Carrie Newcomer: Kindred Spirits

The unexpected beauty at the heart of the dusty rocks known as geodes. The persistence of friendship and connection across time and place. Lessons learned from holding burning anger. Frying eggs that sound like psalms. The person next to you in the diner, who might be angel. A mystical midnight encounter. A God who celebrates the juice of summer peaches eaten by the road side. Finding the time to notice and enjoy and be present to all these things, with all these people, in each of these circumstances are just a few of the things that Carrie Newcomer is thinking about in the songs in her album Kindred Spirits. Thinking about and exploring with an artist’s eye, a poet’s heart, the perspective of a writer born and raised in the American heartland, and the wisdom of a musician.

Newcomer opens the collection with a song called The Speed of Soul. “I was reading an essay by Philip Gulley,” she says, “and in it he talks about a Native American saying that we should not travel farther in one day than our souls can keep up. That phrase, that adage, really, really caught my imagination -- really haunted me.” The song which came of this proves a mosaic of ideas, interlocking thoughts about, among other things, an encounter with a stranger at a truck stop, a thought or two about war and violence and how they interest with our daily actions, and consideration of a morning spent sweeping floors. An intersection of poetically rendered questions within questions about time’s passing and how we live in it, really. “We lead such busy lives,” Newcomer says. “Just because we can juggle twelve balls in the air, is it good that we do?” At the speed of day to day life now, time to reflect, to take things in, to integrate and consider and see what is to be learned beyond immediate practicalities is often pushed aside. “Because we don’t have time to reflect, sometimes questions like is it good to juggle so may things -- even when you’re busy doing good things -- is it good to be so busy? Those questions go unasked -- questions of just because we can, should we?”

The Speed of Soul and the questions Newcomer raises through it make a thoughtful frame for the music she has chosen for Kindred Spirits. The album is a retrospective of sorts, with two new songs -- Speed of Soul is one of those -- and several live cuts which are new to record, along with selections from her twelve albums with Rounder Records and two songs from a benefit album for the Interfaith Hunger Project featuring the work of Indian classical sarod masters Ayaan Ali Khan and Amjad Ali Khan.

In choosing songs for the album, Newcomer chose to look at her work through a spiritual lens. Newcomer is known for seeing the sacred in the everyday. It’s not an uncommon perspective for her, but this is the first time she’s gathered songs for an album with that idea as the focus. “It was interesting to look back over my work with the idea of spiritual lens,” she says, “and to talk with other musicians and people who know my work about what makes sense with that idea in mind -- spiritual focus, not necessarily religious.”

Newcomer’s is a strong faith, one that in her writing is lived out as much along the highways and in countryside, in the late night diner, the talks across the kitchen table, the walking through hard realities of loss and grief and change, the celebration of good friendship and good conversation, as it it is in religious gatherings.

I believe
there is healing on the sound of your voice
and that summer tomatoes are a cause to rejoice
following the song was never really a choice
never really

Newcomer sings in I Believe, a song which came out of time spent sharing her work in India. It features the playing of Indian classical sarod master Ayaad Ali Khan. Another song from that project, Breathe In Breathe Out, considers, among other things, what to do with anger, with a percussive back beat of sound drawn from India and Indiana to frame the ideas.

Indiana is very present in Geodes, too. Those dusty rocks with crystals in their hearts are ways to think about the people we meet day to day in the song, and in Newcomer’s world, the day to day of Betty’s Diner finds a collection of travelers on life’s highway stopping at Betty’s for conversation, reflection, and “eggs and toast like bread and wine.” You’ll never quite think about that stranger the next table over in the diner in the same way after you hear what Newcomer has to say in Angels Unaware, either, and she could just change your mind -- and give you a bit of a laugh -- about doing laundry, too, in Holy As a Day is Spent. Encounters between God and daily life come in for consideration in the very different songs Where You Been and There is a Tree, the first a rock jazz blues journey to the rough hewn sides of life and the latter a mystical midnight dance with spirit. There are love songs, songs of faith, grief, hope, and friendship. all told through a perspective of what connects, what surprises, and where the holy and the day to day intersect. All sung too in Newcomer’s rich alto, with a storyteller’s voice and phrasing which invites you in and makes room for your stories and reflections along the way.

As she was planning the album “It was an initial theme, along with the spiritual idea, to go back through and see what’s always been there, and how it has changed and grown and how it has expanded and how it has circled back through. It was interesting to do that,” Newcomer reflects. She made a conscious decision not to sequence the songs chronologically. “The sequencing had more to do with how one song moved into another -- almost like a set list, what leads into one song and out of another in terms of subject matter, in terms of melody lines, the range of the songs -- a lot of the sequencing of the songs had to do with how the songs would relate to one another and create an arc.” she says.

Newcomer’s musical journey has taken her from her home base in Indiana many times across the United States. She’s toured Europe with Alison Krauss (who appears as a guest on Kindred Spirits , adding backing vocals to the song The Gathering of Spirits) and in recent years, she has also shared her music across India at the invitation of the US Department of State and in Africa with the work of the Interfaith Hunger Project. She has also had opportunities to teach workshops on songwriting, creative writing, and vocation, and to speak on these subjects at colleges, retreat centers, and arts programs. Through all these experiences “what keeps coming back to me is the idea of the common thread.” Carrie Newcomer says. “Cultures are so rich and different, and I love that -- but at the same time, as much s we are different, I have come to be so moved and touched by the thread that pulls between us. You know, when you sing a song about love or struggle or grief or family or hope -- the song If Not Now, which is on this album, I’ve sung it in India, I sang it it Kenya, I’ve sung it here in the States -- in all these places, the spiritual current reaches across. It becomes part of the thread that pulls between us.”

