The 2020 resurgence of “Wellerman,” the jaunty sea shanty that won over TikTok, took the world by surprise, but it was just the latest in a string of pop culture moments that prove how relevant vocal traditions can be for new listeners. A quick glance back reveals a string of “viral” vocal traditions. There was the Bulgarian women’s choir craze in the 80s, and the club music obsession with Gregorian Chant in the 90s, not to mention pop explorers from Kate Bush to Kendrick Lamar and D Smoke who have brought unexpected, vocal tradition-inspired collaborations to pop radio. 

Beyond all fads, however, there’s a reason these moments happen: Vocal music goes deep. It can forge some of the strongest connections across human cultures, opening up a hidden portal that makes 19th-century maritime work ditties or feasting songs from the Caucasus feel as engaging and relevant as any pop anthem.

Forging a link with listeners

Vocal traditions use the power of the human voice to tear down the wall between singer and listener, inviting everyone to join in. As experienced presenter Lisa Schwartz, Festival Director for the Philadelphia Folksong Society, puts it, “it’s the connective tissue for this true engagement” between performer and audience, no matter what cultural gulf may separate them.

There’s a fundamental reason baked into the traditions themselves. Vocal music evolved to erase boundaries between singer and listener. Most traditional vocal settings weren’t concerts, but sing-a-longs or calls and response sessions, and that feeling remains embedded in the music itself. “In most of the music I’m doing these days, singing is a way to get people to sing back at me,” laughs Seán Dagher, a prolific tradition explorer who is currently diving into sea shanties and whose work wowed millions of gamers thanks to his contribution to the Assassin’s Creed series. “I can feel when I’m projecting the way I want to, because it’s like a fishing line. I can hook them and they send the energy back to me.”

“We love to sing along, that’s how we show artists appreciation,” notes Schwartz. She’s seen that “the audience doesn’t need to know the words; they will follow the melody and hum. That response happens because they can’t help themselves. They want to give back to the artists.”

Yet more than creating those high-octane “everybody now” moments, many vocal traditions simultaneously serve to bridge gaps and mediate conflicts. Buba Murgulia, seasoned singer and founder of Georgian vocal ensemble Iberi, gives a stunning example from one of his group’s performances back home: “We noticed one evening that two men had a problem. Supra,” the feasting occasions where people gather, eat amazing food, and sing for hours, “is a place where you do not do those things. If someone wants to have a fight, they have to go somewhere else. We started to sing a song that wishes people long life and blessings. The guys chilled out and sang together, and the problems were gone.”

For many presenters, this quality is one they seek out for their programming, because they aim to unite people and demonstrate commonalities that we often disregard in our everyday lives. Darek Mazzone, who curates the SAMA series in Seattle, among other festivals and events, sees vocal traditions as a cornerstone of his artistic goals and transcendent message. “Vocal traditions are super important,” he reflects. “They are the most potent example of what I’m trying to achieve. Instruments are often trying to reproduce the voice, yet it’s remarkably simple to create a transcendent experience with a chorus of voices. It’s very powerful but very subtle and can bring people closer.” 

Emotional storytelling 

This intimacy is conjured by the human voice itself, with its great flexibility and dual roles. “There are so many possibilities that you have with the human voice. You can be a storyteller and an instrument at the same time,” explains Emma Björling of the Swedish vocal group, Kongero. “My goal has always been to push the boundaries of what we think we can do.”

The limits are often where emotional moments happen, in the sounds that mirror the body’s reactions to excitement, elation, or abiding calm, the breath, calls, and laughs that can be transmuted into ornaments or vocal timbre. At the same time, specific details of a life come across in the lyrics, something that can shine a light on our past and make us consider our present. Björling and Kongero, for example, often explore medieval women’s lives and fates, facts and stories recorded in songs but almost exclusively ignored in other historical sources. These tales can come to life and leap from tale to feelings, moving beyond their linguistic content, when skilled singers come into play. 

When a song is sung well, it holds the heart of the singer, and that impacts the listener, no matter what language gap is involved. “We’re sharing our hearts when we’re singing. We’re sharing our relations with each other, we’re sharing our stories,” Murgulia notes. “Your thinking disappears. This comes from the heart. When other people are singing, it’s the highest point of your life. You feel at that time that everything is good, that everything good that you can feel is turned on.” That joy and warmth aren’t lost on the audience.

Songs never rest

Perhaps one of the most intriguing aspects of vocal traditions’ emotional depth and innate interactivity is that they inspire constant change and tweaks to make a song fresh. Traditional songs continue to live and evolve, even far from their place of origin and among new potential singers and fans. 

