I'm running late this morning as I'm a bit under the weather today, but here are the Monday Tunes at last: some music from the woods and wilds in order to keep to our woodlands theme. These songs come from Soundcloud rather than YouTube because I couldn't find video performances of the pieces I particularly wanted to play this morning....
First up, "Home" by the Michigan alt-folk trio Breathe Owl Breathe, gently calling us out of the house and out of doors:
Next, "On Trees and Birds and Fire," a magical little tune from I Am the Oak, the band of the Dutch singer/songwriter Thijs Kuijken, based in Utrecht:
Third is "Furr," a charming story of woods, wolves, and transformation from the Oregon alt-folk band Blitzen Trapper:
Next, "The Wild Hunt," a rather upbeat song about death and the Wild Hunt legends of northern Europe. It comes The Tallest Man On Earth, which is the stage name of the Swedish singer/songwriter Kristian Matsson:
And last, here's the English alt-folk band Matthew & the Atlas, calling us back from the wilds again with their utterly gorgeous song "Come Out of the Woods":
The drawings above are "Tree Nymph" and "Beauty as the Beast" by the always-amazing Virginia Lee, no stranger to the wilds herself.
Today's first tune, on this May morning so early, is a Flemish song called "The Maying Song" -- performed by the English folk musician Bella Hardy, with Ian Stephenson and Chris Sherburn. (Ignore the obnoxious advertisement at the video's start -- it goes away soon!)
Hardy, who is from the Peak District in Derbyshire, has five fine albums to date. This is a performance from 2008, because there aren't many good Hardy videos available, alas. If you'd like to hear a bit more of her music, try "The Driving of the Deer," from last year's CD, The Dark Peak and the White. And I particularly recommend her latest album, Battleplan, in which "traditional ballads are re-imagined from a female perspective, and
personal experiences are reflected against fairy tales and folklore."
Next: another "roving out" song, but a bawdier version this time, sung by
Kathryn Roberts. You may remember Roberts from her younger days, when
she recorded a lovely debut CD with Kate Rusby. Now she's teamed up with her
husband Sean Lakeman (Seth's brother), performing both original
and traditional material. They've released three albums (1, 2, and Hidden People), and all of them are good.
Below: Kathryn Roberts again, solo this time, performing her "Ballad of Andy Jacobs" -- a sad and beautiful song about the miners' strikes under Thatcher, inspired by her childhood in a Yorkshire mining town. (She talks about this briefly at the end of the video.) This one is timely too, with Britain still reeling from Thatcher's divisive funeral.
Below, Kris Drever, with another poignant song about another tragic time in the UK's history: "The Poorest Company," about the Highland clearances. Drever, who is from the Orkney Isles of Scotland, has played with Kate Rusby, Eddi Reader, Julie Fowlis, and is one of the founding members of Lau. Here, he's performing at Celtic Connections in Glasgow, with Roddy Woomble, John McCusker, and Heidi Talbot. Although I like his CDs with Lau the best (they're just astonishingly good), his solo albums Black Water and Mark the Hard Earth are also very fine, as is Before the Ruin with Woomble and McCusker.
I was going to stop there, but let's end on a more hopeful note...
Below: "Start it all Over Again," an old Battlefield Band song exquisitely performed by Irish singer Heidi Talbot -- backed up by her husband, Scottish fiddler John McCusker, and Boo Hewerdine. Talbot, formerly of Cherish the Ladies, has released five solo albums, of which I especially like the latest, Angel Without Wings.
If you stutter or stumble, if dreams start to crumble I'll pick up the pieces of pain.
I will cradle you, cry with you, pray that tonight we'll just
start it all over again...
This week, a few more songs from the extraordinary folk tradition of the British Isles:
Above: David Gibb & Elly Lucas, a folk duo out of Derbyshire in the English Midlands, peform a jazz-inflected version of "The Blacksmith." It comes from their 2012 album, Old Chairs to Mend (which also contains charming original songs like this one).
