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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Christmas music on guitar: Tim Edey

Winter season’s closing in brings with it both many things to do, and time to rest. It brings fast paced activities, and it can bring slowing down and time to reflect. Winter brings gathering; it brings solitude.

Each of these is an aspect of Advent, of preparation, of contemplation.

Music is a fine companion to all these things.

The Sleeping Tunes, Vol 2: Christmas and Celtic Music played on Guitar may have a rather long title, but it gets its point across. It comes from Tim Edey, and it is a recording which should certainly join your holiday plans for listening.

Though Tim Edey can play many instruments, guitar is perhaps his favoured one, and, as the album title says, his choice for this recording. In performance, Tim comes across as a gifted and versatile player, a man who holds these talents with humility, and an artist who loves to share his joy in the varied aspects of music.

Those things come across clearly in this recording, as well.

On it, you will find eighteen tracks of Christmas and Celtic music, thoughtfully and engagingly presented. Edey offer a journey which begins with I Saw Three Ships paired with a slide from County Kerry. There’s also Irish tune Coinnle an Linbh Íosa, a title in Irish which translates as The Lights or Candles of the Child Jesus. In the Bleak Midwinter leads into the Scottish tune Annie Laurie, there are stops along the way at O Little Town of Bethlehem, an O’Carolan tune, Silent Night, The First Noel, and several others. before closing with Griogar’s Tune, a song written by Enda McCabe for Tim’s young son.

It’s true that many of these pieces will call up memories of their words; that is part of their charm. It’s fine to hear them as instrumental pieces, though. It makes the depth of melody and the grace of Edey’s playing all the more evident. If you’ve guitar player on your holiday gift list, too, this could be just the thing. In addition to his own solo albums, Edey is in demand to work with other artists. If you’d like to hear a different aspect of Edey’s work, you may find him in collaboration with top Cape Breton fiddle player Natalie MacMaster on her recent release called Sketches. There will be more to come about that recording here along the music road in future, too. If you are attending Celtic Connections in Glasgow, you will find Edey as part of collaborations at two concerts, as well.

Tim Edey is grew up in a musical family in Broadstairs, in Kent, in England. He has lived in Ireland and is now based in Perthshire n Scotland. Those places and experiences find their way way into his understanding of music, and his presentation of them on this recording.

You may also wish to see
First week in Advent: music and quiet
Listening to Winter: Aine Minogue, Cara Dillon, Matt Heaton
Alison Brown Quartet: Evergreen

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Listening to Christmas

Winter. Whether Christmas is your holiday or not, it is a time which invites connection and reflection, solitude and community. Here is music to go along with those ideas... take a listen.

Here’s a song in Irish -- it is called Don oíche úd i mBeithil/That Night in Bethlehem. Perhaps you will not understand the words, but you will get the idea of reflection and hope. It is performed here by Altan, whose most recent album is The Gap of Dreams.

To pick up the pace a bit, here is Emily Smith with the lively Little Road to Bethlehem. You may find on her album Songs for Christmas.

The song Fine Winter’s Night draws on the idea of cold nights which yet hold bright stars, and darkness which draws us in to gather and connect. You may find it recorded on the album called Fine Winter’s Night, by Matt and Shannon Heaton.

You may also wish to see
Christmas, Reflections, and Travel at Perceptive Travel
Further thoughts (and music ideas) thinking about December at Wandering Educators
Candles in the window at Christmas time here at Music Road

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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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Music for the heart of winter: Cathie Ryan

Christmas, and season of Advent which comes before it, are times that invite both celebration and reflection. These cold days of winter when dark comes early invite quiet solitude and well as gathering and sharing in community. Winter and its holidays and holy days have inspired musicians to explore all these things in many ways: through classic songs of the season which have been handed down, through their own ways of interpreting familiar songs, and through creation of their own seasonal stories.

Cathie Ryan is one such musician. The award winning Irish American singer and songwriter tours internationally through the year and has been a guest on winter season programs of other top artists. This is the first year, though, that she will be offering a series of holiday concerts of her own design. It is to be called The Winter’s Heart.

