Shifting times, indeed.

In the midst of large-picture changes and day to day life events, music can be a way to reflect and to learn, or a method for speaking out in protest.

In these changing times, music can also work to inspire, to connect, to remind of hope.

Rose Morrison was working out some challenges when a good friend suggested that she take a walk by the river near where she lives in Cape Breton in Nova Scotia.

Rose did that. One result was this song, The River She Knows.

Rose Morrison grew up in Cape Breton. Early on, she brought her fiddle skill to extensive touring and award-winning recording with the group The Cottars. She then spent some time away from Cape Breton, some of that working with musicians in Ireland. Since returning to Nova Scotia, she’s released two fiddle-focused albums. Her third one, for which The River She Knows is the title track, brings her songwriting and singing to the fore.

Tish Hinojosa was thinking of a river, too, one much further south. In her song By the Rio Grande, Hinojosa reflects on family, heritage, travel, and landscapes of the US Mexico borderlands.

Those borderlands and the languages, landscapes, and stories that connect them are part of Hinojosa’s own life as the daughter of parents who came from Mexico to Texas where she was born, and as woman who has made a life as an award-winning artist who has traveled the world with her music.

Christine Albert and Chris Gage have Texas connections, as well. They, too, have traveled the world with their music, but they met and married in Austin, where they are still based. In songs they write and in those they choose from other writers, there’s most often an element of love and connection. At times, they bring that in with humor, sometimes they take a reflective approach. At times, as with this song, the focus is joy.

Those were some of the things Massachusetts-based musician Hanneke Cassel was thinking of, too, as she composed the tunes Serendipity and Making Tracie Smile.

Cassel is a fiddle player who draws on the music of Scotland and of Cape Breton in her work. When she gives concerts, she often mentions that she takes commissions to compose tunes.

Often too, she asks those who wish to commission a tune from her to pay for it by making a donation to One Home Many Hopes, an organization in Kenya which works with girls and women.

A couple had attended one of Hanneke’s concerts and liked this idea. Husband and wife each decided to commission a tune as a gift -- for each other. Neither knew about this, but Hanneke did, and had a good challenge keeping the secret as she worked to create the music.

It seems right to close this set of music with the song Big Old Life. It’s from New England-based band Rani Arbo & daisy mayhem.

Rani wrote the song, which speaks of living with joy, hope, humor, and connection while dealing with life’s challenges. A lot to handle in the few minutes of a song, but it really works, and may well have you singing along, too.

As you’ll hear, all four members of the band sing. They all write songs and play several instruments, also. Rani plays guitar and sings lead on this song, Anand Nayak plays guitar, Andrew Kinsey is on bass, and Scott Kessel is on percussion.

May the creativity of these artists offer you a bit of uplift through these shifting times.

Thank you for staying with us through this journey. Below, you'll find a link that will take you to an article which has a bit more backstory on the series. It also has links to a number of the stories, including ones called Listening for Community, Music for Winter's Changes, and The Geography of Hope.

Music for Shifting Times

Kerry Dexter is Music Editor at snsvs. 

You may find more of Kerry's work in National Geographic Traveler, Strings, Perceptive Travel, Journey to Scotland, Irish Fireside, and other places, as well as at her own site, Music Road. You can also read her work at Along the Music Road on Substack.