Kathy Mattea: Sending Me Angels

the two songs in this clip from a BBC documentary are not winter holiday songs -- but they could be.

you may also want to see Mattea's take on holiday music
Music Road: Kathy Mattea: Joy for Christmas Day

Cowboy Christmas Ball

things haven't changed that much, in some places...

silent night

Silent Night, in English and Irish, from the annual Boston based celebration Christmas Celtic Sojourn. a bit of reflection and joy of the season shared in song.



more about Christmas Celtic Sojourn Live here.

Lau: Scots trad re invented

Scots trad at warp speed with a whole new energy....



Kris Drever, Martin Green, and Aidan O'Rourke bring different backgrounds to their collaboration (for more on that, there's an interview I did with the three of them in the current issue of the music magazine Dirty Linen). This four minute promo video includes some very interesting ways of getting their musical energy and connection on tape.

Gretchen Peters: England Blues

Gretchen Peters is the writer behind hits for Martina McBride, George Strait, Bonnie Raitt, Etta James, and Faith Hill, to name just a few. She's also a fine singer and performer in her own right, though that's a fact better known in Europe than in the US. Peters is releasing a holiday album this year, Northern Lights, which, as you might expect from her is not your usual take on the holidays. We've not yet been able to find any videos of songs from that project, but while we're looking here is Peters having fun in a rockin' mood, on a song called England Blues, from a concert in Nashville.

julie fowlis on the bagpipes

Julie Fowlis is a Gaelic singer who's winning awards and acclaim across the world for he work. She grew up in North Uist, in the Outer Hebrides of Scotland, where she also learned to play whistles and, as you'll see in the clip below, bagpipes.

Fowlis is celebrating the US release of her second solo album, Cuilidh, with a brief tour in the United States beginning next week, which includes appearances at the Lotus Festival in Bloomington, Indiana, and Club Passim in Cambridge, Massachusetts. She's threatening to bring out the pipes at some point along the way...

tour schedule

You may also want to see

Music Road: now playing: Julie Fowlis: Mar A Tha Mo Chridhe/As My Heart Is

Music Road: now playing: eist: songs in their native language

Will the Circle Be Unbroken?

Michelle Wright, Iris DeMent, Mairead ni Mhaonaigh -- not an expected combination of voices, but a really fine one. From the first Transatlantic Sessions series, about a dozen years back. Song, singers, and musicians well worth revisiting, or checking out for the first time.