BeauSoleil - Kolinda

 #BeauSoleil #Michael Doucet #Zydeco #Cajun music #traditional #world music #folk

The formation of BeauSoleil, one of the best known and most highly respected Cajun bands in the world, is due to fiddler Michael Doucet's desire to keep the unique southern Louisiana culture and music from extinction. But while BeauSoleil originated to help preserve his Cajun musical heritage, over the years it has also been known for its innovation. They are continually adding spice from other musical genres including jazz and Caribbean. In this way, BeauSoleil keeps the music vital and contemporary.
Doucet was born and raised in Cajun country surrounded by the old French songs that comprise the basis of the music. But from the time of his birth to his adulthood in the 1960s, Cajun culture began to disappear. Young Doucet, thinking Cajun music antiquated and passé, began his musical career playing rock with New Orleans influence. He began getting into folk-rock towards the end of the '60s and even tried singing a few of his numbers in French. It was a song from the British folk group Fairport Convention and their song, "Cajun Woman," that re-sparked his interest in his native music. He went to France and England in 1973 just before he was to enter grad school in the U.S. He ended up staying many years studying with Scottish fiddle great Barry Dransfield, who eventually introduced him to his idol Richard Thompson. Later, Doucet credited Thompson for influencing his own compositions. The young fiddler's stay in France also had a profound influence. There he saw that the roots of Cajun were still very much alive. The old songs were still sung, and he heard their centuries-old influence in newer folk songs. It made him realize how modern Cajun music was in comparison. In the mid-'70s, Doucet joined Coteau, an improvisational folk-music based French group that was known as the Cajun equivalent to the Grateful Dead. After a time with them, he returned to the U.S., determined to immerse himself in Cajun musical history. A grant from the National Endowment for the Arts supported him as he located the nearly forgotten early composers and performers of Cajun music.
Armed with many traditional Cajun songs, Doucet formed BeauSoleil with some of the finest Cajun musicians, Dennis McGee, Dewey and Will Balfa, Varise Connor, Canray Fontenot, and Bessyl Duhon. Their band name literally means "good sun" and is a reference to a fertile region in Nova Scotia. In the 17th century, French speaking Acadians lived in the Canadian province until conflicts with the French and British forced them to migrate down to Louisiana where they became called Cajuns. BeauSoleil cut its first record in 1976 and released it only in France. They made their American debut the following year with The Spirit of Cajun Music. It was an eclectic work illustrating the many musical styles from which Cajun music is derived. Since 1985, the band has been nominated for (and won) numerous Grammys. They have played on movie soundtracks such as The Big Easy, Passion Fish, and Belizaire the Cajun. They have played at jazz and folk festivals around the world and have also appeared on numerous television shows ranging from CNN's Showbiz Today to Austin City Limits to Late Night with Conan O'Brien.  From: https://www.allmusic.com/artist/beausoleil-mn0000161612#biography

Daemonia Nymphe - Deos Erotas

 #Daemonia Nymphe #neofolk #darkwave #neoclassical #folk #ancient Greek music #theatrical #traditional

The Greek band, Daemonia Nymphe, based in London, tours and participates in the most popular medieval, folk and fantasy festivals in Europe and America with musical performances featuring sounds of ancient Greek instruments. "The Daemonia Nymphe was born out of a love for the world of ancient Greek art for sculpture and architecture of the archaic and classical eras," explains Spyros Giasafakis, the musician, who studied at the School of Fine Arts of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. After many years of searching for the ancient sound, the first tracks were recorded and the first album was released. Along the way came the meeting and collaboration with Nikolaos Bra, manufacturer of "ancient" Greek instruments and the band created their own world that attracts haute couture companies and representatives of cinema and theater.
"From the beginning, we had proposals in both theater and cinema, perhaps because our music tends to create images," says Spyros Giasafakis, who founded the band in 1994 with his brother, Pantelis Giasafakis, noting that in recent years the band has a stronger presence in theater scenes. "The audience that does not know us can imagine a musical documentary" he mentions, hastening to clarify that in the performances of the team, musicians and dancers from different countries, the sounds of the lyre, the varvitos and other instruments act in a modern context. "In the beginning, we had an endless desire to experiment, discover and form our own original sound" emphasizes Spyros, referring to the band's first steps.
”We didn't want to imitate what we heard, but cultivate our own style. At the same time, there was a love for the world of ancient Greek art and, in particular, for the sculpture and architecture of the archaic and classical eras. Thus began a search for ancient sounds that inspired us to create our own world. In the process, of course, we had no choice but to compose music without the restrictions of a supposed reproduction of ancient Greek music."
In explaining the elements that music today lacks that was characteristic of the ancient world, he clarifies that there was a greater variety of styles because there were many more "scales". However, he notes that there are still musical traditions today that have just as great a variety of scales and sounds. "The system with notes was clearly different and letters of the Greek alphabet were used to show the progression of the melody. So if archeologists found carved letters on a slab that didn't make sense as a language, or there were lyrics underneath, it was obvious that it was music," he responds to the question of how to locate the musical pieces of ancient Greece.
The reconstruction of the ancient instruments is the work of Nikolaos Bra, "a very intelligent technician who devoted his life to the study of ancient instruments,"as Spyros Giasafakis describes. The band has selected from these instruments from time to time the lyre, the varvitos, the triangle, the formiga and the samviki. Commenting on research in foreign universities to reconstruct ancient Greek music so that we hear it for the first time as it was heard thousands of years ago, he assesses that "all efforts to approach ancient Greek sound are interesting" but notes that "remarkable efforts have also been made outside the university”.
Regarding the music created by Daemonia Nymphe for cinema and television, he notes that almost from the beginning the band had proposals in the field of both theater and cinema, perhaps because their music tends to create images. "In recent years, we are more into theatre, and we've been lucky enough to work in London with Theater Lab Company, founded by the talented director Anastasia Revi. We have performed "Oresteia", "Antigone", "Medea" and "Lysistrata" in London theaters and then "Macbeth" at the Central Theater of Northern Greece, directed by Anastasia Revi. It is very creative and interesting to work as a composer in a context that is meant to serve other senses besides the auditory. In this respect, there is a common element between live performances and theater, he points out.  From: https://www.greecehighdefinition.com/blog/daemonia-nymphe-ancient-greek-music

A-Wa - Habib Galbi

 #A-Wa #Yemenite music #Mizrahi #world music #ethnic #Middle Eastern music #electronica #traditional #music video

