Berry Song

At the edge of a wild wide sea, up in the far north, a young girl is learning from her grandmother -- learning about how to live on and with the land. Learning about how to respect the land and the plants and animals with whom we share space.

That is the underlying story of illustrator and author Michaela Goade’s book Berry Song.

The berries in the title come on for exploration and discovery as part of this.

“Salmonberry, cloudberry, blueberry, nagoonberry...” and other sorts of berries are named several times in a recurring way that brings out the rhythms of Goode’s story.

Illustrations of the berries, of the forests in which they grow, of the edges of that wild wide sea, carry the story too. It is a story which includes bringing those berries home and making food to share with family and friends.

That aspect of sharing aligns too with the ideas of connection to forest, shoreline, sea, night sky. The gentle yet firm and songlike way elders share respect for the land and the way that younger generation folk come to know it is right to past this knowledge along are present, too.

This a picture book, to be sure, a short book which young children and early readers will enjoy. Adults and older siblings could have fun sharing it with those younger ones, as well.

Berry Song is not just for children, though. Goade’s illustrations are thoughtful, beautiful and engaging. They offer as much to contemplate as do Goode’s words; together they are even more powerful.

In notes at the end of the book, Goade shares some of her story of having grown up at the edge of the wild wide sea in Alaska. That story continues: She still lives in Sitka, and is a member of the Tlingit people.

“All year long I excitedly wait for berry season, for the juicy salmonberries that strum the first notes of berry song, and the cranberries after the first freeze that signal its end,” Goade writes. “Every time I wander back into the forest, I am a little kid again, spellbound by the magic and joy of the berry song.”

Magic and joy come through clearly in both word and art in Berry Song.

There is inspiration in those end notes, too, as Goade offers ideas on ways to take some of the themes of Berry Song into action.

Speak to the land, take care of the land, we are part of the land are the lessons Goode offers ideas about in this section. Learn names of the berries, take only what you need, work to respect wild lands are but three ideas you will find here. There is also the chance to learn a few words in Tlingit language.

Berry Song is a picture book for young readers, to be sure. It holds words, illustrations, and ideas that young children, their older siblings, and adults of all ages will enjoy as well.

You may also wish to see
Music, nature, art, mystery, poetry: Spell Songs II: Let the Light In
Another children’s book not for children only: Build a House from musician Rhiannon Giddens,
Music inspired by the Cairngorms forest in Scotland: The Woods from Hamish Napier

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Spell Songs II: Let the Light In

The drift of a leaf in autumn wind, the flutter of a moth's wings as evening fades to night. The half glimpsed movement of an animal just out of view, the call of a jay, the swirl of swifts against the sky -- these connections with nature frame our days.

Even if you have always lived in cities, you know and feel some of these things, don’t you?

Reflection on the varied connections between humankind and nature, and the ways those are changing, are part of what inspired the music of the album Spell Songs II: Let the Light In.

It is the second album from the group which has become known as the Spell Songs Singers: Jim Molyneux, Kris Drever, Beth Porter, Julie Fowlis, Rachel Newton, Seckou Keita, and Karine Polwart.

The musicians in turn drew inspiration from the art of Jackie Morris and the words of Robert Macfarlane. We’ll get to a bit of background on how that came about. First, though, consider what the musicians create on Spell Songs ii.

There are fifteen songs on the album, with each musician taking a turn or two at lead voice, and working in creative collaboration with harmony and instrument through the others.

They each play as well and sing -- Porter on cello, Molyneux on keyboards, Drever and Powart on guitar, Keita on kora, Newton on harp, Fowlis on whistles. Those are their main instruments, though each often takes out othersas well, Fowlis taking up the oboe, for instance, Newton moving over to fiddle, Polwat picking up bass.

That may begin to give you ideas of the musical complexity on offer; it is complexity in service of creativity, though. That comes through in the singing, and in the writing that formed the words and music.

Some songs come directly from Macfarlane’s poetry, others go in directions sparked by his words and Morris’s art onto different paths. Each of the artists is rooted in music which respects tradition, be that tradition of England, Scotland, or Senegal. Each of those traditions meet at points along the way in the music of Spell Songs II.

Polwart begins the journey taking lead on the slightly spooky Bramble. Nature is not always kind and often mysterious, an idea that continues as Fowlis follows with the haunting song Saint Kilda Wren, in Gaelic.