Below: Pilgrims Way, a trio from the northwest of England, performs "The Handweaver and the Factory Maid." The song comes from their 2011 debut album, Wayside Courtesies.
Next: Jim Moray, based in Bristol here in the southwest of England, performing "Lord Douglas," a variant of the Child Ballad "Earl Brand." The song comes from his fifth album, Skulk. The album's gorgeous cover photograph is above.
I confess I've been on the fence about Moray's music in the past, which mixes folk, rock, pop, and electronica -- but he's completely won me over now with Skulk, in which the traditional roots of the music are foregrounded a bit more. And lordy, what a beautiful voice he has for folk material. The album's name, says Moray, comes from the collective noun for foxes, inspired by fox legends and lore. (For more of his music this morning, go here.)
And last (because what could possibly follow this?): Sam Lee's rendition of "The Ballad of George Collins," from his 2012 album Ground of Its Own. It's a great song from a great, great album -- but this one gets my vote as the wackiest damn video of the year. Wonderful, and thoroughly magical, but truly wacky too. See if you don't agree.
Lee, who comes from "a Jewish family of artists in Tufnell Park, north London," collected many of the songs he performs from Britian's Romany Gypsy community. There's a fascinating article about him on The Guardian's site here, which I highly recommend. How I'd love to have a long natter with this lad...preferably under the stars beside a warm campfire, with a bottle of good single malt whiskey to hand....
I was so pleased when Lau, the folk trio from Scotland, won "Best Band of 2013" in the BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards (held in Glasgow in January)...for the third, or is it the fourth time now? Named after the Orcadian word for "natural light," the group consists of Kris Drever (guitar and vocals), Martin Green (accordion and piano), and Aidan O'Rourke (fiddle). And if their music wasn't already reason enough to love this band, I also appreciated the banner of support for the UK's National Health Service placed promimently on their keyboard during the Folk Awards ceremony. Well done, lads.
The first two Lau videos today were recorded at the Folk Awards: "Ghosts" (above), and "Far From Portland" (below, with a clever use of the accordion). Both songs come from their lovely third album, Race the Loser.
The final tune is "Saving the Bees," recorded for a DropTune session. Simply gorgeous...and distinctly bee-like.
Speaking of which, the bees do need saving. There's a petition here asking the UK government to take action on this urgent matter. (And another one for our badgers here -- plus information about the proposed badger cull, and why it's a terrible idea, from Sir David
Attenborough and others.)
Today's tunes come from the outrageously talented Josh Flowers and The Wild, a five-piece alt-folk and blues band from London. These young lads are just blindingly good.
Above: "Nickajack Cave," from their first EP, The Observatory Sessions (recorded live last year at the old Radcliffe Observatory in Oxford).
Below: "Poor Boy Blues," from the same EP.
Last:
"Rolling Through," a lovely song from their new EP, Young Bones. Banjo, cello, fine harmonies, and Flowers' gorgeous lyrics. <happy sigh>
I you want more, go here for the music video for "Cold," off the new EP.
Following on from last week's Child Ballad theme, the first tune today is another fine version of "Annachie Gordon" (Child Ballad 239), performed this time by The Unthanks.
This alt-folk group from Northumbria (in the north of England, just below of the Scottish Borders) started off as a quartet of women under the name Rachel Unthank & the Winterset, then changed members a couple of times, reforming as The Unthanks in 2009. At the core of the band are sisters Rachel and Becky Unthank, joined, in the current line-up, by Adrian McNally (Rachel's husband), Niopha Keegan, and Chris Price, as well as a floating number of other musicians. All told, the Unthank sisters have produced five terrific albums of traditional folk music played in untraditional ways.
Above: "Annachie Gordon," with lead vocals by Rachel Unthank.
Below: "The Testimony of Patience Kershaw" by Frank Higgins, about a woman working in the coal mines.
Both songs can be found on the group's third album, Here's The Tender Coming.
