I am more excited than ever to perform at the Sun Wheel Pagan Arts Festival. At this point I don’t have many fans who consider me a pagan artist, because most of my pagan material is still unreleased; but with the release of The Wine-Dark Sea and my performance at Sun Wheel, I expect that to change. The lineup of distinguished pagan artists listed on Sun Wheel’s website is making me quake in my stylish yet affordable boots. In this post I present Sharon Knight and Heather Dale. More on the rest of the lineup to come!
Sharon Knight has been releasing incredible neo-Pagan music – both recorded and in print – since the mid-’90s. She will be appearing at Sun Wheel with Winter, her husband and collaborator. Like another quirky pagan composer I could name, she dabbles in lots of genres and instruments and collaborates with many other talented people. Her body of work is amazing. I am very much looking forward to meeting her.
Be sure to check out her website at sharonknight.net. For those of you who are of pagan mind and inclination, I also recommend T. Thorne Coyle’s excellent podcast Elemental Castings. Episode 2 has an interview with Sharon Knight which is a joy to listen to.
Heather Dale is one of the sweetest human beings alive, and talented enough to make you dizzy. I met her at Quad War 2011. Quad War is an annual camping event with the SCA (see below if you don’t know what that is). It has been held in the same open field in Saskatchewan for many years, and over time buildings started springing up, erected by passionate volunteers: cottages built with ancient techniques, shops, a church, and even a wooden castle. My first Quad War was one of the best weeks of my life, when I basically became a groupie for Heather Dale and Galeran Chanterel, the singer, harper and academic who was Bardic Champion of An Tir at the time. (Click on his name and you’ll recognize the cloak he’s wearing!) I followed the two of them around from workshop to workshop, bardic circle to bardic circle, and wept in the front row at Dante’s Tavern for both of Heather’s concerts.
In addition to being a prominent pagan artist, Heather is a very active bard in the SCA, and one of the best-known filkers in the world. Her songs are sung around campfires all over the known world. She is what I want to be when I grow up.
