Hawthorn

• Folk

Hawthorn, created by Heather Scott and Taylor Holland, “digs into its folk roots while also reminding us that tradition is about tending to the flame, not the ashes” (NPR). The Boston-based group is quickly gaining national recognition for its powerful vocals surrounded in old-time banjo, warm guitar, and dreamy electric lines: “When they harmonize, the edges of their voices bleed together like watercolors on paper” (WBUR). Hawthorn was nominated for the 2019 Boston Music Awards and the New England Music Awards. Notable appearances include The Falcon Ridge Folk Festival, Bust Out Boston, House of Blues Boston for the Boston Music Awards, and the International Herbal Symposium. Hawthorn’s newest LP Maggie Willow, hailed as “a ghostly brilliant record” (Sound of Boston) and named to both WBUR and Sound of Boston’s top albums of 2019, is available everywhere.

The Hawthorn tree, native to New England and the British Isles, is highly regarded as a powerful medicinal friend of the heart. Hawthorn offers protection, uplifting, and courageous opening for matters of the emotional heart while also offering supportive restoration and equalization of the physical heartbeat. The two halves of Hawthorn — it’s haws (berries) and thorns offer a teaching for a healthy heart: the importance of growing strong protection for the sweet gifts inside. The fruit of has a strong presence of antioxidant and anti inflammatory flavonoids, and can also aid as a nervine – an herb that can positively affect the nervous system. Hawthorn trees are revered for ceremonial and spiritual purposes, believed in the British Isles to be a portal to the fairy world. Hawthorn’s blooming coincides with the beginning of May, when renewal and rebirth are celebrated with the coming of warmer days.