Let us introduce you to a band of sisters with the last name Haim. No, not the ones you’re thinking of. Tair, Liron, and Tagel Haim are sisters from southern Israel, and together they form a band called A-WA (Arabic for “Yes,” pronounced AY-wah). “It felt like music chose us,” Tair Haim explains. “We really have so much love to give, and so much good music, and we are all about bringing people together.”
Their musical style is unique — it’s a combination of traditional Yemenite songs, electronic music, and hip-hop. In 2016, their song “Habib Galbi” (“Love Of My Heart”) went viral, becoming the first song in Arabic to reach the top of the Israeli charts. Their debut album, also called Habib Galbi, uses traditional Yemenite folk chants and re-imagines them with electronic beats, pop music, and more. Their music is a powerful mix of modern and traditional, emphasizing their Jewish Arabic roots. And they’re the coolest. Seriously. “Since a very young age, we all discovered the love of music. I am the oldest sister, and I was always dancing and singing around the house. We grew up in a very small desert village in southern Israel called Shaharut. There weren’t many kids around so we were always best friends,” Tair told me. “We were known at school as the musical family from Shaharut.”
Their new album translates to My Home Is In My Head, and it tells the story of their great-grandmother Rachel’s journey from Yemen to Israel. “She used to say, whenever she was asked in Yemen, why are you always traveling from one place to another? Why don’t you stay in one place, and she said, ‘I can’t stay in one place. My home is in my head.’ She was a very legendary character in our family; we heard a lot of stories about her from our grandma, and from our dad,” Tair says. Their great-grandmother came to Israel from Yemen as part of Operation Magic Carpet, in which 49,000 Yemenite Jews were airlifted to Israel between 1949 and 1950. She wouldn’t agree to stay in an arranged marriage, Tair explains, and so she traveled as a single mother. Now the Haim sisters want to tell her story. It’s a “courageous story – traveling from Yemen to Israel, coming to Israel as a refugee, and starting from scratch. And being such a strong woman. We always laugh and say she was a feminist without even knowing what one was,” Tair explains. “We had so many things we already wanted to say, and we felt like we could use her life story and her voice — things she wanted to say, but couldn’t – and kind of blended with our voices. Each song on the album represents a piece of her life.”  From: https://www.heyalma.com/a-wa-a-band-of-yemenite-jewish-sisters-want-you-to-feel-at-home/

Red Molly - Wayfaring Stranger (Live)

 #Red Molly #folk #bluegrass #Americana #country #contemporary folk #traditional #roots music

Red Molly are a Roots/Americana trio originating from the upstate New York area. This is a band I’ve loved from the first time I heard them, though, surprisingly, they’ve never made a big impact outside of their home country. They have toured internationally and always draw a good audience, many of which go on to be committed fans, much like myself, and it always surprises me that they’ve never broken through in a big way. Perhaps that’s by design as much as anything else – these women seem too grounded and too committed to making their music to want to compromise enough for the celebrity machine.
The original line up of Abbie Gardner, Laurie MacAllister, and Carolann Solebello came together at the 2004 Falcon Ridge Folk Festival, in Hillsdale, New York state. The three singers, songwriters and musicians were the last ones left at a song circle, liked the way they sounded together and the way their instruments complemented each other and decided to work together as a band. The band name is taken from one of the characters in Richard Thompson’s well-known song, ‘1952 Vincent Black Lightning’, though the band didn’t know it was a Thompson song at the time, having only heard the Del McCoury version! All three were up-and-coming performers in their own right, having been writing and recording as individuals for some time, before meeting up. It was their ability to create intricate vocal harmonies that marked them out from the start, but the combination of Gardner’s fine slide dobro playing alongside Solebello’s guitar work and MacAllister’s intuitive bass and guitar playing, with the occasional banjo foray, meant they could also produce a compelling instrumental sound that worked particularly well with their harmonising voices.
The Falcon Ridge Folk Festival became a major talisman for the band. Not only was it the location of their coming together but it was the catalyst for their career as a band taking off. In 2006 they received the most votes in the Festival’s Emerging Artists Showcase, bringing them to the attention of audiences in the wider region and resulting in WUMB radio in Boston naming them Top New Artist of the Year and their debut live album, “Never Been to Vegas” as one of their albums of 2006. The following year they toured with the Falcon Ridge Preview tour and their career was really up and running.
The band recorded their debut studio album, “Love & Other Tragedies” in 2008 and it climbed to number 15 on the Americana chart in the U.S. The original line-up released one more album together, “James”, in the May of 2010. This album performed slightly better, making it into the top five of the same chart, before Carolann Solebello quit the band, in June of that year, to pursue solo projects. She was replaced by Molly Venter, a singer/songwriter based in Austin, Texas, who had already released four albums and had an established reputation as a solo artist before joining the band. This new line-up really cemented the band’s reputation, particularly on the festival circuit. Venter brought a bluesier voice to the band, giving them an option for a slightly harder edge. They’d been predominantly known for more folk based material up to this point but the new line up seemed that bit more versatile and their repertoire now covered the full range of Americana styes. Their third album, “Light in the Sky”, which included contributions from both Solebello and Venter, was released in 2011 as the band continued to build their following.
It’s in live performance that this band really shines. Their albums are good but they never capture the fun of their live gigs and their easy rapport with an audience. It’s that ability to really win over a live audience that has seen Red Molly become darlings of the American festival scene and they’ve been four times featured artists at Merlefest, one of America’s biggest roots music festivals, as well as making regular appearances at the likes of Rocky Grass, Bristol Rhythm & Roots, Suwannee Roots Revival and many other festivals and events around the US and further afield. I was lucky enough to catch their last UK tour and they remain one of the most enjoyable bands I’ve witnessed live.  From: https://americana-uk.com/whatever-happened-to-red-molly

Emmylou Harris, Alison Krauss & Gillian Welch - Go to Sleep Little Baby

 #Emmylou Harris #Alison Krauss #Gillian Welch #Americana #folk #traditional #movie soundtrack #O Brother Where Art Thou

Most famously heard in the movie "O Brother, Where Art Thou", the traditional lullaby "Didn't Leave Nobody but the Baby" is performed by artists Emmylou Harris, Alison Krauss, and Gillian Welch. This song appears to be a southern folk song, and was also previously recorded by Sidney Hemphill Carter in 1959 and ethnomusicologist Alan Lomax in 1942. What is the history, origins and meaning of the lyrics in this song? It appears to be a song born out of the anguish of slavery (as noted by former slave Annie Little in the Federal Writers' Project: Slave Narrative Project, Vol. 16). I have however, heard that this may depict a father trying to keep his baby quiet by giving it morphine in order to hide him from a slaveowner (perhaps on the underground railroad, or possibly in order to commit infanticide). Is there any reputable, authoritative evidence that this is the case?

