Music for Thanksgiving

Harvest. Gathering in. Gathering together. Preparing for winter’s colder days and nights. Watching the change of light, the changing color of leaves. Singing hymns of Thanksgiving, songs of harvest, giving thanks for grace. Songs of hope for a cold winter’s night, and a family gathered around. Whethter you live close to the land or you do not, close to songs of faith or not, with family or not, these things still form part of this time of year. A time, indeed, for thanksgiving.

James Galway, Jay Ungar, and Molly Mason have an album that is well suited to this time. It is called Song of Home. On it, with fiddle and bow, flute and guitar (Peter Ostroushko adds mandolin too), they travel from Cape Breton to the west and back again, finding common threads and contrasting colors in the celebration of what it means to come home.

The album is a meditative door opening to this season of sharing and connecting, and a fine companion through it. Music includes My Cape Breton Home, West Texas Waltz, Bound for California, and Oh Shenandoah/Shenandoah Falls. There are also selections from the Harvest Home suite, music which Ungar and Mason wrote following the urn of seasons across the land and the landscapes of life.

Ungar and Mason have another album well suited to this season of thanksgiving .It is called Harvest Home and includes music from the Harvest Home suite as well as original and traditional music. They have anew album out, too which focuses on the winter holiday season and is called A Fiddler's Holiday With The Jay Ungar & Molly Mason Family Band.

You may also wish to see

harvest time

Autumn music: preparation and presence

photograph of pumpkins is by Kerry Dexter. Thank you for respecting copyright

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Song for autumn: Mary Black & Steve Cooney: Just a Journey

Steve Cooney, Australian songwriter long writer resident in Ireland, captures the mystery in the landscape and life of both places in his song Just a Journey.

“we are wheat for the bread, we are wind and fire...”

“just a journey of a spirit through a lifetime’s changing...”

are just a few of the phrases which offer new perspective each time one hears the song. It has also always struck me as a song particularly suited for the turn of seasons in autumn. A song with a distinct story to tell yet plenty of room for the listener to bring his or her own stories to the telling as well.

Mary Black sings it here, with Steve Cooney on guitar and backing vocals. You may also find a recording of it, along with a raft of other fine songs, on Black’s two disc set Best Of Mary Black Volume 2

you may also wish to see

Mary Black: Stories from the Steeples

learning about Irish music: a bouquet of albums

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You can also

Music and late autumn

Miracles are everywhere. So is music. So is friendship. This is a time of year to invite and be open to and to celebrate all these things.










the photograph is of leaves in frost in Kelvingrove, in the west end of Glasgow, Scotland. it is copyrighted, and I thank you for respecting that

Music to go along with these ideas
Music Road: music, autumn, and a cup of tea
Music Road: music and the unexpected
Music Road: Best Music, 2011


you may also wish to see

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

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Music, harvest, and time

Martinmas: falling as it does in mid November, it used to be a time a time that the year’s rents were settled,. the gathering in from the harvest sorted, and plans made for the drawing in of winter.

Harvest: the word suggests a natural unfolding of things, a place for time and space and taking in and transforming. Not unlike the process of creating a song or a poem or a story or a painting, or building a house, or nuturing a friendship. or raising a child, or building a community. Or any number of other things. that prosper with time, attention, thought, and care.

That time for growth and reflection, the telling of the long story, the connection with a past that is more that five hours or five years ago, seems to be less common in the present day. Short story and immediate response have their place, but theirs is not the only place, or necessarily the right or the best one.

There are a number of ways this connects to music, especially the sort of music I introduce you to here along the music road. Lively or quiet, most of it is necessarily contemplative and a way of connecting with the longer thoughts of the day and the year.

You’ve met songwriter and singer Cathie Ryan here along the music road. As part of her work as a musician she teaches workshops on singing, and on Irish mythology. “I think we are connected to the ancestors,” she says, “and it’s part of our work to find out what that connection is. That’s in the stories of the myths, and it’s in the songs too.”

Music to go along with these ideas

 Cathie Ryan: Through Wind and Rain
Cathie Ryan: Songwriter
Another Fine Winter's Night: Matt & Shannon Heaton
Music Road: music, autumn, and a cup of tea

-->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.