Radio Show – Episode 20 – New Year’s Day – January 1, 2017

Happy New Year! On this snowy day we touch into endings and beginnings, and of opening with curiosity and wonder to something new. In today’s show we enjoy celebratory music and some reflective music as well.

13:04: Tom Anderson, Aly Bain, Trevor Hunter – Da Day Dawn-Da Cross Reel
13:07: Sìleas – Se Gillean mo rùin, Gaelic New Year Song
13:09: Shira Kammen – Dunmore Lasses
13:14: Jane Valencia – Nature Mystery
13:16: Galen Fraser – The Flying Squirrel
13:19: Yo-Yo Ma – The Wassail Song_All Through the Night
13:22: Ale Moller and Aly Bain – The Full Rigged Ship_The New Rigged Ship
13:25: Barry Phillips and Friends – New Year’s Eve
13:30: Margot Krimmel and Beth Leachman (Gadbaw & Krimmel) – O’Carolan’s Dream
13:34: Iona – Gloucestershire Wassail _ Can Wassel
13:38: Kate Rusby – Cornish Wassailing
13:44: The Wailin’ Jennys – Arlington
13:49: Jane Valencia – New Years Day
13:53: Dougie MacLean – Auld Lang Syne
13:57: Spookytree (Deb Knodel & Jane Valencia) – Lochaber No More
13:59: Jewel – Raven

(play list updated to reflect Jan. 5, 2020 airing)

Listen to the latest episode here

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Format: “Track Title” – Artist (CD)

“Da Day Dawn/Cross Reel” – Tom Anderson, Aly Bain, Trevor Hunter (The Silver Bow)
Da Day Dawn is may be the oldest Shetland tune known, and having perhaps Norse roots. It was played only once a year – either on Yule morning (Christmas) or New Year’s morning (there’s a little discrepency about which).

“Se Gillean me Ruin, Gaelic New Year Song” – Sileas (File Under Christmas)
Another cheerful song from Sileas’ nearly-impossible-to-find-album.

“Dunmore Lasses” Shira Kammen and Pam Swan (Wild Wood)
I love this version of the traditional Irish tune.

“The Flying Squirrel” – Galen Fraser (Mischief Managed)
The son of master Scottish fiddler Alasdair Fraser, Galen Fraser takes wing with a lively piece from his album, described as:

“A shining debut by Boston-based fiddler, singer & composer GALEN FRASER, who blends passion & playfulness in all-original tracks that display his Scottish & American heritage, a life of immersion & exploration in the fiddle music of many lands, & his sojourn in the rich environment of Berklee College of Music.” — Culburnie Records

“The Wassail Song / All Through the Night” – Yo-Yo Ma (Songs of Joy and Peace)
Yo-Yo Ma’s rendition of a familiar English song, paired with a well-loved Welsh song.

“New Year’s Eve” (Traditional English) – Barry Phillips and Friends (Colonial Christmas)
Deby Benton Grosjean on violin, Barry Phillips on cello, Linda Burman-Hall on harpsichord. Lovely!

“The Full Rigged Ship / The New Rigged Ship” – Ale Möller and Aly Bain (Fully Rigged)
Ale Möller  is a Swedish musician and composer. Aly Bain is a Scottish fiddler born in Shetland who learned his instrument from the old-time master Tom Anderson. he was a prominent member of Boys of the Lough, a Scots-Irish folk group, with whom he played for over 30 years. These two musicians play two of my favorite Shetland fiddle tunes. One of these days I’m going to sit down with this track, and figure out how I might adopt this style on my harp ….

“O’Carolan’s Dream” – Margot Krimmel (White Birds)
Margot plays a beautiful and unusual version of this melody. From Gadbaw & Krimmel’s website:
“Blind harper and bard O’Carolan (1670-1738) is regarded as perhaps the greatest Irish harper. He left behind a wealth of compositions, and though some lyrics to his melodies remain, little is known about the accompaniment he may have used.”

“Gloucestershire Wassail / Can Wassel” – IONA (Mid-Winter Light)
A track from the American pan-Celtic band.
From Iona’s website:
“Wassail, a word that conjures up visions of bundled revelers sharing a hot, spiced alcoholic beverage, is derived from the contraction of the Middle English phrase wæs hæil, meaning “be healthy”. Wassailing is alive and well throughout the Celtic lands, and has been handily absorbed into Christmas observances in the singing of carols from house to house, We combine the familiar tune of the Gloucestershire Wassail with a rowdy progression through a Cornish village. The group moves through the village requesting cakes and libation at each door, gradually gathering householders as it progresses and becoming increasingly more inebriated! This has long been one of IONA’s audiences’ favorites as we exhort them to become the drunken chorus.”