My grandmother, who recently passed at 98 years old, used to sing this to me and she said her grandmother who was a slave sang it to her. She said all the mammies used to sing this to their children.

This is a Black American folk song, originating in the slavery era. At that time, it was dangerous for enslaved people to speak openly about their concerns, so many songs of the era have hidden or concealed meanings. As a folk song, however, neither the lyrics nor the interpretations are fixed, so it can be difficult or impossible to make a definitive determination. Like many of the most popular lullabies and nursery rhymes of many traditions (compare Rock a Bye Baby or Ring Around the Mulberry Bush) there's some dark and ominous imagery here. It's perhaps most instructive to compare it to All the Pretty Horses, another lullaby with similar origins, and a more established meaning. As in that song, we can surmise that this song is being sung by an enslaved caretaker of a baby belonging to the slavemasters, leading to a mix of tenderness and anger in the lyrics.

    Your momma gone away and your daddy's gone to stay
    Didn't leave nobody but the baby

The "momma" having gone away indicates that the woman singing is not the baby's actual mother. Likewise, the baby's father is also out of the home.

    Everybody’s gone in the cotton and the corn
    Didn't leave nobody but the baby

With all the masters gone, the baby is at the mercy of its caretaker.

    She's long gone with her red shoes on
    Gonna need another loving baby

The mother is out having fun, and doesn't care what happens to her child. She might need a new one, because her current child may not have long to live.

    You and me and the devil makes three
    Don't need no other loving baby

This moves more into pure speculation, but "don't need no other loving baby" may be a veiled reference to her being unable to take care of her own children (as in All the Pretty Horses) because of being forced to caretake her master's child. The devil is present, because she is having fantasies about killing the baby in revenge.

    Come lay your bones on the alabaster stones
    And be my ever loving baby

This seems like the most clear threat in the song - the alabaster stones, are, of course, the headstones in the graveyard. Compare also "Summertime," as discussed here: What's the origin of the phrase "Rise Up Singing"? Although not an authentic slave-era lullaby, "Summertime" draws upon many of the same themes, including the caretaking of someone else's child, and the veiled threat.

This is a song that seems to have originated among slaves in the southern US and has been passed on orally from generation to generation by people who might not even have been able to write, so there is no 'authoritative' version of the lyrics. So, of course, no interpretation of those lyrics is going to be 'authoritative'. There are probably almost as many different interpretations as there have been attempts at interpretation. A recurring theme in these is that the baby has been abandoned by both parents and the singer is preparing to poison it, but there are plenty of other variations.

Funny. I’ve been singing this to my kids for the last 12 months. They love it. Knocks them out every time. But I always forget the words because I can’t think of the story. Really interesting. I mentally started to wonder if it was a seductive song, but mostly because of the imagery from “Oh Brother Where Art Thou”. If you think of it from the perspective of someone trying to seduce a man while his “momma’s gone away” you can almost force some meanings as well. Don’t need another lovin’ babe - you and me and the devil make three. And then a bit of a Romeo and Juliet moment. Or maybe now that I’m reading that it was maybe a slave song. Then there’s the inevitable death that will occur if the mistress is a black caretaker and she’s singing the song for the husband of a partying wife.

From: https://musicfans.stackexchange.com/questions/10086/origin-and-meaning-of-didnt-leave-nobody-but-the-baby

Silly Wizard - Glasgow Peggy

 #Silly Wizard #Andy M. Stewart #Phil & Johnny Cunningham #Scottish folk #Irish folk #Celtic music #traditional

Silly Wizard were pioneers in developing the modern Scottish folk group blueprint, popularizing Scottish music around the world through playing traditional music with a never-before-heard energy, spirit and spontaneity and introducing original songs and tunes written from within the tradition.
Formed in 1972 by guitarists Gordon Jones, Bob Thomas and Bill Watkins and named after a character who shared their Edinburgh flat, Silly Wizard began playing at the capital’s Triangle Folk Club. Soon after singer Chris Pritchard replaced Bill Watkins they added a teenager who would go on to play a crucial part in the band’s image as well as their music, Johnny Cunningham. A tremendously exciting, virtuosic fiddler, who was still at school and often had to be picked up from and returned to the school gates after overnight drives from gigs, Johnny energized the band’s live performances and helped to generate a new young following for folk music.
By the time they released their first album, Silly Wizard in 1976, the band had become a sextet, including Andy M. Stewart, a singer and songwriter with the tradition in his soul, and bass guitar powerhouse Martin Hadden, and were touring regularly throughout the UK and Europe. They were shortly to add a second virtuoso named Cunningham, with Johnny’s younger brother, Phil, replacing Freeland Barbour on accordion, and went on to break into the American market in the most spectacular manner.
Booked to play an opening twenty-minute spot in front of an audience of thousands at Philadelphia Folk Festival in 1979, Silly Wizard, now in its classic five-piece line-up (Bob Thomas having left) won a standing ovation and almost instantly created a huge demand in the US for a brand of folk music that could be as passionate in the low gears as it could be rousingly intense at full tilt and was always presented with wit and an infectious sense of fun.
So began a golden era as Silly Wizard not only headlined folk festivals on both sides of the Atlantic and were capable of selling out the 3000-plus capacity Playhouse in their home town but also branched out into theatre work with the Everyman Theatre in Liverpool and composed and performed the theme tune for Scottish Television’s Take the High Road as well as releasing a succession of consistently high quality, strong-selling albums.
Silly Wizard continued working at a frenetic pace until 1988, when the band that had also included singer Maddy Taylor, bassists Neil Adam and Alastair Donaldson and Dougie Maclean deputising for Johnny Cunningham on fiddle left a gap in Scottish music that has never been filled.
Gordon Jones, Bob Thomas and Martin Hadden went to achieve success in the production side of the recording business.  Andy M. Stewart formed acclaimed duos, first with Manus Lunny then with Gerry O’Beirne. Phil Cunningham remains at the forefront of traditional music in his partnership with Aly Bain and his role at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland. Johnny Cunningham, after settling in New York, died tragically young in 2003.  From: https://projects.handsupfortrad.scot/hall-of-fame/silly-wizard/

Mediaeval Baebes - 10th Anniversary Live

 Part 1

Part 2

 #Mediaeval Baebes #medieval music #choral music #traditional #crossover #a capella #vocal ensemble #ex-Miranda Sex Garden #live music video

