Autumn: change in weather and in landscape can happen overnight.

Autumn’s changes may also come in more subtle ways. There are seasonal changes such as turn of color in leaves, and more permanent ones, such as those caused by autumn storms.

Autumn is often a time of change in areas of life beyond the natural world, adjustments of all sorts. It is also, in many parts of the world, a time for political change.

From varied ways love may be expressed to courage to take good journeys to reflection on hope through shifting times, musicians consider all these things, too.

In her song Love That Makes a Cup of Tea, Gretchen Peters offers thoughts on many ways to look at love and on ways love may show itself. While focusing on healing aspects of love, she also takes a few lines to warn that not everything that calls itself love is actually that. Peters continues with hope that those who listen will find, as she says in the song’s title, love that makes a cup of tea, and all that goes along with that warming and welcoming idea.

Gretchen Peters is based in Nashville, where she’s lived for a number of years after time spent in New York and Colorado.

A songwriter whose music has been recorded by top stars including Bryan Adams, Martina McBride, The Neville Brothers, Patty Loveless, George Strait, Faith Hill, and many others, Peters is an excellent performer in her own right, though she’s perhaps better known as a performer in the UK and Europe than in the US. A good place to find Love That Makes Cup of Tea recorded is on Gretchen Peters’ album The Show: Live from the UK.

You’ve often met Carrie Newcomer’s music in this series, quite often through lyrical ballads. Newcomer has an acute sense of fun and the absurd, too. On occasion she connects the two, as she does in the song Impossible Until It’s Not.

From reasons why bees can’t fly to the challenges of following unlikely paths in life to invitations to persistence, Indiana-based Newcomer wraps a lot into a lively melody, well worth more than one listen to appreciate all the paths she takes. You will find it on her album The Point of Arrival.

Anna Massie is a musician you will often find playing lively tunes. In addition to her solo work, she’s part of Rant Fiddles, holds down the guitar backline of Blazin’ Fiddles, works in a duo with piper and accordion player Mairearad Green, and often backs up Gaelic singer Maggie MacInnes; those are just a few of her projects.

She composed this quieter tune, The Pioneers Waltz, for her parents.

During the first pandemic lockdown in Scotland, Massie left her longtime base in Glasgow to return to the Black Isle in the north of Scotland to be with her parents. They have quite a lot of projects on the go too, from growing vegetables to home repair to playing music themselves. I am not sure what part of that, if any, caused Anna to sometimes call them The Pioneers. This waltz is one result, though. You will find it as part of Anna’s album called Two Down.

The road must be taken
living in pure hope of the horizon...

Those words are part of the lyrics Megan Henderson sings in Scottish Gaelic as part of this set from the band Breabach.

The set pairs a tune from Calum MacCrimmon called Knees Up in Hanoi with a song written by Calum along with Megan’s brother Ewen Henderson, called Dòchas Glan Na Fàire.

Breabach is an award-winning five piece band based in Scotland. All five members sing. In addition, Calum plays Highland pipes, Megan plays fiddle, Conal Macdonagh plays uillean pipes, Ewan Roberson plays guitar, and James Lindsay plays bass. They each bring different yet connected backgrounds to the band, sharing love for both tradition and innovation.

You will find the Knees Up In Hanoi set as part of Breabach’s album Frenzy of the Meeting. You may also want to look for Breabach’s album called Fàs.

You met Megan Henderson above; she is a top class fiddle player, composer, singer, and step dancer whose main work is as a member of Breabach. At times she works on other projects as well, one of which is her first solo album, called Pilgrim Souls.

The music on it was inspired by atmospheric paintings from Christine Clark, who comes, as Megan does, from the Highlands of Scotland. That said, this track, Almost Home, has always struck me as autumnal in character. Whether you find it seasonal or not, it offers good company for reflection.

Cathie Ryan is Irish American, a first generation daughter of parents who came from Ireland, and grew up in Michigan. Cathie’s music, first as lead singer with the top Irish American band Cherish the Ladies and then with her own work, has taken her all across the world more than once. She has been based in Ireland for some time now.

Ryan is a fine songwriter herself, and at times she chooses to sing songs from Irish tradition, as well. She also likes to find songs from contemporary writers which suit her voice and world view.

One such song is Walk the Road. It was written by Kate Rusby, who comes from Yorkshire and is a well-known English folk musician. Ryan chose to draw the title of the album on which she recorded it, Through Wind and Rain, from the lyrics of the song.

“The song is so full of hope – I love to sing it! Thank you, Kate for saying it so beautifully,” Ryan said.

You’ve met Walk the Road before in this series. With the changes of autumn in all parts of life, it seems a fine time to listen again.

May the creativity of these artists and the ideas they share be good company to you through the changes of autumn.

Thank you for staying with us through this journey. Below, you'll find a link that will take you to an article which has a bit more backstory on the series. It also has links to a number of the stories, including ones called Listening for Community, Music for Winter's Changes, and The Geography of Hope.

Music for Shifting Times

Kerry Dexter is Music Editor at Wandering Educators. 

You may find more of Kerry's work in National Geographic Traveler, Strings, Perceptive Travel, Journey to Scotland, Irish Fireside, and other places, as well as at her own site, Music Road. You can also read her work at Along the Music Road on Substack.