“I love Christmas! The sharing of meals, of gifts, of song, of together time is a blessing,” Ryan says. “We all slow down to be with our family, our community. No matter how stressed we are, Christmas seems to take the edge off, people are more patient and kind. I wanted to bring the band together to make some beautiful Christmas music that we could all share. And to sing to those who may not have anyone to celebrate the holiday with - to ameliorate the loneliness. Music does that. One of my most favorite things about Christmas,” she adds, “is that we celebrate the holiday with song.”

That recognition of connection and community goes deep for Ryan. She grew up in Michigan, the child of parents who had emigrated from Ireland. They’d spend time in summer with family back in Kerry and in Tipperary. In Detroit, her parents loved not only Irish music but country singers such as Johnny Cash and Loretta Lynn, and Ryan also heard music of Motown and of Appalachia. As an adult Ryan has spent time living in both the US and in Ireland. All of this has had influence on how she understands music. She’s chosen the subtitle of the Winter’s Heart series to be An Irish American Christmas.

That duality was one of the things which guided Ryan’s choices of music for the shows. “I love Christmas songs and the impulse was to do lots of songs we all know already, but I’d like to highlight our Irish American traditions through song so that will mean new songs!” she says. “There are some beloved songs that are musts, like Silent Night, and we will be singing those. My guitarist, Patsy O’Brien, and I have written a song called The Winter’s Heart that we’ll do. There are also some lovely Christmas songs sung in Ireland in Irish and in English that aren’t so well known in America, and I look forward to sharing those.”

The spiritual aspects of the season also go deep for Ryan. “The way we open our hearts at Christmas inspired the show’s title. The Winter’s Heart seems to encapsulate everything I believe Christmas is about, including Christ being born at Christmas and all of the heart centered teachings of Christianity. It is beautiful that in this time of cold and barrenness, a time when most of us go inside, we open our hearts, our homes, to new hope, new life and to each other. It raises us up.

“We have a big, beautiful shared songbook, we all join in the music,” Cathie Ryan says. “It is a reminder that we are all connected at the core. I love that.”

Tour dates for The Winter’s Heart: An Irish American Christmas

On this tour, Ryan will be accompanied by Patsy O’Brien from Cork on guitar and vocals, Patrick Mangan from New York on fiddle, and Kieran O’Hare from Chicago on uillean pipes, Irish flute, and tin whistle. Among them the three men have appeared with a roster of top artists including Eileen Ivers, Don Henley, and the Milwaukee Symphony, and have appeared on stages with shows from from Riverdance to Broadway theater.

Tour graphic courtesy of Cathie Ryan; photos of Ireland in winter and Cathie Ryan with bodhran by Kerry Dexter. Thank you for respecting copyright.

You may also wish to see
Cathie Ryan’s most recent recording Through Wind and Rain.
Cherish the Ladies: storytellers in song
Listening to Christmas
First week in Advent: candle in the window

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Listening to Christmas: new winter focused albums

Winter holidays are a time for savoring the familiar and enjoying the new. That holds just a true with music as it does for travel, or flavors of Christmas cookies. Treats are in store this season, with new winter focused recordings from artists whose backgrounds range from bluegrass family band in the heartland of North America to sean nos from the Gaeltacht of Connemara in the west of Ireland. There’s a gathering of a half dozen of Scotland’s top musicians who bring their well loved Christmas concerts to record, and a recording that features the artist alone with her guitar. There’s a reunited trio of musical friends, a top Scots singer and songwriter, and one of the most well loved bands in Ireland and Irish America. All these artists have their own ideas of winter and music to share. Listen on...

Rhonda Vincent is the artist who claims bluegrass as her heritage, growing up in Missouri playing in her family’s band. She’s had success in country music too, always bringing along her strong connection to her heartland roots. That’s something she carried through in Christmas Time, her third album of holiday songs. She offers carols and secular holiday songs along with several she’s written herself. For Twelve Days of Christmas she invites in musical friends including Dolly Parton,Charlie Daniels, and Pam Tillis. Of her originals, Christmas Time at Home is the strongest, and there’s a nice medley of several familiar songs she hasn’t gotten to in full to close out the disc.