CAN WASSEL (Wassail Song) – Sung in Cornish!

Nadalek yu- gyllys ha’n bledhen noweth ow-tõs
Ygergeugh darrajow h’aberveth gwren dõs.

Translation:
Now Christmas is over and the New Year begin
Pray open your doors and let us come in.

Chorus:
Gans agan Wassel
Wassel, Wassel, Wassel,
Lowena dh’ahan, jolyf Wassel!

Chorus:
With our wassail
Wassail, wassail, wassail,
And joy come to our jolly wassail!

“Cornish Wassailing” – Kate Rusby (The Frost Is All Over)

This next set is in honor and celebration of Keith, a friend and loved one of so many here on the island and beyond. The first song is about the mystery of death: truly, Keith – your spirit is now everywhere. The second song is called “New Year’s Day,” and I play it on this show especially for Sarah. The beautiful love you and Keith share is not bound by time and space.

We finish the set with Dougie MacLean’s rendition of a familiar New Year’s song.

Blessings on your passage, Keith.

“Arlington” – Wailin Jennys (40 Days)
The Wailin’ Jennys are a Canadian music group. Written by Nicky Mehta It is said that: “Mehta’s “Arlington” … is about ‘a bird … and death,’ and is heart-wrenchingly glorious.”

Where do you go little bird
When it snows, when it snows …

Where is your home restless wind
Is it there, is it here
Do you search for a place to belong
Search in vain, search in fear
Or is your spirit everywhere
Is your voice every tree
Your soul of the air
If there’s no home is there no death
Is there no death

“New Year’s Day” – Jane Valencia (RoseGarden)
A song of two sharing a love that is not bound by time or space.

The water looks like the sky
blue into blue
Constellations leaping on the whitecaps …

“Auld Lang Syne” – Dougie MacLean (Tribute)
Dougie’s rendition of this song is rich and full of heart.

Happy New Year!

Radio Show – Episode 19 – Midwinter Day – December 18, 2016

Enjoy fun and beautiful Celtic Christmas and winter music, plus a poem in our latest show, “Midwinter Day.”
12:01: Mithril – Christmas Eve Reel / New Christmas / The Gravel Walks
12:06: Chris Newman & Maire Ni Chathasaigh – Away in a Manger
12:10: Barry Phillips and Friends – Nos Galan (Deck the Hall)
12:14: Aine Minogue – Reflections On A Scottish Christmas (spoken)
12:15: Bonnie Rideout, Maggie Sansone & Al Petteway – Christmas Carousing / Ale Is Dear / New Christmas
12:19: Silverwood and Spookytree – One Wintry Night
12:21: Enya – Christmas Secrets
12:27: Thea Gilmore – Sol Invictus
12:29: Paul McCandless – Coventry Carol
12:33: Yo-Yo Ma, Alison Kraus – The Wexford Carol
12:38: Sileas – Leanabh an Aigh
12:41: The Harpers Hall Ensemble – El Noi de la Mare
12:44: Kate Rusby – Cold Winter
12:51: Solas – Home For Christmas Day
12:56: The Chieftains – The Bells of Dublin / Christmas Eve

Listen to the latest episode here.

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Format: “Track Title” – Artist (CD)

“Christmas Eve Reel/New Christmas/The Gravel Walks” · Mithril (Winter’s Day)
Hailing from Mobile, Alabama, Mithril delivers Celtic Music that pushes into American folk, classical, rock and World Music territory with a fun and free spirit.

“Away in a Manger” – Chris Newman & Maire Ni Chathasaigh (Christmas Lights) 
A lovely interpretation of this classic carol, with guitar, Irish harp, and flute.

“Nos Galan (Deck the Hall)” – Barry Phillips & Friends (Colonial Christmas)
Cellist Barry Phillips is joined by fiddlers Robert Evans and Deby Benton Grosjean, and double-strung harper, Jesse Autumn for this traditional Welsh tune. This may be the first time we’ve played double-strung harp on Forest Halls Celtic!

