sarahillis's blog

As Monday is May 1, I thought we'd pay some attention to that fact in fine Celtic fashion on Come by the Hills. May Day or May-time was for a long time in European history associated with the end of planting and the beginning of summer. yes, summer used to begin much earlier than June 21, which is why that date is still known as Midsummer's Day in England. The Equinoxes and Solstices used to mark the mid-points, rather than the beginnings of seasons. So, May 1 was the beginning of summer in the old agricultural calendar.

I forgot to blog last week, but now that there's a lovely description of Come By The Hills in the schedule, I think I need to be extra vigilant from now on.

We've got an interesting song in "Celtic Covers" this week which, though often thought of as traditional, was written in the 20th century and whose tune has an interesting classical connection! I picked it at random because I had two versions of the song, and then I googled it and all this interesting information came out. I love it when that happens.

Come By The Hills is coming your way again this week with three more hours of the best in Celtic music from around the world. We'll have a good selection of jigs and reels, a balad or two, an amazing Celtic harp experience, and a "Celtic Cover" which is recycled but which is no less interesting for that.

So if it's Celtic music you crave, tune into Mushroom FM on Sunday night at 8:00 PM Eastern for Come By The Hills! The show is replayed every week on Friday morning at 4:00 AM Eastern, 9:00 AM in the UK and Ireland.

This Sunday, the Juno awards for the best in Canadian music are being given out. However, not to be outdone, Come by the Hills will be presenting a program of Celtic music with a Canadian flare. We have some Juno-nominated and Juno-winning artists on the bill in both "Fiddlin' Around" and "Celtic Covers," and of course there's "Me Music," which is Canadian by default. While I can't promise that all of the music has a Canadian connection, I can promise that all of it will be fun and interesting.

Yes, I'm back yet again this Sunday with another three hours of the best in Celtic music from around the world. There's no particular theme this week. There's just awesome music as usual.

It's chilly and wintry still here in my part of Canada, but the Spring Equinox is coming whether the weather knows it or not. So, in order to encourage hope that this winter really will end someday soon, I'm going to pack this week's Celtic music show full of Spring things!

We're beginning the St. Patrick's Day festivities a little early this year, but then, it's really never too early! Actually, I'm amazed I've held out till now!

This week I finally decided to get to work on a new promo for Come By The Hills, but even though the promo is all new, the show is still the same, or nearly so at any rate. Because next week is going to be the St. Patty's day episode, I decided to keep this week's episode pretty low-key.

St. David's Day is coming up on March 1, so as I've done with other Celtic national cultural days, I'm going to do a mostly Welsh music episode of Come By The Hills this week. St. David was a monastic of the sixth century who founded a community at Glin Rhossyn (the valley of roses) in what is now Pembrokeshire in Wales, and he has been taken as the country's patron saint in a similar manner to how St. Patric (himself probably also a Welshman) was adopted in Ireland.

The Celtic Music show is back for another week, and as well as playing lots of great Celtic artists and groups from around the world, I'll be paying attention to Loreena McKennitt, who celebrated a birthday on Friday. We've got a "Celtic Cover" involving her as well as a set of her "almost-instrumental" tunes in "Fiddlin' Around," and we'll be sprinkling her music liberally throughout the show.