Pagan Culture - Music

Sacred Drum Visions

Sacred Drum Visions  
by David & Steve Gordon
Sequoia Records, 2002

This twentieth anniversary album is a collection of top tracks from their previous releases, plus three new songs. For those of you already familiar with the soulful music of David and Steve Gordon, this is a fine selection of favorites; for everyone else, it’s a great introduction.

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Planet Passion

Planet Passion
by Ancient Future
Ancient Future Music, 1979

My first thoughts upon listening to this CD and the concept behind it were rather vague. I liked the music and the artist’s arrangement of traditional ethnic songs, but I wasn’t quite sure if I could follow the story on the insert through the voice of the music. It wasn’t, well, real enough for me to intuit the emotions meant to be displayed in song, but then, I will freely admit that this is not a style I’m accustomed to. So I hit play again on my faithful CD player and went for a long drive.

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We All Have A Song

We All Have A Song
by Heather Pierson
Vessel Recordings, 2008

 

Before I begin this review, I want you, gentle reader, to understand something. Our beloved Managing Editor (whom I like to refer to as Our Dark Lord on High) is fond of giving me material to review that he thinks will be intolerable. Today, I am happy to report, his dark plans have been thwarted.

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Breath of the Heart

Breath of the Heart  
by Krishna Das
Karuna, 2001
(see below for ratings)

 

If my Momma had told me a decade ago that I would ever have the patience to sit through almost sixteen minutes of the Hare Krishna theme song, I would have taken her Mothers’ Day gift back to the mall. Ah, unemployment and a paying freelance writing gig make strange bedfellows.

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Emerald Rose

SPOTLIGHT ON PAGAN BANDS

Emerald Rose
interviewed by Dean Jones 

One of Paganism’s hottest professional bands, Emerald Rose consists of Brian “Logan” Sullivan (guitar/vocals), Arthur Hinds (vocal/percussion), Clyde Gilbert (bass/ vocals) and Larry Morris (pennywhistle/vocals/ percussion). They play folk and traditional tunes, but infuse rock sensibilities into their music as well. Emerald Rose has produced three CDs and has a following among Pagans and non-Pagans alike. We asked them to describe their music.

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A Darker Shade of Pagan

A Darker Shade of Pagan
by Jason Pitzl-Waters &
Jacqueline Enstrom-Waters
 


©2012 Holly Golightly

We confess: we don’t like pagan music. At least, we don’t like what most folks think of as “pagan music.”

Don’t get us wrong. We’ve heard a rendition or two of Goddess chants that had that certain “something” and we’ve used space-agey soundscapes with intermingled nature sounds once or twice in ritual. Heck, we even own a pseudo-Native American drumming CD with the sound of rain in the background. Yet 99% of the time when someone has played a pagan or Wiccan tape for us saying “but you’ve just got to hear this one, it’s great!” what we heard just didn’t “do it” for us at all. After spending over a decade in the pagan movement, being subjected to “pagan” tunes, we had given up in defeat, believing we’d never find an album that evoked the delicate and dark enchantment of a cold Samhain night or an artist who could evoke a spell of pure witchy-ness that made you want to put on your best ritual gear, light all your candles and call up your pagan pals for a spontaneous night of spell work. It seemed if you weren’t a fan of folk music, you were out of luck.

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