“Reflections On a Scottish Christmas” Aine Minogue & Johnny Cunningham (To Warm the Winter Night)
Reflections On a Scottish Christmas by Johnny Cunningham

The dark of winter wraps around us tight.
The lamps are fired, and flickering light
beats time to the fiddle as notes float softly down, like the years’ first snow.
While outside the window a blast of late December wind
whistles harmony to the drone of the pipes.
We push the old year back against the wall
so we can dance a jig for Christmas and welcome in the new

“Christmas Carousing / Ale Is Dear / New Christmas” · Bonnie Rideout, Maggie Sansone & Al Petteway (A Scottish Christmas)
This set features Bonnie Rideout on Scottish fiddle, Al Petteway on guitar, cittern and bodhran, Maggie Sansone on hammered dulcimer and guest Eric Rigler (the piper on the The Titantic, Braveheart soundtracks) on bagpipes.

“One Wintry Night” – Silverwood (On A Snowy Eve)
Sisters Verlene Schermer & Linnette Bommarito perform beautiful harp and flute (respectively) on this original composition.

“Christmas Secrets” – Enya (Sounds of the Season: The Enya Holiday Collection)

Underneath a winter sky,
A distant train sings out the miles.
And so I wonder can it be,
Will every mile bring you to me?
A promise made may still come true,
So I am waiting here for you.
If you don’t come, what will I do?
Who shall I tell my secrets to?

“Sol Invictus (Undefeated Sun)” –  Thea Gilmore (Strange Communion)
This song reminds us that the sun is returning.  Thea Gilmore is an
English singer-songwriter.

“Coventry Carol” – Paul McCandless (Winter Solstice III)
As a former oboist and English horn player, I always have an ear for fine playing of these instruments. Here’s a beautiful arrangement of this 16th century English carol.

“Wexford Carol” – Yo-Yo Ma and Alison Krauss (Songs of Joy and Peace)
Awesome arrangement of this Irish carol. Besides Yo-Yo’s rich cello playing and Alison Kraus’ exquisite vocals, you’ll hear Cape Breton fiddler Natalie McMaster, and player of the gaita – the Galician bagpipe — Cristana Pato.

“Leanabh an Aigh” – Sileas (File Under Christmas)
Many of us know this melody as “Morning has Broken,” a hymn made famous by Cat Stevens. That hymn was set to a melody of an older song. The Scots Gaelic lyrics “Leanabh an Aigh” (Child of Joy), were written by Mary MacDonald (Màiri Dhòmhnallach) (1789–1872) to a traditional tune.

“El Noi de la Mare (The Child of the Mother)” – The Harpers Hall Ensemble (Harpers Holiday)
Here this multi-level harp ensemble plays a traditional Catalan Christmas carol.

“Cold Winter” – Kate Rusby (The Frost Is All Over)
Lovely song by an amazing traditional English singer-songwriter.

“Home for Christmas Day” Solas (Soundcloud)
Written by Seamus Egan and Mick McAuley, this song imagines what a newly arrived immigrant to Butte might have felt facing his or her first Christmas in foreign land far from the warm embrace of family and friends.

Solas is an American musical group officially formed in 1996, playing Irish traditional music as well as original compositions that dabble in the country, rock, and americana genres. Their name comes from an Irish word meaning “light.”

“The Bells of Dublin / Christmas Eve” – The Chieftains (The Bells of Dublin)
Song performed by The Chieftains with the bell-ringers of Christchurch Cathedral, Dublin.

Radio Show – Episode 18 – Snow and Flame – December 4, 2016

It’s a beautiful sunny winter day, and here on Vashon we have the rumor that we may experience a dusting of snow in the near horizon. But in a larger sense we have already entered the season of Snow and Flame. Winter brings on the urgency of survival, and the sense of endings, but also the joy of gathering by a cheerful and comforting flame – finding it in our hearts and finding it with one another. Please enjoy this musical journey into Snow and Flame.

12:02: Aine Minogue – Jezebel Carol
12:04: Knodel and Valencia – Winter Creek
12:08: Loreena McKennitt – Snow
12:16: Cara Dillon – The Lonesome Scenes of Winter
12:20: Cara Dillon – The Huntsman
12:23: Sileas – The Snows they Melt the Soonest
12:30: 9th c. Irish poem “I have News for You”/Jane Valencia – A Luminous Sea
12:31: Enya – ‘s Fagaim Mo Bhaile
12:35: Anuna – Fionnghuala
12:39: Kazan Tatarstan Orchestra – Celtic Music for Harp Flutes Oboe Violin and Orchestra
12:44: Steve Baughman and Robin Bolluck – Breton Suite
12:49: Kim Robertson – Gaudete!
12:54: Free Range Folk Choir – Fall Down as the Rain

Listen to the latest episode here.

