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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Winter meditation

Winter is a time when dark comes early. We light the lamps and fires to bring light inside, and go outside to reflect on the stars in the night sky, and perhaps, the fall of snowflakes. It is a time for remembering and sharing well loved stories, and singing songs handed down across time. A time for gathering, and a time for solitude, winter is also a time for appreciating and reflecting on the roads traveled the changes made, the friendships which last, the lessons learned, the winter season is as much a time for mediation and planning and dreaming of what’s to come as well as recalling what’s past and enjoying what’s present. Whether you make resolutions at the turning of the year ot at some other time, or not at all, music is a fine companion for the reflective aspects of winter.

Music to go along with these ideas

note: clicking on text links and album cover images will take you to places where you may read more about the music and/or hear bits of it. photographs above are by Kerry Dexter and are copyrighted. thank you for respecting this.

Matt and Shannon Heaton offer Shannon’s song Fine Winter's Night which evokes the clear winter skies, cold nights, and the warmth of connection and music which also mark the season, as the tile track for their seasonal album Fine Winter's Night

It might seem touch unusual to suggest an album called Summer's End for winter meditation, but I think you’ll find Therese Honey recording of original and traditional Celtic music on the harp a good choice, as well.

Al Petteway and Amy White employ guitar dulcimer, keyboard and other instruments as they explore the Appalachian side of winter in Winter Tidings.

Gretchen Peters does a fine job of working with a song of Appalachia too, I Wonder As I Wander. It is on her album Northern Lights. which contains fine traditional and original music of the lights and shadows of winter.

Hanneke Cassel is a fiddle player and composer who has a number of albums that go well with winter reflection. The music of Scotland is her inspiration but in both interpretation and composition, her music is all her own. At this season, I’d suggest Some Melodious Sonnet

and from Carrie Newcomer, a musician whose work you’ve met before here along the music road -- a song inspired by a drive home on a winter's night

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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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You can also

Winter music: first week of January

In winter, time takes on its own character, differing from that it holds in other seasons. There's the quiet mediation of early morning, the energy of holiday streets and meetings, and the stillness of a candle's glow. The work of solitude, and the work of community.





music to go along with these ideas
Music Road: Another Fine Winter's Night: Matt & Shannon Heaton

Music Road: winter meditation: aine minogue

Music Road: Gretchen Peters: Northern Lights


























you may also want to see
Music Road: first week in advent

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.

Second week in advent

During the second week in advent, the focus of reading and prayers is on peace, and also on reading and meditating on the written word. One of the things I’ve been reading this week is Mosaic, by musician Amy Grant. It’s a memoir of sorts, by turns funny and thought provoking. There’s more about what I think of the book and suggestions for listening to Grant’s music through the link.

As for peace,
here are suggestions for music to go along with that idea, especially this time of year


Music Road: Cherish the Ladies: On Christmas Night
Music Road: winter music
Music Road: Gretchen Peters: Northern Lights

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6 of the best Christmas Songs

Six tradtional and original songs for reflecting on Advent and Christmas. Though several of these songs may be familiar, you'll not have heard them quite in the way these artists do them here. Check out the albums beyond these songs, too.





It Came Upon a Midnight Clear Cathie Ryan Narada Presents: The Best of Celtic Christmas

The Coventry Carol Gretchen Peters Northern Lights

Straw Against the Chill Kathy Mattea Joy for Christmas Day

The Castle of Dromore Heidi Talbot with Cherish the Ladies On Christmas Night

A la Nanita Nana Tish Hinojosa From Texas for a Christmas Night

Fine Winter’s Night Matt and Shannon Heaton
Fine Winter's Night



you may also want to see

Music Road: Gretchen Peters: Northern Lights

Music Road: holiday gift list: Irish music

Music Road: winter music

-->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.

Another way to offer your support:

You can also

winter meditation: aine minogue

Winter: a meditation

Aine Minogue has considered the light and dark of winter in her music, and she does so as well in the dvd she has created to extend those ideas.

