On a bright morning in early summer, with Tilly snoring beside me on the sofa, here are some songs to start the week. I trust you'll have no trouble picking out the theme for this week's selections....

Above: "Dog," a song by American country blues musician Charlie Parr, from his album of the same name (2018). The enigmatic video was shot in Parr's hometown: Duluth, Minnesota, on Lake Superior.

Below: "Dogsong" (also known as "The Sheep Dog Lullaby") by The Be Good Tanyas, a Canadian folk trio from Vancouver. This version of the song is from their compilation album A Collection (2000-2021).

Above: "A Dog's Life" by American singer/songwriter Nina Nastasia, from her early album Dogs (2004). After a long hiatus, she has just released a hard-ditting new album, Riderless Horse (2022).

Below: "Man of the Hour" by American singer/songwriter Norah Jones, from her album The Fall (2009). In chosing between a difficult lover and her dog, there is no question.

Above: a live performance of "While the Gamekeepers Lie Sleeping" (also known as "Dogs and Ferrets" and "Hares in the Old Plantation") by the great English folksinger June Tabor, filmed in Cologne, Germany in 1990. The song can be found on her early album Airs & Graces (1976).

Below: "God Dog" by English singer/songwriter Jack Sharp, from his solo album Good Times Older (2020).

Above: "Bubble" by King Creosote & John Hopkins, from their collaborative album Diamond Mine (2011), with an animation directed by Elliot Dear. I adore this one, which has often given me solace during difficult times...and because the dog looks so much like Tilly.

Many thanks to everyone for your continued prayers and kind messages for Tilly. She's still having serious health problems -- but she also still loving her life, in a slow and wobbly and gentle kind of way. She'll be getting further tests at an animal hospital in Somerset this week, and we'll know more then.

Here's one more song: "Call it Dreaming" by Iron & Wine (the stage name of American singer/songwriter Sam Beam), from his album Beast Epic (2017). This is an old favourite too, sent out today to our Good Girl, and to Good Dogs everywhere. Which, of course, is all of them.

On a quiet green morning in the last days of May....

Above: "As I Roved Out" performed by Northern Irish singer Cara Dillon, with her husband Sam Lakeman on guitar. The song appeared on her recent album Live at Cooper Hall (2021). 

Below: "May Morning Dew" performed by Scottish singer Siobhan Miller (with Innes White, Charlie Stewart, and Euan Burton) in Glasgow. The song appeared on her album All is Not Forgotten (2020).

Above: "Searching for Lambs" performed by English singer/songwriter Nancy Kerr with her husband James Fagan, at the Bath Folk Festival in 2013. The song can be found on their joint album Steely Water (2016).

Below: "Maying Song" (the English version of a Flemish song) performed by singer/songwriter Bella Hardy, from Derbyshire. It appeared on her first album, Night Visiting (2007), as well as on Pockets & Postcards (2019).

Above: "May Song" performed by singer/songwriter Lisa Knapp, from south London. The song appeared on her EP Hunting the Hare: A Branch of May (2012). I also recommend her 2017 album Till April is Dead, a collection of English folk songs of ritual, fertility, and celebration of the month of May.

Below: "Hail! Hail" the First of May" performed by English singer and fiddle player Jackie Oates. The song appeared on her album he Spyglass & The Herringbone (2015).

Winter time has gone and past-o,
Summer time has come at last-o.
We shall sing and dance the day
And follow the Obby Oss that brings the May.

The pictures above: 1. May flowers - the blossom of the hawthorn tree - are a symbol of spring's fertility, regeneration, hope, and the healing of hearts. 2. The Storyteller (folklorist Lisa Schneidau), the Jack-in-the-Green (naturalist Tony Whitehead), the Obby Oss (Howard) and the Oss-minder (me) at our recent Jack-in-Green Procession here in Chagford. (Photographer: Carol Amos.) 

Below: The Obby Oss prancing across Ore Hill, with Jack just behind him. (Oss costume & mask: Nomi McLeod. Oss performer: Howard Gayton. Photographer: Andy Letcher.) I'm gathering more pictures from our May celebration and hope to post them this week. 