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Format: “Track Title” – Artist (CD)

“Jezebel Carol” – Aine Minogue (Celtic Christmas – Putumayo Presents)
Irish harper and singer Aine Minogue performs a traditional holiday song from the Isle of Man.

“Winter Creek” – Knodel and Valencia/Spookytree (Masque)
A gorgeous reflective piece composed and performed by Celtic harper Debra Knodel, accompanied by Chris Caswell on piano, and myself on English horn.

“Snow” – Loreena McKennitt (A Winter Garden)
What’s not to love about winter music by Loreena McKennitt. She plays harp on this one, as well as sings.

“The Lonesome Scenes of Winter” – Cara Dillon (Cara Dillon)
“The Huntsman”  Cara Dillon (Upon a Winter’s Night)
Two pieces — first a song, then a fun instrumental — by this talented Irish singer.

“The Snows they Melt the Soonest” – Sileas (File Under Christmas)
“The Snows They Melt the Soonest” is a British folk song dating back at least as far as 1821. It was mentioned, along with the lyrics, in Blackwood’s Magazine (Edinburgh) of that year.

Patsy Seddon sings this sad but beautiful song, with Mary MacMaster accompanying on wire-strung harp. This piece is from a very rare cassette released by Sileas in 1991.

Poem: “I have news for you” – 9th c. Ireland/Music: “A Luminous Sea” – Jane Valencia (RoseGarden)
As winter arrives, I pull out a bundle of poetry, tales, and music for the season. This poem is the first I bring forth. (Here’s a video in which I recite the poem and play an accompaniment on wire-strung harp)

I have news for you
The stag bells, winter snows, summer is gone.
Wind high and cold, the sun low, short its course
The sea running high.
Deep red the bracken, its shape is lost
The wild goose has raised its accustomed cry
Cold has seized the birds’ wings
Season of ice
This is my news.
— Irish, 9th century

“S’ Fagaim Mo Bhaile” [And I Leave My Home] – Enya (Silent Night)
A beautiful, but rather sad song, with these sorts of lyrics:

Morning and the day’s beginning
And I leave my home
My heart is breaking
My youth is long past

The day is long past
When I left my home
There is no hope in my heart
There is only death

“Fionnghuala” – Anuna (from the live DVD `Celtic Origins`)
Irish musician Mícheál Ó Domhnaill from The Bothy Band collected this Scots Gaelic song from a piper in the Isle of Barra, Outer Hebrides.

Anuna’s director, Michael McGlynn arranged this piece for the choir, and himself sings the song — quite a tongue twister!

The blacksmith said, “I’ll wait”
The blacksmith said, “I’ll go”
The blacksmith said, in his confusion
Standing at the door of the barn
That he was going to go courting

Chorus:
Island of bothies, of bothies
Island of bothies, of bothies
Island of bothies, of bothies
Fingal’s bothies

“Celtic Music for Harp, Flutes, Oboe, Violin, and Orchestra” – Orchestra from Kazan Tatarstan Russia
Natalia Antonova (harp)
Venera Porfirieva (flutes)
Eugene Sidorov (oboe)
Lilya Akhmetova (violin)

Conductor Anna Gulishambarova

Two movements of contemporary classical music based on folk themes. The second melody is a popular An Dro.

As a former oboist, I find the oboe playing in this recording to be gorgeous!

“Breton Suite” – Steve Baughman and Robin Bolluck (Alone and Together)
Two exquisite Celtic guitarists play tunes from Brittany. This suite includes the “An Dro” included in the piece above.

“Gaudate” – Kim Robertson (The Spiral Gate)
Gaudete means “rejoice” in Latin. This is a sacred carol, thought to have been composed in the 16th. Century, but as it contains medieval Latin lyrics, may date back as a monophonic (melody only) to the late medieval period. Celtic harper and singer Kim Robertson takes this ancient piece into new realms!

“Fall Down as the Rain” – Free Range Folk Choir (And When I Rise)
The Free Range Folk Choir is Vashon’s own eclectic and joyful folk music ensemble. Welcoming singers of diverse ages, backgrounds and musical experience, the choir celebrates the ways that music from around the world can lift the spirit and cultivate community.

The original song is a folk tune by Joe Crookston, which Shane Jewell, Director, composed the choral piece around.  The recording is from a live concert in Burton Church, November 2014.  The singers were in such good form, and the room had such excellent acoustics I was able to record it with a single microphone set out in the middle of the audience.

The song is based on the Buddhist idea of no birth, no death, and the ways that all life is interconnected.