Music and the Waters

It is a time of year when -- in the northern hemisphere anyway -- people head to the waters, when across the world people remember good times had along the shore, and plan to create more of them.


The world’s oceans, and its other bodies of water, sustain life for those who live nearby such places and for those who live at distance, as well. There are stories too, of sailors seeing the vast expanse of the sea as an open field, and of farmers and travelers seeing the prairies as the sea.



However you may see it, water and the world’s oceans, and the rhythms of the music they make are a vital part of life, and call to the imaginations of people both on the waters and in landlocked places. At this season when we are asked to care for the oceans, pause for a moment, and listen.

Music to go along with these ideas

Oceans & Journeys
rest in music
Cathie Ryan: The Farthest Wave
People And Songs Of The Sea



Photographs were made along the Irish Sea, on the east coast of Ireland, and are copyrighted. Thank you for respecting this.


you may also wish to see
Delicious Baby's Photo Friday, where travelers offer new insights to the world each Friday.
World Oceans Day site

-->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.

Music and perspective

These photographs show the Irish sea from two very different perspectives. The places themselves are not that far distant from each other, about five kilometers or so. The rocks and shells on the strand were there on a quiet autumn morning. The waves were in the midst of high winds in January.

Looking at these two images had me thinking about how music can sometimes help us see the same thing from differing perspectives. There’s the lover scorned, the lover reunited, the lover changed, all in ballads from two centuries ago, sure, and yet here we might be learning something from a turn of phrase or an idea that an artist today has found in the songs of that time past. There’s also the contemporary artist who with words or notes offers an idea that resonates, sometimes in very different ways than the artist had thought it would.

One of the qualities that good songs and tunes share is that we each take them in and make them our own, and yet they retain their own presences, as well. As an artist, as a musician, you sometimes find yourself on both sides of things here: taking in and holding, and letting go to connect with others' dreams.


Music to go along with these ideas
Music Road: The Last Star: Heidi Talbot
Music Road: Carrie Newcomer: Before & After
Music Road: Hanneke Cassel: For Reasons Unseen


You may also wish to see
Delicious Baby's Photo Friday, where travelers offer new insights to the world each Friday

-->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.

patrick season: emigration

There's a recurring story in Irish legend in which a person sets out -- usually because they've been banished from the island, community, or family--in a curragh with only the night stars as guide and a knife for tool. No oars, no companions. A curragh is a small fabric framed boat. Having made the night (and day) sea journey to arrive again on land, the person is then able to accomplish great things.



photograph of the Irish Sea off the coast of Louth


you may also wish to see

Music Road: patrick season: music and mist
Music Road: Songs of the Immigrants
Music Road: Cathie Ryan: Songwriter
to explore photographs from many parts of the world, visit Delicious Baby's Photo Friday

Great American Music Trip: Massachusetts

The Great American Road Trip over at A Traveler's Library is in Massachusetts, particularly an area near the sea coast town of Gloucester. The music of the sea, and the lives of those who live by it, inspire music of all sorts. Two modern day musicians take a look at the seafaring past of Gloucester, both serious and funny, in the album Souls of the Sea.

From Gloucester to the Apalachee Bay, from North Uist in the Outer Hebrides of Scotland to the China Sea to the Straits of Magellan to Galway Bay and back again, and all seashores and waters in between, there’s great music and inspiration for music in and on the water.

for more music of the waters in America, Ireland, and Scotland, you may also want to see
Music Road: Oceans & Journeys: Road Trip in Maryland

Cathie Ryan: The Farthest Wave

Dual: Julie Fowlis & Muireann Nic Amhlaoibh

and to learn about the Great American Road Trip and the musical ideas I'll be adding to the journey, you might want to see this: Great American Road Trip: Music begins

-->Your support for Music Road is welcome and needed. If you’d like 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.