1. Dead Can Dance | Saltarello
This song in particular transports me into a Medieval place, somewhere beyond our culture, and makes me have to dance (which is not usual for me!) It sends me away every time I hear it. Ecstasy! There are many others of their songs which I adore, of course, and it has been a great gift to have had my singing at times compared to hers. I never sought to imitate her, but to be the best singer I could be.
2. Loreena McKennitt | The Mystic's Dream
Hey, we were all moved by this before it was used for The Mists Of Avalon movie! A remarkable piece of orchestration, every layer is perfection. There were a few years when I was so sad I couldn't sing - but I could listen to her album, The Mask And Mirror, and sing along with every song.
3. Huun Huur Tu | Eshten Charlyyr Berge
Scott and I got to visit with the members of Huun Huur Tu at my house one year, as we had become friends with their manager due to our use of overtones in The Moors. Somewhere in Russia there is a videotape of this event - with their musicians playing on instruments in my room. Their performances are amazing - we have seen them many times, and we both got into overtone singing.
4. The Bulgarian State Radio And Television Female Vocal Choir | Pilentze Pee (Pilentze Sings) (from Le Mystère Des Voix Bulgares Volume 1)
This blew my mind the first time I heard it! I had the opportunity to sing in a choir that specialized in this Eastern European Music, which was a remarkable experience. Learning to sing in seconds, rather than thirds or fourths, was amazing.
5. Carreg Lafar | Dau Rosyn Coch - Mynd Am Dro
I adore their album Hyn - so many great cuts! This one kicks ass, and makes me think of a wonderful pagan gathering somewhere...
6. Cadenet | S'anc Fuy Belha Ni Prezada (Performed by Mara Kiek, Paula Chateauneuf, Jim Denley and Stevie Wishart) (from Sinfonye – The Courts Of Love - Music From The Time Of Eleanor Of Aquitane)
I have a huge love for Medieval Secular Music, especially in Old French and Provençal. This is an amazing example of that body of Music - soulful, sexy, sophisticated.
7. The Baltimore Consort | Kathren Oggie (Scottish Traditional 'Katherine Oggie' Folk Song Cover)
This is the song I think that makes me the happiest in all the World. I always imagined if I ever got married, this would play after the ceremony. I would weep with joy - it makes me connect so strongly to my Scottish ancestors.
8. Trouz Bras | Ethan's Hanter Dro
I had the opportunity to sing and play woodwinds with this great Breton group for several years - great guys, amazing musicians, and such a cool repertoire, the Celtic Music of Brittany. This is one of the songs I most enjoyed playing with them - so weird and mysterious and compelling.
9. John Cunningham | Waulkin' O' The Fauld (Scottish Traditional Folk Song Cover)
Johnny used to come to some of our very earliest gigs in Boston, and we would hear him play at a local Irish pub in a small group setting. His fiddle playing could bring the audience to tears.
10. The King's Noyse | Begone, Sweit Night (with Paul O'Dette, Ellen Hargis and David Douglass) (17th Century Ballad Cover) (from Royal Delight: 17th Century Ballads & Dances)
A friend burned me a CD from this group, and it is just so fun and bawdy, and always makes me want to do more performances in Renn Faire settings.