Minogue is a harpist from County Tipperary in Ireland, now based in the Boston area, so it perhaps comes as no surprise that she includes both ancient and modern ideas and visual elements in her work on Winter Mediation.

There are forest scenes at sunset and at sunrise. There is a burning fire which may suggest yule logs or an even older ceremony. Dancers and other figures move in and out of landscapes, half seen as they suggest stories and ideas yet to be told. Children dance; snow falls, stone spirals seem to speak. The light changes, and snow falls again, all led by Minogue’s harp through eleven tracks of music both familiar and new. Visual elements and music together make thought provoking companion as winter begins.

stills and a bit of music from the dvd




you may also want to see

Music Road: winter music

Music Road: creative practice: winter thoughts

Music Road: ceol chairlinn: sharing music in winter

Music Road: disclosure policy

Creative practice: winter thoughts

Winter is a time of gathering in, for contemplation, for rest, for renewal. Connection and community take on different aspects in this season of darkness and light, of preparation and celebration for solitude, of leaving behind and for new beginnings, building on the lessons learned and joys celebrated through Advent and Christmas.

What are you beginning anew?

music to go along with these ideas

Shannon Heaton’s lyrical Fine Winter’s Night, on Matt & Shannon Heaton: Fine Winter's Night

Eileen McGann’s funny Snow Shanty on trilogy: 2000 Years of Christmas

Emily Smith’s reflective Winter Song on Too Long Away

Maura O’Connell’s inspring Blessing on Walls & Windows


and also
Music Road: Matt & Shannon Heaton: Fine Winter's Night concert

Music Road: Gretchen Peters: Northern Lights

-->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.

Cherish the Ladies: On Christmas Night

On Christmas Night
Lively yet relaxed, warm and inviting, song and tunes, of the winter season a specifically of Christmas -- all those elements combine to make On Christmas Night a lovely, welcoming part of the holiday season.

Heidi Talbot is the lead singer for this version of Cherish the Ladies, and she does a stand out on pop chestnuts such a Little Drummer Boy, carols such as The Holly and the Berry, and lesser known songs including The Castle of Dromore. These songs are layered and woven with tunes which range from lively jigs to quiet instrumental renditions of familiar melodies such as Hark the Herald Angles Sing. There are ten sest on the recording, opening with the song On Christmas Night paired with the O’Carolan tune Charles O’ Conor and ending with a set that begins with O Little Town of Bethlehem and takes off into The Kerry Reel and Limestone Rock.

As always. band leader Joanie Madden’s work on flutes provides a running line of brightness through the music, and she adds backup vocals and button accordion here too. Donna Long joins in on fiddle and piano, Mary Coogan plays guitar, banjo, and mandolin, Marie Reilly plays fiddle, viola , and concertina, and Talbot plays bodhran in addition handling the lead singer’s place. The project was mostly recorded at the music room in Madden’s house in Yonkers, New York, and retain a bit of that feeling of musical friend sharing an evening os seasonal tunes and songs.

you may also like

Music Road: Voices: Cherish the Ladies

Music Road: heidi talbot: in love+ light

Music Road: now playing: Best of Celtic Christmas

by Kerry Dexter

Creative practice: autumn to winter

The work of winter is both solitary and connected. The change from autumn to winter is that way too -- the turning leaf to the snow flake, the harvest festival to the quiet contemplation of over night rain and snow. It’s a good time for reflection, a time for growth as powerful, but quite different, from the leaping changes of early spring and the flowering of summer. As it is with those other seasons, though, there is potential for distraction or discouragement from the work at hand, and the season’s change. The music we explore here along the music road is good companion to guide you on the journey. You may wish to see Music Road: Matt & Shannon Heaton: Fine Winter's Night Music Road: now playing: Hanneke Cassel and Christopher Lewis: Calm the Raging Sea Jay Ungar and Molly Mason’s Harvest Home. Titles including The Farmer's Set, Haymaker's Hoedown, and Bound For Another Harvest Home give the clue about this music which it at once both reflective and joyous. Ungar is a fiddler, Mason is a guitarist, and they’ve a lovely dialog going here of music which reaches beyond the fall season but is very fitting for it.

