Good folk music is very much like quality cheese. I’m a huge fan of Dubliner cheese. It’s robust, a tad flaky and tastes like that moment when you walk in the door after being gone a long time and you breath in the air and think “I’m home”. Probably the best thing about Dubliner is the tiny little crystallized particles that formed in the aging process, lending the cheese a little unexpected kick.

So what does Dubliner cheese have to do with folk music? Everything.

Good folk music, like good cheese needs that perfect blend of familiarity and comfort with a little bit of bite on the end keeping it fresh and interesting no matter how long you linger.

It’s a harmony that didn’t go where you thought it would, some off-beat rhythm here and there… A lyric that takes you on a journey and then leads you back home. Heartiness and tenderness intertwined in one delicious package that makes you sigh a little in delight. A solidarity reminding us that our own stories aren’t so different from those that lived before us, and the battles we fight have been fought before.

We live, we love, we fail, we succeed, we press on and look ahead and at some point, it we’re smart we look up and see a picture that’s bigger than the face in the mirror and broader than the spaces our imagination can explore.