Celtic Colours and Catching Up

It has been a bit quiet here. With all the noise going on in the world perhaps that’s been needed.

Time for a bit of catching up though. I do have great music coming up to write about for you here and in other places.

Right now, though: if you are new here, welcome. If you are regular reader, thanks for sticking with me. Music Road turned nineteen this past summer.

First, you’ll want to know about great concnerts you can tune in to live this week (10-18 October) or watch on replas through 31 October.

These are happening at the Celtic Colours International Festival on Cape Breton in Nova Scotia. Lots of Cape Bretoners, of course, and artists from Ireland, Scotland, Northern Ireland, the US, England, and many places across Canada also.

Next, a few greatest hits and stories you may have missed here at Music Road, followed by news of and several links to other related projects.

Spell Songs II: Let the Light In
Irish music, Irish landscape
Cathie Ryan: Through Wind and Rain
Music and Mystery: Carrie Newcomer

Over at Substack, I’ve begun a newsletter. It’s called Along the Music Road. Different or additional perspectives on artists you’ve met here and others you’ve yet to meet here, along with other related stories. There are subscriptions at no cost and paid ones if you’d care to support my work (hint: you can subscribe for as long or as short a term as you’d like) and you can also follow if you do not wish to subscribe.

Sunday Sessions: Traverse
Sunday Sessions: a song about hanging in through hard times
Songs of Protest, part 4: Onward

At Wandering Educators, I write a once a month (usually third Monday of the month, though this can vary slightly) series called Music for Shifting Times.

Music for Autumn's Connections, from an earlier autumn
The backstory of the series, along with links to all episodes, oldest first -- scroll all the way fown the page for the most recent

I’ve also several other sorts of stories in the archive at Wandering Educators, among them an interview with Rosanne Cash, a look at the story of Putumayp World Music, and a conversation with Scottish fiddle player and composer Sarah-Jane Summers.

At Perceptive Travel I write three stories a month, usually.
Travel as seen through music, history, and the arts, most often.

A preview story about this year’s Celtic Colours Festival
Passim: Music and History on Harvard Square
Glasgow in Six Statues
Northern Ireland: 4 Songs to Help You Understand

I hope you will enjoy exploring the archives here and learning about these others projects. Thank you for being here. Whether you are new to Music Raod or a long time reader, I invite you to stay tuned as explorations continue.

-->A way to support Music Road,
through PayPal. Note that you do not have to have a PayPal account to do this.

Another way to support: you could Thank you for considering these ways, or a paid subscription (free subs are available too if that’s what’s right for you) to my Substack newsletter as ways to keep explorations along the music road going.

Other roads: stories from Perceptive Travel

Music, landscape. legend, connection, heritage, history: each of those things comes into the music I share with you here along the music road.

Landscape and journey are more often the focus of what I write over at Perceptive Travel, where I am one of six writers. As we mark the ninth anniversary of Perceptive Travel this week, I thought you who read here at Music Road might enjoy seeing some of the ways I have included perspectives from music and musicians in stories I have done for that publication.

In Rathlin Island: history, landscape, legend meet I invite you to a place off the coast of County Antrim in Northern Ireland. You have met Cathie Ryan and Mary Black here along the music road several times; they both have connections to Rathlin. Their comments and music are included in the story

There’s mention of some of the fine musicians who call Caithness, Sutherland, Wester Ross, Easter Ross and the Black Isle home in this journey through Scotland’s North.

Though she handled things with her usual understated grace in music and flashes of humor along with it at her concert it was still quite something to be there on The Falls Road as Cathie Ryan spent An Evening in Belfast a few years back.

Seasons are on the turn as I write this, which has me remembering this short piece -- and yes, it has links to music too-- with reflections on traveling in spring and in Donegal in Ireland’s far northwest stopping by Wildflowers and a Wall.

When you go over to Perceptive Travel to read these, I invite you to stay a while and look around. You will find stories from Singapore, India, Israel, Texas, Istanbul, Boston, Edinburgh, Louisville, Nova Scotia, North Uist, and many other places, and much more to explore.

