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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Holiday gift ideas: 3 Albums for the Winter Season

Winter: it is a season of celebration and quiet, of gathering and solitude.

Music goes along with all of those things. One of the great things about music is that it may be enjoyed alone and in company.

With those thoughts in mind, here are further ideas of music for your holiday gft list, for yourself or others.

For the album A Fiddler’s Holiday, Jay Ungar, Molly Mason, Ruth Ungar, and Michael Merenda join up with the Orchestra of the University of Mary Washington in Virginia for a seasonal and holiday themed excursion.

There are songs quiet and fast paced, about a snowstorm, the harvest, a silent night in a famialr way snd as a two step, a Quebecois medley about children’s toys, Jay’s classic tune Ashokan Farewell, and more. If you or or someone you know is celebrating Chanukah, the song in this could be a great song for to share. If that holiday is not in your tradition or if the days of celebrating it are past when you read this, I think you will still enjoy this lively song.

The recording on which you will find it is called A Fiddler’s Holiday. There is a dvd available of the live concert, too.

Hanneke Cassel offers a reflective look at Advent and the winter season as she pairs O Come O Come Emmanuel with her original tune Star of Wonder.This is the title track from her new Christmas album O Come Emmanuel.

The music is a selection of original, traditional, and contemporary tunes and songs of faith and of the winter season, led by Hanneke’s fiddle, with contributions from musical friends including Christopher Lewis, Keith Murphy, Yann Falquet, Mike Block, Jeremy Kittel, Jenna Moynihan, Casey Driessen, and Tim Downing and selection of guest singers including Helene Blum, Luke Bulla, Jennifer KImball, and Aoife O’Donovan.

It is Cassel’s fiddle which illuminates each track, however whether leading tunes such as The Snow March or surrounding and supporting singers such as on a thoughtful and creative arrangement of Silent Night, with words sung in several languages.

Cassel is an award winning player, composer, and educator, a past US Scottish National Fiddle Champion who has taken her Celtic rooted music across the world. She is also a woman of strong faith. It’s been a longtime dream of hers to create a Christmas album. She felt this year was the right moment. Take a listen, takee several, in fact, to each of the ten tracks on O Come Emmanuel, to hear why she is right about that. Uplifting, reflective, creative, hopeful, O Come Emmanuel is a Christmas classic, and a fiddle classic, in the making.

April Verch and Joe Newberry decided this was the right year for a holiday album too, and they were alos right about that. Verch, who comes from the Ottawa Valley in the Canadian province of Ontario, and Newberry, who draws on Ozark and Appalachian roots, intertwine those musical sources to great effect on their album On This Christmas Day. Joe Newberry plays banjo, guitar, and fiddle; April Verch plays fiddle and stepdances. They both sing, and they both write songs. Most of the songs on this album are originals, in fact, joined by a few well chosen covers.

It might be a bit of a challenge to write a Christmas song, given all the seasonal music already in existence. It’s a challenge each artist meets well though, creating music that explores by turns the joy and mystery of the holiday season. Though they come from different geographic areas, both Joe and April grew up with Christmas traditions celebrating home and hearth, traditions they continue to celebrate and enjoy. For several years they’ve been doing holiday season tours together. On This Christmas Day is the first time they have put the seasonal music on record, though.

Warm and welcoming, with top class musicianship and songwriting, the album will make a great choice for your own music library and as a lasting gift for friends who enjoy bluegrass and old time music along with excellent singing and playing.

Here is the title track from On This Christmas Day. Joe wrote it after soundcheck in a restored church in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

There’s more to come here along the music road, both gift ideas and seasonal favorites old and new to enjoy. Stay with us as the season unfolds.

You may also enjoy
On this Christmas Day at April Verch’s web shop
First story of this season’s holiday gift ideas: Albums from Sarah McQuaid, the Spell Songs Singers, and the band Staran
Hanneke Cassel’s website
Music for Autumn’s Landscapes at Wandering Educators
Second in this season’s holiday gift ideas: music from Graham Rorie, David Milligan, Karine Polwart
Jay Ungar and Molly Mason’s website

Photograph by Jill Wellington

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. 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, your support for Music Road is most welcome. Here’s one way:

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Winter's gifts: Music

Winter: it’s a time for reflection, for contemplation, for spending time in solitude and for seeking out good company. Music is a part of all this, and it also makes a fine gift. Here are ideas as you plan your holiday listening and giving. Some of these albums and artists you have met here before along the music road, and for others, there’s more to come. Either way, follow the links to learn more of the music.