In Oak, Drever offers stories of the long lived tree, living its life for centuries as human cone and go, and connect with its wood for “the wheel that makes the seasons turn/the the beasts that shelter in the barn/the table that we sing around/ the casket we put in the ground,” and in many other ways. There is dimension from a verse from Keita’s sung in Mandinka, and from the other singers adding backing harmonies.

In each of these tracks and all others on the recording, the musician singing lead gives his or her own character to anchor the song. Spell Songs is very much a band project, though, in creation and in execution, as each musician’s work is supported and enhanced by contributions from the others.

That is true for each of the songs. One especially good place to hear it is in the song Swifts. Rachel Newton’s voice soars and swirls as do the named birds, while Drever adds second lead voice and each of the others contributes as well.

Seckou Keita brings a bluesy call and response idea to the presence of a familiar bird in Jay. Beth Porter’s lively take in the song Daisy readily evokes daisy chains and “tiny suns turned skyward,” while Jim Molyneux offers wistful, bittersweet melody and words to evoke the coming and going of swallows.

There are more such gems on the recording -- each of the songs is well worth repeated listening, in fact.

Plant life comes in for more musical discussion as Porter reflects on pushing one’s way through tangled gorse, and through challenges.

Fowlis takes lead on on the wintery, eerie Bird of the Blizzard, which evokes snow, ice, and change, and reminds that nature is facing change, some of it devastating.

Polwart gives another view of nature with the song Thrift, in which persistence of the seashore plant is a reminder to dig in and hang on as hardships arise.

That idea of nature dealing with change faces the fox, lead actor as Kris Drever sings Red Is Your Art. Working and living just as the margins of human life and the natural word change these days, the fox poses the question, when I am gone, when I am driven out, will you think it was worth it?

That is an idea that frames creativity here. As Fowlis sings in Bird of the Blizzard, there’s “a map made of wonder, that tracks what is fading” and “memory’s keeper is you.”

That is a idea that resonates with the fox’s query in Red Is Your Art, the persistence in Gorse and Thrift, the long lasting Oak.

It turns up as well as the thoughts Julie, Karine, and Seckou offer in Barn Owl, as they intertwine words in in Gaelic, Scots, and Mandinka on the themes of, as Karine sings it “Tak nae mair nor ye need (take no more than you need).” As indeed owls flying by night do in their travels.

In differing ways Moth, with Karine in lead, and Curlew from Rachel both honour and suggest change in nature and in our own lives, and in ways direct and indirect, the persistence of hope as well.

Fowlis takes lead on the closer, a song called Silver Birch, which draws together ideas from this recording and references a bit to the first Spell Songs album, as well.

Snow is falling, my silver-seeker;
soon the path will be lost to sight,
soon the day the day will give way

Fowlis sings. Later, though, she continues

The sun is rising, my silver-seeker

warms the pines, and breathes the larches
...Soon the blackbird will take her flight.

As promised, a bit more background to the Spell Songs projects and how they came to be:

Several years back, artist Jackie Morris learned that a number of words. most to do with nature, were to be dropped from a popular children’s dictionary where she lived in the UK. She decided to create a book of paintings that would honour these words and the nature they represented. She contacted nature writer Robert Macfarlane to see if he’d write an introduction for such a book. He came back withe idea, What if I wrote poems to go along with the paintings, spells to call words and nature back, so to speak?

The book the Lost Spells was born. Eventually presenters at the Folk by the Oak Festival in England had the idea to bring together artists they knew had an interest in nature to create music based on these ideas. The first Spell Songs album came to be. Later Morris and Macfarlane collaborated on a second book, called The Lost Spells. and so, a second album, Spell Songs II:Let the LIght In, came about. Morris, by the way, often joins the singers on stage, creating paintings live as they sing.

Photographs of the Spell Songs artists in performance at the Glasgow Royal Concert Hall during Celtic Connections by Gaelle Beri, courtesy of Innes Campbell Communications.

