Welcome to our latest post in the Homegrown Plus series, featuring the Skye Consort and Emma Björling, an eclectic group performing British, Irish, Canadian, and Scandinavian music and songs in a variety of traditional and modern styles. Just like other blogs in the series, this one includes a concert video, a video interview with the musicians, and connections to Library of Congress collections. (Find the whole series here!)
Skye Consort & Emma Björling perform traditional music from Scandinavia, Ireland, Britain, and French Canada, along with some of their own compositions. They find enchanting traditional songs and tunes, then arrange them with influences from European folk and chamber music. They use their voices, fiddle, nyckelharpa, cello, bouzouki, and percussion to deliver whirling polskas, compelling reels, passionate love songs, stirring hymns, and original compositions. Hear their concert in the player below!
In our interview, I talked with Emma Björling, Seán Dagher, Amanda Keesmaat and Simon Alexandre about some of the experiences they’ve had leading up to the band’s formation, and also their experiences as a band. We talked a little about other projects too: La Nef, an early music ensemble that brought the band members together; Emma’s other groups, two of which have already appeared in the Homegrown series, and Seán’s exciting work bringing traditional sea shanties into the online gaming world via Assassin’s Creed. See the conversation in the player below!
You can find both of these videos with more bibliographic information on the Library of Congress website. You can also find them on the Library of Congress YouTube channel.
Collection Connections
If you enjoyed the concert and interview, check out the Collection Connections below.
The Skye Consort and Emma Björling
- Find all the latest Skye Consort news at their website!
- Find our previous concert of Kongero (with Emma Björling), plus an interview with the group, at this blog post!
- Find our previous concert of Emma Björling and Petrus Johansson, and an interview with them, at this blog post!
Scandinavian Connections
We covered Scandinavian connections earlier this season in this blog about Northern Resonance–find copious links to concerts, blogs, and guides there.
Irish and British Connections
We covered Irish and British connections earlier this season in this blog about the duo Rakish–find links to concerts, blogs, and guides there!
French Canadian and French American Connections
- Find blogs with French North American content, including French Canadian and Franco American concert and lecture videos, at this link.
- Find more French North American concert videos here.
- Find AFC’s guide to Canadian collections here.
Cello Connections
We’ve been seeing more and more cello in Celtic and Canadian folk music of late. In the last few years we have featured cello in the following concerts:
- Alasdair Fraser and Natalie Haas (Scottish fiddle and cello)
- É.T.É Musique Trad. (Traditional Acadian music from Canada)
- Vrï: Chamber Folk from Wales
Sea Shanty Connections
Seán Dagher is known for his shanty performances outside the group, and “Clear Away the Morning Dew” was sometimes collected as a sea shanty. So even though Skye Consort isn’t a shanty group, we’ll drop some links here in case you’re interested!
- Find AFC’s research guide, “Sea Songs and Shanties,” at this link.
- Find the Folklife Today blog series on sea shanties at this link.
Thanks!
As always, thanks for watching, listening, and reading! The American Folklife Center’s Homegrown Concert Series brings music, dance, and spoken arts from across the country, and some from further afield, to the Library of Congress. The idea of the Homegrown Plus series is to gather concert videos, video interviews with the musicians, and connections to Library of Congress collections together in one place for our subscribers. (Find the whole Homegrown Plus series here!) For information on current concerts, visit the Folklife Concerts page at Concerts from the Library of Congress. For past concerts, including links to webcasts and other information, visit the Folklife Events Online Archive.