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India to Indiana in song and image

music, silence, and spiritual journey

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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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Best music, 2012

Music is one of the strongest ways to connect: to connect across time, across space, with friends, and with strangers. At its best, music is conversation with listening, speaking, and silence all part of the mix. It holds the immediacy of the moment and the wisdom of memory as well as the possibilities of what is yet to be. At a time of year and in a world which now and again may seem rushed, music also holds a place of peace and silence, thought and reflection.

That is what each of these albums offers. You’ll find music with intricately created poetic words and music with no words at all, songs and tunes arising from heartfelt and soul felt connect to land and place, family and history, faith and hope.

In some cases, the links will take you to place where you may hear snippets of the music, and in others links will take you to an article about the album, with links within it which will let you hear the music. I would encourage you to explore these. The albums are not ranked in any order, each of them well worth you attention. Take a listen.

The spirit of the mountains fills Kathy Mattea’s recording Calling Me Home. It is a spirit which encompasses beauty of the natural world, hard life of making a home and a living in the mountains, faith, resilience, history, and unanswered questions. Country Grammy winner Mattea has in recent years been drawn to the songs of her native West Virginia and the surrounding coal country, and to finding her way in to helping these songs speak to a winder audience. She does that here, with notable tracks including Gone, Gonna Rise Again, Black Waters, and Now is the Cool of the Day.

As they have taken their music across the globe through three decades now, Altan have collaborated with artists ranging from Nashville’s country stars to Dublin’s classically trained musicians. For The Poison Glen/Gleann Nimhe though, they decided to bring the focus back home to Donegal, their home country in Ireland's far northwest. Led by fiery fiddling and graceful singing from Mairéad Ni Mhaonaigh, the members of Altan offer ensemble works by turns lively and thoughtful on music from the tradition, original compositions, and songs that have crossed the waters and back again from Ireland to North America. Look out especially for the New Rigged Ship set, Seolta Gala, and The Lily of the West.

For her album Through Wind and Rain Cathie Ryan brings music that both crosses bridges and creates them, bridges between Ireland and America, between past and present, through loss to resilience and hope. The daughter of parents who emigrated from Ireland to Michigan, Ryan has spent time as an adult living in both countries, and thinking about how their traditions connect and intertwine. For Through Wind and Rain she has chosen and written songs that contain touchstones from her own life, from finding the courage and a spark of humor to cary on after change and loss to encouraging a child to the lasting value of friendship. You will hear a thoughtful storyteller’s heart in Ryan's voice and in the music and arraignments she’s chosen. Look out especially for Mo Nion O, In the Wishing Well, and Fare Thee Well.

Carrie Newcomer is a storyteller with a gorgeous voice and and ear for a fine melody, as well. Her album Kindred Spirits is part retrospective and part new material. To choose the songs, Newcomer looked back over her work with a spiritual focus -- and as ever with Newcomer, spiritual means a broad idea of matters of faith. Even if you are well familiar with her songs, you will find her choices here and the way she has set them in context with each other illuminating. There are several new songs in the mix as well, including the opening track The Speed of Soul, in which Newcomer offers a mosaic of images forming a mediation on time and the spirit.

Rani Arbo and the men of daisy mayhem take matters of spirit into consideration for their recording  Some Bright Morning too. “The wind in the trees is a mighty good teacher/ old mother earth she’s a mighty good teacher,” the four sing in Joe Craven’s updated take on the spiritual Hear Jerusalem Moan with which they open the album. Fiddle, percussion mostly on a collection of items including cookie tins and old suitcases known as Drumship Enterprise, guitars, bass, banjo, and ukulele are the instruments they bring along with their trading of well honed harmony and lead parts on songs including East Virginia, Bridges, and Will Your House Be Blessed?

Cape Breton, a land of mountain, forest, water, and music, is the source from which singer Mary Jane Lamond and fiddle player Wendy MacIsaac draw their musical ideas. On their recording Seinn they offer music which comes from the deep Scottish Gaelic tradition of the island and newly composed material which honors this as well. From lively dance sets to soulful ballads to quiet reflection in song and tune, you’ll hear the heart of Cape Breton in the work of these women, and hear why it reaches across boundaries of language and place as well. Look out especially for The Blue Mountain’s Lullaby and Keeping Up with Calum.

The geography of Scotland itself is shaped by its islands, and it is to them that Fiona J MacKenzie turned to draw inspiration for her album Archipelago. Through gathering contemporary and traditional material and writing songs and melodies herself, MacKenzie visits Scottish islands from Shetland to to St. Kilda to Ailsa Craig in songs that evoke the relationship of land and sea known by island people.

Caroline Herring well knows how to evoke landscape and history with her songs, as well. In her album Camiila it is the American south which is her focus, from stories of the civil rights days in the title track to a visit to Washington DC in Maiden Voyage to the land as frame and companion for hard times in Summer Song.

Alistair Ogilvy tells the stories of his people and his home place with his music, too. He is a native speaker of Scots (think Robert Burns poems if you are wondering what that is) and like Herring -- indeed like all the musicians you see here -- he brings a storyteller’s gift to his work on his debut album, Leaves Sae Green.Irish musician Caitlin Nic Gabhann tells her stories through the steps of her feet in the dance and through her concertina. On her album Caitlin she offers sets from the tradition as well as tunes she has made herself. A touch both clear and melodic leads the way through reels including the Flying Column set and the Leeside Sessions set, the waltz Sunday’s Well and the air Cill Dheaglain.

Sarah McQuaid draws on her time spent growing up in the United States, living in Ireland, and her current home base in England to find sources for her songs on The Plum Tree and the Rose. It’s a varied collection, ranging from songs of love and change to a tale inspired by a moment of reflection in Derby Cathedral to another sparked by a visit to Hardwick Hall to a round on gratitude arising from recalling the American holiday of Thanksgiving while living elsewhere.

