“Wester Caputh” by The Bright Wings Chorus.

“For four days in August, we gathered together in East Montpelier, Vermont to sing these songs: also to eat well, drink wine, and laugh copiously,” writes Brendan Taaffe of recording this moving collection of songs composed in the centuries-old shape note tradition. “If there is to be a heaven, I can only hope that these days will be repeated, filled as there were with the deepest essentials.”

Download this and more at the Utne Monthly Music Sampler