Mediaeval Baebes have been called classic music's Spice Girls and early music Pussy Cat Dolls for their sexy contemporary approach to medieval music. Katherine Blake founded the group in 1996 after she left the goth music group Miranda Sex Garden. Katherine explains, "One of the inspirations for forming the Baebes was my participation in (another) Mediaeval ensemble called Synfonie, performing mostly Hildegard plainsong. The group also introduced me to a song called Salva Nos which I performed in a cabaret in Berlin. That song was the first we ever sang together and also the name of the first album we made." After returning to England she called her girl friends together and taught them the song then outlined her vision for an all female choral group. Her timing couldn't have been better. The music scene which had been dominated by male groups was about to be kicked over by a new breed of gutsy female vocalists starting with the Spice Girls. Even before the Spice Girls’ first album was released, the Mediaeval Baebes were working up enough songs for their first concert, which was held in a cemetery. Soon they made a demo tape and sent it off with high hopes but low expectations. Within days they were signed by Virgin Records sight unseen. The executives must have died and gone to heaven when they saw the Baebes for the first time and realized what a sizzling effect these young, sexy women in flowing white gowns produced on their audience as they wove an enchanting tapestry of heavenly music.
In the years that followed they have produced six albums, a live performance DVD, a songbook, a book of erotic art called Songs of the Flesh, and have toured all of Great Britain, Europe, and North America. In the USA they toured with Lilith Fair where they developed quite a reputation for pranks. Rachael Van Asch, the band's only blond, recalls those days, "like when our drummer boys Hans and Trevor dressed up in our spare long white dresses with full make-up and came onstage with us on Lilith Fair to perform the closing number with Sarah Maclaughlin." The band swelled to thirteen women at one time and now has settled on just seven voices, Katherine Blake (music director), Audrey Evans, Emily Ovenden, Marie Findley, Maple Bee, Cylindra, and Rebecca Dutton. The Baebes are all talented individuals, so the band makes time for everyone to develop personal projects.
Rachael, who left the band in 2004 to get married and have a baby, grew up in rock music. Her mother was a member of New Zealand band Ragnarock. For eight years Rachel Van Asch performed and served as costume designer for the Baebes. Rachael has also produced fashion clothes based on her costume designs under the labels Sacred Clothing and Van Asch. Now she is in the process of moving to Sweden where she will be opening a clothing store.
Audrey Evans has been with the band since the beginning but when she isn't performing she teaches in a nursery school. In November of 2005 she also gave birth to a son, Lewis, who is the love of her life.
Emily Ovenden is the daughter of famous English Ruralist artists Graham & Annie Ovenden but her talents are manifested in music and writing. She has written and published one book, Vulpes Vulpes, and has just finished her second novel, The Ice Room. Currently she is working on songs for an upcoming Celtic album.
Maple Bee, the dark haired mezzo soprano, joined the band in 2003. She spent her childhood on board a yacht, traveling the world and living in the Middle East. She has made two techno solo albums and just released a new dance album, Huski.
Mediaeval Baebes celebrated an important anniversary in May this year. Maple Bee tells, "the Baebes had their 10th anniversary party which involved lots of singing loudly in a pub called the Boogaloo on Highgate Hill, followed by lots of strange baebeish antics and fake champagne." In June, she says, they performed at "an amazing show in Cornwall inside a real life stalactite-ridden cave called Carnglaze Caverns - then on to the sunrise festival near Glastonbury.”
From: https://stores.renstore.com/art-and-music/mediaeval-baebes

Sally Rogers & Claudia Schmidt - Way Down The Road

 #Sally Rogers #Claudia Schmidt #folk #traditional #Americana #contemporary folk #singer-songwriter #a capella

Sally Rogers is a singer/songwriter and educator, who is originally from Beulah, Michigan and now resides in Pomfret, Connecticut. In her youth, Sally lived by the family farm and was exposed to music at an early age, as her mother was a pianist and the organist for the local church. Folk music was very popular in the ‘60s and early ‘70s, and singers like Joni Mitchell, Joan Baez and Judy Collins, were dominating the charts. After receiving a guitar for Christmas, Sally began to learn and explore songs from these and other popular artists. During her college years at Michigan State University, she studied Music Education and frequented the legendary coffee house The Ark… which showcased popular touring folk artists of the day. At The Ark, she attended ballad workshops, hoots, guitar and folk gatherings. During this time, she added the dulcimer and banjo to her arsenal and continued to expand her repertoire. After graduating college with a teaching degree, Sally began to perform regularly at local venues and clubs. She met the established Canadian folk singer Stan Rogers and he persuaded her to audition for a booking agency in Toronto. This turned out to be a good move because after passing the audition, she began to perform at major festivals and fine venues throughout Canada and the United States.  From: https://musicguy247.typepad.com/my-blog/2020/05/sally-rogers-interview-mountain-dulcimer-music-teacher-claudia-schmidt-howie-bursen-quilts.html

I first heard Craig Johnson sing "Way Down the Road" at the North Country Folk Festival in Ironwood, Michigan, where I was also performing. The version of "Way Down the Road" that I transcribed from Craig's set at the North Country Folk Festival is quite close to the version attributed to Sally Rogers. The differences are minor, mainly in syntax and punctuation. Since I was sitting next to Sally during Craig's performance, it is reassuring to know that our versions are nearly identical. Although I lost my transcription a while ago, I was able to reconstruct it from the information on this thread.
- Brian Humphrey

I remember back in '33
When we were still down in Tennessee,
Just gettin' by took all your time,
Away down the road.
The word went out in '41
Uncle Sam said get the big job done,
So we hired out at Willow Run
Away down the road.

Blow your whistle up through the pines
Out across the mountains and the Clinchfield Line
Blow for better times
Away down the road

Well we come from the mountains and the damp coal mines,
Started in to working on Henry's lines,
Eight hours steady and overtime,
Away down the road.
The city folks didn't want us 'round,
So they moved us out to the edge of town,
Salt box houses on the bulldozed ground,
Away down the road.

Chorus

We were strong backs bending in the welder's light,
Rivet guns pounding on a windy night,
A rich man's war, a poor man's fight,
Away down the road.
Punch in, punch out, make your time,
Hurry with the turret boys, you're getting behind,
The bombers roared low in the blacked-out skies,
Away down the road.

Chorus

You try to pay the rent man, try to save a buck,
Patching up the tires on a wore-out truck,
City folks pass and holler "Hey Kentuck",
Away down the road.
You say you'll move back south when the war gears down,
But your dreams die easy when your check comes round,
Caught between the mountains and a factory town,
Away down the road.

Chorus

Now the plant's closed down and the gates are closed,
New cars rust in the rain and snow,
Let me sleep where the gunstick laurel grows,
Away down the road.
You can bury me down in Tennessee,
'He lived for a dollar' - let my tombstone read
And died unknown in a strange country,
Away down the road.

