Welcome to a Parallel Universe where music rides along a slipstream of notes rising up from the Irish Sea and a New England brook… where haunting echoes of a Native American flute reverberate across the plains of Montana… where joy exists in the space between the notes. May you Walk in Beauty.
This album was three years in the making and it was worth every joyous minute creating this collection of songs with stellar musicians and engineers. David Darling and I co-produced it from 2014-2017 with the help of engineers Bill Ahearn, Tommy Skarupa and Phil Levin.
David Darling is a musical genius. His many layers of cello tracks create a texture of sound that evoke deep emotional responses from the listening audience.
The amazing flute tracks were played by Sarah Swersey, a renowned flute player who has enlivened the halls of Europe and the U.S. in her stellar career. The late, Grammy nominated, Joseph Firecrow‘s haunting Native American flute solo is heard on Walk in Beauty. Ken Lovelett‘s driving percussion tracks add textures and colors to the songs. Dave Anderson is an electric bass player extraordinaire who has performed and recorded with musicians spanning all genres and styles. Gordon Titcomb‘s pedal steel and mandolin add the unexpected country sound to Parallel Universe and Our Love Is/Down the River I Go. Connecticut resident, Joe Grieco has been entertaining audiences with his piano for over 35 years. Tom White is a one-man-band who plays almost all the instruments (fiddle, tin whistle, bouzouki, guitar, spoons) on Burren Dreams. Julie Cook plays the sweet piano track on the first verse of The Fairy Hills.
The inspirations for my songs come from my life:
- Crossing to Inisheer Years ago I visiting Ireland on a ferry boat crossing the Irish Sea to Inisheer Island. As I leaned over the edge this haunting melody came to me out of the waves. I play the melody on a James Jones hammer dulcimer.
- Slipstream Reverie is a hang drum melody that brings the listener to the space between the earth and sky
- Parallel Universe was named for the L-shaped mountain dulcimer chords played on a Folkcraft four-equidistant stringed dulcimer tuned to DAAD
- O My Soul transports the listeners on a New England wintry sleigh ride. I accessed my inner Shaker to create the following lyrics to the melody:
O My Soul (inspired by the Shakers)
O my soul
Merry bells doth toll
Gladsome sounds of Yuletide
Mirthful is the season
O my soul
Peace we now extol
Praising Love’s divinity
We whirl in joyful turning
Join we now our hands together
Loving hearts in harmony
Celebrate this festive revel
With tidings of thanks giving
Light of hope for all creation
Fount of blessing and good will
Rejoice for now our hallowed season
Brings to us good cheer!
- Butternut Brook runs behind my house. Can you hear the birds trilling? Can you feel the rush of the stream going by?
- Our Love Is/Down the River I Go go well together because they are both in the mixolydian mode. I composed Our Love Is as a Valentine for my husband. Down the River I Go is a traditional American fiddle tune I learned from Stephen Seifert. Here are the lyrics to Our Love Is:
Our Love Is
Our love is as fine as a sweet sparrow song
Come hold me close love, with you I belong
Our love is as joyful as waves on the shore
Ebbing and flowing ’tis you I adore
Our love is as wild as a blizzard aswirl
Spinning and reeling, my heart is awhirl
Our love is eternal, my guiding North Star
I’ll follow you, my heart, to lands near and far
Our love is ablazing, a candle flame bright
Come now beloved let’s blow out the light
- Walk in Beauty is a traditional Navajo prayer honoring the beauty of Mother Earth. The haunting echoes of the late Joseph Firecrow‘s Native American flute transport the listeners to the plains of Montana.
- The Fairy Hills (Si Bheag, Si Mhor) is a traditional Irish harp tune composed by the blind harper, Turlough O’Carolan in the 1600’s. The Gaelic words to this tune tell the story of a rivalry between the fairies of two neighboring fairy hills.
- Burren Dreams is named for the barren and rocky landscape in western Ireland. The word “Burren” comes from an Irish word “Boíreann” meaning a rocky place. Can you see the leprechauns dancing among the rocky landscape?
- Ode to Joy by Ludwig van Beethoven ends Parallel Universe with the joyous collaboration of many of the stellar musicians on this album. May you sense the delight that exists in the silence between the notes.