If you’ve someone on your list or if you yourself love the music of Scotland, then Karen Matheson’s solo album Urram< will fill a spot on your list. It is the first solo album Matheson has released in some time -- she’s often involved with her work as part of the band Capercaillie. She was working on an album of contemporary songs in English and Gaelic but found the deaths of her parents, and coming across family photographs from times past in the wake of that, turned her in another direction. The songs of Urram are in Gaelic, some Matheson would have known from her childhood, others that she searched out in song archives. Spare arrangements from longtime band mates as well as unexpected guests frame Matheson’s musical storytelling.

Jenna Moynihan draws on the music of Scotland as well, both music from the tradition and as source to frame her own compositions. Growing up in New York state, two years into studying violin at eight years of age Moynihan encountered the fiddle music of Scotland, and that set her on her musical path one she has followed thus far all the way up through a degree at Berklee College of Music and the release of her album Woven, It’s a fine collection, comprising music that shows both Moynihan’s lyrical touch as well as flashes of wit -- which you may also see in her descriptions of the tunes in her liner notes. It is a journey worth the taking al the way through the album as it’s been been sequenced by Moynihan and producer Maeve Gilchrist. For a hint of what’s in store, standout tracks include the Kendall Tavern set, Haven, and Dolina MacKay.

Oisin Mac Diarmada knows the fiddle, too. In his case the background is Ireland, and in his recording The Green Branch the music of the Sligo region. You’ll have met Mac Diarmada’s music though his work in the band Teada, in his duo recordings with Seamus Begley, and with his Irish Christmas in America projects. For The Green Branch his musical partner is Samantha Harvey, whose piano work proves a fine backing and at times rhythm section for the energy of Oisin’s fiddle as he makes his way through sets of jigs, reels, hornpipes, and flings, including Jacke Coleman’s paired with Mayor Harrison’s Fedora and Bright May Morning paired with Fowler on the Moor. Harvey’s first way into irish music (she is originally from America, now resident in Ireland) was through irish dance, and a particularly engaging set, Veronica McNamara’s/The Professor/Charlie Dolan’s, includes the sound of her dancing feet along with fiddle and piano.

Alison Brown’s instrument of choice is the banjo. In her mind and spirit and hands it’s an adventurous instrument, melodic more than percussive, part of an ensemble more often than claiming the sole spotlight. On her album Song of the Banjo her original pieces are most composed for an acoustic ensemble, with deft placing of the colors of instruments to tell the stories she has in mind. That’s true of the varied selection of covers as well including several in which she backs singers in re invented versions of songs from writers as varied as Michael Martin Murphey, Bacharach and David, and (on the deluxe edition of the album) Marvin Gaye. If you’ve heard Brown’s tone and an voice (so to speak) with the banjo you’ll recognize it through the tracks on Song of the Banjo; if you are new to her work, listen and follow it as the thread that pulls through.

There will be more to come on these recordings and artists here along the music road, but they are too good to have you miss out on them during this season of listening, sharing, and giving.

Season of giving, you say? What about some seasonal music? Of course...

With her Quartet, the aforementioned Alison Brown has a fine seasonal album called Evergreen. There’s a nice blending of Carol of the Bells with We Three Kings, and Two Santas comprises two Santa themed songs you’l recognize. There’s a livley reinvention of The Little Drummer Boy among the other gems.

For On Christmas Night from Cherish the Ladies Heidi Talbot handles lead singing for The Castle of Dromore, a song that always evokes winter for me. Talbot makes the often done over the top O Holy Night sound as welcoming as if it were done around the fireside. too. Excellent instrumentals led by Joanie Madden’s flute, among them the title track, Old Apples in Winter, and the Kerry Reel, weave in stories and sound of Ireland with the carols and songs of the season

Speaking of the flute...you will hear some fine flute playing from Shannon Heaton on the album Fine Winter's Night which she’s done with her husband, guitar player Matt Heaton. They each sing, too, and they each have original songs of the season, tunes and carols and contemporary pieces. Listen out especially for Matt’s original First Snow Fall of December, Shannon’s title song, and their takes on the Wexford Carol and It Came Upon the Midnight Clear.

