The Harbour Lights

This year’s Spring Harvest introduced me to The Harbour Lights, a band who merge the English folk tradition with a lusciously gentle pop sensibility. Their first album, Leaving Safe Anchorage uses the imagery of sailing to reflect on the challenges of venturing out on the sea of faith.

Biblically, boats feature as a metaphor for the life of faith in the story of Jonah, the Galilee experiences of the disciples and in the journeys of Paul. Celtic-rock bands like Iona have used the voyages of Celtic saints like Brendan for inspiration (see their album Beyond these Shores for example) while Gaelic-rock band Runrig (in ‘Lighthouse’ from the Mara album) picture our lives as being like a shipwreck with the lighthouse of God’s love being our salvation.

For The Harbour Lights the song of the old sea road comes with the turning of the tide calling its hearers to search for Holy Ground. The call to freedom means leaving safe anchorage and praying for the light of God to lead to the distant shore and guide through the rocks that guard the bay. Leaving Safe Anchorage is both an exhilarating call to venture out upon the sea of faith and a whisper of assurance that we will finally be brought safely to the last port of call.

Also at Spring Harvest and drawing on folk roots to find a similar inspiration was Moya Brennan, a pioneer of Celtic-rock as lead singer with Clannad. Her latest album Signature, which tells the story of her life and conversion, charts similar waters to The Harbour Lights as she sings about travelling on a stormy road to reach a place of beauty, hope and encouragement.