Below:
In this earlier video, Rachel Unthank & the Winterset perform "Blue's Gaen Oot O'the Fashion" live at Abbey Road (2008). The song comes off their second album, The Bairns. The band's line-up at the time: Rachel and Becky Unthank, Niopha Keegan, and Belinda O'Hooley.
The Unthanks' previous appearance on this blog is here.
The first two songs today come from Child Ballads, a lovely new album from American folk singers Anais Mitchell (yes, she was named after Anais Nin) and Jefferson Hamer. The album is exactly what you'd expect from the title: songs drawn from Francis J. Child's great collection of English and Scottish Popular Ballads, first published (in ten volumes) in the 1880s and '90s. Although deeply rooted in the landscape and folk tradition of the British Isles, these songs made their way over to the New World with Anglo-Scots immigrants and thus became a vibrant part of America's folk heritage too -- particularly in the eastern Appalachian, Blue Ridge and Smoky mountain regions. Francis Child was American himself, a scholar of literature, language and folklore at Harvard University in Boston.
Above: Mitchell & Hammer perform "Willie's Lady," Child Ballad 6, at a recent Folk Alley Session.
Below: "Tam Lin," Child Ballad 39, a faerie ballad from the Scottish Borders.
There have, of course, been many fine poems, short stories, children's
books and fantasy novels based on the Tam Lin ballad. The latter includes Perilous Gard by Elizabeth Marie Pope, Tam Lin by Pamela Dean, Fire and Hemlock by Diana Wynne Jones, Winter Rose by Patricia A. McKillip, An Earthly Knight by Janet McNaughton, Deersnake by Lucy Sussex, and The Queen of Spells by Dahlov Ipcar.
Carrying on with the Child Ballads theme:
"The Dowie Dens of Yarrow" (Child Ballad 214), from the album Fairest Floo'er by Scottish singer/songwriter Karine Polwart; and "The Elfin Knight," Child Ballad 2, from the album The Girl Who Couldn't Fly by singer/songwriter Kate Rusby, from Yorkshire.
Reaching into the past, below:
The House Carpenter," performed by Pentangle (with John Renbourn, Bert Jansch, and Jacqui McShee) during the 1970s folk music revival. "The House Carpenter," a.k.a., "The Daemon Lover," is Child Ballad 243. Many of the mythic writers/artists of my generation grew up during the folk revival and were strongly influenced by it.
And one more:
"Jock O'Hazeldean," Child Ballad 293, peformed by Maddy Prior at London's Cecil Sharpe House (The English Folk Dance and Song Society) in 2008. Prior, of course, was the lead singer in the '70s electric folk band Steeleye Span.
If you're in the mood for few more ballads, try: "The Great Selkie of Sule Skerry" (Child Ballad 113), performed and explained by Scottish singers Caorolyn Allan and Jenny Keldie; "Twa Sisters" (Child Ballad 10) from Scottish singer Emily Smith (and Julie Fowlis does a lovely version too); Anachie Gordon (Child Ballad 239) from Irish singer Mary Black; "The Famous Flower of Serving Men" (Child Ballad 106) from the British folk stalwart Martin Carthy; and "Hughie Graeme" (Child Ballad 191) from the great June Tabor.
If you love ballads and folk music, I hope you know about John Boden's wonderful site, A Folk Song a Day. I'm addicted to it.
And no discussion of ballads is complete without mentioning Charles Vess's The Book of Ballads, an absolutely magical volume of ballads rendered in narrative graphic form. The book won the Eisner Award, and the original artwork (all 132 pages of it) is now housed in the Library of Congress collections.
Today's first two tunes are by Laurie Levine, a singer/songwriter from Cape Town, South Africa, whose voice puts me in mind of a young Lucinda Williams (and that's no small praise). Her infuences come from American Appalachian and country music mixed with British folk and South African rhythms and instrumentation.
