Whenever we move towards a time of ritual importance- a holiday or a marked change in the seasons, we often experience that mix of eagerness and frustration that comes with trying to engage with the old traditions…

In many parts of Europe, May heralds the arrival of summer: Fresh greens and shoots are growing, the weather is warm enough for outdoor festivities (which also historically meant less oversight by the church), the sun’s arc lasts long across the sky each day, and songs and calls of migratory birds, mating frogs and busy insects can be heard across the fields and forests.

A performance of "Bridget of the Green Mantle."

Enjoy this meditative exploration of the deity/spirit/s-turned-saint Brigid of Ireland, whose celebration is intertwined with Imbolc, an upcoming Irish holiday heralding the beginning of spring. The songs here are often sweet, slow invocations and prayers for Brigid and her themes of compassion, milk, water, and seeds.

Here’s a new winter playlist with you, full of some of my long-time cherished favorites! Here you'll find old English Wassailing songs, strange apocryphal Christmas stories, shape note hymns…

Here's a historic song on serenity, condemnation of the powerful, and the bliss of the feminine God.

Singing the Shaker song “Pretty Mother’s Home” at the Meeting House of the Pleasant Hill Shaker Village (founded ca 1807).

“More Waters Rising” is a song that I created back in March 2016 when the HB2 bill was passed here in North Carolina. Now in the early days of the Trump administration, this song feels deeply resonant.