Produced and hosted by Fiona Ritchie, The Thistle & Shamrock® from NPR attracted many exclusive contributions across 41 years of weekly shows, including NPR’s first mp3 music download, live recordings, and world premiere performances. You can now browse a huge archive of Thistle episodes to stream online, and make playlists to listen on the go via the NPR App:
““The Thistle & Shamrock® has become a soundtrack for the lives of hundreds of thousands of Americans. She instinctively knows what connects with her listeners.””
Wayfaring Strangers - the Musical Voyage from Scotland and Ulster to Appalachia
~ SECOND EDITION NOW AVAILABLE ~
"essential... a gorgeous book, including a CD of various artists’ renditions of the songs whose origins the authors so beautifully recount” ~ New York Times
”...revisit the people and places and deepen your enjoyment of the sublime BBC tv series “Wayfaring Stranger”
In Wayfaring Strangers, Fiona Ritchie and Doug Orr guide readers on a musical voyage across oceans, linking people and songs through centuries of adaptation and change. From ancient ballads at the heart of the tradition to instruments that express this dynamic music, Ritchie and Orr chronicle the details of an epic journey. Enriched by the insights of key contributors to the living tradition on both sides of the Atlantic, this abundantly illustrated volume includes a beautifully written Foreword by Dolly Parton. (First edition hardback with CD now very limited availability. Second edition paperback is widely available at all good bookshops and includes an Afterword by the authors.)
The authors have followed their own Wayfarers’ book trail from Edinburgh to Belfast, Charlotte to Chapel Hill, Asheville to Nashville, and to New York City as part of Migrations: the Making of America, a city-wide festival hosted by Carnegie Hall.
Wayfaring with Peggy Seeger and Alan Reid at the Birnam Book Festival. Photo by Alice Hadden.
Links to book and CD outlets
Book: Wayfaring Strangers ~ The Musical Voyage from Scotland and Ulster to Appalachia
Book: NPR Curious Listeners’ Guide to Celtic Music
CD - various artists: Scotland the Real ~ Music from Contemporary Caledonia
CD - various artists: The Best of The Thistle & Shamrock, Volume 1
CD - various artists: A Thistle & Shamrock Christmas Ceilidh
Soundtrack ~ A Celtic Tale: The Legend of Deirdre (Narrated Version (collaboration with the multi award winning composers Mychael and Jeff Danna)
Wayfaring Strangers authors with Little Windows in Charlotte, NC. Photo by Daniel Coston.