Above: The video for "Oh Brother," written and performed by Levine, from her third and latest album, Six Winters. Her first two albums are nice, but she seems to have really come into her own with the new one. The celle, or is that fiddle?, at the end the end of this song is just delicious. (On a more frivilous note: I love the neo-Victorian/country flavor of her clothes in this video. Back when I younger and living in Tucson, I adopted a personal style that I dubbed "Pre-Raphaelite Cowgirl." These clothes would have worked a treat.)
Below: A really lovely rendition of "Ring of Fire," written by the great Johnny Cash and June Carter Cash. I have a real weakness Cash's for music, which was the music of my childhood. Levine does the song proud.
Third:
The American punk band Social Distortion, with a very different take on "Ring of Fire," bless 'em. I suspect Johnny and June would have loved it.
And last:
The Man in Black himself, performing the Nine Inch Nail's song "Hurt" in a video made shortly before June and Johnny died in 2003 (June in May, and Johnny in September). It's a remarkable and haunting piece of film.
Today's music is from The Staves, an alt-folk trio of sisters (Emily, Jessica and Camilla Staveley-Taylor) from Watford, Hertfordshire. All three songs come from their debut CD, Dead & Born & Grown.
Above: "Winter Trees," with an enchanting video from Aardman Animations in Bristol.
Below: "Mexico," another magical video -- in a dreamlike, Tord Boontje kind of way.
And one more...
Below: a (mostly) a capella song, "Wisely and Slow."
Above: "Inspiration" from 1 Giant Leap, the wonderful music/film/spoken-word project by created the UK musicians Jamie Catto (of Faithless) and Duncan Bridgeman. This intrepid pair traveled all around the world bringing musicians both famous and obscure into a pan-cultural musical collaboration, interspersed with the words of writers, philosphers, spiritual leaders and others. The results are gathered on two albums and DVDs: 1 Giant Leap and What About Me? The stirring video above, featuring African, Indian, Native American and other musicians, comes from the second DVD.
Below: "Ascending Bird" from The Silk Road Project (performed in New York City). The Silk Road Project was created by the great American cellist Yo-Yo Ma to promote collaboration among global musicians and "the study of the ebb and flow
of ideas among different cultures along the Silk Road." This piece is an arrangement of an old Persian folk song recounding the myth of a bird attempting to fly to the sun. (After failing twice, on the third attempt the bird loses its physical body in the radiant embrace of the sun, a metaphor for spiritual transcendence.) Kamancheh player Kayhan Kalhorhe and the terrific New York quartet Brooklyn Rider are part of the ever-changing Silk Road Ensemble for this performance.
Next, below:
"Caravanserai" by the Canadian singer/songwriter and Celtic music scholar Loreena McKennitt (performed in Alhambra, Spain). This piece comes from Ancient Muse, a concept album which McKennitt describes as “musical travel writing.” For this project she went in search
of the Celts’ easternmost paths and musical roots -- from the plains of Mongolia to the
kingdom of King Midas and the Byzantine Empire; she then created music to be played on instruments drawn from these interlinked cultures. The song here, "Caravanserai," was inspired by rhythms and peoples encountered along the Silk Road.
And last, below:
"My Wild Heart" by Native American flute player R. Carlos Nakai, with hyper-harpist William Eaton and percussionist Will Clipman (performed at the Desert Botanical Garden in Tuscon, Arizona). Nakai, a musician and composer of Navajo/Ute heritage, creates works inspired by indiginous traditions and informed by his western classical training. He often collaborates with artists from other musical cultures -- as he does here, in a piece from the gorgeous album In a Distant Place, on which Nakai, Earon, and Clipman are joined by the Tibetan flute player and composer Nawang Khechog.
Since we've been talking about work and labor of the hands, I've chosen a trio of Gaelic waulking songs this week, all recorded in Scotland for the Highland Sessions. Waulking songs were sung as part of the traditional process of "waulking" homespun cloth (particularly tweeds): beating it against a board or trampling it underfoot to soften it. This task was often done by groups of women together, and the songs drove the work with their beat.
In the video above, Margaret Stewart sings "He Will Go, He Will Go With Me." Below, Kathleen MacInnes sings "Gaol Ise Gaol (She's My Love)." The second song starts about 30 seconds into the video.