You may also wish to see.
Learn about the first Spell Songs recording,
About the second book from Morris and Macfarlane, The Lost Spells
Laws of Motion from Karine Polwart
Alterum fromJulie Fowlis

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Music & Mystery: Conversation with Carrie Newcomer Continues

Songs come to musicians in all sorts of ways, and they make notes and shape ideas and work out words and melody in all sorts of ways. “If you line up eleven songwriters and ask them their process, they’ll give you eleven different ways,” says Carrie Newcomer. “For me there’s a kind of literary bent to it, I guess, where I do a lot of poetry writing, and short stories, and essays. From those pieces, songs emerge.”

She isn’t thinking about the songs while she is immersed in other sorts of writing, though, not directly. It is, rather, the ideas and characters and flow of things she is working on -- or working out.

“I might have to write the whole essay to get to the one line that starts a song,” she says. “Also, a lot of it is how I process -- people say I’m pretty prolific, as a songwriter, but I think it’s just how I process my world, and my life. So I’m always writing, and I do a lot of poetry.

“Once I have the poem or the essay or maybe even a series of poems,” she continues,”I have all this language, and all these ideas I’ve been musing with -- it’s like I have this whole palette of stuff to work with, and I’ve thinking about it, mulling the idea over. Then when I go to write the song I might have some language I’ve been thinking through, but the words and the music happen together.”

What has also happened recently is the publication of Newcomer’s first book, called A Permeable Life: Poems & Essays. It is a companion piece to her album A Permeable Life. Newcomer turned to community funding for this recording, and at first was going to put together a small collection of poems to thank those who had helped make the album possible. “I had started a blog and begun posting some of my poems, so there was some interest in seeing a collection, so I thought I was going to put together a few poems that people might see as having a connection to songs,” she says. “But as I was doing that and we started sending them out, the response I was getting was really wonderful, really heartwarming, and we decided -- actually, my husband really encouraged me, he said you know, let’s just release this as a companion piece to the new album. So I said, yeah, sure, let’s do that!” Newcomer says, laughing.

”I’m used to putting out albums, and there’s a certain kind of thing that happens whenever you put out an album, or a song.You’re taking a certain kind of risk -- whenever you put yourself out there artistically, there’s certain kind of vulnerability to it. I’ve done enough albums now that I’m expecting it -- that doesn’t mean it gets any easier, it’s just that you’re familiar with it,” she says. “ But I had never put out that kind of art work before.”

There are thirteen essays and twenty six poems in the book. It is not necessary to know Newcomer’s work as a musician, or to have heard the songs on the album A Permeable Life, to appreciate what she’s doing as a poet and essayist, though the ways she tells stories and the ideas she choose to emphasize, and the language she chooses, do cross points and paths across the two projects. There are some pieces which relate directly to songs, and some which do not, or for which the connection is less clear. What is clear, however, is that Newcomer’s gift for observation, for including details of the natural world, and now and then bringing in her wry sense of humor come through whichever art she is practicing. So, too, does her gift for making the personal universal, and the thread of finding the sacred in the ordinary. In the essay called In the Sitka Pines, for example, an experience of the wilderness of Alaska and learning about Alaskan salmon forms the gateway into thoughts on transformation, in a piece that’s slightly longer than a page and all the more powerful -- and all the more leaving room to draw the reader in -- for its brevity.

Transformation, the idea of thresholds, and the practice of being present are threads which run through the songs on the album A Permeable Life and in differing ways through the material in the book A Permeable Life: Poems & Essays as well. The poem To a Titmouse finds transformation anchored in connection to an encounter on a snowy walk; Dharamsala, a poem begun after an experience while visiting India, suggests presence, connection, thresholds, and the possibility of transformation as well -- all done through an account of a procession and those watching it.

As a songwriter and singer, Newcomer has command of her tools and uses them to invite community, reflection, and the asking of good questions about life, faith, and change. These too are present in what she creates with her essays and poetry.

Countless prayer flags lifted in the mist
It was like music,
Light and fleeting,
LIngering in the quiet,
Filling the world with longing
And our own good intentions.
~excerpt from Dharamsala copyright Carrie Newcomer

Update: Newcomer has published other books of poetry -- and released several more albums -- since this article was first published. One of those books is

You may also wish to see
Music and Mystery: Conversation with Carrie Newcomer
India to Indiana in song and image
Ireland's Music: The Small Hours: Muireann Nic Amhlaoibh
Ireland's Music: Cara Dillon: A Thousand Hearts

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The Celts: History, Life, and Culture

When Celtic lands are discussed, Wales often receives rather less attention than its Celtic companions Ireland and Scotland.  The two volumes of The Celts: History, Life, and Culture take steps to remedy that, as they are a project of the Centre for Advanced Welsh and Celtic Studies at the University of Wales, in collaboration with the publisher, ABC CLIO.  That’s not to say Ireland, Scotland, Brittany, and places where Celtic culture is dispersed across the world are left out: indeed not, there are many articles on all sorts of Celtic subjects, written by an international cadre of scholars.

