As Halloween approaches, ghosts and the unexplained, times and places where the lines between legend and reality, stories and myth and the daylight world  seem to flicker and shimmer and at times, dissolve, come to mind.  These things have come into play in song, too, in the Celtic traditions of Ireland and Scotland and in music that came across the water to North America from those lands.

Quite a few of these songs may have had  origins in travel in the first place. It’s not been that long ago when it was common for someone set out on a journey, down the road or across the ocean, and never be heard from again. So there are songs about lovers who return, perhaps at the beloved’s bedroom door, perhaps in  another sort of  encounter, and the lover is delighted — until he or she finds that the person is a bit too pale and wan, and is really a ghost. Continue reading Ghost Travelers in Song →