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Billy Vaughn? Floyd Cramer? Hurdy-gurdy music? :))

Blu, have you been talking to my husband? He brings up the hurdy-gurdy at any opportunity and I don't know why!

House, yeah, that's a good idea, I'll look into it! Thanks MS!

@peachtree - thank you for this! I am Scandinavian and have been looking for "Viking" things :))

I do like Danheim! I found out Nordic metal works for writing because I was looking up Norse/'Viking' things to find songs about Thor, so I actually came at it from that side!

You know, I don't think I've ever actually listened to one! I am now!

@Bambi Yes! Its such an obscure genre (at least where I am in the deep south lol) but I love the sounds :D

@Natalya Oh that's awesome, learning how to play new instruments sounds like an exciting prospect! Can I ask what you're writing about, or is it under wraps? :)

@Peachtree Nordic music is pretty obscure where I'm at too, and everyone here is Norse/Scandinavian/Swedish/Danish/occasionally Russian or at least German lol. My hubby's a Romanoff.

Aha, well, it's a King Arthur thing, but, like, more queer. And really cheesy romantic, plus epic adventure and whatnot. And I'm aiming for a magical rewriting of history type-thing, the base question being 'What if the Roman Empire never conquered very far north because Merlin saw it coming and prevented it?' so that's requiring a ridiculous amount of research and worldbuilding (and bending of history).

@CLynnRose, I like Gershwin too, but I think his music may be mostly too slow for this particular purpose. I'll try it and see. To link two of these convo threads together, I once heard 'Summertime' on the pennywhistle, which was the beginning of my desire to learn pennywhistle lol

I... have no idea how to find anime openings on spotify

What's up with that? People don't know what they're missing out on :P sometimes you just need music that sounds like you're running with a pack of dire wolves through the forest.

Well that sounds absolutely fantastic in every way! But goodness, I can't imagine the amount of research, although I bet it's very interesting! Seriously good luck and power to you, what an awesome project... And let me know when it's published ;)

What inspired you to pick that period of history?

@Peachtree Right! You'd think all these people would be embracing their frostbitten roots, but no, it's all country and top 40.

It's fun, for the most part! The Roman Empire is making my research significantly more difficult though. So much of the cultures that would have existed then were destroyed, subsumed, or over written by Rome, and most of what we 'know' about it is from Roman historians, so... Like the whole thing with the Picts and tattoos. Were the Pictish tribespeople actually covered in blue tattoos? Was it war paint? Or was it completely made up by the Romans to thrill the populace with tales of the savagery of these people they couldn't conquer? We don't know. And then there's the spread of Christianity and how that actively destroyed so much of the religions and culture that existed before. So I frequently seem to do a bunch of research, find no solid answers, and then just make up what I like best anyway. So I will admit that I'm probably skimping on the research a little. I keep meaning to go back and do it, but... Also there's so much magic involved that some things just don't apply evenly
I dunno about 'published', I'm up to precisely one (1) person I'm comfortable showing it to, so...

As far as why Arthurian, I've always loved the whole magic and wizards and dragons and swords and horses thing. Though I came at it with this in a whole roundabout way involving reincarnation and Captain America, but that's a tangent

Recently I've been studying to Vitamin String Quartet. They do lovely classical covers of popular songs my personal favourites so far are the Billy Joel, Queen, Fleetwood Mac & the geek wedding collections. They have a ton of other stuff too (like modern pop hits)

https://open.spotify.com/artist/6MERXsiRbur2oJZFgYRDKz?si=Z0BwwxsHRoGabXMYonkG9Q

I love O Brother Where Art Thou! And it's soundtrack. Lol, speaking of rewrites of ancient stories... Um, I'm pretty sure it's set in the 20's actually. During the Great Depression. Damn! We're in a tight spot! I actually had to watch that for a music class in college. It was a good class. I brought my dog once.

I'm glad you think it sounds interesting! Yeah, there's just so much we don't know!

Oh, I'm definitely making it my own lol. I want it to have that basis for my own fun! But yeah, I'm going wildly off the rails with it, because why not?
Btw, I came down on the side of 'yes tattoos'. So my Pictish characters have tattoos that are symbolic of tribal affiliation and career/trade, stuff like that.

It does indeed! I learned about the tattoo thing via my brother, who used it in his argument to convince our mom that tattoos aren't a bad thing (we're Scottish, amongst other things, so it was relevant. Kinda.) That wasn't what eventually worked, but I looked into it more after that because I was curious. The Romans also said the Picts were naked, like, all the time though. Which makes no sense in Scotland. So who knows.

Yeah, definitely the 'bit of your heart' thing. Also there may or may not be scenes in there I don't want to run the risk of my mother reading!
But yes, there needs to be more queer things out there! And fantasy is always more fun.

I heard someone describe Steve Rogers and his one man crusade for justice for the whole dang world as "Arthurian", and I says to myself I says "Oh ya, he was totally King Arthur in a past life, yep you betcha," which would make Peggy Carter Queen Guinevere and it kinda spiraled from there. That gave me a loose basis for some characters' personalities, but they've grown far beyond that now.

Have you tried cello music? Could look up Prague Cello Quartet.

@Natalya They must have been very thick skinned if that was the case! Yikes! True, Scotland doesn't exactly have a climate like the Bahamas.

Haha, I get that! Indeed, its definitely a genre that could always use some more content :D

Oh wow, that's a really interesting train of thought, I love hearing what inspires people. Also the mental image of Peggy as Guinevere is A+

Ok, Viking music- check out this playlist
https://open.spotify.com/playlist/37i9dQZF1DWXhcuQw7KIeM?si=ONonW1pGQHS9BVO2GSuaIg

Yes! I love them! They're pretty firmly slotted in my head as winter/ Christmas music, so I'll start playing them in a month or so

@Natalya Aw man, looks like I missed the rest of this thread last week, your Guin sounds fantastic :o

Also nice viking music playlist! Thanks for sharing I don't know how I never found that before :D