Well traveled roads, new horizons, unexpected bridges connecting across cultures and places: connection, whether new or old, to place, person, or idea is a thread that runs through the work of musicians on seven very different albums. 

From the Adirondacks to the Cascades, from the Wind River Range to the Catskills, from the Sangre de Cristos to the Wasatch, mountain landscapes across the United States offer views and vistas that hold ideas of change and of what is lasting. For musicians Amy White and Al Petteway, the southern Appalachians and the Blue Ridge in North Carolina form both inspiration and backdrop for what they create.

Growing up in Connecticut, eight year old Alison Brown was learning to play guitar when she heard a recording by bluegrass musicians Flatt and Scruggs. She fell in love with the banjo. "I knew I wanted to make *that* sound," she recalls.

Music from contemporary songwriters, from traditional sources, from his own composing: this is what you will find on Archie Fisher's recording A Silent Song. That is a mix he has been stirring across his career. Now in his mid seventies, Fisher finds that music still draws him on. "It has only occurred to me relatively recently that the incentive to keep doing it is hearing that new song," he says.

Each year in the spring, the Savannah Music Festival celebrates the diversity that has made this city on Georgia's coast a crossroads of culture since people first settled the area centuries ago.

The music of Ireland: it is a source of connection, a way of celebration, a path for reaching across borders and boundaries. It can be a way of sharing and creating stories, of connecting families and welcoming strangers, remembering absent loved ones, and gaining perspective on present troubles.

The city of Savannah, Georgia, has been a place where cultures meet and mix and mingle ever since its early days centuries ago. Blues, bluegrass, country music, jazz, gospel, and Celtic music are local traditions in music that continue to flourish in Savannah. Over the years, it has also become a crossroads for classical musicians, those who work in opera, and musicians who bring their native traditions from many parts of the globe. The Savannah Music Festival celebrates and encourages all these aspects of music.

London is one of the world's great cities -- and it is one with so much going on that however many times you might visit and however long your stay might be, having a particular focus will make it easier to choose experiences and to make plans.

Winter: it is a time of drawing in and venturing out, of traveling and welcoming travelers, of celebration and of quiet reflection, of learning from the gifts of solitude and the warmth of community. Music makes a fine gateway and companion for all this.

As autumn turns to winter in Scotland -- a transition which certainly happens during November -- days become shorter, temperatures fall, it may begin to snow, and that snow, already in place or oncoming, may begin to stay around longer. There are changes in the quality of light as the sun hangs low in the sky, and at night stars shine brightly.