Practitioners see this as part and parcel of their relationship with their singing. They aren’t erecting a virtual song museum; they are sharing an experience that connects to the contemporary world. “I am trying to take the best elements of the existing tradition, filter it through my own musical background, and present it in a way that gives audience members a taste of where we’ve come from and where we might go,” says Dagher. “I try to do it in a way that lets them feel like they can join. We can all benefit from what the music has been through.”

What the music has been through can feel eerily familiar to today’s listener. Dagher looks at the wild yarns in sea shanties as a thread that ties laborers long gone to living music lovers. “Sea shanties are exaggerated, though there’s truth in them. Exaggeration is helpful. If we’re doing something hard, but we’re singing about other suckers who have it even worse, that helps us. That’s all relevant,” Dagher explains. “There are elements that apply to work today. That’s something we still need and want to do, complaining about our jobs.” Singing about these everyday joys and struggles can forge a new, thrilling link between singer and listener.

Interactive wonder 

Vocal traditions often turn listeners into singers, and that process can instill greater curiosity and confidence in audiences.”There’s a marvelling in some ways. As people learn a bit of a tradition and sing along, they often tell me, ‘I didn’t know I would like this.’ They leave determined to Google something or learn more about this tradition,” Schwartz explains. “People feel pride when they don’t just go check out their favorite artists they know inside and out. They are proud that they go and listen to something they’ve never heard.”

Björling is an old hand at leading workshops that bring music lovers deeper into the traditions she knows best, even those who can’t speak a word of Swedish. “Most of the workshops we do abroad are with non-Swedish speakers. They struggle with the Swedish language. But what we do in that moment, those few hours we spend together, builds bridges,” she reflects. “You connect when you sing together. No one is sitting staring at a paper. Eyes are meeting all the time. We’re reading each other’s body language and making it swing together in whatever language! That connects people in a way that you can’t really do in that short time otherwise.” 

Sharing a song creates an easy intimacy hard to find in other musical practices. Its transformative power sticks with us, even when the songs are thousands of years old. As Murgulia puts it, “Singing is a force that helps people fight their problems and gives them strength of spirit. The Georgian people took great care of our unique musical language. Now we are sharing it with everyone.”

Björling, Dagher, and Murgulia all feel what scientists have begun to uncover as they study how singing affects cognition, mental health, and even physical stamina: when we sing songs, we link different parts of our brains, reduce stress, and build bonds between us. Vocal traditions impart these health benefits, making a musical experience with unaccompanied singers and new songs more than just entertaining. It can have profound physical and emotional impacts on your audiences.

Thinking about adding vocal traditions to your programming? Hear and see more about the artists mentioned here at

Iberi : https://canismusic.com/artist/iberi/

Kongero: https://canismusic.com/artist/kongero/

Sean Dagher: https://canismusic.com/artist/sean-dagher/

Skye Consort & Emma Björling: https://canismusic.com/artist/skye-consort-emma-bjorling/

The post A Secret Portal: Vocal Traditions Transcend Time, Place, and Culture—and Open Up Audiences appeared first on Canis Major Music.

DANIELLE: Kíla’s music might as well be a soundtrack for the COVID-19 pandemic-alarming in the way that it rages, anarchic in its energy, and at times forlorning as it leads you into dark recesses with an unsuspecting sadness as a product of its beautiful lyricism and sweet melodies, best experienced in isolation. Working behind this extraordinary, world-renowned band are two strong women-led entities, collaborating and pushing forward through their passion for their work, in support of a well-loved band, and in support of each other.

CAOIMHE: The role of the band manager can feel lonely at times; the manager is there to seek work for the band, but is also there to protect them. It is a role that is designed to give the artist creative freedom, while at the same time act as a marketing voice for them. Although that sense of alone-ness could have increased during the pandemic, it did not, thanks to finding a very like minded woman to collaborate with, located in Vermont. I carry out the role of manager of Kíla with a steely determination to do the best job I can. In Danielle, I have met an equally determined woman, who like me, knows that belief in a project can genuinely move mountains.

DANIELLE: Working as an agent or artist manager is solitary work. You have to be driven, a self-starter, and tenacious. You often have to be able to negotiate the lines between persistence and sensitivity, creativity and sensibility, depending on the situation at hand, knowing when to step back and when to push. Empathy plays a key role in success, and I think that is where Caoimhe and I may have the upper hand in this field. We allow each other the space to create and offer up solutions, we listen carefully to each other and are able to set our egos aside to build something together to spotlight an entirely different entity, the band, while lifting up each other indirectly.

