Windborne is proud to announce our newest project: a book & album of music for midwinter called To Warm the Winter Hearth and we’re asking for your support to help bring it to life! 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, but to make it happen we are counting on our community to help us. Please consider supporting our music and our work as independent musicians by making a donation, pre-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 Yann Falquet on accordion and Katie McNally on fiddle.

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! Please join us in bringing this project to life, and thank you for your support! We are so excited to share this music with you!

You can pledge any amount, and get some great perks while supporting us! Highlights include Signed Limited-Editions, big discounts, and a secret bonus track! Click for details

If you have the means to support our work at a higher level, we have some special perks for you as well! Whatever your donation we are so grateful for your belief in our music!

Shipping is included within the US. Shipping outside the US (even Canada!) costs us around $19, but for backers we are setting a fixed rate shipping of $10 that you should select as an add-on to your pledge.

This is the most ambitious and complicated project we've ever done, and we anticipate it costing just over $72,500.   With your help we can raise the rest, recover our costs, and maybe even go for some exciting stretch goal options like cutaways in the cover, gold foil, and more art!   

Recording costs: $7,500 Recording, hiring guest musicians, editing, mixing, & mastering – We are so proud of these songs, and want the recordings to convey all the richness, vitality, and intricacy they have in performance.

Artwork & Design: $4,000: You are going to be blown away by the vibrant art that appears on every page of this book! There are tons of secrets for you to find scattered throughout the pages, all illustrated by Matt Spencer.

Manufacturing costs: $25,000 CD/Book Manufacturing - Because so many people have preordered we are going to expand our order for more books and albums. to make a this kind of fancy full–color book affordable for us and our audiences, we are printing 15,000 copies.

Environmental goals: $8000. To meet our environmental goals, we are printing on FSG-certified recycled paper and using non-toxic soy inks, as well as offsetting the entire carbon cost of producing and shipping the album, and even the impact of the digital streaming.

Publicity: $10,000 We believe that this music can find appreciative wider audiences if we are able to reach them! Windborne is investing in our future and hiring professionals to help us get these songs out into the world, especially in the US, UK, and Canada! You can help us get the word out as well by telling your friends!

The Nitty Gritty: $18,000 - It's not glamorous, but we have to pay rights & royalties, as well as packaging and shipping out your rewards! 

Platform Fees:  Around 10% of what we raise will go to the platform fee and credit card processing fees. If you are feeling especially generous you can cover those fees in your donation!

We are well on are way and are thrilled to be able to get this book to you in time for the Winter gift giving season!  We have finished recording and editing, and will be wrapping up  mixing and mastering this summer. We send the book to the manufacturers August 15th, so that is the deadline for donations at our Benefactor level and above. Finally, we will have a hard copy proof in mid-September, and will be receiving the full shipment at the beginning of November to send out.

Windborne’s captivating show draws on the singers’ deep roots in traditions of vocal harmony, while the absolute uniqueness of their artistic approach brings old songs into the present. Known for the innovation of their arrangements, their harmonies are bold and anything but predictable.

With a 20-year background studying polyphonic music around the world, Lauren Breunig, Jeremy Carter-Gordon, Lynn Rowan, and Will Rowan share a vibrant energy onstage with a blending of voices that can only come from decades of friendship alongside dedicated practice. The ensemble shifts effortlessly between drastically different styles of music, drawing their audience along on a journey that spans continents and centuries, illuminating and expanding on the profound power and variation of the human voice. The singers educate as they entertain, sharing stories about their songs and explaining the context and characteristics of the styles in which they sing.

BBC Traveling Folk describes Windborne as “subverting expectations and redefining the genre… just absolutely phenomenal!” Audiences and critics lavish praise upon the singers not only for their technical mastery, but for the passion, engagement, and connection with each other and the audience that imbues each performance with a rare power.