Róisín Elsafty comes from a family background in music, too, but of a different style: hers is the sean nos singing of the west of Ireland. She’s joined up with Ronan Browne on pipes and Tony Maher on piano to offer a thoughtful and interesting collection of Amhráin Na Nollag: Favourite Christmas Songs In Irish. There are melodies you’ll recognize even if Irish isn’t one of your languages, and there are several finely done instrumentals to give breadth to the sound. Singers of sean nos must learn ways to give emotion and story in song through word alone, and though Elsafty brings instruments to accompany her voice here, her mastery of that is evident, especially in some of the quieter pieces. Elsafty, Browne, and Maher have a a bit of fun with things too. In addition to thoughtful and reverent takes on such well loved songs Don Oíche Úd I Mbeithil (One Night in Bethlehem) and Oíche Chiúin (Silent Night) they also take on An Drumadóirín (The Little Drummer Boy) and then, well, there’s Rudolph Na Sróine Deirge...

Eddi Reader, Karen Matheson, Kris Drever, John McCusker, Ian Carr, and Kevin McGuire -- you could call that a dream team line up of Scotland’s musical talent, and when you consider the Christmas concerts they appear on each winter are put together by Phill Cunningham you understand why both the audiences and the artists have a really good time. Over the years and the songs, what’s known as Phil Cunningham’s Christmas Songbook has grown from a one night gig in Edinburgh to a five night run that takes in different towns and cities in Scotland. This year, it has also made it to a recording also called Phil Cunningham’s Christmas Songbook, which is filled with with generous helpings of holiday songs serious, winsome, and funny in the mix, among them The Holly and the Ivy, In the Bleak Midwinter, and Santa Will Find You.

Lindsay Straw has no backing musicians for her gig -- it’s just the woman and her guitar on her download only release The Winter EP. The Winter EP. Just a few songs, too, but they serve to show the strength and gentleness of the Boston based musician’s way with voice and instrument, and with how well she puts the two together. In her non seasonal work Straw often draws on the music of Ireland, Scotland and Appalachia, and that informs her take on It Came Upon the Midnight Clear, The Christ Child Lullaby, and the other pieces she offers.

The three women who comprise the Scotland based trio Shine decided on a winter themed EP for this season as well. Alyth McCormack, Mary MacMaster, and Corrina Hewat recorded an album together some years back but each has a full slate of musical projects in their separate careers. When they began talking about working together again, one of the things they’d like to do, they decided, was a Christmas tour in Scotland. Fire & Frost is the recording that came out of that idea. The three have terrific harmony skills, which makes whatever they choose to sing well worth hearing more than once. Hewat and MacMaster are fine harpists, as well, and they all know how to weave notes in and around the line of a song. Added to that, they’ve some things you may not have heard before, such as the Christ Child’s Lullabye with lyrics in Scots ans well as Gaelic and English.

Emily Smith usually does Christmas shows too, mostly taking a break from her international touring and keeping things close to home in her native Dumfries and Galloway in the southwest of Scotland at the holiday season. It was time, she decided, to put some of her favorite songs from those shows, songs first gathered near to home and some which caught her ear on her travels, on record. On Songs for Christmas there are carols and songs of hope and faith ranging from Silent Night to Christ Has My Hairt Ay to Smith’s own graceful meditation on the challenges and changes of winter called Winter Song.

The members of Cherish the Ladies took things home for Christmas in a way, too -- the top Irish American band, which often includes musicians from Ireland as well as Irish Americans, went to County Clare to record the band’s third Christmas album and they decided to call it Christmas in Ireland. It’s a fine collection comprising song and tune and a bit of spoken word, new material and well handed down pieces, material from Irish tradition and material created drawing from it. To the core group of Joanie Madden on flute and whistles, Kathleen Boyle on piano, Mary Coogan on guitar and Mirella Murray on accordion, top Irish musician Nollaig Casey added her talents on fiddle and Hannah Rarity from Scotland and Don Stiffe from County Galway stepped in as singers. It’s a well paced and beautifully performed collection, with every track a keeper worth repeated listening. Especially to take note of though are All the Valley Down, the O Christmas Tree set, The Christmas Letter, and Errigal Beauty.

