The Crow Women have been in the recording studio on and off for the past 10 months, working on our upcoming new album. Our previous CD, Crow Magic, was released in the summer of 2012. It had two main themes. One was rites of passage, including songs for baby blessings, coming of age, handfasting, croning and passing over. The other theme was the elements of fire, earth, air, water and spirit, which are always called into our magic circles. Putting those themes together, we titled that album Crow Magic. You can order it here.
Since 2012, the members of Crow Women have been blossoming as songwriters. We had about 40 unrecorded songs at the start of 2018, and it was clear that another recording project must be done to share all that magical music. Sorting through the body of work, we noticed two themes. One was deities and sacred beings, and the other was the seasons and Sabbats of the pagan year. We decided to set aside the deities concept for our fourth (!) album, and got to work rehearsing and recording all the music that fit into an album about the Wheel of the Year.
If you look at the list in the Sponsor a Song page on our website, you can see that the album begins with a song called We Turn the Wheel. That piece, written by Deb Kroehwimwin especially for the album, sings of the journey through the eight Sabbats: Imbolc, Spring Equinox, Beltane, Summer Solstice, Lughnassad, Fall Equinox, Samhain and Winter Solstice. After that, songs follow one after another, taking the listener on a journey around the wheel.
We have finished with recording songs now, and the work (and expense) of finalizing the tracks, producing a CD, and arranging for digital distribution are underway.
Now we need to call the recording something snappier than just “Album Three”!
We kicked around titles in person and over email, and gathered a list of possibilities. A week ago, we met to make the Big Decision. What to name the baby?
Clearly the title had to communicate the main organizing principle. Words that we came up with included Wheel, Seasons and Year. We also wanted something that signaled our spiritual focus, and some suggestions were Sabbat, Ritual, Magic and Pagan. We also thought an active word would be exciting; some ideas were Journey, Turning and Spiraling. After playing with various combinations, we came up with—drum roll, please:
Seasons: A Pagan Journey around the Wheel
For more information about the Crow Women pagan choir, and access to all the blog posts by Alane and the other 9 crowsingers who have written for Pagan Song, you can visit the Crow Women author page here on Pagan Song.
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