You may also wish to see
Another Fine Winter's Night: Matt & Shannon Heaton
6 of the best Christmas Songs
Music for the first week in Advent: candle in the window

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Americana: gift ideas and seasonal music

Melting pot, salad bowl, tapestry: the many and varied cultures and landscapes of the United States find voice in the music that has come to be known as Americana. At the holidays as well at other times of year, it holds many things to explore.

Ideas for gifts, and for Americana music for the winter season, as well:


Kyle Carey draws in her interests in the music of Scotland and Cape Breton with her knowledge a love for the music and landscapes of Appalachia on her debut album Monongah.

Suzy Bogguss is a gifted songwriter and interpreter of contemporary song. She started out singing American folk music and often includes that in her concerts, too -- and she became concerned when she noted that many members of her audience didn’t know the words to songs such as Red River Valley, Banks of the Ohio, and Wayfaring Stranger. Whether it proves a refresher course or an introduction, her album American Folk Songbook is a fine choice for gift giving and for adding to your own collection.

Matraca Berg writes songs that a long list of Nashville superstars record. Her album The Dreaming Fields is a collection of stories by turns funny, reflective, and thought provoking, tales of people of the American south which resonate with people across the globe.

Carrie Newcomer knows a bit about those across the globe connections. She had an unexpected chance to spend time giving concerts and workshops in India. She’s connected that experience with her midwestern Americana ideas in her album Everything Is Everywhere.

seasonal music
Kathy Mattea has two holiday albums well worth your attention, the southern gospel tinged Good News and Joy for Christmas Day, which holds both traditional and contemporary songs of Christmas. The title song of the latter speaks of the place of Christmas amidst the hard knocks of life.

Matt and Shannon Heaton make their music where Irish tradition meets Americana. To experience what that means, take a listen to their seasonal album Fine Winter's Night, which includes traditional Irish and Shetland tunes, an original song for which Matt got the idea from looking a Victorian house down the street, and a piece which is an African American song turned Celtic lullabye.

Gretchen Peters knows that the holiday season goes beyond jingle bells and festive Santas, too. On her album Northern Lights she includes traditional, original, and contemporary songs which look at the many sides of sides of the holiday season with a compassionate and thoughtful gaze. It’s all good stuff, but especially take note of her original song Waitin’ on Mary and her cover of Kim Richey’s Careful How You Go.


you may also wish to see
for more Americana holiday music suggestions
Music Road: listening to Christmas

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Here is one way to offer that, through PayPal. Note that you do not have to have a PayPal account to do this. Thank you.

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Holiday Gift Ideas: Irish Music

Music always makes a fine gift at the holidays, and Irish music all the more so. Whether you prefer to give and receive music that way or to create a mix of tracks on your own, here are suggestions for recent releases along with a several longtime favorites, and a book, as well.

Long Time Courting is a band of Boston women musicians, each of whom has a strong career in other musical endeavors. The four friends really liked the way they sound when they play and sing together, though, and they wanted to share that. Their debut album Alternate Routes made the best music of 2011 list here at Music Road.

It’s been a while -- six years -- since Mary Black has released a studio album. The Dublin based singer offers Stories from the Steeples, a new collection which shows that she is still following the path of unique and adventurous song selection, with a taste for contemporary songwriters and a bit of tradition as well. Duets with the likes of Finbar Furey and Janis Ian feature on this album along with Black’s always distinctive voice. Between this and her last studio release, one of the things Black did was put together a compilation album 25 years 25 songs , which would also make a fine gift for yourself or anyone on your list who enjoys good singing.


Jennifer Cutting has a musical imagination which deepens Celtic music by illuminating it through voice and instrument with her group the Ocean Orchestra. Together they have made the album Song of Solstice: Celtic Music for Midwinter. Original and traditional song and tune including a lively piece honoring the Green Man of Celtic legend and a graceful take on the seasonal song In the Bleak Midwinter are among the choices. Solstice, too, was a pick for best of year 2011 at Music Road.

Songs from the tradition in English and Irish, classy contemporary songs, and original music that engages aspects of Irish myth and nature with daily life today, not to mention a fine voice, thoughtful interpretation, and great backing from the likes of John Doyle and John McCusker: The Farthest Wave from Cathie Ryan would make a fine gift for an Irish music lover on your list, or someone you’d like to introduce to Irish music.