Nuala Kennedy brings a varied geography to her music as well. The flute player and singer is native to Louth, that land of legend in the east of Ireland. She’s lived long in Edinburgh and recently spent time in New York and in the north of Spain. All of these come into play in the songs as tunes and arrangements she creates on Noble Stranger. She offers intriguing takes on traditional songs as well. Look out for her versions of My Bonnie Labouring Boy and The Banks of the Roses.

Every year in October, the people of Cape Breton Island invite the world home to share their music and to explore the ties that twine that music with the traditions which it neighbors and those from across the oceans from which it springs. The brothers and sisters who make up The Barra MacNeils created ten days of musical collaboration that resulted in ten tracks on The Celtic Colours Sessions.This finds the Barras in their first French language song as they join up with Acadian singer Ron Bourgeois, celebrating the origins of Cape Breton and their family name as they partner with traditional singer Cathy-Ann MacPhee who grew up on the isle of Barra in Scotland’s Western Isles, tracing an Americana and banjo based connections with fellow Nova Scotian Old Man Luedecke, and making fine harmonies with members of another well known family band as they sing with Shay, Michael, Mary, and Frances Black from Ireland.

Take your time to explore this music, let the words and the melodies move you as they will, and listen from the resonances and connections and stories which run through the work of these diverse artists.. Explore other work of these musicians, as well, perhaps here along the Music Road for starters. There’s more to be learned and enjoyed from each of those whose names you see here.

you may also wish to see

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

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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.

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harvest time

Autumn music: preparation and presence

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

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Autumn Celebrations: gift ideas

Autumn: with the turning of seasons come times for gathering with friends, family celebrations, planning for a celebrating holidays large and small, travels, time for quiet reflection -- and time for music.

Music makes a fine companion for any of these activities, whether you are looking for holiday gifts to give or music for yourself to listen to. Are you preparing for those big holidays -- Christmas, Chanukah, Kwanzaa, Winter Solstice? It’s never too early. The small circumstances are just as worthy of celebration, as well. Gifts to give and gifts to receive: here are musical ideas for you to explore early in this holiday season:

Cathie Ryan’s recording Through Wind and Rain will make a fine gift for those who enjoy good stories thoughtfully told, as Ryan traces a journey through the dark and light of life with always thread of hope and resilience and faith weaving into the tales. She is first generation Irish American. She has spent time living in both countries, and makes music that respects and connects them, offered with voice and style which invite listeners in. Every song is a keeper, and sequenced in a journey worth the following. If you’ve just a short time to check out the music, though, standout tracks include Fare Thee Well, Mo Nion O, and In the Wishing Well.

Kathy Mattea knows a thing or two about storytelling, too. On Calling Me Home, the country Grammy winner and West Virginia native follows her calling to the heart of mountain music, songs sung in her own way which add to the tradition she respects. This, too, is an album where it is really worth following the sequence as it’s told. If you want to take a quick listen, though, try A Far Cry, The Wood Thrush’s Song, and Hello, My Name Is Coal.

Tim O’Brien is one of the guests on Mattea’s album, and he’s also teamed up with old friend Darrell Scott for a rockin; ramblin’ hot pickin’ set of of country blues, bluegrass, Americana songs. recorded live at the Grey Eagle in Asheville, North Carolina. In a nod to the duo’s wry humor, it’s called We're Usually A Lot Better Than This.Standout tracks include Mick Ryan’s Lament, Keep Your Lamp Trimmed and Burning, and White Freightliner Blues.

Singer Mary Jane Lamond and fiddle player Wendy MacIsaac make a fine duo as well, joining forces to bring a collection of music from Cape Breton in Atlantic Canada on Seinn an album that shares the tang of salt spray and the mystery of Maritime forests, and honors the dance based fiddle music of the place along with its long heritage of Scottish Gaelic culture. Two standout cuts are Keeping Up with Calum and Seudan a’ Chuain/Jewels of the Ocean.

As the autumn and winter season unfolds, treat yourself to listening to these, and stay tuned here along the music road for holiday gift suggestions to come -- and check out our archives too!

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Best Music, 2011

holiday gift list: Irish music

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Music & politics: Pete Seeger & Lorre Wyatt

As political campaigns unfold in the United States and elsewhere across the world, rhetoric seems more common than inspiration, highlighting division more common than considering cooperation. That’s natural in a season of politics, I suppose, as highlighting differences is one of the objects of such activities. That encourages the emphasis to fall more readily on division rather than vision.


Into that fray at this political season come Pete Seeger and Lorre Wyatt with their album of songs called A More Perfect Union.

The two men, long time musicians and long time friends, have seen more than a few seasons of change in their lives: in 1996 Wyatt had a stroke and it seemed he would never play or sing again, and Seeger has seen ninety three winters and summers pass. So they have perspective from which to sing.

God’s Counting on Me, God’s Counting on You opens the set of sixteen songs they offer on A More Perfect Union. With its reminders of personal responsibility and responsibility to care and act for others, it’s a rallying song in which liberal and conservative could find points of common ground -- though not without out a barb or two for the more conservative folk. Crossing generations, The Rivertown Kids join in on the song, as does Bruce Springsteen. Musically and in idea, it makes a fine opening track fro an album that celebrates connection, humor, and good faith in ways that are real, realistic, musical, and quite needed in a season of politics.

Backed only by the beat of percussion from Jeff Haynes, Wyatt gives a spare and memorable look at what is happening in parts of the world beyond the borders of the United States in These Days In Zimbabwe, while This Old Man Revisited is a mordant and gritty take on the foolishness of war, with Steve Earle and Dar Williams adding their voices.