All rights to the Jack and Oss photographs reserved by the photographers; used with permission.

Long Covid is easing its grip at last and it's good to be here in the studio, with my work-in-progress spread out the desk, and an intriguing pile of new books to dip into. Rain taps on the cabin's tin roof and roars in the stream that runs behind. Outside the windows, all is in motion: the wind, the clouds, the leaves of the plum tree, the ponies crossing the valley below. Inside, music in Gaelic and English is easing me gently into the work week. Here are a few songs to share with you....

Above: "Dh'èirich Mi Moch Madainn Cheòthar" performed by the Scottish band Rura (Steven Blake, Adam Brown, David Foley, Jack Smedley) with Julie Fowlis (from North Uist in the Outer Hebrides). The song appears on Rura's new album, Our Voices Echo (2022).

Below: "Open the Door Softly" (by Archie Fisher) performed by Julie Fowlis and Irish singer/guitarist Dónal Clancy.  The video comes from the BBC Alba programme Ceòl Aig Baile (2020).

Above: "Tàladh Dhòmhnaill Ghuirm" performed by Julie Fowlis, with Irish concertina player Pádraig Rynne, Irish fiddler Aoife Ní Bhríain, and Orkney-born musician & songwriter Kris Drever.

Below: "When the Shouting is Over" by Kris Drever, with Julie Fowlis, Pádraig Rynne, and Aoife Ní Bhríain. 

Both videos were filmed at the Sugar Club in Dublin (2016).

Above: "Thrift (Dig In, Dig In)" performed by Scottish singer/songwriter Karine Polwart with Kris Drever, Julie Fowlis, Seckou Keita, Rachel Newton, Beth Porter, and Jim Molyneux for Spell Songs II: Let the Light In. The two Spell Songs albums were inspired by the creatures, art, and language from the books The Lost Words and The Lost Spells by Robert Macfarlane and Jackie Morris. Both albums are utterly enchanting, so please don't miss them.

Below: "The Lost Words Blessing," from Spell Songs I. (Lyrics here.) This one goes out to my dear friend and colleague Patricia McKillip, who left us last week, too young, too soon. She created spells on the page with her stories and novels, and her powerful magic will always be with us. Please read Pat's exquisite books, if you haven't already, and then pass the magic on. 

Wassailing was once a mid-winter folk custom found all across the British Isles. Today it still survives as a living tradition in some rural communities (particularly here in the West County), and it is currently enjoying a contemporary revival in numerous others.

There are two distinct forms of wassailing: door-to-door or under the trees. The first takes place in the run-up to Christmas and is related to the custom of carolling: wassailers go house to house singing wassail songs, collecting coins, drink, or food in their wassail bowls. The second kind of wassail generally happens some time in January and involves the "waking" and blessing of apple trees to ensure a good harvest in the year ahead. These ceremonies can be simple or lavish, taking place by day or by night, sober and family-friendly or drunken and raucous. What they share in common are traditional wassail songs and stories, the custom of leaving toast in the trees (a gift for the robins or spirits) and blessing the roots with last year's apple juice or cider, and making noise (with drums, or guns, or pots-and-pans) to wake the trees and call back the sun. To learn more, read Jude Roger's recent article on wassailing in The Guardian, or see The Tradfolk Wassail Directory on the Tradfolk website.

Here in Chagford, our wassail in mid-January was a daylight affair under the apple trees of a community field, full of stories and songs and children blessing the trees with juice from the wassail cup. Down the road, in the village of Lustleigh, was a wilder wassail gathering by the light of the moon, with black-clad Border Morris dancers waking the trees their sticks and their cries and their pounding feet. I love both kinds of wassailing, dark and bright: celebrating the seasons, nature's bounty, and the bonds of community.

The video above looks at the history of wassailing and other winter folk rituals -- filmed by BBC Bristol in 1977, and featuring music by the Albion Band.