And last, my favorite:
Karen Matheson (of Capercaille) sings a very beautiful waulking song from Skye: "Chuir m'Athair Mise Dha'n Taigh Charraideach (My
Father Sent Me to the House of Sorrow)."
And don't forget to try the latest dishes in the"Desiring Dragons" Moveable Feast. The most recent links will be found on Page 2 of the Comments.
"When you really listen to music, you begin to hear the beautiful way it
constellates and textures the silence, how it brings out the hidden
mystery of silence. The gentle membrane where sound meets silence
becomes deftly audible." - John O'Donahue (Anam Cara)
“She knew this music--knew it down to the very core of her being--but
she had never heard it before. Unfamiliar, it had still always been
there inside her, waiting to be woken. It grew from the core of mystery
that gives a secret its special delight, religion its awe. It demanded
to be accepted by simple faith, not dissected or questioned, and at the
same time, it begged to be doubted and probed.”
- Charles de Lint (The Little Country)
"We do not create
music; we only create the conditions so that she can appear." - Romanian conductor Sergiu Celibidache
"The music of a people offers a unique entry into their unconscious life. The tenor of what haunts and delights them becomes audible there. The cry of a people is in their music. The mystery of music is its uncanny ability to coax harmony out of contradiction and chaos. Often the beauty of great music is a beauty born from the rasp of chaos. The confidence of creativity knows that deep conflict often yields the most interesting harmony and order. In the Irish tradition, we have sean-nós singing. This is a style of unaccompanied singing in the Irish language that has a primal tonality and a very beautiful rhythm. The resonance and style of sean-nós seems to mirror the landscape and sensibility of the people. There is a repetoire of these songs and they are sung over and over." - John O'Donahue (Beauty: The Invisible Embrace)
"The rivers are still singing in Sami, so we have not given up. Nor has the land." - Sami yoik singer and activist Sofia Jannok (from her TED Talk, "Our Rights to Earth and Freedom")
"In the presence of great music we have no alternative but to live nobly." - Sean O'Faolain
Today, Italian pianist and composer Ludovico Einaudi, (with thanks to Chantal Simon for introducing me to his music). Einaudi was raised in Turin, Italy, studied at the Conservatory in Milan, and now resides on a vineyard in the Piedmont region. He's an interstitial musician who combines his classical training with a love of music from many different genres.
Above: "Walk," an exquisite song from him new album, In a Time Lapse.
Below: "In a Time Lapse story telling," which the composer discusses the concepts behind the album -- explaining that he doesn't just put random tracks together, he thinks "of the entire voyage as a book, like when you are reading or writing a novel, so that every part is a chapter where some elements come back in different ways, in the music's different and reccuring themes."
And last:
"Divinire" (from Einaudi's 2006 album of the same name) performed in the Palazzo Te, in Mantova, Italy.
"It's only when we become aware or are reminded that our time is limited that we can channel our energy into truly living." - Ludovico Einaudi
The Civils Wars held a contest to create the official video for their song "Twenty Years," and the winning video (above) came from South Africa. The story behind the video is explained by folks who made it, the Innerview Production Company:
"Under the apartheid regime in South Africa, many Native South Africans
were dispossessed of their land and were forced to leave their families
to earn a living and pay taxes by working as cheap labour in the mines
across the country. They were banned by law from bringing wives and
children with them to the mines as they were considered 'superfluous
appendages.' Many of these families were torn apart for extended periods
of time, many died of mining related diseases, while some returned to
their families after years or even decades apart. The video
depicts a Xhosa newlywed couple whose lives are separated for economic
and political reasons as the husband leaves to work in the mines to
sustain his family financially."
It's a gorgeous little video. Makes me cry every time.
Above: "Barton Hollow," which is also by The Civil Wars (John Paul White and Joy Williams), from the album of the same name.
Below: "My First Lover" from the great folk/bluegrass duo Gillian Welch and Dave Rawlings. It's from their third CD Time (The Revelator).
