The hysterical and violent fits of the young girls in Salem Village spreads from the family of Minister Samuel Parris to that of Thomas Putnam, the head household of one of the most powerful families in the village. When Elizabeth Hubbard, niece of the local doctor, begins to have fits the door is opened for legal action, as the other girls were too young to be witnesses in court. It is widely assumed that malefic witchcraft is taking place. Putnam goes with some supporters to Salem Town to make official accusations against local suspects. The accused are: Tituba, a native-American household slave of minister Parris; Sarah Good, a local beggar woman who is an embarrassment and a nuisance to the village, and Sarah Osborne, a scandalous figure who had gone against the Putnam family in court. The three women, all likely suspects for witchcraft are rounded up and brought into custody. All the while the Puritans of Massachusetts Bay colony live in constant terror of encroaching warfare in Maine and New Hampshire. 

All music written by Brian O'Connell except:

“Long Cold Nights” from the collection of traditional fiddle tunes called “Apollo’s Banquet” compiled by Henry Playford, 1690.   

“Second Meter – Psalm 119” adapted from the Bay Psalm Book, 1698.

Recorded at Studio Vinniechops, 2021-2022

Episode IV Parts: 

Part I - “Long Cold Nights”

Part II - Sarah Good, Mary Sibley’s witch cake (music – “Long Cold Nights” & “Second Meter”)

Part III - “A Perfect Storm” 

Part IV – “The Accused”

Brian O’Connell – nylon and steel string acoustic guitars, electric 12-string guitar, bass guitar, piccolo bass guitar, acoustic and electric upright basses, piano, moog synthesizer, acoustic guitar w/ glass slide & ebow, cymbal, percussion, voice

Rachel Koppelman – accordion

A Perfect Storm

Long cold dark nights
Growing shorter with each day
The rains of March
Winter washed away

Tempest driving on the fields
Roads turn into mud
To the west the river has overflowed
And drowned the cows

From London comes a new charter
New government and laws
Blasphemers are welcome now 
In the land of puritans
New masters come to rule us all
The city on the hill will fall

War is coming from the East
Bringing refugees
Telling tales of burning homes
And mutilations

How many have already turned
Signed their names into his book
If we need someone to blame
We can provide a list of names

Our complaint we swore before the court
We gave the names of the accused
Much mischief done on our poor girls
The constables have been sent out 
To bring them before the Magistrates

Sources
 
“The Salem Witch Trials – A Day-By-Day Chronicle of a Community Under Siege” by Marilynne K. Roach, Taylor Trade Publishing, 2002
 
"A Storm of Witchcraft - The Salem Witch Trials and the American Experience“ by Emerson W. Baker, Oxford University Press, 2015
 
"In the Devil's Snare - The Salem Witchcraft Crisis" by Mary Beth Norton, Vintage Books, 2002

https://www.brianvoconnell.com/

During the extremely cold winter of 1692 an intense frustration has been building in Salem Village, a small farming community up the road from the more prosperous and worldly port city of Salem Town.  Many factors are coalescing into a perfect storm: the repressive nature of the Calvinistic Puritan church, the limited prospects for girls and young women, the village resistance to the conservative and overbearing minister Samuel Parris, and a terrifying new war that is breaking out with the French in Canada and their Native allies. During the months of January and February several young girls in the households of Minister Parris and his close ally Thomas Putnam begin to exhibit extremely wild and disturbing behavior. They contort their bodies, go mute and stiff, run about the house wildly, and scream obscenities. The girls are not the first to act in this way, just a few years before in nearby Boston the  children of the Goodwin household acted in the same manner, resulting in a neighboring Irish servant woman being put to death as an accused witch. The fits of the girls in Salem Village are determined to be the results of witchcraft and three women are accused, including Minister Parris's slave Tituba.

All music written by Brian O'Connell except "Cambridge Short Tune - Psalm 70" adapted from the Bay Psalm Book, 1698.

Episode 3 Parts:

Part I - Village and Town

Part II -  Fear of God (Cambridge Short Tune - Psalm 70)

Part III - King William's War

Part IV - The Fits

Part V - (Cambridge Short Tune reprise)

Brian O'Connell - voice, piano, upright bass, acoustic 12-string guitar, electric guitar, bri-lo, drum, percussion

Rachel Koppelman - accordion

Milo - screaming

Recorded at Studio Vinniechops

Sources

"Diares of Samuel Sewall" by Samuel Sewall, 1672-1729

"More Wonders of the Invisible World: or the Wonders of the Invisible World Displayed in Five Parts" by Robert Calef, 1700

 "A brief and true narrative of some remarkable passages relating to sundry persons afflicted by witchcraft, in Salem Village: which happened from the nineteenth of March, to the fifth of April, 1692"  by Deodat Lawson, 1692