-->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.

creative practice: new year's eve

good wishes at the changing of the year's time

best music of 2007

a reflective song to revisit

and another, reels this time

Irish music, Irish landscape

a book about the grace of friendship

music for winter

two for the road

giving thanks

Now playing: NewGrange: Christmas Heritage

The music on A Christmas Heritage from Newgrange plays out like an evening among friends during a quiet winter snowfall -- rising and falling, dark and light, laughter and silences, ideas reflecting the spirit of Christmas, the changes of solstice, the promise of spring, and the connections of conversation.

The players who made this are in fact friends, though they don’t often get the chance to play together. There’s Philip Aaberg on piano, Mike Marshall on mandolin, Darol Anger on fiddle, Todd Phillips on bass, Alison Brown on banjo, and Tim O’Brien on vocal and mandolin. Doesn’t matter if you know these musicians’ work, really. They are all A list players, creators and innovators in acoustic music, and here, while doing that, they are also friends together sharing holiday music. Tracks include Greensleeves, It Came Upon a Midnight Clear, Gypsy Winter, On a Quiet Night, and Go Tell It on the Mountain.

-->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.

Creative practice: giving thanks

a season of giving
a season of thanks
a season of sharing
a season of wonder

the gift of music is a gift of substance
a gift of time
a gift of connection


music that’s in that spirit includes
In the Moment, by Alasdair Fraser and Natalie Haas
Christmas Heritage, by NewGrange
On Christmas Night, by Cherish the Ladies
Winter Tidings, by Al Petteway and Amy White
Just in Time for Christmas, by Pam Tillis

There’s more on all this to come. Meantime, take a look at the post below called Winter Music.

happy Thanksgiving

Winter music

Light and darkness, warmth and cold, connection and reflection, preparation and celebration, community and solitude, journey out and coming home -- all these are part of the work and the joy of winter. Music is a part of it all, as well -- but what if holiday music isn’t your sort of thing, or your tradition -- or maybe it all is, but you’d like a bit of non holiday music while still keeping the love, joy, peace, and friendship that resonate through the world at this season? It is, after all,the season of Advent in the Christian calendar, a season for preparation and reflection.

Take a listen...

Donal Clancy, Close to Home-- this is just the man an his guitar, a quiet, inviting set of traditional Irish music, familiar and unfamiliar, from an artist who is one of the mainstays of Irish guitar

Hanneke Cassel, Silver -- fire, grace, passion, kangaroos, jasmine flowers, and a tribute to the Red Sox., all framed in Scottish style fiddling.

Alasdair Fraser & Natalie Haas, In the Moment -- an inspired conversation between fiddle and cello on tunes in the Celtic tradition that nevertheless include trips to Pakistan, Tenerife, and San Francisco

Russ Barenberg, When at Last -- original guitar tunes ranging from jazz to Americana

So far, instrumental music. Now for the singers

many of them, on Hands Across the Water -- a A list roster of Americana and Celtic artists including Vince Gill, Tim O’Brien, and John Cowan, Altan, Flook, and Maura O’Connell, on songs of hope, faith, and healing

Eric Merrill, Western Star -- Celtic and American songs and tunes in a graceful tapestry that honors and connects both

Cathie Ryan, The Farthest Wave -- a journey through grief, loss, hope, and healing framed in Irish and American traditional songs, several very fine originals and on point covers that evoke the natural world as well as the human one

Carrie Newcomer, Betty's Diner: The Best of Carrie Newcomer
Betty’s Diner, and Newcomer’s songs, are both original work grounded in Americana.

you may also want to see
Music Road: first week in advent

-->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.