From: https://mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=534

Andy M. Stewart - By the Hush

 #Andy M. Stewart #ex-Silly Wizard #Scottish folk #Irish folk #traditional #singer-songwriter

Andy M. Stewart was a Scots singer and songwriter who was at the forefront of a resurgent contemporary Scottish folk scene in the 1970s as the voice of the Edinburgh-formed group Silly Wizard. In their early days the band held a residency at the small but popular Triangle Folk Club in the city, a Saturday night haunt which typified Edinburgh’s rich folk scene of the time alongside venues like the Crown and Edinburgh Folk Club; at the height of their popularity they toured to great appreciation in Europe and the United States – and sold out an annual engagement at the Playhouse during the Edinburgh Festival. The reasons for Silly Wizard’s success were many, but easy to broadly sum up: on the one hand, the striking musical virtuosity of the prodigiously talented young brothers Johnny and Phil Cunningham from Portobello, on the other the marvelously soft but powerful vocal ability of Stewart, and in between the skills of key prime-era members Gordon Jones and Martin Hadden.
A well-spoken raconteur on the live stage, whose ability to introduce his songs informatively and with genuine humor enhanced the experience of hearing them, Stewart wrote music and lyrics which are – particularly in the case of his ballads – rich and still freshly emotive. A skilled banjo player who used his middle initial to distinguish himself from the elder Scots singer who shared his name, Stewart’s skills lay in interpreting Scottish folk standards and in writing additions to the canon which were at once traditional and modern. His songs ran a range of emotions from the delicate romance of The Queen of Argyll to the knowing humor of The Ramblin’ Rover.  From: https://www.scotsman.com/news/obituaries/obituary-andy-m-stewart-singer-and-songwriter-1997406

By the Hush / Paddy's Lamentation

O.J. Abbott from Hull, Quebec, sang the emigrant and Civil War song By the Hush, Me Boys in a 1957 field recording made by Edith Fowke. It was included in 1961 on his Folkways album Irish and British Songs from the Ottawa Valley, and in 1975 on the Leader album Far Canadian Fields, which was offered as the acoustic companion to Fowke's Penguin Book of Canadian Folk Songs. She noted in the Leader album's booklet:
Although this song obviously came out of the American Civil War it seems to be unknown in the United States. O.J. Abbott learned it from Mrs. O'Malley, the wife of an Ottawa valley farmer, for whom he worked back in the 1880s. We can only surmise that she must have heard it from some Irish-American who wandered up to Canada after the Civil War.
This is an interesting combination of two themes common in many Irish songs: that of emigrating, and of becoming involved in other countries' wars. Of course thousands of Irish emigrants did ‘fight for Lincoln’, and the ‘General Mahar’ mentioned was probably General Thomas Francis Meagher, commander of the famous Irish Brigade that distinguished itself on the heights of Fredericksburg and in the battle of Richmond. His promise of a pension ‘if you get shot or lose your head’ is a fine example of Irish graveyard humour.

Edith Fowke collected this song, also known as Paddy's Lamentation, in 1957, from O.J. Abbott (1872-1962) who was born in Enfield, England, and came across to work in Ontario lumber camps. It has been found in print as a broadside ballad called Pat in America, but it appears that Abbott's version might be the only one collected in oral tradition. The realisation that Irish immigrants were essentially drafted off the ships into the Union Army during the Civil War provides the distressing backdrop for this song. General Meagher led the renowned Irish-American Sixty-Ninth Brigade from New York.

Will Finn and Rosie Calvert sang Paddy's Lamentation in 2018 on their Haystack album Beneath This Place. They noted: A song from the Irish Diaspora, this story was unfortunately true for millions of Irish immigrants who fled terrible conditions in Ireland for the promise of a new start in America, only to be conscripted into a civil war that they had no stake in.

More Maids sang By the Hush on their 2021 CD Fourmaids. They noted: This song is among the first ones Barbara Coerdt learnt when she started getting interested in Irish Music, and she is very grateful to have come across it on Andy M. Stewart's epic solo recording. It is one of the saddest emigrant songs as it tells the story of a man who gets no chance to start a new life but is drawn into the American Civil War, loses his leg and is denied the pension he was promised. In the end he only wishes to be back home, poor in “dear old Erin”—“dear old Ireland”.

From: https://mainlynorfolk.info/folk/songs/bythehush.html

Otyken - Storm

 #Otyken #Siberian folk #Siberian indigenous music #traditional #world music #folk rock #throat singing #tribal drumming #music video

A group of aboriginal Siberian taiga people makes its way across a frozen river. The sky is gray and the wind is growing stronger: a storm is coming. They unpack their gear, pull out large drums and proceed to pummel them. “Are you going east?” A girl in a colorful indigenous outfit and long black hair wails. “Then be careful!” This is followed by a song that can best be categorized as ethnic rock: there is throat singing, a keyboard sampler imitating an electric guitar, drumming and dancing. Also making it into the picture is a bass guitar-looking instrument made out of something that looks like the skull of a large animal - and you’ll find that that’s exactly what it is. This is Otyken and this is how the video for their track ‘Storm’ begins. The band members are all indigenous Siberians who hail from the Krasnoyarsk Region, in the heart of the Russian North. Otyken was founded in 2019 and is the brainchild of Andrey Medonos, director of the local museum of ethnography. Their style is a mixture of rock, R&B and tribal electronica, complete with throat singing. They perform in three languages - Chulym, Khakassian and Russian. All the band members are representatives of the Chulym, Ket and Selkup ethnic groups. And all hail from tiny villages in the remote taiga - no coffee shops, pharmacies or even electricity. The name ‘Otyken’ comes from the turkic word meaning the “holy place where warriors laid down their arms and held talks”. According to Medonos, Otyken gained popularity thanks to foreign tourists interested in Siberian life. South and North Americans and Canadians are frequent visitors, often looking for parallels with their own cultures. At first, Otyken had a more authentic and traditional sound, but, in order to increase their reach, the band began introducing outside elements. The costumes were improvised, as well - they’re not really true replicas, but more of a mixture of traditional and modern elements. You’ll often see animal hides, feathers and modern elements all rolled into one. As for the instruments, the same principle of embellishment applies. “The most unusual instrument we have is the morin khuur [a Mongolian string instrument] made from a horse’s skull. We have other instruments and outfits as well: maracas, horns…” says Tsveta, who plays the Jaw harp.  From: https://www.rbth.com/arts/335614-otyken-siberian-indigenous-band

Gjallarhorn - Suvetar

 #Gjallarhorn #world music #European folk #Finnish folk #Swedish folk #traditional #medieval #music video

