It turns out there are a LOT of Pagan bands out there. Not just people who play rehashings of the old minstrel stuff or weird mystical or Celtic stuff, but there's every kind of genre of Pagan music that there is regular music. Sure, I have the Celtic-inspired sometimes-Pagan-lyrics-writing Loreena McKennitt; I have some deliberately Earth-religion stuff like Philip Riley & Jayne Elleson or Steve Reel; I even have the ethereal and instrumental groups who, like Enya and David Lanz, are not particularly Pagan in nature but write music that appeals to such people. But now I've discovered there is plenty to be had, in not such a narrow niche.
There's Pagan rock music!
Imagine my surprise! So many of the rock/folk type to choose from: Athena's Temple, Avalon Rising, Coven 13, Dreamtrybe/Velvet Hammer, Elvendrums, Gypsy, Inkubus Sukkubus, Tamarra James, Libana, Michelle Mays, Moonstruck, Gwydion Pendderwen, Emerald Rose, Elaine Silver, Spiral Dance, Elisa M. Welch--just a few from my (cutely alphabetical) list. There's even a humor group: Loke E. Coyote, the Pagan Weird Al!
I was alerted to the existence of these bands because a co-worker of mine named Tyler lent me the Rumors of the Big Wave album, introducing me to their awesome song "The Burning Times" before subsequently quitting the bookstore and running off with my supposedly lesbian manager. (She quit, too.)
From there I began wondering how available Rumors of the Big Wave was, and ran into pages detailing lists of other Pagan bands. I'm constructing my own list now, and it's already quite long, but I want to listen to most everyone on it before I go recommending them. I mean, Dar Williams has a couple Pagan songs, but if I were to put her on my list it'd be a bit misleading considering the great bulk of her music doesn't have anything at all to do with Earth spirituality (though it does generally kick ass). Kate Bush has a song where the chorus repeats an arcane passage from the Lesser Banishing Ritual of the Pentagram, which I recognized when listening to her. (It's in her song "Lily," incidentally.) Even considering that, I'd be hard pressed to call her music Pagan. It's not. So I don't want to end up making the same sort of misleading listings in my list.
Anyway. I was just thinking about how I probably wouldn't have known about half of this great music if it weren't for Tyler the Lesbian Scrumper. Way to go Tyler.
Notes:
That sounds completely neato! I've listened to supposedly Christian songs before, but most times they don't appeal to me (though I find Christian Rock strangely appealing). Perhaps I'll listen to some Pagan music sometime, maybe I'll like it. I love music. [katqueen]