Photographs by Kerry Dexter. Thank you for respecting copyright.

you may also wish to see
Listening to Christmas: Shannon Heaton, Cathie Ryan, Mary Black, Hanneke Cassel
Cherish the Ladies: storytellers in music
Old stories, old songs: Roisin Dubh by Elsafty, Armstrong, Browne

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Advent reflections and music

The second week in Advent is a time for settling in, for reflection, for learning and remembering . Used to be, when I was growing up, the readings for the second Sunday in Advent had to do with reading the Scriptures, considering them, reflecting, taking in the meanings they may have.

Along the way, and especially through walking this music road, I have learned that God speaks through other things -- through anything we will allow. A fall of light, a line in a play -- or a poem, the work of an actor in a television show, the quiet voice of rain, a story from the past, the color of a turning leaf, the fall of snow, the words of a friend or a stranger -- the words of a song, the notes of a tune...

Music to go along with these ideas Al Petteway and Amy White share the reflective spirit of the mountain in winter with harp, guitar, bouzouki, dulcimer, and voice on original and traditional pieces including Gabriel’s Message, People Look East, Into the Light, and Breaking Up Christmas on their album Winter Tidings: An Appalachian Christmas

Karen Mal and Will Taylor join up on mandolin and guitar for classy and thoughtful interpretations of The Coventry Carol, The Frist Noel, and other seasonal classics A Mandolin Christmas

If music to do with Christmas is not your interest at present, I think you will still enjoy theses recordings. For another choice, though, you may want to listen to Mala Fama in which fiddle player Sarah-Jane Summers, guitarist Juhani Silvola, and bassist Morten Kvam offer music with flavors Summers’ native Highlands of Scotland landscapes, as well as ideas of travel, laughter, and reflection.

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

You may also wish to see
first week in Advent: candle in the window
Cherish the Ladies: storytellers in music
Perceptive Travel: wreaths, music, legend

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First week in advent

Advent. Four Sundays and a midnight clear, a season of preparation, expectation, connection. A season of dreaming of Christmas to come and recalling Christmas past. A time for resolution, for forgiveness, for peace, for finding quiet and reflection amidst the world’s demands. A time for finding joy and a time for fining ways to bring the love, trust, and creativity of the season through the days and years to come.

You might like to learn about
A family tradition which helped me understand Advent when I was a small child first week in Advent: music and journey

A welcoming and thoughtful holiday tradition in Ireland, which has spread to many places across the world -- and a fine song about it too Music for the first week in Advent: candle in the window

Very fine seasonal music from one of the best groups in Irish -- any other -- music Winter music from Cherish the Ladies: storytellers in song and tune

Music to go along with these ideas, both seasonal and not
Autumn music from Childsplay
Winter Tidings: An Appalachian Christmas from Al Petteway and Amy White
Cathie Ryan: Through Wind and Rain

and a bit of holiday listening from Altan

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

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Cherish the Ladies: storytellers in music

Storytellers in music: that is what Cherish the Ladies have been since they began with what was meant to be a one off concert in New York twenty seven years ago. The story they’ve told, through traveling the world, through comings and goings of band members, through night after night of concerts and conversation, has been that of the vibrancy of Irish culture, and the variety and professionalism and creativity of women in Irish music.

Part of that creativity has been shown across the years in their recordings. Two (update, now three) of those are seasonal winter holiday albums -- fine ones to prepare for Advent, to enjoy for Christmas, or indeed to hear any time of year.