CAOIMHE: After two years of working with Kíla, I felt that I had found my groove. I knew where I wanted to go with the band and was confident that I could get them there. Kíla had not toured in North America for several years, and I really wanted to bring them back. In 2019, I attended Folk Alliance International (FAI) in Montreal, at the invitation of Aengus Finnan, Executive Director of FAI (whom I had met at WOMEX in 2018). The aim of attending was to have Kíla showcase at FAI in 2020, and he suggested I attend as a delegate first. To say the conference was an education would not do it justice! In the middle of some of the worst snowstorms Montreal had ever experienced, an entire hotel had been booked out and filled from top to bottom with musicians from all over the world. The days were filled with seminars and music showcases, and at night the vibe continued on into the wee hours with private showcases in hotel bedrooms across multiple floors. It really was incredible! On Aengus’s advice, Kíla applied and were accepted by Culture Ireland and FAI as an official showcase band for 2020 in New Orleans. I was excited, Kíla were excited, and off we headed to New Orleans that January.  

DANIELLE: Folk Alliance International 2020 in New Orleans was the first conference where I was representing my new agency, Canis Major Music. I was feeling especially energized as I was already working with three artists with official showcases at this event. It was also during this conference that I saw Kíla perform live for the first time. I had only known of the band since the release of Cartoon Saloon’s animated film, The Secret of Kells, so I felt a bit late to the party. BUT, what a party that showcase was! I was pressed up against one of the walls flanking the stage with a couple of promoters I had invited to watch the showcase with me, and the room was just vibrating with energy, not just the energy coming from the artists, but the entire room was buzzing with excitement. The band was on fire, and I was in heaven! On my way out of the packed room to hit my next showcase, I stopped by the “booth” at the back of the room to tell the woman minding the Kíla information table that I was thrilled by the showcase and so grateful for the joy they brought to the conference. It turns out that the person with whom I was gushing about the band was none other than the band’s manager, Caoimhe Ni Riagain.

CAOIMHE : Kíla loved New Orleans. It was hard not to be infected by the energy of the conference (more like a festival really),  and indeed the energy of the city. Kíla give 100% to every performance but the performance they gave at their official showcase was magical,  utterly extraordinary and everybody lucky enough to be in the room knew it, mise in a measc (myself included). We were lucky to have our soon-to-be US agent, Danielle Devlin, in the room that night. I remember meeting her and was struck by her warmth and enthusiasm for the band. She had been enchanted, just as we all had been, by Kíla’s performance. A few days later I was introduced properly to Danielle by a mutual friend and we began chatting about working together.

DANIELLE: Caoimhe and I exchanged a couple of brief texts of introduction and I agreed to come to meet her at one of the “unofficial” showcases in one of the hotel rooms later in the conference. This off-stage showcase took place at 2am, and of course we were all knackered at this point. Yet again, the band delivered an outstanding show squeezed into a tiny room. Given the conference was days in at this point and I was operating on very little sleep, I spent just a moment speaking with Caoimhe on my way out, and we agreed it was best to connect more fully after the conference. Within weeks of returning from the conference, Caoimhe, Kíla and I were officially working together. Caoimhe and I certainly “clicked.” Just as we started to get traction on booking a North American tour for summer 2021, COVID-19 hit Europe and soon thereafter North America, hard and fast. The entire industry was quickly leveled, and our touring plans along with it.

CAOIMHE: The showcase delivered Kíla the bones of a North American tour and a strong desire from the band to head back across the Atlantic. I met with Culture Ireland and discussed the offers we had resulting from the showcase, and started the work on getting it all going in collaboration with Danielle. At the same time, I was coordinating Kíla’s European St. Patrick’s Day concerts. Kíla was booked to play several concerts in Paris, London, Dublin and Kilkenny over the St. Patrick’s Day weekend, including a 6-day residency at the Centre Culturel Irlandais in Paris. Unfortunately, COVID-19 struck at the start of this tour, and Kíla had to return to Ireland from Paris on the 13th March before any of these concerts could take place.

DANIELLE: With the pandemic, the abundance of cancelled shows, and the anxiety and grief we all were experiencing, grew an opportunity. As a new agency, I knew that I was not going to sit on my hands and wait for the return of live shows. I couldn’t do that—to my business, myself, nor the artists that had placed their careers in my care! It quickly became clear that the pandemic was here for a while and that in-person concerts were not going to resume in just a few months’ time. Without music conferences, I also had no means by which to introduce my new agency to promoters. I soon delved into research for a means to host a series of virtual showcases so that I could promote my new agency to promoters across North America and start getting eyes and ears on my artists—and establish a unique space for myself among agencies as one that was innovative, caring, resilient, and passionate about the artists and the industry as a whole. 

