Ladies: A Star in the East

-->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.