#4676, Selkie Songs
Hear traditional Selkie Songs - about creatures said to shed their seal skin and take human form, or may be humans under a curse - in music by The Unthanks, Shrines, and Spell Songs.
There's new music from the constantly evolving folk-rooted band co-fronted by the two sisters, Rachel and Becky Unthank, from their 2022 album, Sorrows Away, recorded at home in Northumberland. On this record, their 11 piece band features the arrangements and writing of composer, pianist, producer and Yorkshireman, Adrian McNally. Listen to “The Great Silkie Of Sule Skerry”, a traditional Orkney song learned from Alan Fitzsimmons of The Keelers, which includes brass, strings, acoustic guitar and rumbly drums.
There’s also a traditional Gaelic song from the voice of the seal people or selkies, in music from Shrines, the moniker of New York singer Carrie Erving, who studied sean nós (old style) singing while living in Ireland from a group of renowned singers including Iarla Ó Lionáird and Karan Casey. Then, listen to “Selkie Boy” (‘A Summoning Spell, A Drowning Song’) by the London-based chamber-folk collective Spell Songs, which includes Scottish singer Julie Fowlis and Senegalese-born kora virtuoso Seckou Keita. One of the legends surrounding these ‘half-creatures’ was that they were ‘believed to be former human beings who voluntarily sought death in the ocean’ (folkradio.co.uk). That, and more. - Caryn Havlik
Program #4676, Selkie Songs (First aired 10/26/2022)
ARTIST: The Unthanks
WORK: The Great Silkie of Sule Skerry [7:45]
RECORDING: Sorrows Away
SOURCE: Rabble Rouser
INFO: the-unthanks.com
ARTIST: Lisa Hannigan
WORK: Amhran Na Farraige [2:40]
RECORDING: Song of the Sea
SOURCE: Universal Music/Mercury Records
INFO: Available at YouTube Music, Spotify.
ARTIST: Gordon Bok with Ann Mayo Muir
WORK: Seal Djiril's Hymn [4:05]
RECORDING: Seal Djiril's Hymn
SOURCE: Smithsonian Folkways
INFO: folkways.si.edu
ARTIST: Julie Folwis, Spell Songs
WORK: Selkie Boy [5:08]
RECORDING: The Lost Words: Spell Songs
SOURCE: Folk by the Oak /Quercus Records
INFO: thelostwords.org/lostwordsbook
ARTIST: Julie Folwis
WORK: Òran an Ròin (The Song of the Seal) [3:00]
RECORDING: alterum
SOURCE: Machair Records
INFO: juliefowlis.com
ARTIST: Shrines
WORK: Silkie [4:13]
RECORDING: Our Ship Is Ready
SOURCE/INFO: thisisshrines.bandcamp.com
ARTIST: Paul Winter
WORK: Dance of the Silkies [5:10]
RECORDING: Callings
SOURCE/INFO: paulwinter.bandcamp.com/album/callings-2
ARTIST: Jocelyn Montgomery
WORK: Song of the Seal [3:48]
RECORDING: WNYC Live, 1998
SOURCE: This performance not commercially available.
INFO: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jocelyn_West
ARTIST: Mary McLaughlin
WORK: Sealwoman/Yundah [4:02]
RECORDING: Daughter of Lir
SOURCE: Gourd Music / Rowan Records
INFO: Available on AppleMusic, YouTube Music, Spotify