This adventurous Ostrobothnian quartet formed in 1994 have created an alluring and successful style that has launched for them a thriving international career. Combining the Swedish folk music tradition of Finland with medieval ballads, ancient poems and rich, acoustic soundscapes, Gjallarhorn conjure an atmospherically charged sound fronted by Jenny Wilhelms' vocals and didgeridoo, integrating perfectly with the Norwegian hardanger fiddle, violin, mandola and percussion.
Gjallarhorn are Jenny Wilhelms on vocals, violin and hardanger fiddle; Adrian Jones on viola, mandola, vocals and kalimba; Tommy Mansikka-Aho on aho, didgeridoo, mungiga, udu and djembe; and Peter Berndalen on percussion and kaliba. Wilhelms is an outstanding vocalist, with a soft soprano that is layered throughout their album “Sjofn" to create a sense of abandon that is oddly tender and never harsh. She sings in the traditional Scandinavian style, with occasional flourishes from Indian vocal traditions. Wherever it comes from, it's phenomenal. Think Vartina without the shrill factor; after all, Wilhelms doesn't need to use her voice as percussion because she is supported by an awesome collections of percussive sounds and the drone of the didgeridoo.
Gjallarhorn takes us deep into Scandinavia, to parts with warm, subtle Swedish and Finnish accents and the epic ballads we associate with those northern parts. African and Oriental percussion instruments, and the Australian didgeridoo provide the obsessive drones. Violins, a jew's harp, a mandolin, a magnificent voice, cries resounding ad infinitum in the idea open spaces of Scandinavia; a multitude of noises, echoes, buzzing and tapping sounds, are all used to serve tradition, with ancient epics, medieval ballads, and rites. This music has a strongly modern orientation.
From: https://www.progarchives.com/artist.asp?id=1240

L'Ham de Foc - Pandero

 #L'Ham de Foc #world music #Mediterranian folk #Catalan folk #Greek folk #neo-Medieval #traditional 

Power and beauty are the two main concepts in their music, and fire and water the contrary elements that are symbolized by their name. L'Ham de Foc (Fish hook of fire) from Valencia are no longer an exotic musical phenomenon for specialists but a well sounding name within the international worldmusic scene and a timeless musical concept, that develops its strong character without taking care of current fashion. A new instrument, a new musical style can only be studied and understood going to where it comes from and within its cultural context. This attitude was responsable for a lot of journeys especially to Greece where the main protagonists of L'Ham de Foc -singer Mara Aranda and multiinstrumentalist Efrén López- have now found their second home. Their compositions have the ability to transform music for specialists into an understandable but profound music. Each album of L'Ham de Foc reflects what they have experienced in their recent journeys and studies. L'Ham de Foc´s audience is as diverse as their instruments and influences: with their concerts and CDs , apart from the standard worldmusic/folk audience, they have also reached listeners coming from classical music, Rock/Pop, Gothic/Wave and medieval music.  From: https://www.womex.com/virtual/galileo_mc/l_ham_de_foc

L’Ham de Foc was one of the leading groups of a new Folk movement in Spain, that worked the traditional roots into a new, modern music concept. But L’Ham de Foc’s work is not just a superficial look at its roots. The musicians’ intention was to go back to where things originally came from, to learn how to play instruments, techniques and interpretations from first hand. Mediterranean folk music, including their own Valencian music, Greek music and also music from India or Northern Africa, are main influences for L’Ham de Foc. This mixture was responsible for a widespread acceptance of their music. To understand the group’s work, one needs to know some things about the special cultural situation of the Valencian region. During the history of the southern Spanish coast, different cultures settled down, imposing their cultural roots. Due to its harbors, southeastern Spain was an important place for trading and the result was a permanent cultural exchange. Musically spoken, three different zones have the strongest influence: The Arabic countries in the south. The tradition from Aragon and Castille in Spain, France and Italy denominated as the European zone. The central zone that is identified by a fusion of the north and the south. Hereto belong countries and regions like Greece, Andalusia, Yugoslavia, Albania, the Balearic Islands, Malta, Crete, Valencia, etc. These cultures are characterized by melismatic melodies, polyrhythms, double stringed instruments, wind instruments, quarter tone harmonies, and by the presence of the Arabic culture throughout 700 years.  From: https://worldmusiccentral.org/2019/01/31/artist-profiles-lham-de-foc/

Psalteria - Nazad, Nazad, Mome, Kalino

 #Psalteria #medieval #world music #neo-medieval #folk #traditional #pre-BraAgas #Czech

Psalteria was a Czech medieval folk band consisting of four young women. The quartet advertised itself with the catchphrase "the medieval women's band". The group's repertoire consisted of traditional pieces from the Middle Ages, which the group interpreted in their own way. In addition to songs in German, Latin and French, most of the songs are in Spanish. Due to a high presence on German medieval markets, Psalteria was able to achieve high popularity here in the medieval scene. In January 2007, the group disbanded. The band members now play divided into the medieval groups BraAgas and Euphorica.  Translated from: https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psalteria

 ‘Go back, Kalina, don’t follow me. Ahead is a thick forest, you can’t cross it.’
‘Then I’ll turn into a hawk. I’ll fly over the forest. I’ll be yours forever.’
‘Go back, Kalina, don’t follow me. Ahead is a deep river, you can’t cross it.’
‘Then I’ll turn into a trout. I’ll swim across the river. I’ll be yours forever.’
‘Go back, Kalina, don’t follow me. At home I have a beautiful wife and some children too.’
‘Then I’ll turn into the plague. I’ll kill your wife and take care of your children. I’ll be yours forever.’
From: https://londonbulgarianchoir.bandcamp.com/track/nazad-nazad-mome-kalino

Mediaeval Baebes - Musa Venit Carmine

 #Mediaeval Baebes #medieval music #choral music #traditional #crossover #a capella #vocal ensemble #ex-Miranda Sex Garden  

