Summer Russell IF

Summer Russell is a lifelong lover of music and poetry, myth and magic, science and nature. She came home to filk much later in life than she might have wished, but she got here as soon as she could.

First, though, she was a little girl with a Casio keyboard, a room full of fairy tales, and designs on the astronaut life. Later she became a bookish dreamer who almost cried in the middle of treble choir when she sang in harmony for the first time. She learned to play the guitar as a teenager and quickly took to songwriting, powerfully influenced by traditional music from the British Isles and by the singers and poets of the folk revival. At the same time, she fell hard for rock 'n' roll, eventually building to the revelation of melodic power metal about elves and wizards. She remains a headbanger at heart to this day.

She found the Society for Creative Anachronism and spent many an enchanted night singing from fire to fire, or sharing in the warmth of the bardic circle that hinted at what was to come. She sang about warrior women before she came of age and put on armor of her own. Later, she had the honor of serving for a year as Premier Bard of the Stellar Kingdom of Ansteorra.

It was with wonder and gratitude that she found her way, at last, to her first OVFF. She found new life there in the wells of inspiration and kindness that never seem to run dry. Since then, she has taken every chance she can to join her friends and kindred spirits in song, whether gathered together in rooms or reaching across great distances to keep the music alive.

In 2018 she was Toastmaster at Consonance, where the community worked a feat of deep magic on her behalf. In 2019 she was Interfilk Guest at FilKONtario, and the meaning of joy and hospitality grew greater still.

Thus encouraged, she continues to write a motley assortment of songs and record them at home, grooving to the rhythm of the ocean she loves.

You can find her music at summerrussell.bandcamp.com.

Representative Work for the 2021 Pegasus Awards

The Entwife (mp3)

Words and Music: Copyright © by Summer Russell
All Rights Reserved
Lyrics posted with permission of the author

Oh come and see, we gladly cried!
The woods awake, the day alive,
The sun was dappled on the vine
And we our roots
And branches all entwined.

And love grew wild as roses
Shouting scarlet summer songs,
And we went crowned with leaves of gold
And robed with grasses long,
To make our vows among the boughs
When we were young and strong.

Oh come away! From distant lands,
The whispering of the river ran
Where far beyond the farthest stand
I heard the earth
Call out to ask my hand.

And love must go where seeds are sown,
So life begins anew
And I alone must take the road
As I am meant to do
Though leaves will turn and embers burn,
Still I remember you.

You come to me in dreaming time
When tree and flower are pale with rime,
The winter-silver stars align
In forms unknown
Above my restless mind.

But love is true, and ever through the night
Her watch is kept
With memories of the willows
Where the wind once wept,
Until the hour we wake to find
That we have only slept.

I'll come to thee in splendor rare
When dew is on the maidenhair,
When spring at last is born again
Then every knee
Of every heart will bend

For love that blooms eternal
In the rooms of green and shade,
The altar of the morning
Where our wordless song was prayed
All clothed in light, as fair and bright
As when we first were made.