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When Michelle Wooderson was creating music with renowned Belfast musician and violinist John Fitzpatrick, during lockdown, she could never have imagined what lay ahead. The duo, known as Starlyng, had just released their first track, ‘We Brought the Summer with Us,’ in July 2023, and just two weeks later, John tragically died. Michelle was plunged into grief, but when she started to emerge again, music and the natural world became her solace.
Eighteen months on, and Michelle—who works as a community herbalist, gardener, and forager—has written a heartfelt book and album of songs – ‘A Little Herbal Hymnal’ – in tribute to John.
Each chapter of the book is devoted to a specific native Irish plant or tree that comforted her and taught her important lessons about love, loss, and how to turn sorrow into beauty.
She draws on relevant folklore and plant wisdom to narrate captivating personal tales about each plant. Each chapter concludes with a QR code that takes the reader to the song she has written for that plant, strengthening the reader’s bond and experience with each one.
All except one of the songs were written by Michelle herself; she and John had been working on some of them in the studio prior to his death, and his moving strings, heard throughout, add a poignant quality to the album.
The book and songs, according to Michelle, were about processing her grief and discovering solace in nature: “There’s a chapter on winter solstice and the gifts you can only find within the dark. Just like seeds, you cannot develop without these periods, because they are truly where the light begins”
‘A Little Herbal Hymnal’ will launch on 1st March with a gig in the Larder in east Belfast. This is no ordinary event. Stories, songs, wild food experiences, a ritual, herbal tea ceremony and an audience choir will all be interwoven in an immersive and interactive way throughout the evening. A feast for the senses. No surprise then, that the event sold out within a matter of days and now has a waiting list.
“My hope,” she says, “is that we can connect to the earth with more curiosity, wonder, and love, and learn to appreciate the wisdom and medicine that the plants and weeds around us have to offer,”