Wyatt and Seeger know that as important as politics and causes may be, they are only one aspect of lives lived through humor and connection and love. Somos el Barco/We Are the Boat, perhaps the best known song Lorre Wyatt has written, could be heard as a love song, or a political one, or both if you choose. Howling for Our Supper finds the men’s sense of fun in full force, as they channel the voices of their four legged friends who are waiting to be fed as the musicians keep on composing songs. Bountiful River evokes and celebrates the beauty of life in the Hudson River Valley.

One strength of the album is that you could choose almost any song as a centerpiece for the ideas, from the title track to that one about the cats and dogs to songs called Fields of Harmony to Wonderful Friends. Keep the Flame Alive, could be, on the one hand, about preparing a home for winter, or the other, it could be about ideas and community, or, as with so many of the ideas here, it could fit both those ways, and others.

The last song Lorre Wyatt and Pete Seeger recorded for this album is one called Old Apples Still Can Make Good Sauce. It could be about aging, about wisdom, about poking fun, or a batch of other things -- you choose. What comes clear is that these old friends can still make good songs, too.

In that they are supported by many musicians who live in New York’s Hudson Valley, including The Rivertown Kids, Dave Eggar on cello, Sara Milonovich on violin, and Jeff Haynes on percussion. Seeger plays banjo, Wyatt adds guitar. Springsteen, Williams, Earle, and Emmylou Harris lend their voices, too, adding to the feeling of community anchored by the words and ideas of Pete Seeger and Lorre Wyatt, two wise old friends.

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Music of Healing: Arising from the Troubles from Tommy Sands
Song for Election Day
listening through the changes

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Kathy Mattea: Calling Me Home

Landscapes of the heart, of the mind, of the spirit, of time, and memory, and change: this is the territory Kathy Mattea walks in on her album Calling Me Home. A native of West Virginia whose life in music has taken her elsewhere, Mattea’s landscapes are framed in the hill and valleys, mountain and streams, and the lives of the people who call Appalachia home.

In some ways, this is a musical journey Mattea began when she was preparing her album Coal In other ways it is a journey she began long before that, growing up the granddaughter of miners, being drawn to bluegrass and folk music in her teenage years, and leaving West Virginia for Nashville. Mattea’s mainstream country albums have always included an element of mountain spirit and mountain music, howver subtle, because that is a part of who she is as a musician. “Folk music really was my doorway into country music,” she says. At the height of her Grammy winning country music reign, Mattea took time to travel to Scotland and immerse herself in Celtic music to refresh her thoughts. With Calling Me home, Mattea made time to immerse herself in the music of Appalachia and to understand what she could learn from it and what she could bring to it. Respect for the music of the mountains and its sources and a spirit of discovery as to what this music could be background Mattea’s work on this recording.

There is a song on Calling Me Home which takes place in those moments when a miner’s wife, learning that there’s trouble at the mine, makes her way to find out the fate of her husband. With her understated yet intense delivery, Mattea speaks the words of this woman in a way that makes that world and those moments world immediate. The song, written by Jean Ritchie, is called West Virginia Mine Disaster. Holding both love of family and realities of life in the mountains, and connecting these with lives lived beyond Appalachia, it is a centerpiece of the album.


A Far Cry, which opens the album, is a high stepping bluegrass tune, with that bluegrass gift for framing a sad lyric with a lively tune and making them fit well together. Mattea has friends accompanying her on the journey of Calling Me Home, and this tale of a lover who chose a rambling life and returned to the mountains too late is a fine way to meet several of them. Stuart Duncan is on fiddle, banjo, and other things, Jim Brock adds percussion, Bill Cooley is on acoustic guitar, Bryan Sutton on banjo mandolin, and other instruments, and Byron House on bass through the tracks on the album. Emmylou Harris, Patty Loveless, and Tim and Mollie O’Brien are among those who add backing vocals for several cuts.

All the songs are gems, really. They are sequenced in a line worth the following bothmusically and lyrically, too. Change and landscape and reflections on all that are present in The Wood Thrush’s Song. There’s the lively swagger and thought provoking ideas in Hello My Name is Coal, the benediction of Agate Hill, the spiritual with a warning note in Now Is the Cool of the Day. In the title track, Calling Me Home, a man on his death bed says he will leave his stories and songs behind “as sweet traces of gold.” Bringing the recording to a close, there’s is the quiet grace of Requiem for a Mountain, an instrumental piece by Bill Cooley.

Traces of gold indeed. Mountain songs are often thought to be a bit disconnected from today’s world, to be the distant province of scholars. With Calling Me Home, Kathy Mattea continues to show that the songs themselves, and the landscapes and people from which they come, are a vibrant, living part of the world whose joys and sorrows we all share.


Kathy Mattea talks about the album: "Each record teaches you something..."



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Kathy Mattea sings John Martyn
Music Road trip in West Virginia
Songwriters gather in Minnesota

photographs of Appalachian hillside and of Kathy Mattea in performance by Kerry Dexter

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Another quick way to support: you could

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September music

September: northern or southern hemisphere, it is a time of transition, from late in one season to the start of another. Here in the northern part of the globe, there’s a hint of autumn's crispness in the air now and then, but summer’s heat is still around now and again too. Light still lingers long most evenings and late summer rains splash the afternoons. The angle of light is changing, , though and its color is tending toward autumn’s clarity, tracing outlines on the leaves of trees and bushes as children make their way home from school in the late afternoon.



It is a time for looking forward, looking back, gathering strands of thought together, planning -- and letting go. Music, as ever, is a good companion for such things.


Coty Hogue was born in Montana, earned a master’s degree in Appalachian studies in North Carolina, and calls the Pacific northwest home. All these things come through in her albumWhen We Get to Shore, which was recorded live at Empty Sea Studios in Seattle. Hogue offers a well thought out set with songs from Sarah Fulford (the opening tack, Jonah) and music from Hogue’s own pen (Fire and Ashes) as well as songs from Bruce Springsteen, Hazel Dickens, and Bill Monroe. There are songs from the American folk tradition in the mix as well. Hogue has a clear voice and a respect for the story and character of each song which well serves the musical tales she tells.

