Songs I’ve Played and More That I Haven’t - Music I Hope you’ll Love
I love music. Writing it, playing it, dancing to it. But, despite having a house full of musical instruments and years of vocal training, my favorite way to interact with music is still as a listener. It was a childhood spent singing along to Chieftains cassettes and choreographing dances to the newest *Nsync CD that sparked my passion for music, and, even as an adult, the first remedy I reach for when I’m suffering from some emotional ill is a pair of headphones and a long walk.
I am very lucky that my day job involves listening to copious amounts of music. This doesn’t mean that I enjoy all the music I hear in a day (I’ve had to clock out because, after hours of listening, every song I played made me irrationally angry) but I do have more opportunities than most to stumble across something amazing. I’m also lucky to be surrounded by musical, magical, and creative people who recommend some incredible music.
Below, I’ve listed some of my favorite albums I’ve discovered over the last couple of years, curated with the audience at Fertile Ground Gathering in mind. I’ve also included links to the other artists who performed in 2023 and 2024 so that you, whoever you are who is hopefully reading this, can support them as well. These songs have all touched me in some way, some more intensely than others but all in the way I needed them to. I hope you find a few new songs to add to your favorite playlist or the next album you plan to buy.
Songs That I’ve Played
Folkesange - MyrkuR
I’m lucky to have traveled quite a bit during my life and music has always been one of my favorite souvenirs to bring home with me. Fifteen years ago, I would have tracked down a record store and purchased a couple of CDs with cool covers or interesting song titles; but record stores are few and far between in the 2020s, so instead I downloaded Folkesange to my phone while on a bus to the Helsinki airport.
I have a soft spot for music that falls into the unofficial genre of “metal musicians playing folk instruments,” which describes Folkesange. Driven by the haunting vocals of Danish black metal artist Amalie Bruun, the twelve-song album has one foot in Scandinavian folk music and the other in metal. And it… works.
Droning talharpa and shimmering lyres played with a distinctly metal bent transport you to a dark, magical forest in a mythical version of Scandinavia. The tracks are a mix of traditional songs and original compositions in Danish, English, and Old Norse. Many of the songs feature kulning, a singing tradition from Norway and Sweden that was historically used as a herding call. The keening, wordless vocals are goosebump-worthy.
My favorite tracks are “Ella,” “Fager som en Ros,” and “Gudernes Vilje” but the whole album is worth a listen. If you’re a visual person, Myrkur has also released some wonderfully vibey music videos.
Be More Kind - Frank Turner
Every song needs to be heard by someone. Sometimes, that’s only one person - maybe even the person who wrote it - who needs catharsis or to give shape and sound to an emotion they can’t name. I think “Be More Kind” needs to be heard by everyone. The title track of Frank Turner’s 2018 album is a warm, comforting hug for a world that so often feels as though it’s falling apart. While Turner frequently brings a Punk Rock aura to his solo folk music, “Be More Kind” is like a soft conversation with a friend. The first time I heard this song on the Druidcast podcast, it brought me to tears. The album is decidedly political but, whatever side of the aisle you fall on, this gentle acoustic-guitar-driven song is for you.
“Be More Kind” is the only Turner song I’ve added to my setlist, but his whole discography is worth exploring. Positive Songs for Negative People is a great listen; I have a particular fondness for the song “Mittens.”
First of May - Jonathan Coulton
Not to be confused with the Bee Gees song of the same name, “First of May” is one of those rare songs that is incredibly funny and performed with 100% sincerity. So often, funny songs get less funny once the punchline is revealed in the first chorus, but “First of May” just gets funnier with each verse. Coulton has a particular gift for writing and performing comedic songs. My first experience with his music (and perhaps yours as well) was the song that plays at the end of the first Portal game, “Still Alive,” performed by the murderous (and still living) computer, GLaDOS. It wasn’t until a friend turned me on to “First of May” that I went deeper into his catalog. “Re: Your Brains” is probably my other favorite song of his that beautifully combines bullshit management speak with a zombie apocalypse.
MOre That I Haven’t
RHiannon’s Lark
Rhiannon’s Lark’s website describes her as a “Disney princess singing about […] boardgames, ninjas, and krakens,” and I couldn’t sum it up better myself. With her princess-worthy vocals and beautiful guitar playing, Alyssa could perform just about anything and I would enjoy listening. But her skills as an entertainer and songwriter make seeing her live a can’t-miss experience.
Writing genuinely funny music is a very special and very uncommon skill. Rhiannon’s Lark’s performance at FGG 2023 had me laughing, crying, and just basking in the beauty of it all. “Tiny Kraken” managed to make me laugh and feel some deep feels all at once and “House Rules” has lived in my head rent-free for over a year now. “Cylinder Becomes Unicorn” had me tearing up; though the delivery is light-hearted, it perfectly encapsulated the experience of growing up queer and neurodivergent that I’m still working through in therapy.
I’m so thrilled to get to hear her again this year. You can explore her website, Patreon, and streaming albums at the links below.
Jenna Greene
Last year, Jenna held a last-minute workshop that wound up being the most impactful experience I had at FGG. I cried in a room with a bunch of other people and it was… good. Really good. Her song spell workshop along with the rest of the weekend at Fertile Ground changed the trajectory of my year. Her ability to create music is not only a pleasure to listen to but also carries so much magic is inspiring.
I haven’t been lucky enough to see her perform live but I have been enjoying her albums on Apple Music. As a devotee of Brigid, her song of the same name honoring the goddess resonates deeply. As an aside, the cover art for Wings is delightful. I’m so excited to hear her in action this year at FGG. You can explore her albums, support her on Patreon, and browse her website at the links below.