How about a Christmas album or two?. Cherish the Ladies have two holiday albums out, and they’d both be good selections for giving and for your own listening. A Star in the East finds lead singer Michelle Lee Burke having a fine time with All on a Christmas Morning and Home on Time for Christmas, while the always stellar musicianship of this group shines on the Greensleeves Jig and The Frost Is All Over. On Christmas Night also from CTL offers a lovely version of that quintessential Irish song of winter, The Castle of Dromore, with Heidi Talbot as the singer, along with well chosen selections of seasonal song and tune, including an understated version of the often overstated O Holy Night, with Talbot again on voice.




If tunes are what you are looking for, Shannon Heaton’s album of original and traditional music on the flute The Blue Dress is just what you’re looking for. The folk as RTE Lyric fm have put together Masters of the Irish Harp which makes a good choice too. It’s a gathering of tune and talent that’s both instructive and enjoyable, with a wide ranging group of players who are truly masters at what they do.

If reading about Irish music is to your gift recipients’ tastes, then you’ll want to consider Bright Star of the West: Joe Heaney, Irish Song Man. Joe Heaney was a legendary sean nos singer from Connemara , in the west of Ireland. He was also a complicated and complex man living at a time of transition for Irish and Irish American music. Though the prose is more than a bit dry and academic, authors Sean Williams and Lillis O’Laoire, professors as well as musicians, take the facts of Heaney ‘s life into discussion of sean nos, Irish traditional music, the role of men in Irish traditional culture, the nature of Irish American life, and other subjects.

you may also wish to see
Music Road: Best Music, 2011
Music Road: holiday gift list: music of Canada
Wreath, music and legend

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Christmas gifts: live music

When someone plays their music for you, when you listen, when you have the chance to be present at a performance, in concert hall, a club, or around the kitchen table, it is an exchange of gifts. One of the very best gifts to give, and receive, at this holiday season.















thanks to the musicians in these shots for sharing their gifts. they are Del Suggs, Pierce Pettis, Liz Simmons, Hannah Sanders, Tish Hinojosa, Marvin Dykhuis, Matt Heaton, and Shannon Heaton, in concerts given in Tallahassee, Florida, and Cambridge, Massachusetts.



you may also wish to see
Music Road: fourth week in Advent: quiet
Music Road: listening to Christmas: Shannon Heaton, Cathie Ryan, Mary Black, Hanneke Cassel
Music Road: Best Music, 2011


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

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Holiday gift list: Irish music

The winter holidays are here, a great time for gift giving. What makes a better gift than Irish music? Look into these -- and, indeed, any recording by the artists named here -- and you will want to have several for your own as well as fill out your gift list. If you’ve come to Irish music by way of the stage shows by Celtic Women, the High Kings, and Lord of the Dance, welcome -- and prepare to go deeper into the music of the Emerald Isle. Much deeper. More about that idea here.




Cathie Ryan The Farthest Wave
Resilience and restraint are two qualities which mark Ryan’s work here, both in her singing and in the songs she chooses. Not for nothing was she named Irish Voice of the Decade, and she is also one of the best songwriters around, as witness the title track, a consideration of healing, hope, and courage framed in images of myth and the natural world. To learn more of Ryan’s work, you may like to follow this link.







Matt and Shannon Heaton Lovers’ Well
Lovers’ Well is one of those recordings that reveals more grace each time you hear it. Matt and Shannon Heaton have chosen a mix of not so usual Irish songs about love in its varied guises, along with tunes that are just the right tempo for couples to dance to, and a love song from Thailand, honoring Shannon’s time spent in that country, which somehow fits perfectly. Both the Heatons sing, separately and with fine harmony; he plays guitar and bouzouki, she plays whistles and flutes. If you happen to want to learn to play Irish music, or have someone on your gift list who does, follow the link above also to find out about Shannon's book, Oil for the Chain, which is a fine resource.

Julie Fowlis and Muireann Nic Amhlaoibh Dual
Julie Fowlis is from the Outer Hebrides of Scotland; Muireann Nic Amhlaoibh is from West Kerry in Ireland. Several years back they found that there are both similarities and differences in the musical traditions of their home places, and began exploring them. This intriguing album is the result.

