Album Notes

The second album from Damh the Bard.

The Hills they are Hollow is a Pagan anthem about the land and our relationship to it. A celebration of Pagan Ways and belief. “The Hills they are Hollow and home to the Fey who dance on Midsummer’s Eve, some people don’t understand when I say, these are the things I believe!”

The great Goddess Arianrhod is the weaver of the Web of Life, initiator and patroness of Bards and her Spiral Castle ‘Caer Siddi’ is a place where all Bards must travel. A Priest of Arianrhod, Lady of the Silver Wheel is Damh’s song in dedication to her.

John Barleycorn is a traditional British folk tune that tells of the life of the Spirit of the Corn, from birth, to it’s ultimate sacrifice to feed the people in the form of bread and brandy.

On a hill deep in the wilds of Dartmoor lies Grimspound. The remnants of an Iron Age village complete with roundhouses, and a huge surrounding wall. Damh sat within the remains of the main roundhouse, communed with the Spirits of Place, and this song was the result.

Ever with Me is a song about friendship and love, to our loved ones, and the Guardian Spirits that watch over us.

An old man walks into a woodland with his Only Son, there to spend the last few hours of his life, talking together, and being with Nature.

The Mabon is born at the time of the Winter Solstice. The Divine Child who represents the Green Man and John Barleycorn, hears his song neing sung all over the world, as the Sun rises on the Shortest Day.

The Voyage of Bran is an instrumental that takes us on that epic journey from Celtic myth – the story of Bran Son of Febal, as his ship glides through the waves towards the Otherworld. But when he returns he finds that a thousand years have past, and that the crew can never again set foot upon our world.

Halloween, or Samhain is the ancient Druidic feast of the dead. On this night the Wild Hunt, led by Gwyn ap Nudd/Arawn rides across the sky to take the souls of the dead into the Otherworld, and in this song one of the living waits inside, listening to the call of the Cailleach, asking for the Hunt to pass him by.

The Greenwood Grove is a Bardic nmemonic that describes the 20 trees of the ancient Ogham alphabet, and their meanings.

There are many stories of Merlin. Merlin am I tells of the ancient Druidic Shaman, not the Arthurian Merlin. It tells of his birth, his childhood, and the madness after the Battle of Arderydd, and his ultimate retreat into the Caledonian Forest.

The Land of the Ever young is a celebratory, and autobiographical song.

Damh is a Bard whose spirituality is expressed through his music, storytelling and poetry. Drawing on the Bardic traditions his performances are both entertaining and educational, weaving a tapestry of myth, peace, and anthems that speak directly to the heart, but never without a good splash of humour. Damh works within that world of myth that cannot be proved; where the Faerie really do dance on Midsummer's Eve, where the trees talk, and the Hollow Hills take you into the realms of Annwn. Where the Goddess rides her horse, guiding you to magic, and the Horned God of old calls us from the shadows of the Greenwood.