And last, a real treat: footage of Welch & Rawlings in a spontaneous performance of Neil Young's beautiful song "Pochahontas."<happy sigh>
Today, four wintry songs from four countries for you...
Above: "Goodbye England (Covered in Snow)" from the English singer/songwriter Laura Marling. Marling, who first started making a name for herself in the London folk scene when she was just 16, turns 23 on Friday. (Happy birthday!) For more Laura Marling, I recommend a video recently recorded in a back alley in Melbourne, Australia: "Don't Ask Me Why/ Salinas."
Below: "January Hymm" by the American alt-folk band The Decemberists (Portland, Oregon), fronted by singer/songwriter Colin Meloy. The song is from their 2011 album The King is Dead.
Below:
"The Winter Hours" by The Deep Dark Woods, from Saskatoon, Canada. The song is from their third album, Winter Hours (2009).
And last:
"Árvas" by the Sami singer/songwriter Sofia Jannok, from Gällivare, Sweden, whose music is influenced by the Sami yoik tradition.
Today's tunes come from two roots bands out of Colorado: The Lumineers, from Denver, and Elephant Revival, from Nederland.
Above: The Lumineer's 2012 video for the song "Hey Ho."
Below: Bob Dylan's "Boots of Spanish Leather" covered by The Lumineer's Wesley Schultz. There's more here, in a Liveset Session recorded in New Orelans.
Below:
Elephant Revival performs "Remembering a Beginning" at a Music Fog session in Nashville.
And last:
Elephant Revival's 2012 video for "Quill Pen Feather."
Today, The Avett Brothers (from North Carolina), in honor of their lovely new album, The Carpenter. The band consists of singer/songwriters Scott & Seth Avett with Bob Crawford on the standing bass, Jacob Edwards on drums, and the amazing Joe Kwon on cello.
Above, the band performs a song off the new album: "The Once and Future Carpenter."
Below, a charming, bluegrass-inflected song for a cold, wet winter's day: "January Wedding." (It comes from their fine last album, I and Love and You.)
And one final video:
After posting Seth Lakeman's performance with the BBC Concert Orchestra last week, it seems fitting to include this video of the Avetts performing "I and Love and You" (my favorite of their songs) with The Brooklyn Philharmonic.
A beautiful, stripped-down version of the song can be heard here. (If you want more this morning, try their Tiny Desk Concert for NPR, the animated video for "Head Full of Doubt," or the father-and-daughter song from their new album.) Oh, how I love these guys -- for their musicianship, their interstitial blending of musical genres, their lyric poetry, and for unapologetically wearing their hearts on their sleeves in this often cynical world.
Today's tunes are all from the fantastic new EP by Dartmoor musician & songwriter Seth Lakeman, containing five of his songs recorded live with BBC Concert Orchestra here in Devon in March, 2012.
Above: "The Bold Knight." Below: "Kitty Jay." Both are based on local Dartmoor legends.
The final tune (below) is a wonderful rendition of "King and Country."
The other two songs on the EP are equally fine; you can hear them here and here.
I'm actually writing this post on Saturday morning (setting it up for automated posting on Monday) as I'm about to head in to London for the next few days, where Victoria and I are going to catch the Pre-Raphaelite exhibition at the Tate before it closes. I'll be back in the office again on Thursday.
This week's tunes were inspired, by the way, not only by the release of Seth's beautiful new EP but also by spotting Seth, with his wife and dog, out walking on the hill behind my studio this morning. Alas, I was (uncharacteristically) too shy to bustle up and say hello, and Tilly was (uncharacteristically) too busy sniffing some animal's track to run up to the other dog, hoping to play. But it was a nice surprise to find him on our hill (as he lives on the other side of Dartmoor), and it reminded me that I've been meaning to share these new videos.... And here they are.
I'm in the mood for Of Monsters and Men this morning, so here's hoping that you are too.
