It is December at this writing, a season of darkness and light, of looking forward and looking back.

There are many journeys each of us makes in the course of a day, not to mention across a week, a month, and a year from January to December.

These may be physical journeys to a new land to explore, down the street to help a friend, across a room to greet a stranger.

They could be journeys of thought, imagination, storytelling, learning, and reflecting on changes brought by these.

With those ideas in mind, consider this music for all your sorts of journeys through December and beyond.

Do you know about Las Posadas? That is the name of a tradition, mainly in Hispanic communities, in which people re-enact the Holy Family’s journey seeking a place to rest...and as it turned out, to have their child, as they arrived in Bethlehem.

These Posadas may be formal or informal. As people walk, there is always music, though.

One of the songs often sung is A La Nanita Nana. Tish Hinojosa, who grew up in San Antonio as daughter of parents who’d come from Mexico, sings it. You will find the song on her album From Texas for a Christmas Night. You may like to know that Hinojosa has included a song for Hanukkah, too.

Perhaps Christmas is not your story or your faith. Maybe it is, but you feel you are really over carols you have heard many times.

All that said, Matt and Shannon Heaton’s take on the nineteenth century carol O Little Town of Bethlehem will invite you to think again about journey and community.

Boston clergyman Phillips Brooks had made a trip to Bethlehem. His memories of the trip stayed with him; several years after his return to Boston, he wrote the song.

Matt and Shannon, who live near Boston, have recorded the song on their album Fine Winter’s Night, on which you will find traditional and original song and tune based in the Heatons’ love for and expertise in Irish music.

Shannon sings lead and plays flute on O Little Town. Matt offers graceful guitar work. Give yourself time with the Heatons’ version of the song. Doing so will enhance your winter season.

Hanneke Cassel offers a thoughtful look at a familiar melody, as well. O Come All Ye Faithful is in some ways a call to journey. So is the original tune Cassel pairs with it, Dancing Among the Clouds.

Cassel’s instrument is the fiddle. On this set and through her album O Come Emmanuel, she leads musical friends through song and tune which honor both joyous and reflective sides of the season, and her own center in the crosscurrents of the musics of Scotland and Cape Breton.

Hanneke, who is based in the Boston area, has taken her skill as performer, teacher, and composer to China, Kenya, Denmark, Ireland, Canada, and many other places. At times, hints of those connections come through on O Come Emmanuel (and elsewhere in her music, also).

Carrie Newcomer had the idea for her song A Light in the Window one night as she was driving back to her home in Indiana from being out on the road on tour. It is not a seasonal song.

Not exactly, that is. There are ideas that may spark ideas related to the looking forward and looking back part of the season, as well as the idea of journey. You will find it on Newcomer’s album A Permeable Life.

Cherish the Ladies have thus far offered three excellent Christmas albums (founding member Mary Coogan has an equally fine album of Christmas music on guitar, as well).

From the most recent Cherish album, Christmas in Ireland, comes All the Valley Down. The journey in this song is one of looking around you at what’s nearby, of waiting for things to unfold, of hope, of reflection. And snow. And bells.

Award-winning musician Hannah Rarity from Scotland is the guest vocalist singing lead on the song.

May the creativity of these artists and their music be a good companion to you through this season and in future.

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.