A Thanksgiving Playlist For You

Brian O’Donovan is a broadcaster, writer, and presenter, and lives in Cambridge, MA. Born and raised in Clonakilty West Cork in a family of 9, O'Donovan received his BA from University College Cork in 1978 before heading to England. He then journeyed to Boston and grad school at Emerson College. In Boston, at a music jam-session, he was introduced to Lindsay Henes. They married in August of 1981. They live in Cambridge, MA and have four grown children: Aoife, Ciaran, Aidan, and Nuala and two grandchilden, Ivy Jo Jacobsen of Brooklyn, NY, and Nomi O'Donovan of Denver, CO. He can be reached at celtic@wgbh.org.

November 25, 2019

Updated November 16, 2021

I love this time of year. As an immigrant to the U.S. in 1980, I was immediately attracted to the holiday around Thanksgiving. Growing up in Ireland, I loved all things Christmas. Its pace was slow. Life seemed to pause and yield to the time set aside for family and serendipitous gatherings in kitchens, with aunts and uncles and cousins, around songs and stories, and pubs, and church. These rituals were positive and reassuring; from childhood thru young adulthood, a centerpiece of each year.

Here in America, I soon realized that while there were many similarities, the fast pace and commercial stress seemed somehow always to rush us and tarnish intent. When I first realized that people here took ONLY Christmas Day itself off, and returned to work on St. Stephen's Day (The Feast of Stephen), I was devastated. In Ireland, December 26 was the day we went "singing the wren" a custom that dated to Pagan times, and so much fun. Virtually no one worked much between Christmas Eve and the day after New Years Day. But this was far from the case in my adopted country.

So, when I grew accustomed to Thanksgiving, that became the holiday I gravitated toward for family and friend gatherings like my Christmases of old. The joy of Thanksgiving Eve gatherings, the cooking together, the slowing pace, the chilly weather, the smells of turkey and stuffing, the determination of families to get Home no matter the distance or impediment. This was what Thanksgiving was and still is to me. In many ways, combining this sense of Thanksgiving with memories of Irish Christmases past, is what informs many of my artistic decisions around our yearly production of A Christmas Celtic Sojourn.

Over the years, I have grown this playlist to accompany many of those moments. It is not so much specifically based on Thanksgiving songs or tunes, tho there are some. It is not overtly religious, tho there are religious songs. It is not particularly trad or roots based, tho there are traditional songs and tunes. But there is jazz, choral singing, American songs from the Sacred Harp/Shape-note tradition, and Shenandoah and Paul Simon's "American Tune." There's a newly written waltz incorporating Thanksgiving melodies and a wistful, sad poem by Robert Louis Stevenson, set to music by Vaughan Williams.

The playlist is more of a compilation for my Thanksgiving mood. Something that can transfer me instantly to the Thanksgiving of my mind; wood fires, rum and hot cider, "the bird smell, the brandy, the pudding and the mince, curling up to my nostrils.*" Whole families walking together past our house in Newton, a suburb of Boston. And those evenings, slow, and shimmering with the faces of dear friends and family in the glow of Thanksgivings past remembered now, instantly, when I listen to this playlist.

Hope you enjoy it. And of course, feel free to share. I have included a Spotify Playlist below. (Please note: you need a Spotify account (free) to access this.)

*Dylan Thomas' A Child's Christmas in Wales.

Title, Writer/Artist/Reader, and Album (if applicable)

"A Psalm of Life," Jacqueline Schwab, Mark Twain's America
"Evening Shade," Word of Mouth Chorus, Rivers of Delight
"Thanksgiving Waltz," Jay Ungar and Molly Mason, Harvest Home
"Bright Morning Stars," Abigail Washburn, City of Refuge
"Steal Away," Charly Haden and Hank Jones, Steal Away
"Come Ye Thankful People, Come," Quincy Choral Society, Come Ye Thankful People, Come
"Thanksgiving," George Winston, December
"Be Thou My Vision," College of King's College, Be Thou My Vision
"Sleeping Tune," Beppe Gambetta and Tony McManus, Round Trip
"Shining Shore," William Appling Singers, Home for the Harvest
"Ecstasy," Crooked Still, Shaken by a Low Sound
"Love's Old Sweet Song Medley," Jacqueline Schwab, Mark Twain's America
"Whither Must I Wander," Martha Wainwright, Martha Wainwright
"Wondrous Love," Martin Simpson, A Closer Walk with Thee
"Be Still My Soul," Beth Nielson Chapman, Hymns
"In Wisdom's Lovely Pleasant Ways," Revels, Seasons for Singing
"Shenandoah," Liam Clancy, The Wheels of Life
"We Shall Walk Through the Valley," William Appling Singers, Home for the Harvest
"American Tune," Crooked Still, Friends of Fall