First, "King and Lionheart," performed in a studio session filmed for Billboard magazine. This one goes out to Ellen Kushner (my writing partner) this morning, as I think she'll like the lyrics (and the brass! All very Bordertown, yes?)
In the second video, the band plays "Dirty Paws" at a music festival in their native Iceland. This one's for all my fellow animal lovers out there.
The illustration below is by the fabulous Julianna Swaney, in Portland, Oregon. Please visit her website, blog, and shop for more.
It was autumn when I left Devon a month ago, and it's definitely winter as I return. So the first tune for today (recommended by Howard) is "Winter Coat" from The Martin Harley Band, a British roots & blues trio consisting of Martin Harley (vocals, guitar, Weissenborn), Pete Swatton (drums,
percussion, balalaika, backing vocals) and Jay Carter (double Bass,
guitar, backing vocals).
Below: "Carnival Girl," from the band's first album, Money Don't Matter.
I'm a writer, artist, and book editor interested in myth, folklore, fairy tales, and the ways they are used in contemporary arts. I work in the New York publishing industry but I live in a little village at the edge of Dartmoor in Devon, England, with my husband, dramatist Howard Gayton, our daughter, pastry chef Victoria Windling-Gayton, and a dog named Tilly.
Myth & Moor is a daily journal for musings about art, myth, books, village life, and the world-wide community of folks who create and love Mythic Arts.
If you'd like to learn more about my work, the door into my studio is here.
"Home is a name, a word, it is a strong one; stronger than magician ever spoke, or spirit ever answered to, in the strongest conjur- ation." - Charles Dickens
Bookshelf
The Wood Wife: A mythic novel set in the Sonoran desert of Arizona. This link goes to the US edition; a UK edition is available here; and the new French edition is here. (For those who might be interested, I did a Q-&-A session on the book over on the Good Reads site.)
Snow White, Blood Red: The first of six anthologies containing fairy tale inspired stories for adult readers. The other volumes are: Black Thorn, White Rose; Ruby Slipper, Golden Tears; Black Swan, White Raven; Silver Birch, Blood Moon; and Black Heart, Ivory Bones.
A Wolf at the Door: The first of three anthologies containing fairy tale inspired stories for 8-to-12 year old readers. The other two volumes are Swan Sister and Troll's Eye View.
The Green Man: Tales from the Mythic Forest, for YA readers.
The Faery Reel: Tales from the Twlight Realm, for YA readers.
Welcome to Bordertown: The latest volume in a classic Urban Fantasy series for YA readers. (For information on the previous books, visit the Bordertown website.)
Good Faeries, Bad Faeries: I was the editor and folklore consultant for this wonderful book by Brian Froud.
The Armless Maiden: Fairy tale inspired fiction for adult readers, focused on themes of childhood trauma, survival, and healing.
All told, I've published over 40 books for children, teenagers, and adults, and been kindly given a number of awards for them. Information about the books I've written, created-&-edited, or otherwise had a hand in, can be found on my website.
The Endicott Studio The nonprofit organization for Mythic Arts that I ran for 22 years (starting in 1986), co-directed with author & folklorist Midori Snyder. The organization is currently on hiatus (while we catch our breaths and make a living)...but we'll be back!
"Everyone, no matter what their cultural background, has a right to discover the sacred in nature; to heal and be redeemed spiritually by nature; and to revere the ancestors. We are all haunted and saved by our memories."
-- Martha Brooks
(from Bone Dance)
At night I dream that you and I are two plants
that grew together, roots entwined,
and that you know the earth and the rain like my mouth,
since we are made of earth and rain.
-- Pablo Neruda
(from his poem "Rain")
"Walking, I can almost hear the redwoods beating. And the oceans are above me here, rolling clouds, heavy and dark. It is winter and there is smoke from the fires. It is a world of elemental attention, of all things working together, listening to what speaks in the blood. Whichever road I follow, I walk in the land of many gods, and they love and eat one another. Suddenly all my ancestors are behind me. Be still, they say. Watch and listen. You are the result of the love of thousands."