You may also wish to see
Altan: The Widening Gyre
Canada's Music: Natalie MacMaster and Donnell Leahy: One
Ireland's music: Matt and Shannon Heaton: Tell You In Earnest

-->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.

Road trips and road songs

After traveling from the coasts of Maine to the deep south, along the Mississippi, to the northern plains and the western ones, through the heartland, and to the many landscapes that make up the American west, including the far western states of Hawaii and Alaska, we’ve come to the stopping place on the great American road trip series. At least for the time being.

More than a year ago, Vera Marie Badertscher of A Traveler's Library invited me to chime in with suggestions for music to go along as she took a virtual trip across the United States through books and film which inspire travel. 2018 update This is part of The Great American Road Trip, in which I originally partnered up with A Traveler’s Library to add musical ideas to the book and film suggestions for journeys through the regions of the United States which you’d find there. The Library is closed now, but I think you will still find the journeys through music interesting.

Along the music road, here are four which have been ones you have most enjoyed. They are among my favorites as well.

Road Trip Music : Oregon in which we meet a rancher who raises Christmas trees and cowboy songs, and an Oregon native who finds her inspiration in Scotland

Road Trip Music: Indiana where we learn of a songwriter who makes music connected to both land and spirit

Road Trip Music: Michigan in which we meet an Irish American songwriter whose music builds bridges between the two countries of her heritage.

Road Trip Music: northern California in which we meet a musician who has been a vital part of American folk music for decades, and is carrying it on

Thank you for coming along. There’s more ahead on music, creative practice, and especially the varied landscapes of folk, Americana, and Celtic music -- as well as ideas from other neighborhoods now and again.

-->Your support for the work,here at Music Road is welcome and needed.
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.

music, big pictures, and details

As you are traveling this winter holiday season, keep an eye out, and ear out, for both the big picture and the details. Good ideas to reflect on and practice when you are staying close to home, as well. Also, ideas to think about when listening to music.

























music to go along with these ideas
Close to Home

Music Road: Carrie Newcomer: Before & After

Music Road: ten songs

photographs copyright Kerry Dexter, from Portland, Maine (chain), Letterkenny, Donegal (head), midlands, Ireland (sheep on hillside), Cambridge, Massachusetts (musician's hands)

you may also wish to see

Music Road: holiday gift list: Irish music

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

If you'd like to support my creative work at Music Road,
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.

Top 5 Favorite Music Road Trips

The Great American Road Trip has been winding from the quiet villages of New England to the Blue Ridge in Virginia, from the muddy Mississippi up to the shores of Lake Michigan. Right now, we are in the northern plains of South Dakota. Here are my suggestions for a musical road trip in North Dakota and South Dakota.

It’s also time to take a look back at which of the road trip posts you’re enjoying the most.

Tops on the list, in terms of numbers of you reading, is Road Trip Music: Michigan, in which you learn about Irish American singer and songwriter Cathie Ryan.

You’re also liking the story of the beginning of the road trip idea at Great American Road Trip: Music begins.

The midwest is holding your attention, with
Road Trip Music: Ohio, which features Wilderness Plots, an album about the history of the Ohio Valley from five contemporary songwriters, and Road Trip Music: Indiana, a look at some fine songs from Indiana native Carrie Newcomer.

Road Trip Music in Alabama: bluegrass, faith, and architecture rounds out your top favorites. Claire Lynch and her album Whatcha Gonna Do was a choice for our soundtrack through the wiregrass and red clay hills of Alabam’.


Your choice of Alabama gives me the chance to send out our congratulations to Claire, who was recently named female vocalist of the year by the International Bluegrass Music Association. That’s the top award in bluegrass music. Well done and well deserved Claire!


you may also wish to see
Looking for music from Ireland, Scotland, and Cape Breton? It is here -- check around for articles on The Celtic Colours International Festival, Heidi Talbot’s new album The Last Star, and the debut album from rising Scottish instrumentalist Matheu Watson, and loads of great stuff in our archives. There’s more to come, and more travels on The Great American Road Trip as well. Texas, California, Alaska and all the other states in the American West lie ahead.

and more music from the road trip


This is part of The Great American Road Trip, in which I originally partnered up with A Traveler’s Library to add musical ideas to the book and film suggestions for journeys through the regions of the United States which you’d find there. The Library is closed now, but I think you will still find the journeys through music interesting.