On the other side of the Atlantic, Sarah- Jane Summers draws inspiration for her tunes -- she’s a fiddle player -- from generations of her family background in the Highlands of Scotland, and from Scotland’s connections with Nordic music across other seas as well. There are tunes from tradition as well as music from contemporary composers including Charlie McKerron and Jenna Reid. There are fine tunes from Summers herself as well on the album Nesta.


Change is very present in Carrie Newcomer’s album Everything Is Everywhere. Newcomer is from Indiana and often draws on her native midwest for musical inspiration. That is true on Everything Is Everywhere as well, and in this case it is mixed with ideas and impressions Newcomer gained while doing a musical residency in India.

As the season changes, each of these three quite different albums will make good companions for your thoughts.

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Music, harvest, and time
season of change: music for autumn 2008
Some Bright Morning from Rani Arbo & daisy mayhem

photographs. of autumn leaves in the US south and a hillside in Ireland, are by Kerry Dexter, and are copyrighted. thank you for respecting this.

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Cathie Ryan: Through Wind and Rain

Hope, joy, sorrow, love, laughter, resilience, a sense of humor, a sense of history and a vivid musical imagination, along with a voice that invites listening and a way of singing that allows space for for each listener ot find a home in the music: all that together is what you will find in Cathie Ryan’s album Through Wind and Rain.

Ryan is both Irish and American, the daughter of parents who came from Ireland to Michigan and in summers took their children back to spend time with grandparents in Ireland. As an adult, Ryan has lived in both America and in Ireland. Her bone deep knowledge and love of the music and landscapes of both places is present in her music

Ryan chose the title of her recording from the song Walk the Road, written by Kate Rusby. Ryan sings

Think not of casting off your dreams
for all is not just as it seems
and we’ll walk the road together

all the way through and rain
I’ll never deceive my heart again
hand in hand across the land
we’ll walk the road together


Faith, friendship, courage, resilience, love , and joy in the words and in the singing, it’s a track well worth the listening many more times than once, a song which holds ideas that resonate through the music Ryan has chosen for Through Wind and Rain.

“I threw my heart in the wishing well....” Ryan sings on the first song on the recording. That image well suits the economically told and well imagined tale of love found, enjoyed, explored, and lost, and the courage to sort things out and go on again. The words of In the Wishing Well are Ryan’s own and the tune is from Irish tradition. It makes a natural connection to I’m a Beauty, a song from Laura Smith which holds both humility and self confidence in a thoughtfully sung reflection.

Mairéad Ni Mhaonaigh is best known for her fiery fiddle playing as a founder of the Irish traditional band Altan. She is also a gifted songwriter, a gift Ryan honors with Mo Nion O. Ni Mhaonaigh wrote the song, a reflection of wishes for a child framed in images of nature, in Irish. Ryan has made a graceful translation to English and includes some of the Irish as well. Through the song you will hear lanscapes of Donegal, in Ireland’s northwest, as well as as the heart of a mother’s wishes for her child.

Fare Thee Well is an Appalachian ballad through which Ryan gives voice to a quiet yet powerful story of sorrow. Liberty’s Sweet Shore, an emigration song, tells of the mixed sorrows, hope, and joys of people leaving Ireland and setting out to a new land.

Liberty's Sweet Shore was written by John Doyle, who adds his thoughtful guitar presence to many of the tracks on the album. Ryan produced Through Wind and Rain herself. Taking her time with the project, she was able to bring in the talents of musical friends from Ireland and America. These include Eilis Kennedy, Pauline Scanlon, Leslie Ritter, Aoife O’Donovan, and John Doyle on harmony singing, Matt Mancuso and John McCusker on fiddle, Michael McGoldrick on pipes and whistles, Joanie Madden on flute, Seamus Egan on bouzouki, Patsy O’Brien on guitar, and others whose names you’d recognize. They each help tell the musical story, from the dancing heart of In the Wishing Well to the blessing of May the Road Rise to Meet You to the laughter in the tale of Johnny Be Fair and the set of tunes which close the album.

Come walk the road with Cathie Ryan and her musical friends, with these songs and others equally engaging. Through wind and rain, sorrow and joy, song and tune, you will be well rewarded.

you may also wish to see
Cathie Ryan: teaching tradition
Road Trip Music: Michigan
Music for the Heart of Winter: Cathie Ryan

photographs of Cathie Ryan, and Cathie Ryan with Greg Anderson and Hanneke Cassel, by Kerry Dexter

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Music and silence

Music and silence arise from each other. They frame each other in the listening, the sharing, the creation, the performance. Think of the moments in between songs or tunes or orchestral movements. They form as much a part of the music as does the unfolding story of the notes and words.

There is music that calls directly on that aspect of framing silence, as well.

Tony Duncan’s music lends itself to that idea. On his album Earth Warrior: Light of Our Ancestors he performs songs which honor his family, his tribal heritage (he is of Apache/Mandan/Arikara/Hidatsa peoples), the landscapes of their history and his own, and the connections of all of these things with music. Duncan’s instrument is the Native American flute, an instrument he first began to learn from his father. Through traditional pieces including Zuni Sunrise, Taos Round Dance, and Going Home and his own stories in song including Battle for Night, Ancient Stories, Grandmother Moon, and The Flicker of Light, Duncan both invites and guides contemplation of landscape, story. sound, and silence.

