Autumn into winter, changes in the angles of sunlight, continuing political and social changes of all sorts, the ongoing changes and challenges we each face in our personal lives: that’s just a bit of the way things continue to shift.
It is also a time of changing weather. As winter sets in in the northern hemisphere, that can be a time of challenge. It can also offer a time for gathering in, for community, for reflection. Those things are needed at any season, of course. At whatever season and place you may be reading this, explore the varied ways the work of these musicians may resonate with these changes and shifts.
The first song this time out is perhaps a bit different in its language and style from what you often find in this series. Though it is a song, you may find it has aspects like the instrumental pieces I’ve pointed you in other episodes.
It is a song sung by Radmilla Cody. Radmilla is of Navajo/Dine and African American heritage. November is a time when First Nations/Native American heritage is especially marked.
Radmilla was born and grew up in the Navajo Nation in the southwestern United States. She sings this song in Navajo.
After a difficult time in her life, she came to inner peace. Dawn can be a sign of that, and of hope, in First Nations and other cultures. The song is called A Beautiful Dawn.
Dave Gunning took a different approach to think of the future. For his song These Hands, he frames questions. These can be a source for ideas and reflection, perhaps especially useful at endings and beginnings in the turn of seasons. An award-winning singer, songwriter, and producer, Dave Gunning comes from Nova Scotia in the Canadian Maritimes.
Eddi Reader and Emily Smith come from Scotland, as did Robert Burns. Burns is the national poet of Scotland; when he passed on several centuries ago, he left behind many poems and songs, along with poem and song fragments, just a few lines of an idea.
Eddi and one of her musical friends, Boo Hewerdine, took one of those Robert Burns fragments and turned it into the song Leezie Lindsay.
The fragment becomes a story which holds a song of love for another person, as well as love for nature and for one’s country. Saint Andrew’s Day, the national day of Scotland, comes up at the end of November; this song makes especially good listening in the run up to that celebration.
Eddi and Emily, both award-winning singers and songwriters themselves, join up to sing Leezie Lindsay in this video from some years back at Celtic Connections.
Carrie Newcomer was driving back to her home in Indiana from a time out on tour with her music. Along her way that snowy winter evening, she noticed lights in windows as she passed by. That led her to reflect on community, connection, and change. Carrie called her song A Light in the Window.
Late November is the time of the Thanksgiving holiday in the United States. In other parts of the northern hemisphere, it is also often a time of gathering and of thanksgiving.
Molly Mason grew up in the Pacific northwest and has lived for many years in New York state in the east, places which experience very different sorts of harvest times.
She explores the work of harvesting crops, the gathering in of community, and late autumn as a time for rest and reflection in her song Bound for Another Harvest Home.
May the creativity of these artists be good companion to you as you make your way through this season, and at other times of year as well.
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.
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.