CAOIMHE: In the early stages of lockdown many artists were taking to social media with live virtual performances, but quite often both the sound and the visual quality were poor. Coupled with the logistical difficulties of coordinating an 8-piece band on an online platform, I was reluctant to put Kíla on a virtual stage until we could guarantee the quality of both sound and vision. In May, we were approached by John & Bobby Vickers of Concert Deck to take part in ‘Lock Up Live’, and what resulted was a very high-quality recording that brightened up many a living room during lockdown.

DANIELLE: Caoimhe and I were both so energized by the events at FAI and the resulting offers to bring the band to North America. We wanted to use that energy we both still felt to build something entirely different instead. Kíla did their first livestream with Lock Up Live which was a great success. I also had a few artists on my roster here in the US producing high-quality livestream concerts and workshops. Promoters here were looking for virtual programming to remain engaged within their communities, to retain relationships with their sponsors, and frankly to stay active and in a positive space themselves.

CAOIMHE: Each of us in our own way were determined not to give up or give in to the constraints that the pandemic presented to musicians and live music. This may come down to female determination as each of us was driven by a force of energy, an energy I personally believed started in that hotel room in New Orleans in January 2020. Every decision we made, and every project we worked on, was collaborative and lacking in ego. Our goal really was simply to continue to get the job done, even under difficult circumstances.

DANIELLE: Following the band’s ‘Lock Up Live’ virtual concert in Ireland, Caoimhe and I discussed producing another concert with the band to be streamed specifically for North America. Together, we investigated technical solutions to hosting livestream concerts, ticketing platforms, and delved into video production as a whole, assembling teams alongside us and the band to ensure a successful deliverable. We divided up the work and leaned right into it. Caoimhe and I had complete trust in each other’s work and skill sets. Caoimhe and the band researched tech, stages, staff, potential dates for recording in an empty venue, and budget. Meanwhile, I was pitching the idea across the US and Canada to promoters that were Kíla fans (including those we knew from the FAI showcases), Irish arts organizations and Celtic festivals. We found that budgetary constraints would make it difficult for any one promoter to host an exclusive concert stream. We were all in a vacuous financial hole as the pandemic raged on, and no one had any idea when income from live shows would return, nor their usual budgets. 

CAOIMHE: Together, we produced an hour-long concert with Concert Deck and showcased it to 12 festivals and venues across the US and Canada in August 2020, each a financial sponsor, sharing the load. Now with Culture Ireland support, the concert will be streamed across the rest of the world during 2021. So far it has been to the US, Canada, Ireland, the UK, Belgium, Spain, France, Germany, and will hit Brazil, Australia, Asia and New Zealand later this year. 

DANIELLE: There are many strong women represented in Irish mythology: Brighid, Aine, Macha, Fionnuala, Caer and Morrigan to name a few, many of whom are shape-shifters, able to take on multiple forms. I like to think of Caoimhe and I owning some of that spirit energy in our Irish DNA. In retrospect, I see how our flexibility and willingness to shift our energies from booking an in-person North American tour to a virtual tour, and all that needed to be learned to make that happen, as something of a feat. We barely knew each other at the start of the pandemic. Yet we quickly forged strong professional ties through weekly zoom meetings and innumerable emails as we set about to make the Kíla Live virtual tour a success. We persevered through the pandemic, despite the repeated lockdowns, the loss of income, the heightened anxieties, and all the unknowns—and out of all that work, found success, and forged a friendship across the ocean.

CAOIMHE: As a band manager, being forced into the constrictive conditions caused by COVID-19 offered me a chance to be very creative. As well as continuing to organise quality online concerts, this involved a strong focus on grant applications, and maintaining a constant presence on social media. Collaborating with Danielle meant that each of us had a sounding board for our ideas. It gave us a supportive environment to openly discuss these ideas and to support each other as women working in a still predominantly male dominated industry. 

DANIELLE & CAOIMHE: We both had a genuine desire to facilitate the development of music, art, and creativity in an online world, and to persist despite the challenges faced by the industry resulting from the pandemic. It is a creative partnership rooted in respect, cooperation, and solidarity. Long may it continue! Beir bua! 

The post Women Blazing Ahead in the Music Industry During a Pandemic appeared first on Canis Major Music.