So does Padraigin Ni Uallachain, though she comes for a very different set of landscapes and music tradition. The wellspring of her music for Songs of the Scribe is the poetry of ancient Ireland. She chooses not the great epic stories, compelling as they may be, but rather the marginal notes, the asides, the personal poetry of those scribes who created illuminated manuscripts, and at times left marginal notes which illuminated their own lives as well. Longing for a lost love, a reflection that the wild winds of an Irish night mean that the writer is safe from Viking attacks for these hours, the flight of a blackbird across the water, a hermit's praise to God, a quiet time with a companionable cat: all these are things which caught poets’ imaginations and catch Ni Uallachain's, as well, as she creates contemplative settings of these words though her voice and spare accompaniment of drone, bells, harp, and Tibetan bowl.



you may also wish to see
rest in music
music, silence, and spiritual journey

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Songs & landscapes: Sarah McQuaid

Sarah McQuaid brings a confluence of landscapes to creating her music: she was born in Spain, grew up in Chicago, lived for some years in Ireland, and is now based in Cornwall in the southwest of England. She spends about six months of each year traveling the world with her music. McQuaid’s most recent recording, The Plum Tree And The Rose, finds her exploring ideas of changes, through stories which arise from history and from her own travels.

McQuaid is also a parent. The song she sings in this video comes from that place, as well.







Recently, I had the chance to write about The Plum Tree And The Rose at some length for A Traveler's Library and Perceptive Travel. In these two (different) stories you will find out about how a Renaissance hall and a cathedral inspired McQuaid to write two of the songs on the album. You’ll also learn about a really fine song called In Gratitude I Sing, which was inspired by McQuaid's remembering the American holiday while far from North American shores.

McQuaid will be playing a number of concerts and also giving workshops on DADGAD guitar in the United States during September and October. Here is McQuaid's tour schedule.


you may also wish to see
from Scotland: The Boy and the Bunnet
Music for a midsummer's day
late summer: two for the road

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American South in Song: Caroline Herring

Threads of hope, the nature of change both violent and gentle, the present as history and history as the present and always, always, the stories that connect all these things: these are what Caroline Herring offers through the songs on her album Camilla.

Images of a young girl catching fireflies and the flames of buildings burning intertwine in Fireflies. The title track, Camilla, takes its name from a Georgia town, and the story of a pregnant woman there who was beaten during the civil rights days, and went on to become a lawyer. Herring's gift for telling a story and making character ring true in just a few well chosen lines comes through clearly in these songs. White Dress is another song grounded in a moment during the civil rights days, when a young white girl gave a young black woman glass of water.

Until You Go, Flee as a Bird, and Joy Never Ends (Auld Lang Syne) make a trilogy on the depths of grief and the nature of healing, as well as the persistence of connection. Summer Song finds hope in the midst of images of a hard summer in the south. The center piece of the album, though, may well be Maiden Voyage, a story that arose out of Herring’s trip with her then four year old daughter to see the inauguration of President Obama -- which, in fact, they did not get to see -- with connections to history and hope and the long story of America all the same.

Herring, who grew up in Mississippi, has lived in the Washington DC area and in Texas, and is now based in Georgia. All those aspects of the American south, as well as her immersion in southern literature and southern folk tradition find their places in Herring’s work and lend depth to her own unique and compelling perspective and sound. Her graceful alto anchors that sound here, in melody and style that is based in that southern folk music and draws in flavors of country and blues and Appalachian sound.

Artists you’ve met here before along the music road support Herring on this project, too. Andrea Zonn adds violin and viola to Joy Never Ends. Bryn Davies brings in her always tasteful chops on bass through the album, while Claire Holley, Aoife O’Donovan, Kathryn Roberts, Jackie Oates, and Mary Chapin Carpenter sit in for harmonies at various points on the project, which was produced by Erick Jaskowiack.

Vivid storytelling, a unique point of view, a graceful lead voice and fine support, a sense of place that illuminates ideas beyond it boundaries, wisdom in the words and in the music: Caroline Herring offers all of these in Camilla.

you may also wish to see

Road Trip Music in Mississippi
ten songs
Andrea Zonn is one of the musicians in Road Trip Music in Illinois: three fiddles

A way to support: you could

If you enjoy what you are reading here, I've recently begun publishing an occasional newsletter at Substack with more stories about music, the people who make it, and the places which inspire it. Come visit and check it out!

Music, road trips, and heritage

Road trips are often the stuff of summer -- and of other seasons as well.

A while back, Vera Marie Badertscher of A Traveler's Library had the idea to do a virtual road trip across the United States through books and film. She invited me to join in with suggestions for music. As this summer and its celebrations unfold, you might want to revisit or meet for the first time the greatest hits in music from that trip, and see what books and films fueled the trip over at A Traveler's Library, as well.

You may find out about all that, with links to the posts, at road trips and road songs.





you might also like to check out

Christine Albert honoring her family’s French background and her own life in Texas on Paris, Texafrance

Cathie Ryan talking of teaching traditions of her Irish heritage

Tish Hinojosa bringing her Mexican American roots to her album Our Little Planet

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Some Bright Morning from Rani Arbo & daisy mayhem

Faith. That may be a fulcrum, a stepping stone, a question, a guide. All those ideas of faith find their places in the music Rani Arbo & daisy mayhem have chosen for their album Some Bright Morning.

They kick things off with a high stepping high spirited take on the gospel shouter Hear Jerusalem Moan with new words written by folk bluegrass jazz musician Joe Craven. ”When we heard Joe Craven’s agnostic gospel rewrite of this bluegrass classic we knew it was for us,” Arbo says. With lyrics like “Well, spiritual people are a thinking people, Their mind’s a church and their heart’s a steeple “ and others that given nods to the wisdom of Mother Earth and the wind in the trees, you have to know they made the right choice.