The Mediaeval Baebes are a crossover vocal ensemble whose unique style features a deft mixture of medieval music, multi-language texts, modern arrangements, and both ancient and modern instrumentation. Their skillful and attractive arrangements, usually fashioned by member Katharine Blake, often have a dark, somber character while exhibiting contemporary rhythmic and sound features. Consisting of about six to twelve singers, Mediaeval Baebes are typically attired in long, sometimes provocative gowns or gothic-inspired costumes, and may wear, depending on the concert's theme, vampiric teeth, flowered headwear, or other exotic accoutrements. Song texts typically deal with such subjects as death, drunkenness, unrequited love, and religious and supernatural subjects. The ensemble's members often play an instrument during performance. Katharine Blake, Bee Lee Harling, and Jo Burke, for example, are violinists; Emily Ovenden and Blake play the recorder; and other members, Esther Dee, Clare Edmondson, and Tanya Jackson, play various instruments. Over the years the group has made use of accompanists like Frank Moon (oud, cittern, etc.) and Rebecca Dutton (medieval fiddle, psaltery, etc.). The range of languages in which the Mediaeval Baebes sing is vast and includes Latin, French, German, Russian, Spanish, Italian, Swedish, Irish Gaelic, English, various older forms of English, and such archaic languages as Cornish and Welsh. The Mediaeval Baebes were formed in London in 1996. Founding members included Katharine Blake, who also serves as the ensemble's musical director, and Dorothy Carter, who played several medieval stringed instruments like the hurdy-gurdy and hammered dulcimer. Some of the earliest members were drawn from Blake's musical group Miranda Sex Garden. After early concert success, the Mediaeval Baebes were invited onto Thames Television in 1997 to sing the 14th century hymn Gaudete. Their first album, Salva Nos, was issued on Virgin Records the following year and it's success led to more prestigious concert venues and a string of popular recordings.  From: https://open.spotify.com/artist/1vQmLYgD92RwmsfHqTwjmQ 

Emmylou Harris - Wayfaring Stranger

 #Emmylou Harris #folk #country #folk rock #country rock #Americana #progressive country #traditional #singer-songwriter #bluegrass

There have been many iconic pairings in country music and about half of them involve Emmylou Harris. Gram and Emmylou. Willie and Emmylou. Skaggs and Emmylou. Linda Ronstadt and Emmylou. The list could go on through a litany of country greats and each one would probably remember their collaboration with Harris as among the highlights of their career. One of the most powerful harmonizers in the genre, her delicate singing style had a thread of iron running through it, a strength that gave her mournful twang a heartrending power that made her contributions to ballads and breakup songs essential to the evolution of country as a whole. It’s a shame then, that her solo career should be, while overall consistent, somewhat of a letdown, with a string of minor classics early in her career followed by a slew of releases that never really lived up to everything she offered as a singer. There are, to my mind, two albums that fully live up to the enormous artistic talent Emmylou’s displayed over the years: the titanic comeback that was 1995’s Wrecking Ball, and Roses In the Snow, perhaps the most complete expression of Emmylou’s potential and the perfect closer for the early period of her career.
Roses In The Snow, for the most part, stays true to bluegrass convention, although the music occasionally tends toward gospel and her country roots, two styles which have always had significant overlap with bluegrass. Ranging from wellworn classics to new compositions, she effortlessly makes each piece her own, indelibly marking her takes on the old classics and claiming the new cuts as incontrovertibly her own. Her take on Wayfaring Stranger, one of the archetypal examples of traditional American song, instantly becomes the standard against which all other iterations of the song are measured, the doleful hymn to the hope of a better world beyond this one a clear highlight in Emmylou’s career. No less astonishing is her take on Simon and Garfunkel’s The Boxer, which, by staying largely faithful to the original within her bluegrass framework, she more than lives up to, although she can’t quite lay claim to the song like she can with Wayfaring Stranger.  From: https://www.sputnikmusic.com/review/78184/Emmylou-Harris-Roses-in-the-Snow/

Sally Rogers & Claudia Schmidt - Some Fathers Have Gone To Glory

 #Sally Rogers #Claudia Schmidt #folk #traditional #Americana #singer-songwriter #contemporary folk #a capella

A version of this Appalachian spiritual,  titled "Some Mothers Have Gone to Glory," was sung by Jean Ritchie in 1951 and recorded by Alan Lomax.

Pioneering the use of stereo recording in the field, Alan Lomax made his “Southern Journey” in 1959–60, returning to the rural South (after 10 years abroad) and rediscovering its still-vital traditions. He traveled from the Appalachians to the Georgia Sea Islands, from the Ozarks to the Mississippi Delta, recording blues, ballads, breakdowns, hymns, shouts, chanteys, and work songs. When they were released by Atlantic Records (1960) and Prestige Records (1962), these recordings served as inspiration and guide to a new generation of musicians passionately interested in the heritage this music represents.  From: https://www.culturalequity.org/rounder-records/southern-journey

 Alan Lomax was an American ethnomusicologist, best known for his numerous field recordings of folk music of the 20th century. He was also a musician himself, as well as a folklorist, archivist, writer, scholar, political activist, oral historian, and film-maker. Lomax produced recordings, concerts, and radio shows in the US and in England, which played an important role in preserving folk music traditions in both countries, and helped start both the American and British folk revivals of the 1940s, 1950s, and early 1960s. He collected material first with his father, folklorist and collector John Lomax, and later alone and with others, Lomax recorded thousands of songs and interviews for the Archive of American Folk Song, of which he was the director, at the Library of Congress on aluminum and acetate discs.  From: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alan_Lomax

 

Jean Ritchie

Sally Rogers & Claudia Schmidt - Ezekiel Saw The Wheel

 #Sally Rogers #Claudia Schmidt #folk #traditional #Americana #singer-songwriter #contemporary folk #Appalachian dulcimer

"Ezekiel Saw the Wheel" is an African American spiritual arranged by William L. Dawson. It has been recorded by such artists as Woody Guthrie, Paul Robeson, John Lee Hooker, the Dixie Hummingbirds, the Tillers, the Fisk Jubilee Singers, The Charioteers and Gold City. The song recounts the Old Testament prophet Ezekiel's divine vision, described at the start of the eponymous book.  From: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ezekiel_Saw_the_Wheel

 Merkabah mysticism (lit. Chariot mysticism) is a school of early Jewish mysticism, c. 100 BCE – 1000 CE, centered on visions such as those found in the Book of Ezekiel chapter 1, or in the hekhalot literature ("palaces" literature), concerning stories of ascents to the heavenly palaces and the Throne of God. The main corpus of the merkabah literature was composed in the period 200–700 CE, although later references to the Chariot tradition can also be found in the literature of the Chassidei Ashkenaz in the Middle Ages. A major text in this tradition is the Maaseh Merkabah ("Work of the Chariot")  In English the Hebrew term merkabah relates to the throne-chariot of God in prophetic visions. It is most closely associated with the vision in Ezekiel chapter 1 of the four-wheeled vehicle driven by four hayyot ("living creatures"), each of which has four wings and the four faces of a man, lion, ox, and eagle (or vulture).
According to the verses in Ezekiel and its attendant commentaries, his vision consists of a chariot made of many heavenly beings driven by the "Likeness of a Man". The base structure of the chariot is composed of four beings. These beings are called the "living creatures". The bodies of the creatures are "like that of a human being", but each of them has four faces, corresponding to the four directions the chariot can go (East, South, North and West). The faces are that of a man, a lion, an ox (later changed to a cherub in Ezekiel 10:14) and an eagle. Since there are four angels and each has four faces, there are a total of sixteen faces. Each of the hayyot angels also has four wings. Two of these wings spread across the length of the chariot and connect with the wings of the angel on the other side. This creates a sort of 'box' of wings that forms the perimeter of the chariot. With the remaining two wings, each angel covers its own body. Below, but not attached to, the feet of the hayyot angels are other angels that are shaped like wheels. These wheel angels, which are described as "a wheel inside of a wheel", are called "ophanim" (wheels, cycles or ways). These wheels are not directly under the chariot but are nearby and along its perimeter. The angel with the face of the man is always on the east side and looks up at the "Likeness of a Man" that drives the chariot. The "Likeness of a Man" sits on a throne made of sapphire.  From: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Merkabah_mysticism