Liz Carroll and John Doyle Double Play
Liz is an American who plays the fiddle so well that she won All Ireland competitions as a teenager; John is an Irishman now resident in America, a guitarist and singer who has been touring with Joan Baez and has worked with Susan McKeown, Cathie Ryan, and Michael Black and was a founding member of Solas. Liz is also a very fine composer. Plenty of her originals on here, and powerful singing and playing from John on traditional music too.

Donal Clancy Close to Home
The guitar is a rather recent addition to Irish traditional music, and Donal Clancy is one reason why it is such an integral part of the genre now. For this recording, it’s basically the man and his guitar on a gracefully chosen set of traditional tunes in Clancy’s own arrangements. For more on this album see Voices: Donal Clancy



Altan Local Ground
Local Ground for Altan is Donegal, in the northwest of Ireland. That’s an area where the traditions of Ireland and Scotland have mixed over the years, producing a tradition that’s both vibrant and soulful. This recording shows that through tune and song, and gives hint of why Altan is still delighting listeners after more than twenty years. also see music of Donegal: Altan




Aoife Clancy Silvery Moon
That's pronounced EEfa, in case you were wondering, and she’s cousin to Donal, above. She’s chosen a mix of American and Irish songs songs well suited to her inviting voice and style for this collection. There’s a stunner of a song about peace in Ireland, too, by another cousin, Robbie O’Connell, called There Is Hope -- look out for that one especially


and if Irish dance is especially your thing, be sure to check out this CD: Ellery Klein & Ryan Lacey: Kick into the Beat

coming up along the music road: holiday gift suggestions for the music of Scotland, the music of America, and music connected to the winter holidays.


you may also wish to see
Music Road: Best Music, 2010
Music Road: now playing: Mary Black: 25 years 25 songs
Music Road: now playing: Karan Casey: Ships in the Forest
Music Road: holiday gift list: music of Canada
Music Road: holiday gift list: American harvest
Music Road: Cathie Ryan: Songwriter

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Listening to Christmas: Aoife Clancy, Tommy Sands, Matt Heaton

Those who make music for a living enjoy listening to music as well, and that’s especially true at Christmas time. A number of your favorite musicians chimed in with their ideas this season, and quite a varied lot they choose, from The Chipmunks to the monks of Glenstal Abbey, from surf music to American folk to Latin hymns. They had so many interesting things to say that this lively conversation will fill several posts.


To begin, here are Christmas favorites from Aoife Clancy, Tommy Sands, and Matt Heaton.

Aoife Clancy calls on memories of family this time of year:

"You’re not going to believe who I listen to during the holidays...The Clancy Brothers Christmas Album! I know, I know...I was almost going to say Bing Crosby, but that wouldn't really be the truth. That album brings back such lovely memories of Christmas day for me at home in Carrick-on-suir. I was always the one in the kitchen with my mother preparing dinner, while the rest of the family set the table or just hung out in the kitchen and chatted.

We'd always put on that CD because it wasn't the usual Christmas songs. It had some really lovely carols on there along with the Wren song, and Christmas in Carrick, written by a relative of mine, Seamus McGrath. Actually myself and Robbie use quite a few of those carols in our own Celtic Christmas show.

It was kind of funny. If anyone saw us they'd think we were a bit mad, serving food while dancing and singing around the kitchen to the Clancy Brothers Christmas
album! Then it was off to my grandmother’s house in Ring, County Waterford where the rest of the relatives would congregate for a few drinks and sing songs till about three o clock in the morning...And believe me, everyone sang...that's why it didn't end till three AM.

Now my father has passed on, I live in the States and my other siblings have their own families to celebrate Christmas with. Ah well, at least I have my own copy of the Clancy Brothers Christmas CD to dance around to in my own kitchen this Christmas. Not quite the same...but it's still comforting to hear their voices, and I'll always have the memories, wherever I spend Christmas."

In his music, Tommy Sands considers ideas of peace and justice as often as those of love and of Irish history, and sometimes all in the same song. He has a seasonal album out called To Shorten the Winter. Here’s what he is thinking of just now about the holidays

"Christmas can rouse us around a common hearth of humanity so that the wintery elements, some of our own making, can be more easily chorused against. I tend to be drawn to songs that shield us from the onslaught of the jingle jangle commercialism and nudge us towards the warmth and needs of shared humanity.

