Happy Tolkien Reading Day 2021! New Song - FREE!

[Galenhir]

(Song link below)

In honor of Tolkien Reading Day 2021, I present to you a free song! For one day only (March 25, 2021), in celebration of Tolkien's works, you can download this song for free by entering 0 for the price paid at checkout.

This is an early mix of a new and unreleased song entitled "The Shores of Faery" based on lines of Tolkien's poem of the same name. In 2019, the Lonely Mountain Band had the honor and privilege to be invited to perform music during the exhibit, "Tolkien: Maker of Middle-earth" at the Morgan Library & Museum. It was during our initial visit to the exhibit when I saw Tolkien's original painting "The Shores of Faery" in person; which also had the handwritten text of the poem on the opposite page. This was the first image that attracted my attention in the exhibit, and seeing it in person along with the text had a profound effect upon my imagination. It was at this moment that the thought of creating a song came to mind. The line "...whose foam is silver music..." is what I believe prompted the urge to create this song. A long time before I ever read Tolkien's poem I had written a short instrumental piece entitled, "Silver Steps," which was inspired by the mental image of walking on a heavenly sparkling shoreline. This inspiration, from 'beyond the Western Seas,' which to me closely resembled Tolkien's imagery, evoked a strong personal connection to the poem. To have a song born this way is a rare gift, and perhaps a chance-meeting in Middle-earth.

Below is a photo I took of Tolkien's notebook that has the original painting & poem.




And so this song has special meaning for me on Tolkien Reading Day, and I am glad to be able to share it with you as a free gift. I hope you find it to be 'silver music.' Happy Tolkien Reading Day!
- John (3/25/21)

-It is recommended to listen to the song in high quality WAV or FLAC format on headphones or high fidelity speakers.
Laptop speakers are the bane of the minstrel! ;)

Here is the link to the song! https://minstrelsongs.com/track/the-shores-of-faery

[Kaerri]

It's beautiful, Galenhir! Thank you!

[Dannigan]

This is beautiful! Thank you very much, Galenhir, not only for this heartfelt and well-crafted song, but for sharing all that made it come to be! I love it! Plus, I really love that flute in every song I hear it in, including this one. =)

Far apart, never alone!

Honor and fun,
Dannigan a.k.a. Gori "Mithrilfist" Brightforge

[Molly Bayberry]

Thank you so much, Galenhir, it is indeed 'silver music'.

Happy Tolkien Reading Day to you, as well!

[Galenhir]

Hail friends - thank you all for kind replies!

There's more to the story, that I'd like to tell sometime - a really wonderful experience at the Tolkien exhibit back in 2019. I have a full video and story about it all that I will release at some point with a lot of amazing pictures.

The wind instrument in the song is an Irish Low Whistle played by the amazing singer/multi-instrumentalist Peter Walker. He also plays harp and sings on the upcoming album as well! I am really excited to be able to release the new album when it is done - its been a long time since the last one. Its a quest in itself to find quiet time to record/mix/master. Looking forward to sharing more with you all soon. And I hope to see you all Sunday!

[Aedon Durreah]

So good. Just finished listening to it.

[Galenhir]

Thanks Aedon! I am going to leave the song up for a few more hours today in case anyone still wants to download it. Enter 0 at checkout to download it free. https://minstrelsongs.com/track/the-shores-of-faery

[Hannariel/Brioney]

It's beautiful! I was trying to see if there was a full album that it was on that we can purchase.