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Radio Show – Episode 49 – Bealtaine – Bright Fire – May 3, 2020

Hello, Wild Ones!

Enter the Wildwood and feast your senses in the magic, mischief, and flowering spirit of Beltane by way of the Forest Halls Celtic streaming radio program. Airing today from 12-2pm PST, Show 49 and a re-airing of Show 3 “Green Man and May Queen” will be on demand for the next two weeks. Enjoy greenwood music, folklore, poetry, a tale, flights of fancy, and, as always, harp.

Experience the  enchantment here

In Show 49 – Find harp in the music of Christina Tourin, Miranda Brown (in the band Jaiya), Alison Kinnaird (in the music of Eilidh MacKenzie). Enjoy bardic poetry with Halo Quin and Kevan Manwaring, a poem by Charles Stanley Causley, and a tale and prose by Jane Valencia

In Show 3: Harp with Anne Roos, Christina Tourin, Shelley Phillips, Debra Knodel and Jane Valencia (Spookytree). Read extensive notes here.

01:27 Jackie Oates / Hail! Hail! The First of May
03:55 Shira Kammen and Pam Swan / Lord May’s Set
08:55 Goitse / Transformed
18:06 Mes Aïeux / J’Entends Le Loup, Le Renard Et La Belette (La Jument de Michao)
22:12 Jane Valencia / Story: I Hear the Wolf and the Fox and the Weasel
31:50 Christina Tourin / Oak
38:03 Jaiya / Beltane Night
43:30 Halo Quin / Poem: Headless at Beltane
46:12 Kevan Manwaring / Poem: Heartwood – from his book The Silver Branch: Bardic Poems and Letters to a Young Bard.
47:51 Telynor – John Peekstok and Anna Clemenger / Sprig of Thyme
51:28 Molly Pinto Madigan / Willowwood
57:55 Eilidh MacKenzie / Thig am bàta (The Boat Will Come)

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Radio Show – Episode 48 – More Harp – April 19, 2020

With the fullness of Spring and music in the air, what can I say? I have to bring in more harp!

And if you groove on the joy, beauty, and surprise that this angelic and, in expert hands, brash instrument can bring,  you’ll enjoy this follow-on to our previous all-harp show.  We head off-trail with some contemporary sounds, but return again to Celtic-rooted music and themes. We also journey down to the shore to listen to an old Scots Gaelic prayer, and witness a boat blessing.

Inspired by this unusual and threshold time in which we live, I share a magical tale of my own about  Rose Hip and Snowberry, two children who venture into the woods when technology falls away and their modern world changes.

You’ll also hear music from a new group of which I am part.

Harpers featured are Sue Richards, Lily Neill, Verlene Schermer, Séamus Ó Flatharta in High Time Irish band, Moya Brennan and Cormac de Barra, Màiri Chaimbeul (backing Jenna Moynihan), and Deb Knodel, Claudia Slayman, Verlene Schermer, and Jane Valencia as Spooky Redtail Moon

Listen to the show on demand until May 3

The second hour is an encore airing of Show 27:  On the Wing

01:30 Sue Richards / Nyth y Gwcw
04:19 Lily Neill / Bedford Row
08:01 Verlene Schermer / Flying
14:04 HighTime / An Maoilín
18:04 Moya Brennan and Cormac de Barra / Crann Ull
22:01 Jenna Moynihan / The Eagle’s Whistle / Major Campbell Graham
27:45 Scots Gaelic Boat Blessing and Prayer; Music: Sound Healing Center / Healing Harp by the Sea
32:13 Sara & Maynard Johnson with Rogues’ Consort / Rowing From Isla to Uist
35:35 Sibéal / An Cailin Alainn
41:27 Story by Jane Valencia / Rose Hip and Snowberry
53:22 Spooky Redtail Moon / Tam Lin – The Glasgow Reel

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Radio Show – Episode 47 – Mostly Harp – April 3, 2020

With lockdown continuing, I’m inspired by what’s taken wing online, especially the Edinburgh Harp Festival, now gone virtual! Here’s Forest Hall’s version of a harp celebration. For the first time, this show features harpers in every piece of music. Enjoy the elegance and vitality of traditional styles as well as flights of vigorous and imaginative contemporary expression. Harpers featured are Màiri Macleod, Cheyenne Brown, Rachel Hair, Moya Brennan and Cormac de Barra, Anne-Marie O’Farrell , Séamus Ó Flatharta in HighTime Irish band, Gwenan Gibbard Siân James , Elinor Bennett and Meinir Heulyn, Robin Huw Bowen, Patrick Ball,  Verlene Schermer, Sharlene Wallace and Kim Robertson.

The second hour of the show is an encore airing of FHC’s very first show! Episode 1 offers the playful natural magic and beauty of springtime, a ninth century Irish poem, and Jane Valencia’s retelling of the Irish myth, “Airmid’s Herbal Cloak.” Hear harp in the music of Ann Heymann, Mary Macmaster and Patsy Seddon (in Clan Alba), and Shelley Phillips (in Orison). Find playlist for Show 1 is here.

Listen to Show 47 and Show 1 until April 19.

Playlist for Show 47:

01:31 Màiri Macleod – Crossing the Minch/Tail Toddle
06:16 Cheyenne Brown – Cold Frosty Morning
13:43 Rachel Hair Trio – The Duke of Fife’s Welcome to Deeside
17:45 Moya Brennan and Cormac de Barra – Taim Breoite go Leor
23:19 Anne-Marie O’Farrell – Caitlín Ní Haodha & The Sport of the Chase
25:38 HighTime – The Village of Cloch Bhuí
33:23 Gwenan Gibbard – Nei Di Ganu ‘Nghan?
37:52 Siân James – Mae Nghariad I’n Fenws
41:31 Elinor Bennett and Meinir Heulyn – Cader Idris
43:01 Robin Huw Bowen – Jig Y Doethion
47:07 Patrick Ball – Lady Dillon – Turlough O’ Carolan
50:51 Verlene Schermer – A Jig in Your Pocket
53:50 Sharlene Wallace and Kim Robertson – Last Night’s Joy / Moving Cloud