-->Update 2021: All three Cherish Christmas albums Including the newest one Christmas in Irleand) are availble as one 40 track compilation called Cherish the ladies: Ultimate Christmas Mix, from Bandcamp. You are also able to audition and purchase individual tracks there. You may also wish to know that on one Friday every month, Bandcamp waives fees to artists so all income from sales goes to creators, something to look out for...

Star in the East finds the band focusing on the celebratory side of the holiday season while adding a touch of reflection here and there. The Dash for the Presents set, opening with an original tune by bandleader Joanie Madden sets the tone. It is followed by Michelle Lee Burke handling lead singing on a fine retelling of the Christmas tale written by Robbie O’Connell called All On a Christmas Morning. There are carols and hymns, reels and tunes, Madden reading a reflective poem by Patrick Kavanagh which is well paired with the music of In the Bleak Midwinter, and Burke taking lead again on the rollicking traveling song song Home on Time for Christmas.

On Christmas Night is the band’s earlier Christmas album, one which timeless and engaging nearly ten years on from its first release. There are tune sets which include versions of traditional carols and hymns with perhaps less well known pieces of Irish music, such as Ding Dong Merrily On High / The Cordial Jig / Old Apples in Winter / Con Cassidy’s. Heidi Talbot is the lead singer on this recording, offering inspired versions of Silent Night, which she sings in English and Irish, trading lead with other members of the band on The Holly and the Ivy, and bringing a gentle, graceful take on The Castle of Dromore.

Mary Coogan, who with Madden is a founding member of Cherish the Ladies, plays guitar in this video. She also has a seasonal album out, called Christmas.

As I write this the band is preparing a holiday tour in December as well, with original band member Cathie Ryan returning for some dates as guest singer. Catch them live if you can.

Photograph of Cherish the Ladies at the Royal Glasgow Concert Hall with guest Alison Brown during the Celtic Connections Festival (to which they will be returning for their twentieth anniversary appearance in January). It was made with the permission of the artists, the festival, and the venue, and is copyrighted, Thank you for respecting this.

You may also wish to see
Galway Afternoon: Joanie Madden
The Last Star: Heidi Talbot
Cathie Ryan: teaching tradition
Cherish the Ladies web site and tour schedule

If you enjoy what you are reading here, check out my newsletter at Substack for more stories about music, the people who make it, and the places which inspire it.

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Listening to Christmas: Celtic artists tell their favorite winter holiday music

Those who make music for their work enjoy music of the winter holidays as much as those who are in their audiences.

Tommy Sands thinks of the connections music makes, Heidi Talbot is enjoying sharing holiday music with her friends on stage and her young daughter at home, and Cathie Ryan has an album that she finds to be good company as background for holiday gatherings as well as for quiet reflection by the fireside.

take a listen to what Tommy, Heidi, Cathie, and others have to say about how they enjoy music at the holidays by following the links to these holiday articles:

listening to Christmas: Aoife Clancy, Tommy Sands, Matt Heaton
listening to Christmas: Heidi Talbot, Muireann Nic Amhlaoibh, Patty Larkin
listening to Christmas: Shannon Heaton, Cathie Ryan, Mary Black, Hanneke Cassel

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Fourth week in Advent: music and meditation

Advent is a time of reflection, a time for seeking peace. It is a time for the work of solitude and the work of being in company. A time for preparation, quiet, and connection. Whether Advent is part of the faith you mark or not, winter is a good season for such things. Music is a way into into and through these ideas, as well.




Wintersong by Tammerlin makes a good gateway and companion for these journeys. From the opening song Winter’s Grace though the carol Silent Night, Lee Hunter and Arvid Smith. invite the listeners along on a journey well suits the contemplative nature of winter, with room for consideration of its changes and challenges along with its comfort and peace. In keeping with the music they’ve chosen, their arrangements are spare and rich at the same time. Hunter, who does most of the lead vocals, has a natural and relaxed storyteller's style which finds her moving through music from France, Appalachia, and contemporary folk as well as traditional carols which focus and grace. There are four brief spoken word selections included within the program as well, two from the writings of Henry David Thoreau and one each from Annie Dillard and Wendell Berry. In Hunter’s voice and in the duo’s choice of music, these prove natural extensions of their winter ideas, as they illuminate the the music and the music adds dimension to the words.