Dutar - Gelem, Gelem/Kis Kece Lanyom

#Dutar #Hungarian folk #world music #Gypsy folk #traditional

Hungary’s traditional music is as tricky a mix of East and West, of secular and religious, and of ancient and modern as Hungary is itself. While some theorists trace the earliest Hungarian music, and the Magyar people, back to Siberia, at the heart of the most widespread Hungarian musical tradition is Italian Catholic plainsong, a type of religious chanting that consists of one unaccompanied melody line. When the Turks arrived in the 15th century and conquered part of Hungary they brought sounds from the East, as well as Roma people who came with their own unique music. While “elite” Hungarians developed classical forms generally identified with the West, Turkish and Romani music infused Hungarian village with an Eastern flair. Zoltán Kodály and Béla Bartók, two noted early 19th century Hungarian ethnomusicologists, educators and composers, traveled into these villages to record Hungarian “peasant” music. They documented Hungary’s folk music traditions just in time, because after World War II music became the official domain of the ruling Communists. The regime established folk choirs and orchestras and only allowed music to played in public that was fully sanctioned (and fully sanitized) by the Song Committee. An underground folk music scene rose in opposition; people gathered in the táncház (dance hall) and revived traditional dances like the csárdás as a form of cultural protest. When the Soviets crumbled, Hungarian traditional music left the táncház and flourished once again. Today urban Hungarian bands like the Roma folk/folk and the Besh o Drom and the “speed-folk” Transylvanians have revived Hungarian traditional music, bringing it into the modern age, making it relevant for a new generation.  From: https://www.allaroundthisworld.com/learn/eastern-europe-2/hungary/hungary-music/#.Y611g-LMJq8

Gjallarhorn - Dejelill and Lagerman

#Gjallarhorn #world music #European folk #Finnish folk #Swedish folk #traditional #medieval

Gjallarhorn is a Finnish band that performs world music with roots in the folk music of Finland and Sweden. The group was formed in 1994. The band's music echoes the ancient folk music tradition of Scandinavia with medieval ballads, minuets, prayers in runo-metric chanting and ancient Icelandic rímur epics in a modern way. The group is named after the Gjallarhorn associated with the god Heimdallr from the Norse mythology. The band hails from Ostrobothnia, a Swedish-speaking region on the west coast of Finland, one of the four regions of the historical province of Ostrobothnia and the only region in Finland outside Aland where more people speak Swedish than Finnish. The music of the band remains Swedish in character. Most of their repertoire is the acoustic folk music of these Swedish-speaking Finns, from the unique minuets and ballads that have only survived in Ostrobothnia, to the old traditional waltzes. The didgeridoo and sub-contrabass recorder offer an underlying drone, a technique shared by some other Nordic bands such as Garmarna. Also notable is their use of the hardanger fiddle and Jenny Wilhelms' kulning, a high-pitched, wordless vocal technique based on traditional Scandinavian cattle-herding calls.  From: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gjallarhorn_(band)

Sally Rogers & Claudia Schmidt - Hey, Hey, Watenay / I Walk In Beauty

 #Sally Rogers #Claudia Schmidt #folk #traditional #Americana #singer-songwriter #contemporary folk #Appalachian dulcimer

Claudia Schmidt and Sally Rogers have been weaving their voices, dulcimers, and guitars together for decades, creating an atmosphere of joy and musical lushness that audiences find so irresistible, they frequently join right in. Starting with their soaring harmonies - "blood harmony" was how one fan described it - fascinating double dulcimer work, the mix of 6 and 12 string guitars, then brought together with a wide choice of material encompassing their originals, traditional, and choice compositions of contemporary songwriters, a concert by these two masters of their craft is an immensely satisfying and restorative experience. Time has only deepened and enriched the music they create together.  From: https://sallyrogers.com/concert-booking/sally-and-claudia/

The Navaho term for the spiritual path, their practice of the holy life, has been translated as The Beauty Way. This way of referring to spirituality, when I first encountered it, was so different from the dry, ascetic pursuits of Zen or intensive meditation that I was first attracted to in my 20's, and spoke to the deep heart of the Holy that was so missing from my vision of spirituality, and from my young and undeveloped self at that time. Understanding the spiritual path as The Beauty Way also opened me to the wonder of the Creator's creation that shone with holy light all around me, not only in the natural beauty of nature, but also in the simple beauty of sunrise, of the in and out of my breath, of the breath of my children as they slept. All was Beauty. It took this Navaho prayer to open my heart to the same truth that my Jewish roots, in the deep mysticism of Kabbalah, spoke to as well: there is no where God is not - all of creation is made of the sparks of the Creative.

I offer two short versions of Beauty Way prayers here that their resonance may bless you as they have blessed me.

R. Waldrip prefaced his use of this blessing with a note that seemed appropriate to include here:

"Let me be clear: I didn't write this song. When I saw it at the Anasazi Museum at Chaco Canyon in New Mexico, I was so impressed that I copied it for the introduction of my novel, Anasazi Harvest."

Today I will walk out, today everything evil will leave me,
I will be as I was before, I will have a cool breeze over my body.
I will have a light body, I will be happy forever,
nothing will hinder me.
I walk with beauty before me. I walk with beauty behind me.
I walk with beauty below me. I walk with beauty above me.
I walk with beauty around me. My words will be beautiful.

In beauty all day long may I walk.
Through the returning seasons, may I walk.
On the trail marked with pollen may I walk.
With dew about my feet, may I walk.

With beauty before me may I walk.
With beauty behind me may I walk.
With beauty below me may I walk.
With beauty above me may I walk.
With beauty all around me may I walk.

In old age wandering on a trail of beauty,
lively, may I walk.
In old age wandering on a trail of beauty,
living again, may I walk.
My words will be beautiful.

From: http://www.pathwaysforhealing.com/node/160