I find inspiration in all sorts of songs, from John McCutcheon's Christmas In The Trenches to the Weavers line "Why can't we have Christmas the whole year around," from Patrick Kavanagh's Christmas Childhood to Louis Armstrong's Wonderful World.

Christmas can also gather us well beyond the borders of category and season to throw back our heads and sing whatever we feel like singing, like 'whack fol the daddio whack fol the daddio there's whiskey in the jar.'"


Matt Heaton often performs in a duo with his wife Shannon.Together with her he’s recorded a holiday album called Fine Winter's Night,which includes original songs and tunes of the season and traditional music they like for this time of year, as well. Matt says of his holiday choices

"Singing wise, it's all the stuff from Fine Winter's Night, which is always fun to bring out once a year. Recording wise, we have a box of Christmas cds. Favorites include:

Tuck Andress--Hymns Carols & Songs About Snow--genius solo guitar recording.
A Very Froggy Christmas--late 80s, kind of lo fi samples of frogs doing the hits. really tacky but we love it.
Dwight Yoakam--Come on Christmas--'cause there's nothing like a country Christmas record.

We also love listening to the service of Lessons & Carols from Kings College England. Best choral singing you'll ever hear.

and I'm putting the Los Straightjackets Christmas CD on my wish list for this year. Surf guitar versions of the classics!"


The Heatons and Tommy Sands have holiday albums out, and Aoife Clancy often does a series of holiday concerts in the New England area with her cousin, songwriter Robbie O’Connell. Sands and the Heatons tour at Christmas time as well. All worth hearing. Stay tuned here along the music road for more Christmas listening choices from your favorite artists, and other holiday music ideas to come.

you may also wish to see

Music Road: Another Fine Winter's Night: Matt & Shannon Heaton

Music Road: 6 of the best Christmas Songs

Kathy Mattea: Mary Did You Know?

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holiday gift list: books

Several books to consider as you make out your holiday gift lists -- or at any time of year, really.

Rosanne Cash’s book Composed is, as she subtitles it, a memoir, not an autobiography. It is a mostly chronological reflection and narrative of her development as an artist and events in her life, well written, and containing a number of vivid stories and ideas that may well illumine your own path as an artist. Though Cash didn’t set out to with that in mind, I doubt she would be opposed to the idea. It is, rather, the story of one woman making her way, thus far, in the midst of a famous family and a career in which one has to seek out her own road maps. Read it for the stories, read it for the writing, read it to listen.

Andy Hall’s A Sense of Belonging to Scotland is a book where word and image meet. Hall is a photographer. He asked a number of well known Scots to reflect on a place within Scotland that means something to them, and he set out, over many miles and a good bit of time, to make images which would, in his words, see these places through their eyes. The people Hall asked for ideas include visual artists, musicians, athletes, business people, those in involved in broadcasting. some well known outside Scotland, some perhaps better known within its borders, people such as novelist Ian Rankin, musician Eddi Reader, actress Emma Thompson, actor Ewan MacGregor, and musician Donnie Munro. Their written reflections are as varied as the landscapes they choose, some quite straightforward, some nostalgic, a few poetic. The same could be said of their choices, and of Hall’s photographs of them. They range from places in Scotland’s cities to remote coasts in the Western Isles, berry picking regions to busy harbours, mountain to sea coast to loch to glen. Both the photographs and the stories to go along on varied occasions show the touch of history, the touch of the Creator, and the touch of nature.

Niall Williams and Christine Breen live in County Clare, in Ireland. They are both writers, Williams originally from Dublin, and Breen raised in New Jersey. They'd been living in Clare for some years when they decided to make a point of visiting other places in the island, and writing about them. They wrote The Pipes are Calling in 1993, but in some ways that makes it all the more worth reading. Some things have changed, some have not, and some have changed and changed back again. In any case, they both have a good way with words and with telling the stories of the people and situations they meet on their journeys, which include trips to Kenmare, Dublin, Donegal, Belfast, and Galway.

If there is a nuts and bolts minded person who likes how to books on your gift list, or someone who wants to learn about blogging or learn how to improve a blog, 31 Days to Build a Better Blog, an ebook by Darren Rowse of ProBlogger, might suit them very well.