Kindred Crow
While they will not be at Fertile Ground Gathering this year, Kindred Crow has been an integral part of the FGG experience for me. Aside from the fact that they make fantastic music, they have in the past kindly provided sound for the other artists for the whole weekend. If you don’t know how big a deal that is, you’ve never had to mix your own sound while performing live, not to mention the fact that they trusted a stranger to treat their expensive equipment with care.
Their performance leading into last year’s Saturday night ritual was electric. As a primarily solo practitioner, I have never had the opportunity to feel energy like that. I wish I could call out a particular song that moved me, but that performance is such a blur of emotion and energy that it’s difficult to break it down into individual songs. The whole performance - the writing, playing, singing, choreography, and lighting - was an out-of-body experience. Listen to it all and try to see them live somewhere. It’s so, so worth it.
Wrackline - Fey Hield
This album came to me as a recommendation from a friend and fellow musician at an Old Time and Trad jam where a statue of Ceres watched over the instrumentalists from her seat of honor at the center of the circle. I was hooked from the first song, “Hare Spell,” which remains my favorite track. Using a very cool and distinctly magical method of melody writing, “Hare Spell” brings to life the words of Scotland’s last confessed witch and sets the tone for the rest of the album.
Hield’s earnest vocals and thoughtful folk arrangements weave a world that is at once magical and mundane, and incredibly varied. “Swirling Edies” and “Call the Storm” bring to mind both mythological selkies and the very real grief of losing parts of yourself as you age and start new chapters in your life - especially as a female-identifying person. At the right time of night, “Wing Flash” brings me to tears. “Cruel Mother” is an empathetic, feminist reimagining of a traditional folk song, and “Night Journey,” my second favorite song in the collection, puts the listener face-to-face with an ancient god. This isn’t a pagan album, but it’s definitely an album that would be appreciated by pagans.
Hield also has a fantastic blog where she details her thoughtful writing process. Although I’m a musician and writer, I usually find behind-the-scenes content very boring; I’m far more interested in how the sausage tastes than how it got made. Despite this, I spent a full afternoon reading through Hield’s website. Her voice as both a musician and a writer is a pleasure to experience.
Reclaim the Ritual - Bog Bodies
Over the last five years, my music discovery sources have been 1) my job and 2) my friend and drummer, Josh. Reclaim the Ritual was a recommendation from Josh. His description, “It’s straight up an Irish pagan folk rock album,” was 100% accurate.
I’d put this in the same “metal musicians playing folk instruments” category as Folkesange, although Reclaim the Ritual leans harder into the rock side of its lineage and is distinctly Irish. Blending bodhrán and bouzouki with electric guitars and drumset, their self-proclaimed Druid Rock songs touch on the spiritual, the mythological, and the political. The lyrics are decidedly pagan but the album stays firmly in the rock genre. I love me some New Age music but it’s nice to hear songs that come from a pagan perspective without being completely defined by it. If you, like me, are a fast-song-only kind of listener, Bog Bodies’ high-energy chugging guitars will keep you engaged through all eleven songs.
Chronicles of the Great Irish Famine - Declan O’Rourke
I can’t remember how this album found me, but I’m glad that it did. O’Rourke leverages his skill as a songsmith to tell the story of the Great Irish Famine from deeply personal and individual perspectives. At least in the States, the way we are taught about the Famine is impersonal and, frankly, inaccurate. We don’t talk about the deep suffering, the long-lasting impact, or the fact that an increasing number of scholars are calling it a genocide. We are rarely taught that this period of incredible human suffering was manufactured by the British Empire, perhaps because it is too similar to our own national sins. We even still use the (likely extremely undercounted) statistics provided by the very government that engineered the deaths of millions.
Chronicles of the Great Irish Famine shares the stories of individuals who lived and died during the Famine in a deeply empathetic way. It is heart-wrenching and hopeful and full of rage and so deeply human. It is too easy when talking about an event that impacted millions of people to lose sight of the individual human beings who are the parts of the sum. O’Rourke gives them voices, gives them song. While the people he sings for are long dead, their stories are an important reminder for our present and a warning for the future.
I recommend crying your way through the entire album but, if you can only listen to a few songs, “Buried in the Deep,” “Mary Kate,” “Indian Meal,” and “Rattle My Bones” are my favorites.
Bb - Bedouin Burger
I found this EP while researching for my day job. Another single from this Paris-based duo, “Taht El Wared,” was synced in the Amazon Prime show, The Power. As much as I enjoyed the single, the Bb EP completely hooked me. It’s an amazing intersection of traditional microtonal music and electronica, unified by Lynn Adib’s gorgeous, otherworldly vocals. Don’t write this off if you’re not a fan of EDM. Although the electronic elements are undeniably present, they’re not the star of the show; nothing can pull the spotlight from the Adib. If you’re of the opinion that the words “electronic” and “music” do not belong in the same sentence, the second and fifth tracks, “Nomad” and “Mansya,” are still worth a listen.
Atmospheric doesn’t quite capture the tracks’ immersive, evocative quality. Each song is a unique vignette that takes you somewhere completely new. The mellow synths, mesmerizing melodies, and hypnotic percussion combine to make this the musical equivalent of a body high - a cascading wave of pleasant, heady sensation.
Bonus Track: If you, like me, find yourself completely in love with Adib’s singing, check out this incredible cover she did of the jazz classic, “The Nearness of You.”