(no subject)

[darchildre]

Hey, everybody! It is almost Yule!* That means it is time for Yule music.

There are three ways one can go with Yule music. 1) You can repurpose Christian Christmas carols by changing the words. 2) You can find music composed by fellow pagans about the holiday. 3) You can find secular music that captures something of the feel of the holiday.

This year, I am taking option three. So I have gone through my music and developed a Yule playlist. Which I will now share with you!


Yule is about a lot of things, but for me, there are three main ones. So this playlist is split into three parts.

The Long Night - Before the solstice morning comes, we have the longest night of the year. So Yule is for waiting, in darkness and stillness. Yule is for considering the year that is dying, and our accomplishments and regrets for that year. These are songs for waiting in the dark, hoping the light will come back.


• The Flash Girls - November Song - I drew a picture on the window as we rode and I wiped it dry to see the other side. I see no more than you do, believe me. I've tried.
  
  
• Indigo Girls - Fare Thee Well - This strange season of pain will come to pass when the healing hands of autumn cool me down.
  
  
• Sarah McLachlan - Song for a Winter's Night - The fire is dying now. My lamp is growing dim. The shades of night are lifting.
  
  
• Mary Chapin Carpenter - 10,000 Miles - Oh, come ye back, my own true love, and stay a while with me. If I had a friend all on this earth, you've been a friend to me.
  
  
• Dar Williams - Mortal City - The streets were dark tonight. It was like another century with dim lamps and candles lighting up the icy trees and the clouds and a covered moon. I know, I put this one up all the time. But it's worth it. We are not lost in the mortal city.

Sunrise - But the sun does come up! The light returns and we've passed through the longest night - the hard part is over. So now we celebrate!


• The Beatles - Here Comes the Sun - Sometimes, I am distressingly literal. Little darling, I feel the ice is slowly melting...
  
  
• The Flash Girls - Amaryllis - Sunlit water, come take my joy to wash the skin of a southern boy. I do believe I've seen a sign.
  
  
• Sheryl Crow - Soak Up the Sun - I'm gonna tell everyone to lighten up.
  
  
• Indigo Girls - Rise Up - Rise up your dead, there's life in the old girl yet. Move your body to the band and rise up!
  
  
• Oysterband - When I'm Up I Can't Get Down - This is maybe the most Odinic song I know. I am the fountain of affection, the instrument of joy.

The Year to Come - And now, we move forward, into the new year. Yule is a time for making plans and oaths, for choosing to be better than we've been before. These are songs for the road ahead and the work we'll find on it.


• Oysterband - A Fire is Burning - When we slept our eyes were open and this thumping in our chest said there is no, there is no, there is no rest.
  
  
• Indigo Girls - Closer to Fine - Well, darkness has a hunger that's insatiable and lightness has a call that's hard to hear.
  
  
• Dar Williams - The World's Not Falling Apart - It's not an end, it's just a start.
  
  
• Steve Earle - Steve's Hammer - Someday when my struggle's through, I won't have to strive. Until then all I can do is let my hammer fly. For fairly obvious reasons, this is my Thor song.
  
  
• The Mountain Goats - This Year - There will be feasting and dancing in Jerusalem next year. I am gonna make it through this year if it kill me.

I hope that you all have a good solstice, whatever holidays you celebrate. And I hope that your year ahead is a bright one.



*For those of us in the Northern Hemisphere. Folk of the southerly regions, I wish you a happy Midsummer.

Comments

[finch]

Love your choices. I've only heard Great Big Sea's version of When I'm Up I Can't Get Down. Happily downloading the ones I don't have.

[toft]

Happy solstice!