Below is a Cornish variant of a well-known wassail song performed by Lady Maisery (Hannah James, Rowan Rheingans, Hazel Askew), with Jimmy Aldridge and Sid Goldsmith. It's from Awake Arise: A Winter Album (2019).

Above: "The Apple Tree Man" performed by John Kirkpatrick with Rosie Cross, Georgina Le Faux, Michael Gregory, Jane Threlfall, and Carl Hogsden, on their album Wassail!: A Celebration of an English Midwinter (1998).

Below: "The Gloucestershire Wassail" performed by Magpie Lane on their album Wassail!: A Country Christmas (2009).

Above: "Homeless Wassail," a contemporary wassail by the Canadian trio Finest Kind (Ian Robb, Ann Downey, and Shelley Posen). The song can be found on Robb's album Music for a Winter's Eve (2012).

Below: "Sugar Wassail" performed the great Waterson-Carthy band (Norma Waterson, Martin Carthy, and their daughter Eliza Carthy, with Tim van Eyken), from Holy Heathens and the Old Green Man (2006). It's poignant to listen to their music right now after the death of Norma a week ago, at the age of 82. This legendary singer (and legendary family) shaped the field of English folk music as we know it today and her loss has broken hearts all around the world, including mine.

One more video to end with: a short clip of Beltane Border, our local Border Morris side, performing at a wassil celebration at The Old Chuch House Inn at Torbyran. We are so lucky to have this group on Dartmoor, keeping the seasons turning....

Imagery above: a drawing of the Apple-Tree-Man by Alan Lee,  two photographs from Chagford's wassail: storytelling and children blessing the trees, and morris dancing by Dartmoor's Beltane Border.

I'm starting the week with some favourite songs featuring animals and birds, in which our old friend Mr. Fox will certainly make an appearance....

Above: "Hare Spell," Fay Hield's wonderfully eerie ballad of animal-human shapeshifting. First created for the Modern Fairies project, Fay's lyrics are taken from an actual spell by a 17th century Scottish witch. "Isobel [Gowdie] was tried in 1662 during the witchcraft trials," she explains, "and her confession gives a clear account, seemingly uncoerced, into her activities with the devil and visiting the king of the fairie. She includes several spells and chants used to conduct her own magic, including this spell to turn the utterer into a hare to do the devil’s work." Go here to read about the creation of the song (and the magical way the music was formed); go here to listen to an answering song about shapeshifting from the hare's point of view (with gorgeous lyrics by poet Sarah Hesketh); and go here to read more about witch-hares in the folklore tradition. You can also listen to a radio play crafted around Fay's song: Hare Spell Part One and Part Two. 

Below: "Three Ravens" (a variant of "Twa Corbies," Child Ballad 26), performed by Dorset folk duo Ninebarrow (Jon Whitley and Jay LaBouchardiere). The song appeared on their album Releasing the Leaves (2016).

Above: "The White Hare," a traditional song performed by folk (and rock) musician Jack Sharp, from Bedfordshire. It comes from his solo album Good Times Older (2020).

Below: "I am the Fox," written and performed by Nancy Kerr (from London) and James Fagan (from Sydney, Australia). It's appeared on Myth & Moor before, but I never get tired of this one....

Above: "Daddy Fox," a traditional song performed by the a capella folk quartet The Witches of Elswick (Becky Stockwell, Gillian Tolfrey, Bryony Griffith and Fay Hield), from their album Out of Bed (2003).

Below: "The Fox," another variant of the same song performed by the Galway quartet We Banjo 3 (Enda Scahill, Fergal Scahill, Martin Howley, David Howley), with Sharon Shannon on accordion. This is another one I return to often. Surely the door in the video is one of the portals to Bordertown....

Let's end, as we began, with another song from Fay Hield's exquisite album Wrackline (2020): a re-working of an American ballad that gives the death of the Old Grey Goose its due. The performance is from the Wrackline album launch, with Sam Sweeney on fiddle, Rob Habron on guitar, and Ben Nicholls on bass. To read Fay's thoughts about the song and the folklore of anthropomorphism, go here.

The art today is by Vancouver-based illustrator Julie Morstad. To see more of her work, go here.