The writing is of quite high level, too, for the most part holding interest whether one’s background is general or scholarly. Adding to interest are the sometimes unexpected perspectives. While there is  a good bit of material to do with, for example, Ireland, Irish emigration is treated and cross referenced under entries to with Irish language. Another useful aspect is that heroes of legend and myth, King Arthur for instance, are often traced through appearances and connections in all the differing Celtic cultures.

The articles vary in length  from a few hundred words to several thousand, and are arranged alphabetically. There’s also quite an interesting bibliography divided by subject matter.  A list of contributing scholars is included, but a note of their affiliations or backgrounds would have added to the value of the work, as would brief pronunciation guides to the languages involved. I say that being fairly familiar with Irish, Scottish Gaelic, and French, but finding these not of much help with understanding how  Welsh or Breton is spoken, and thinking others might find themselves in a similar situation. The pages used for the table of contents, not really necessary in a alphabetically arranged work, could perhaps have been used for these things.

That said. these are useful, interesting, and readable volumes with information that will inspire further exploration and give guidance as to direction to take with that. These two volumes of The Celts: History, Life, and Culture would be a welcome addition to any reference collection.





you may also wish to see
Reading Ireland: Companion to Irish Traditional Music
music from Wales: Fernhill

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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.

creative practice: reading and landscape

Landscape and creative practice -- how the two interact is a subject that comes up often here along the music road. Recently, I’ve been reading A Voyage Long and Strange: Rediscovering the New World, in which author Tony Horwitz sets out to learn about people from Europe who came to America before Columbus, what they did, what happened to them, and how the landscapes where they traveled look today. Having a classical education in history and the arts, and, I discovered, growing up and traveling in the American south and southwest meant that most of what Horwitz discovered was familiar ground to me. Still, his mix of history, travel, and reflection is worth the read, and his extensive notes on sources (including a 'highlight reel' of the best ones) have given me new books to explore.


Landscape, this time of Vermont and of the world, is what informs scientist Amy Seidl’s Early Spring: An Ecologist and Her Children Wake to a Warming World. So do the perspectives of her young children. I’ve just started this, but so far Seidl reminds me of a gentler version of Scottish poet and essayist Kathleen Jamie. Looking forward to seeing how this plays out.


I’ve just recently re read Heaven and Earth (Three Sisters Island Trilogy). Nora Roberts knows how to tell a story, and to set a scene. Most of her books don’t do anything for me in terms of plot, however and take me about three pages to decide I've no need to read futher. This series, though, set on an island off the coast of Maine, gets setting and character and plot just right, for my taste. The main character, police deputy Ripley Todd, is a woman who sometimes strugggles with her gifts and with her demons, but faces them anyway, in a far from ordinary plot.


I’ve also been re reading Speaking of Faith: Why Religion Matters--and How to Talk About It by Krista Tippett. Tippett is the host of American Public Radio’s Speaking of Faith, and one of the most interesting thinkers around today, Of course I don’t agree with all her perspectives, but those I don’t share are as interesting as those I do. Though I'm not sure she always intended it, landscape plays a strong part in Tippett's reflections, too.

Monica Bhide is a storyteller, one who tells her stories through narrative and through recipe. That’s a major reason why I’ve been enjoying her book Modern Spice: Inspired Indian Flavors for the Contemporary Kitchen. I had the chance to speak with Bhide a bit about that, and that’ll form the basis for an upcoming article over at Wandering Educators.




