Irish neo folk multi-instrumentalists Joy Shannon & The Beauty Marks are set to release their new video “Midsummer Witch Hunt” just in time for Halloween!
The Beauty Marks’ newest music video is for the song “Midsummer Witch Hunt” from their stunning new album “Mo Anam Cara.” Created through a collaboration with Los Angeles-based horror film director Matt Kollar, the video was inspired by European witch trials of the Middle Ages and, along with the song itself, is a defiant tribute to the millions of women who were killed for being practicing pagans, free-thinkers or outsiders of various kinds during that era.
Joy Shannon and the Beauty Marks are a Celtic pagan folk band fronted by the Irish multi-instrumentalist singer Joy Shannon on Celtic harp, cello and harmonium. The Beauty Marks have released 5 studio albums: “As in the Wilderness” (2008), “The Opium Wars or Love in Lieu of Laudanum” (2009), “The Black Madonna” (2010), “Out of My Dreams and Into My Arms” (2011), and “The Oracle” (2013, Kalinkaland Records, Germany). The Beauty Marks are currently releasing their 6th studio album “Mo Anam Cara” on Joy’s own esoteric label Triple Goddess Records.
The albums of the Beauty Marks have been called “otherworldly and darkly beautiful epics of love, loss, and devotion”. Their albums showcase Joy Shannon’s intricate Celtic harp work, supported by her layers of orchestral cello arrangements and vocals that are at times angelic and, at other times, emotionally dark and raw. Shannon’s compositions are often inspired by ancient Celtic and Norse pagan mythology, interwoven with layers of historical references, personal stories and seductive imagery within the lyrics.
The album “Mo Anam Cara” is Shannon’s most conceptual, pagan and ghostly work to date, based entirely on the ancient Celtic calendar with a song for every holiday from Samhain to Mabon, complete with stories of the goddesses that govern each time of year. The title of the album “Mo Anam Cara” means a soulmate or spiritual guide in Irish, and has a double meaning within the work. The goddesses who occupy each song track can be viewed as spiritual guides, teaching the lessons of nature at each time of year, while many of them also sought their own soulmates in various ways within their mythological stories. The resulting album is a richly layered, circular album whose imagery takes listeners on a spiritual journey through the seasons of the year and back again.
A true mixed-media artist, Shannon’s background is in the visual arts. She has illustrated much of the album art for “The Beauty Marks” as well as directing and designing their music videos. For the last several years, Shannon has collaborated with photographer and cinematographer Xun Chi to create much of the visual imagery associated with the band, from the album cover photography to the music videos for the songs “The Horse Latitudes” (2011), “As You Are” (2011), and “Alkonost” (2013). Additionally, Shannon collaborated with tattoo artist Mike Giant and filmmaker Austin Page to create a music video for the song “Liam Neeson“, which features her being tattooed by Giant.