Last year Windborne set crowdfunding records with our book & album of music for midwinter called To Warm the Winter Hearth and we are bringing it back this year to share again! With lush vocal harmony, guest musicians, and a full-color book to accompany the music, it's our best project so far and will arrive in time for the holidays.

Windborne is grassroots-powered music – with no label we can pursue all of the beautiful and meaningful details that really create an immersive vision. Please consider supporting our music and our work as independent musicians by making a donation, ordering the book and album, or checking out our other great perks!

In our households growing up, putting on the “holiday music” didn’t mean listening to Silver Bells or Frosty the Snowman, but instead meant albums and singing parties filled with wassails, songs of the winter solstice, old English carols, and other music you’d never hear at the mall. The focus of the holiday season was connecting to community and tradition, so the repertoire went far beyond songs and stories of the typical Christmas characters. Music came from a variety of midwinter traditions like European house-to-house visiting customs and singing back the sun on Solstice morning as we celebrated the turning of the year. 

We like to say that Windborne either introduces audiences to traditions they have never heard, or takes familiar songs and makes them new and fresh. This long-awaited winter album from Windborne features audience favorites like the classic Boar’s Head Carol, draws inspirations from groups such as the Watersons and Nowell Sing We Clear, and introduces some of our favorite unusual finds, including a medley of 16th century carols in the Occitan language and a rousing Lithuanian wassail. 

All these arrangements feature our signature four part vocal harmony, and we are also joined on some songs by guitar, banjo, the traditional lithuanian instrument called a kankles, and guest instrumentalists.

If you’re already a Windborne fan, you might have guessed that this album will come packaged inside a book! The book features stunning full color artwork, with lush watercolor illustrations, lyrics, and essays about the songs and the traditions they come from.

People have been singing these songs to celebrate at midwinter for generations–we are honored to be a part of that continued legacy, and we hope that this album becomes part of your winter holiday celebrations!