Lately, I’vee been listening quite a bit to Matt and Shannon Heaton’s new album Lovers' Well. Look forward to more about that here ahead along the music road, and also there’s an extended review of the album in the current issue of the music magazine Dirty Linen. The Heatons have chosen music from the Irish tradition which illuminates many aspects of the landscapes of the heart's journey, often in unexpected ways.

you may also want to see
Songs for an Easter weekend

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

Music Road: Irish music, Irish landscape

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Christy Moore:One Voice:my life in song

Christy Moore wasn’t thrilled when several different writers approached him about doing his biography several years ago. That got the Irish singer and songwriter thinking that he should do his own, but he wasn’t coming up with a way to do it that worked. One day he started listing all the songs he’d known, written, or sung, and thinking on that he found his way to his on life’s tale. It’s not chronological, and it’s not even, in many places, autobiographical. A memoir of family, life, politics, and music, with all those strands coming to the fore at varied times. The stories behind some of the songs will surprise you, and as with any such book, there are times and placeswhere Moore tells you more than you really want to know. It’s an interesting story, or series of stories, though, whether or not you know anything about Moore, his music, or Irish life over the last five decades, or politics, or the the Troubles. If you don’t now, you’ll come away from One Voice with, indeed, one man’s voice on all these subjects. The writing is structured by song, and the lyrics run alongside the prose text, also leading to connections and contemplations.

from the song The Time Has Come by Christy Moore and Donal Lunny

the time has come to part my love
I’ll leave you now my darling girl
I can no longer stay
My heart like yours is breaking, together we’ll prove strong
The road I take will show the world the suffering that goes on


a song which, although many are not aware of it, came first from the prison hunger strike during the Troubles, during which ten men died. Today, it’s heard most often as a romatic love song. Moore writes: “There are songs that need to be set up and benefit greatly from a good intro. There are songs which I cannot perform without setting a landscape in which they can live. But there are others that are best left completely alone, songs that can touch the hearts and minds without any such embellishment. This is one such song.”

you may also want to see

Music Road: ten songs


Music Road: now playing: Amy Grant: Mosaic

creative practice: soup

I read cookbooks for the stories, for inspiration, for ideas about technique and approach more than for specific recipes. Sometimes those are fun too, and you learn a good bit by following one exactly. What you learn, though, if you’re really taking in either strategy, is about the creative process, your own and that of the people who created the recipe -- or the music,

I’ve been reading New England Soup Factory Cookbook
lately. Chef Marjorie Drucker, storyteller Clara Silverstein, and photographer Ron Manville have collaborated on funny, creative, and inspiring presentations of a lot of soup possibilities (several sandwiches and salads along for the ride too). Spicy Chickpea and Butternut Squash Soup, Chicken and Rice Flu Chaser Soup, Corn and Roasted Red Pepper Chowder, Pumpkin, Lobster, and Ginger Soup, The Fallwich --just reading the names conjures up whole kitchens full of ideas. As many times as I’ve been to the Boston area, I’ve never yet been to the New England Soup factory restaurant -- has to make my list for next trip.

music to go along

a few posts ago, you heard about the latest recording from the band Crooked Still, called Still Crooked. Their first album, Hop High
shows the Boston based group doing what Drucker and friends do with their recipes, looking at familiar ingredients with a fresh approach and opening new doors with that.

Music Road: now playing: Crooked Still: Still Crooked

a favorite Boston area restaurant (it's in Cambridge) Veggie Planet

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now playing: will the circle be unbroken?

Will the Circle be Unbroken?

This is is a now reading selection, actually.

Country Music in America is the subtitle, and this 300 page plus book, published by the Country Music Hall of Fame in partnership with Dorling Kindersly Publishers, is a very interesting treatment of such a massive and in some ways controversial subject. As it’s from the CMHF, you know the scholarship is sound, and as it’s from Dorling Kindersley, you know the visual aspect is likely to be terrific. Both of those ae true.

Editors Alanna Nash and Paul Kingsbury drew on the talents and interests of a wide range of writers to create the work, and that said, some sections of the material read better than others. It’s book that works, though, whether you read it straight through, dip into it for reference or special interest, or mainly look at the pictures. There’s not nearly enough space to handle the whole history of country music in America, of course, but they’ve done a really good job of hitting the highlights, some of the sidelights, and a few of the low lights, to give a balanced idea of how this music got where it is today, both commercially an artistically, and to open up avenues and ideas for more exploration.There are timelines, sidebars, loads of photographs and very well done layout and graphics, to go along with the text.If you only buy one book about country music this year, this should be it -- but be forewarned, it’ll send you on explorations to read and listen and learn more.