The music on Fine Winter's Night from Matt and Shannon Heaton illuminates the season, too. Sacred and secular aspects of winter dance with each other through the original and traditional music the two offer. Matt sings lead on his original take on a Christmas encounter a century or so ago in First Snowfall of December, and on the Wexford Carol, a hymn from twelfth century Ireland. Shannon takes a light touch with the tale of Julius the Christmas Cat preparing for the Holy Family, and offers a new setting to sixteenth century poetry for winter in her version of Star Song. There are a number of sessional instrumentals with Matt on guitar and Shannon on flute, as well as more carols, and original songs. These frame the centerpiece of the album’s idea and music, the title track Fine Winter’s Night, in which the connection and solitude of winter’s journey meet.

the photograph on the upper right is of holiday lights on Harvard Street in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and is copyrighted. thank you for respecting that.

you may also wish to see
Klezmer: Music for the Festival of Lights
Song of Solstice: music for changing seasons
Another Fine Winter's Night: Matt & Shannon Heaton

and

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

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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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Third week in Advent: music and community

Music is an art of both solitude and community. In creation, in practice, in performance, in contemplation, music is shared with and thought about on one’s own. The work of the Advent season, the work of winter, is like that too, a time for reflection as one walks the winter days or sits by the fire, and gatherings in company with many friends or just a few, to celebrate the season in good company. All good things to enjoy and remember this third week in Advent.


music to go along with these ideas

Music Road: 6 of the best Christmas Songs
Music Road: Best Music, 2011
at Perceptive Travel Texas music for Christmas


you may also wish to see
at Perceptive Travel wreaths, music, and legend
Music Road: music, autumn, and a cup of tea

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Song for an Advent weekend: Oíche Chiúin

In the midst holiday preparations, take a bit of time for quiet reflection on the season. Whether Irish is your language or not, I think you will recognize the song. Mairéad Ní Mhaonaigh, Muireann Nic Amhlaoibh, and Eleanor Shanley sing Oíche Chiúin from Geantraí na Nollag, broadcast in Ireland on TG4 at Christmas 2010 you may also wish to see Music Road: music, autumn, and a cup of tea Music Road: listening to Christmas: Heidi Talbot, Muireann Nic Amhlaoibh, Patty Larkin Music Road: holiday gift ideas: Irish music

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Second week in advent & music

The second week in advent brings with it a call to reflection, to mediation, to taking in of knowledge and seeing how all that may become wisdom. I’ve always found music, especially the music we meet and talk about here along the music road, a way into wisdom, knowledge, and contemplation. Whether you are playing or listening, this sort of music engages heart, mind, and spirit.

Ideas for music for the second week in advent

Matt & Shannon Heaton: Fine Winter's Night the title track, and original by Shannon, brings in connection and contrast between the wintry weather and the warmth of friendship, between the solitary and connected aspects of the work of winter, and of Advent. It is also one of my favorite Christmas albums

another album that makes a good companion to contemplation and reflection this season is A Mandolin Christmas. from Karen Mal and Will Taylor. though both are skilled on many instruments, they chose just mandolin and guitar for a journey ranging from traditional carols to popular seasonal favorites, from folk arrangements to ones with a a dash of jazz. this is a new release from Taylor and Mal this season, and looks likely to become a holiday classic









you may also wish to see
Music Road: Another Fine Winter's Night: Matt & Shannon Heaton
Music Road: music, autumn, and a cup of tea
Music Road: 6 of the best Christmas Songs

-->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.

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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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Merry Christmas

wishing you a wonderful holiday...Merry Christmas, Nollaig Shona, Nollaig Chridell, Feliz Navidad, Joyeux Noel...









music to go along
Music Road: third week in advent

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

Music Road: listening to Christmas: Shannon Heaton, Cathie Ryan, Mary Black, Hanneke Cassel

-->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.