We’ve moved from Sundays to Saturdays, but why? See below. But first, the new episode…

Listen: on our site, PRX, Mixcloud — full track list

This week on the Earth Eclectic Radio Hour, host Laura Dedelow presents a full seasonal celebration. As Laura reminds us, we stand now at the cross-quarter moment between Vernal Equinox and Summer Solstice — the Greening Time, when winter fires are extinguished and new flames are lit from the embers of Beltane bonfires. Bristol’s Scruffy Pooks open the proceedings with “Come the Swift,” before Walden brings a Bavarian folk invocation simply titled “Beltane.” Glasgow’s Madrigirls offer “Jack in the Green” in their distinctive choral voice, while Leicester’s Steve Cartwright contributes his own “Beltane” from his Druid album. Jaiya travels from Mayne Island, British Columbia, to welcome in the May, and the Dutch pairing of Bart Zeal and Eric Heitmann declare with warm certainty that “Beltane Is Here.” The first half closes with perhaps its most arresting offering: Mairi MacMillan’s “Banrìgh na Bealltainn” — the May Queen in Scottish Gaelic — a six-minute song from Glasgow drawn from the deep well of the Hebridean tradition, stately and luminous.

After a breath, Sea of Days ignite the second half with “Beltane Fire” from beguiling Brighton, before Edmonton’s Ravens Call turn the ancient Wheel and Northern Ireland’s Bróna McVittie offers her devotion to the Green Man himself. Manchester’s Rogue Frequency bring “Midnight Fire” as the celebrations reach their height, and Scotland’s Elemental Forces add another “Beltane” to the chorus. The hour closes with something altogether strange and wonderful: Arianne Churchman and Benedict Drew’s twelve-minute experimental meditation “The Pleasant Month of May,” recorded in the Thanet District of Kent, which stretches the season’s joy into something genuinely uncanny, a May Day that refuses to end.

PSA: This week, we’re looking at the Pagan Federation. They’re based in the UK, just like the bulk of tracks in this episode. But we think they may be of general interest to our listeners everywhere, especially because, as the President recently wrote on an Earth Day post, Pagan traditions are rooted in the landscape and climate in which they came into being, and Pagan traditions recognize the sacred in nature. So if that sounds interesting to you, we encourage you to check out their website, PaganFed.org, where you can learn more about the organization and the work that they’re doing.

Award: Thanks to everyone who submitted nominations for the inaugural Earth Eclectic Music Award. We’re in deep listening mode now, very excited and grateful to have almost forty releases under consideration. We plan to share a list of nominees soon, and we’ll announce the awardee in time for World Environment Day.

Our New Timeslot: We’re happy to announce Earth Eclectic has moved to a new timeslot: Saturday at 10AM Central! Of course, we’re talking about our home-base radio station, the mighty WHIV 102.3 FM New Orleans. (For the other stations who carry our series, well, you’ll just have to check your local listings. And if your local station doesn’t carry Earth Eclectic — give ’em a nudge!) We are grateful for the new timeslot. It was pretty cool being on before Sunday Morning Inspirational Brew with Patrice for the last two years, but 5AM is a little early! Saturday at 10AM is more our speed. Hope you’ll tune in on the airwaves or the internet. As always, you can listen anytime via our site.

And that’s why this newsletter will now come out on Saturdays 🙂