For more about the road trip (and a look at some great road songs) see Great American Road Trip: Music begins

-->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.

You can also

music and community

Music creates and celebrates community.

This is as true on stage as off, I think, and sometimes true across miles and distance.

I remember turning the radio dial as a kid to bring in the faint signals of the Grand Ole Opry broadcasts, and stations from Quebec, and Mexico, and other parts of the world. Today through internet radio I listen to music from Glasgow and Dublin and Belfast and the Highlands. There is a certain community in that -- one only has to think of all the social media going on to know that is true. Finding an unexpected community of interests is a good surprise -- great on line, better, even, in person. Musician Shannon Heaton (she's the woman in the photograph at the lower left below) had an experience of that in person connection. Have you?




















you may also wish to see

Music Road: Lovers' Well: Matt & Shannon Heaton

photographing music: connections

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

Shannon Heaton is one of the founders of the Boston Celtic Music Fesival, which is profiled in
Irish Music Festivals: a guide

Austin Holiday stroll coming up

Downtown Austin Alliance's Holiday Stroll is a really lovely and very musical event. Carol singing at the Capitol steps, loads of shops and people and all sorts of music along the way, and by the time you get as far as La Pena and Mexic Arte, a bit more of the Hispanic tradition kicking in. Anywhere you join in along Congress, though, it's a fine holiday evening.

Here's this year's plan, courtesy of the Austin Music Alliance.

Saturday, December 5


6:00-7:00 pm: Holiday Sing-Along
south steps of the Capitol

7:00 pm: Capitol Christmas Tree Lighting
south gates of the Capitol

7:00 - 9:00 pm: Holiday Stroll on Congress Avenue

Congress Avenue will be buzzing with holiday cheer during the Congress Avenue Stroll. Shops, restaurants, galleries and museums will be open late and will feature special activities, offers or refreshments to visitors.


photo of the Capitol in Austin and the Texas Tree all in lights by Kerry Dexter

music to go along with these ideas

Music Road: Jeff Talmadge : At Least That Much Was True

Music Road: A Tejano Country Christmas

Music Road: Albert & Gage: One More Christmas

for a range of interesting posts, visit
Delicious Baby's Photo Friday

Creative practice: oasis

I’ve been thinking a lot about the idea of oasis -- a place of renewal -- as a physical place, lately, in part because the folks over at the travel site Trazzler are holding a contest for writing about that idea. I’ve thought about places I might write about,and places I know I won’t. It’s also occurred to me along this track of thought that music sometimes arises from, and sometimes leads to, places of renewal in the physical world, and that music is often an oasis itself, whatever the place may be like where you hear it, or play it. I’d welcome your thoughts on any of that.



You may also want to see

Music Road: Songs of Homecoming, to Scotland and other places

Music Road: Irish music, Irish landscape

Music Road: ten songs

other things I’ve written about for Trazzler including Celtic Connections in Glasgow, the Sean McGuire Mural on the Falls Road in Belfast, Veggie Planet in Cambridge, Massachusetts and the Cactus Cafe in Austin, Texas

-->If you'd like to support my creative work,
here is a way to do that, through PayPal. Note that you do not have to have a PayPal account to do this.Thank you.

now playing: Grada

cloudy day navigation

From Dublin, from the Galway coast, from New Zealand and points in between, the members of the band Grada create their take on Irish music, their own and what they bring for the tradition and other sources. This most recent album is an especailly good set of music from all across the map brought together by fine musicianship and equally fine group dynamics, a lively meditation on travel, if you will. Notable cuts include the band's own Cooler at the Edge and a lovely version of Susan McKeown's River. There's the bonus of a six song dvd of the band in live performance included as well.