Speaking of Ireland, The Country Cooking of Ireland is a varied and interesting -- and beautifully photographed -- look at Ireland's food. Some of the recipes are gathered from cooks and chefs at top restaurants, some inspired by old cook books, and some newly created by Colman Andrews, former editor of Saveur. Photography is by Christopher Hirschheimer.

If you’re looking for a bit of spiritual reading, or if someone on your gift list has questions about vocation, Parker J. Palmer’s Let Your Life Speakcould be just the thing. It’s a short book, not exactly comforting nor intended to be, but thought provoking on many levels.

How about a Christmas story? Christmas in Harmony will do the trick for that. Set in small town Indiana, it’s tale filled with characters you will recognize whatever your small town experiences or big city neighborhoods. Gentle humor and real sense of place, and a main character who is a thoroughly human and not at all preachy Quaker pastor.


you may also wish to see
Music Road: Amy Grant: Mosaic

Music Road: Shannon Heaton: Oil for the Chain

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Looking toward Christmas: Kidstuff

Is there a young child, or the parent of one, on your gift list? Here's music to consider for them.

Both parent an child will likely enjoy Down at the Sea Hotel. By turns as whimsical as the title cut, by Iowa singer songwriter Greg Brown, and as thoughtful as Steve Earle’s Nothing but a Child, which is sung together by many of the artists who contribute to this album, it’s a varied collection with top singers and songwriters offering familiar and less familiar songs by other top contemporary writers. Guy Davis singss a bluesy Midnight Lullaby, while Eliza Gilkyson delivers two of the really standout cuts on the disc, Midnight in Missoula and the Carole King classic Child of Mine. Other singers include Lucy Kaplansky, John Gorka, and Lynn Miles, on songs written by Mary Chapin Carpenter, Tom Waits, and others.

Do kids themselves create songs that will hold up to repeated listening? Well, at the very least you know you’ll get a few topics adult writers might not at first choose. The Football Toad and Papaya People are two of those Rory Block helped the kids in her sons’ school classes bring to life on the album Color Me Wild. Block is known as an intense and powerful blues singer and guitarist, but she says “I also have a really off the wall sense of humor.” That probably came in really helpful when her children were small, which is when she put together this project.

A whole list of well known (and Grammy winning) musicians from Darrell Scott to Amy Grant joined up with the Nashville Chamber Orchestra and Paul Reisler’s Kid Pan Alley project to let kids see and experience what it’s like to create a song. The result: some lovely lullabyes, some funny stuff, and, well, a song about socks...

Tish Hinojosa offers a batch of songs both parents and children will enjoy on Cada Nino. Hinojosa is first generation Mexican American, and she draws on this background to remember in song trips to visit her grandmother back in Mexico and talk about some women of border history. Soon you and your kids will liklely be singing along with Hinojosa in both English and Spanish, especially on her hilarious imagining of what the vegetables get up to when we’re not looking, El Baile Vegetal/Vegetable Dance.

Jane Siberry offers a recording that’ll likely have you singing along too, although in a quieter way, as you might suspect from its title, Hush. This is Siberry in a relaxed folk mode, offering familiar songs including We Are Climbing Jacob’s Ladder, All Through the Night, and The Water Is Wide. If you are in a lullaby frame of mind, you might want to look up Padraigin ni Uallachain's music, especially her recording Irish Lullaby. If you're looking more for humor, laughter, and challenge, then check out Celebrate the Difference, from Terri Hendrix.

Music on the album Mother is traditional, from Ireland, and original, out of the lives of the three artists who created this record, Susan McKeown, Robin Spielberg, and Cathie Ryan. It is music you probably have not heard before. Though it was intended for mothers, it works for mother, grandmothesr, and their children: It’s a powerful and loving celebration of the connections and disconnections and understandings that motherhood and making all life’s transitions invites. It’s also music that allows much as much space for the listener as it does for the artists who created it.

There are lively tunes and gracious ones, simple ones and complex, ones presented with sparse accompaniment and those with intricate acoustic support. Spielberg’s piano exploration without words of a walk with her mother, McKeown’s evocation of older times in Ancient Mother, the lively dance of joy of both child and grandparent in Ryan Grandma’s Song, each offer gifts of understanding and connection, as do the other songs on this collection.

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