Professional Pagan Music: The Sounds of PSG

July 20, 2010 by Star Foster

Continued from Page 1

This band was the biggest surprise of PSG music for me. Their cover of Hymn to Her was a beacon and I'm sorry I missed the first part of their show, which I understand was actually a liturgical set. "Make a Chain Across the World"is such an amazing song. For a Southern girl bred on bluegrass, Pagan Americana is food for my soul, and this song of Pagan solidarity is a great anthem as we fight for recognition and equal rights.

The music they have streaming on their ReverbNation website doesn't come anywhere near to expressing the awesomeness of their band. Hopefully they will release a few more song samples, a video, and a link for purchasing their music online. If you see they are playing near you, then you owe it to yourself to check them out!

Shibaten
Shibaten is so talented it's scary. World music doesn't quite capture the style of this multi-instrumental one-man-band. I have literally never seen anyone play a didgeridoo like that. It's insane.

Shibaten's music is a driving rhythmic trance beat that inspires your body to move. What you hear on the recording is what you get in concert. He makes music with his entire body with his unique stage set-up, using hands, feet, knees, and voice to create layers of sound.

The music Shibaten is streaming on ReverbNation is a very good representation of what he sounds like live. Not only does he give concerts, but Shibaten also does workshops on both playing the didgeridoo and using the didgeridoo in vibrational healing and meditation, which may be one of the grooviest things a musician did at morning meeting.

Spellsinger
Unfortunately the day Spellsinger took the main stage I was wiped out and didn't get to hang out, but her song "The Secret," which she performed at morning meeting, was a lovely song chant that I could see people using in ritual. You can listen to it on her ReverbNation page.

Hugin the Bard
Hugin was my camp neighbor and just a wonderful guy full of stories and songs. "Pagans in the Mud" was a PSG favorite, written about the year of the mud. In honor of the women undergoing the Croning ritual, he sang "Beautiful Crone," which I loved, and he also played jazz standards that mentioned the sun, stars, and the moon, like "Fly Me To The Moon." I interviewed him about his music and the Faery Play, which he directs and was so much fun to watch the kids. Listen to the interview here.

We're going to have more on Hugin the Bard on Patheos. Right now his music is not available online, but as soon as it is we'll post a link! Until then, you should check out his book, A Bard's Book of Pagan Songs, which includes a CD!

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7/20/2010 4:00:00 AM

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About Star Foster

A hopeless movie junkie, Star Foster believes that good movies are the mythic narratives of our times.

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