The Thanksgiving holiday is a special time of homecoming and hospitality. The music of this season stirs memories of home and hearth, bounty and peace. We reflect on our heritage in gratitude for our many blessings, for the beauty of the earth itself and for the amazing grace that keeps us filled with hope. Many of us travel over the river and through the wood to be among ones so dear for a friendly visit and a feast with the old folks at home. We gather together around the laden table in the warmth of a familiar circle and welcome both friend and stranger. When we finally drink a parting glass, we realize we are always renewed by going home

Rune of Hospitality

We saw a stranger yesterday.
We put food in the eating place,
Drink in the drinking place,
Music in the listening place,
And in return,
He blessed us and our house,
Our cattle and our dear ones.
Ancient Gaelic

About the music

The Appalachian mountain ridge runs from Maritime Canada and New England to the Southeastern US as well as beneath the Atlantic to the British Isles and Ireland. The northeast coast of North America was an entry point for early explorers and colonists to the New World. As the mountains are connected, so the people of these areas are also connected, culturally and musically, with each other and the Old World ancestors. Primarily Northern European and largely Anglo-Celtic, those who came through the region on their way to the interior frontier brought their language, music and folkways with them. Although fresh ideas sprang from experiences in the new environment, these were nonetheless expressed through the voice of the old culture and tradition.


Just as inflection in speech reveals the speaker’s regional origins, so musical expression reflects the performer’s sensibilities. Julia Lane speaks through her music with a New England accent and perspective. Her family roots are generations deep in that stony soil. She uses the ancient Celtic harp to sing of an American experience honoring the old and celebrating the new. Her expressive interpretations and arrangements are
seasoned with nuances informed by the storytelling tradition of her ancestors.


The music presented here was grown with heirloom seed, nurtured organically in a rockbound garden by the sea, mindfully harvested and prepared with care on the warmth of the kitchen hearth. It is a harvest of old favorites and fresh offerings. In addition to the music itself, all the sounds are organic, produced by hand and voice. The melodies elicited by the playing of handcrafted wooden instruments recall a time of simple elegance and rustic beauty. The listener is invited to share a moment of
joyous calm and becomes renewed by their connection with a bygone era.