It’s also a very fine way to share the band’s high energy side, and the clarity and wisdom with which they play together. Wisdom? Yes. That is a word that works here. The four members of the band -- Arbo, on fiddle; Andrew Kinsey on bass, ukulele, and banjo; Anand Nayak on electric and acoustic guitars, Scott Kessel on percussion; they all sing -- have been working together for twelve years now. With backgrounds which include bagpipes, African percussion, choral work on ancient music, and street busking, they share respect for the handed down nature of folk music and for the immediacy of music’s connection with the present. The respect and affection they share for each other comes through clearly in their music as well.

Following on the fast pace of Jerusalem Moan comes Bridges, a song Arbo wrote which takes in floods breaking physical bridges and life breaking bridges of the heart. It’s a reflective, poetic piece for which Arbo’s smoky alto is well suited.

Life, death, change, love -- all subjects where faith is involved and needed, all things which come up in the music here. I’ll Fly Away, a traditional song about death and the future, finds Nayak taking a powerful lead, something he also does on the band’s cover of Bruce Springsteen’s Reason to Believe. There’s wisdom in instrumental music, too, which you may hear in Andrew Kinsey’s original tune called Fall River. It sets a thoughtful stage for Arbo’s take on a setting of Alfred Lord Tennyson's’ Crossing the Bar, which resonates, from a very different musical place, with I’ll Fly Away.

There are twelve tracks on the album, each one of them a keeper. Though each stands clearly on its own, each part of a vibrant story of the range of questions -- and occasionally answers --encompassed by faith. Great music, great ideas, thoughtful subjects and at times a good bit of high spirited fun -- all reasons to listen to this one, and to listeni again as its stories continue to unfold.

you may also wish to see
music for parents & children: Rani Arbo & daisy mayhem
easter eve: rani arbo & daisy mayhem: house be blessed
photographing music, continued

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Music for changing seasons

The weather at this season -- spring if you are in the northern hemisphere, autumn in the southern part of the world -- often casts things in changing light and circumstance. Snow one day, wild flowers the next. A soft rain followed by a wild wind. A quiet night filled with stars set off by a cloudy sunrise. To go along with these changing seasons, take a listen to these two recordings

On Paradiso, Barry Walsh’s music unfolds as a narrative without words, postcards and journeys and reflections of a man steeped equally in classical and Americana music, within that mix finding his own language and voice.
There’s North Platte, a spare and atmospheric piece in which Walsh’s piano leads a journey through that landscape of high desert and high plains. Gretchen’s Theme is a moody thoughtful piece named in honor of Walsh’s wife, songwriter Gretchen Peters. Peters herself tuns up in a piece that Walsh had in mind to flip their usual musical roles on tour around. The result is Seven Weeks, with Peters playing melody on piano and Walsh weaving in and around her melody lines playing guitar. Another collaborative piece is a sort of instrumental call and response by Barry, on piano, and his son Brennan on guitar, on Youth and Age, which they wrote together. Marathon Motor Works, named for a shuttered Nashville automotive factory near where Walsh lives, finds him sharing musical ideas with award winning Dobro player Rob Ickes. There are two imaginings of a short pieces by composer Erik Satie, long one of Walsh favorites among classical musicians, as well.

Guest musicians and classical covers both form integral parts of Walsh’s’ vision here, and though they do, it his vision, his sure and creative hand on the keyboard and fretboard and in compositions and arrangement, which guide the work. Put it on and let those things guide your reflections in this time of changing light and shadow.

Dan Trueman loves the Hardanger fiddle, a Nordic fiddle style you’ve met before if you’ve walked the music road here for a while. Brittany Haas loves old time and bluegrass fiddle, which she usually plays on a five string instrument, rather than the more often heard four string kind. They got to talking about what might happen if they put these two interests together. Things were more adventurous than that might at first seem, because of differing tuning and playing styles in the instruments and the music -- that made it all the more challenging for the two.

CrissCross is what they came up with, a collection of original music that puts the grit and edginess of old time fiddle into lively conversation with the haunting and sometimes ethereal Nordic sound of the Hardanger fiddle. There are tunes you could dance to, and tunes you'll want as companions for reflection, a sense of place, a sense of travel, and on occasion, a sense of humour too. Collaborators on this journey include Haas’s Crooked Still band mate, bassist Corey DiMario, guitarist Jordan Tice, and cellist Natalie Haas. Standout tracks include Weaving a Fancy Dress, Monica's Walk, and Seven Nine Eleven. All the fourteen cuts are well worth repeated listening, though: just put it on and let it Haas and Trueman take you on unexpected journeys.




you may also wish to see
Crooked Still: Still Crooked
Barry Walsh : The Crossing
Gretchen Peters: Northern Lights

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Is New York the cultural capital of North America?

New York has long been considered the cultural capital of America. Is it still? If not, where?

New York is still one of the cultural capitals of North America. Not, however, the only one.

What makes a cultural capitol? I’d say that includes
*many forms of what we name as the arts -- differing genres of music, theater, dance, writing, film making, visual arts -- practiced at very high levels
*vibrant communities of exchange among artists who are creating this work
*receptive and engaged audiences of adults and children
*presenters and other people and structures which help artists and those who would and who might learn from and enjoy and be inspired by them connect.

With these criteria in mind, if I had to choose just one other city in North America to stand alongside New York as cultural capitol, it might be Nashville. I could also make a great case for Boston, though. Then there’s New Orleans, San Francisco, Minneapolis, Washington, DC. Montreal, Austin, Calgary, Toronto, Vancouver, the whole of Cape Breton Island, Albuquerque, Dallas, Bloomington Indiana. There are others.

A few years back, I was speaking with Paul Gambill, who was at the time with what was then known as the Nashville Chamber Orchestra, an outfit known for its adventurous programming. We were talking about the future of orchestras, and about reaching new audiences for them. He remarked that he believed strongly in the importance of what is traditionally thought of as classical music, and that it should continue to stand on its own, undiluted. There’s no reason, he went on to say, that other sorts of music cannot stand alongside classical music, just as strongly, and by so doing engage wider audiences and create deeper connections with listeners and supporters for both.

