This 400 year-old song, sung over the corpse at wakes, tells of the soul’s journey through thorn bushes, across bridges and through flame.

I love this perfect round for fall!

“Dan the Red Nose” is an old Scots/English song with an Appalachian rebel twist. This song is an adaptation of “The Cutty Wren” first documented in 1776. Originally about wren hunting traditions that took place at midwinter, over time this song became associated with rebellion

A few verses of “The Parting Glass!” I dearly love this traditional Irish and Scottish folk song-  And here I’ve included a sweet verse that’s often excluded about the narrator’s sweetheart (at least, I don’t hear it very often over here in the U.S.). 

An English folk song about inequality and the enclosure of the commons, dating back to an 18th-century poem. It’s hard to imagine now, but there was a time when a great deal more land was held in common for the benefit of the community.

A sweet and simple round by me for Lughnasadh! Today, this Irish holiday is celebrated around August first, but historically it typically took place around the time of the first harvest of grains. In early medieval Ireland, this was a period when disparate communities would come together for days of feasting, contract-making and friendly competitions- from wrestling to foot racing and horse races.

The first few verses of the Irish folk song “Moorlough Mary.” This song has been credited to a poet named James Devine of Loughash, Donemana, Co. Tyrone, c. 1876. I learned this version from the singing of Paddy Tunney. This song circulated through much of northern Ireland in the form of ballad sheets, and has been sung to various tunes.

This song, created by me, is an invocation of Lugh, a Celtic god known for his roles as a divine king of Tuatha Dé Danann, a warrior, and master of all crafts.

“Satan, your kingdom must come down,” is a folk song from African-American church and spiritual traditions.

A few verses of "The Woody Nightshade," more popularly known as the "The Wild, Wild Berry," a song about a man being poisoned by his sweetheart via the berries of the woody nightshade plant (Solanum dulcamara).

This pagan song, by me, is inspired by the ancient Midsummer/Litha/St. John’s Day tradition of rolling flaming wheels down hillsides as a form of divination and a symbolic act of diminishing power.

My Celtic music band Émigré is recording our first album! We formed in 2016, so this has been a long time coming!

Here are the beginning verses of “Na Ivana Kupala, Kupavsya Ivan,” or “На Івана Купала купався Іван.” A Ukrainian song for Midsummer, from the Chernihiv region. This song tells a story that takes place on Saint John’s Day, or Midsummer.

To enter into Summer Solstice Week together, I wanted to share a new playlist: “The Dear Sun is Setting: Midsummer Playlist 2026” is an exploration of European folk songs and music for this ritual-laden holiday of fire, dew, and magic.

Midsummer, which takes place in just a couple of weeks in the Northern Hemisphere, is a holiday that’s been celebrated with enormous festivity across Europe since at least the early middle ages. Despite the lasting popularity of the summer solstice, many of us don’t have this holiday on our radar.

“Sumer is Icumen In” is a Medieval English folk song dating back to the mid-13th century and one of the oldest known seculare songs in the English language.

In Europe, one of the most common traditions on solstice eve and day has been to pick herbs and plants for medicinal and magical use. During this time, plants have been considered to be at the height of their potency, and thus extra effective for any uses we might make of them.