The same idea applies, I think, when considering that question about New York City as the cultural capital of North America. It is one, yes, with its own distinct personality in all aspects of the arts. Is it the only one? I’d say not.

As we stand in the early years of the twenty first century, there are other cities with their own voices which add to the life and conversation and nurturing of the arts in North America, which stand on their own alongside New York. It is cultural circle, these days, or perhaps a cultural road trip, rather than one cultural capital.






If you’ve come here by way of Spring for Music, thank you. I hope you will take a bit of a look around to see what other stories you might enjoy here along the music road.

Should you be a regular reader, thank you for that. The people at Spring for Music, which is a classical music festival held in New York City in May, are holding a competition called the Great Arts Blogger Challenge. This story is an entry to the first round of that competition, answering the question about New York as required.

I'd welcome your vote in this first round of the competition. Voting is open through noon US Eastern time on 29 March -- though you do not have to have a US address to vote, you may vote from anywhere in the world. You may read all the entries, and if you choose, vote for this one, here. Vote through the listing on the right hand side of the page, under the heading Round One Voting. You may check off your choices in the little boxes, then push the vote button at the end of the list. Thanks!

photograph is of leaves in Nova Scotia, and is copyrighted. thank you for respecting that.

you may also wish to see
Music Road: road trips and road songs
Music Road: New York City: Irish Musicians
Music Road: pride of new york
and from one of Europe's cultural capitals, Glasgow, Scotland:
Music Road: Celtic Connections 2012: the music continues

-->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.

Turning of the year and music: favorite stories and a hint of what's ahead

At the turning of the year, Music Road and the journey of music winds on.
Among your favorite articles published this year were seasonal posts on Advent and music, the conclusion of the great American Road trip series, and these


Carrie Newcomer considers the sacred, the ordinary, and what she learned and is reflecting upon after an unexpected time spent sharing her music and ideas with people in India on India to Indiana: Everything Is Everywhere


Cathie Ryan speaks of her knowledge of and passion for sharing her music, and the legends and stories she draws on when presenting music of Ireland, in teaching tradition

A look at the many aspects of winter, the hope of spring, Celtic harp, folk orchestra and the occasional electric guitar held your interest as you read about Jennifer Cutting and the Ocean Orchestra’s work on Song of Solstice.

An American folk song book, a concert from the Highlands in Scottish Gaelic, a twist on traditional Irish music from a Boston based all star quartet, and a basketful of other journeys along the music road: Best Music of the Year, a regular feature each November along the Music Road, also continues to hold your interest.


The philosophical side of things and reflections on music and creativity do, as well. Rest in music, an article on the rhythms of music and conversation, proved a favorite, as did this reflection on the connections among friendship, time , and music: music, autumn, and a cup of tea


You also enjoyed this video of Emily Smith, from Scotland, singing a song of faith by an American songwriter, which comes with entirely appropriate shots of the Jacobite Steam Train (watch the video, you'll understand): Song for the weekend: Emily Smith: Glory Bound.

What’s ahead along the music road? Continuing travels in the music of Ireland, Scotland, Canada, and across the United States, as well as other landscapes on occasion, along with deeper excursions into the ways music connects us all and helps us understand life and each other. There might be a musical road trip across Canada, and there will be consideration of new music from favorite artists and from artists and projects new to the music road as well, thoughts on an album inspired by the writings of ancient Ireland, and a few surprises along the way too.

Thank you for being part of the Music Road community, It’s been nearly six years now (for the online part of it, that is), so there's a wealth of musical knowledge, inspiration, and reflection here which I encourage you to explore. The journey continues, and to borrow a song title from Texan songwriter Robert Earl Keen, the road goes on forever. Happy new year!

The photograph is of a fireplace in Louth, Ireland. Thank you for respecting copyright.

to keep up with what's ahead along the Music Road this year, check out the sidebar on the right for ways to subscribe through email, RSS feed, and Kindle. thanks!

you may also wish to see
Music Road: Music for the first week in Advent: candle in the window
Music Road: Seven Stories

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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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Winter's journeys and music

Part of the work of winter is change. There are new beginnings, and looking for different horizons. The work of winter also includes quiet, reflection, and meditation, perhaps to integrate the lessons of the turning season, perhaps to find the light to follow those new paths. Music makes a good companion, for whatever directions this early part of a new year is taking you.

Music to go along with these ideas
Lee Hunter and Arvid Smith, who as a musical duo are known as Tammerlin, offer
WinterSong. True, it may be taken as a Christmas album, and as the title suggests, a consideration of winter that reaches beyond that celebration too. They include music that is both seasonal and holiday. As well, Hunter reads short selections from Wendell Berry, Annie Dillard, and Henry David Thoreau, well chosen and well read words which stand gracefully among the music, as readings and words serve to illuminate each other.

Padraigin Ni Uallachain, who is a scholar of music as well as a singer, took as her inspiration for Songs of the Scribe lyrics, notes an poetry from scribes and poets of early ireland. There will be more to say about this recording in future. For now, though, you will find it a thoughtful collection which makes a good doorway for reflection whether you understand the words in Irish or not.

Hanneke Cassel is a composer and player of violin and piano whose work is grounded in Scottish traditions with the spice of Americana, bluegrass, and the music of other places she’s traveled. Her album For Reasons Unseen makes a fine companion to winter’s journeys of place and spirit.


the photograph was made early on a snowy morning as I waited for the commuter rail train in Natick, Massachusetts. it is copyrighted, and I thank you for respecting that.

you may also wish to see
Music Road: Celtic Kenya musical connection
Music Road: Song of Solstice: music for changing seasons
Music Road: Cathie Ryan: teaching tradition


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

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