"A Modest Inquiry Into The Nature Of Witchcraft" by John Hale, 1702

"Memorable Providences, Relating To Witchcrafts And Possessions" by Cotton Mather, 1689

"A Storm of Witchcraft - The Salem Witch Trials and the American Experience“ by Emerson W. Baker, Oxford University Press, 2015

"In the Devil's Snare - The Salem Witchcraft Crisis" by Mary Beth Norton, Vintage Books, 2002

Samuel Parris takes on the job as minister to Salem Village, a marginalized farming community split by rivalry and controversy. Salem Village is overshadowed by the larger and much more prosperous Salem Town, one of the two largest towns in the Massachusetts Bay Colony. The colony is ruled by the Puritans, who have broken away from the Church of England and colonized New England in hopes of creating a model Christian society, a "City on a Hill”. Crisis evolves as newer generations lack the religious enthusiasm of the founders. Hardship presses down on the colony on many fronts: war with Native tribes,  disease epidemics, religious controversy, political and economic crisis. The entry of Parris into the powder keg that is Salem Village sets off a firestorm of persecution and retribution. 

All music written by Brian O'Connell, except "Second Meter - Psalm 119", adapted from The Bay Psalm Book, 1698. 

Episode 2 Parts: 

Part I - The Parsonage - Parris, with his family and Tituba, come to Salem Village 

Part II - The City on the Hill - the story of the Puritans and New England (Second Meter - Psalm 119) 

Part III - The Great Migration (w/ some lyrics borrowed from Michael Wigglesworth’s poem: “God’s Controversy with New England”, 1662) 

Part IV - Village vs. Town 

Part V - The Parsonage Reprise (w/ text taken from the sermon book of Samuel Parris, 1690-1691) 

The Great Migration 

We have crossed the ocean of rebirth

Planted seeds in this God given earth

Behold the pleasures of the fruitful fields

Flowing full of all good things that they yield

Realize his will 

Let the world see the city on the hill

His word shall be fulfilled, his kingdom we shall build

*

Search your soul and pray for holy grace

Confess your sins let the tears baptize your face

Only a very few are chosen to be saved

The Devil takes the rest for his own to be enslaved

By searching deep within

You might find a clue and then begin

To see the holy truth, to realize your sin

* 

We brought ourselves to plant on the western shore

Where none but beasts and warriors did swarm

One wave another follow and one disease begins

Before another cease because we turn not from our sins

Our fruitful seasons cast in doubt

Through great pain and dry and parching drought

Defenders in a route, our hopes are all dashed out

*

The clouds gather as if we finally will see rain

But for our sinfulness are scattered round again

We pray and fast as if to take a turn

But we turn not and our fields and fruits will burn

Oh sinful land don’t think it strange

If judgement comes down on you unless you change

The Devil in a rage, affairs must rearrange

Brian O'Connell - voice, bass guitar, fretless bass, 8-string bass, piccolo bass (solo on The Great Migration), 6 and 12-string acoustic guitars, keyboards, moog synthesizers, bass drum 

Mike Harmon - drums, cymbals, percussion 

Recorded at Studio Vinniechops and Wachusett Recording

Sources

"A Storm of Witchcraft - The Salem Witch Trials and the American Experience“ 

by Emerson W. Baker, Oxford University Press, 2015

"Salem Possessed - The Social Origins of Witchcraft“ 

by Paul Boyer and Stephen Nissenbaum, Harvard University Press, 1974

"The Puritans in America - Narrative Anthology”

edited by Alan Heimert and Andrew Delbanco, Harvard University Press, 1985

This is the story of an Arawak woman called Tituba: how she was kidnapped by the English from South America when she was just a young girl and enslaved. Growing up on a plantation in Barbados, she absorbed multiple cultural influences from her fellow enslaved Africans and her English mistress. Her inner world becomes a confluence of Arawak, West African, and English myths and magic. We follow her as she is taken by a frustrated and angry young Puritan man named Samuel Parris to a new life in Massachusetts. They arrive first in Boston and then move to Salem Village, a small frontier community infested with jealousy and rivalry, and haunted by fear and suspicion.

All music written by Brian O'Connell except "Old Oxford Tune (Psalm 4)" adapted from the Bay Psalm Book, 1698.

Episode 1 Parts:

Part I - Witch Hunt Theme
Part II - Oxford Tune
Part III - Captured and Enslaved
Part IV - The Cunning Tradition
Part V - Parris, Boston, and Salem
Part VI - Witch Hunt Theme (reprise)

Variation on the Oxford Tune
(Music adapted from The Bay Psalm Book, published in Boston in 1698)

Do you know of the coming storm?

The people gone astray

Their sins break free Satan from his chains

Stars fall, moon turns to blood

Fear, greed, and gossip rule the day

Old rivalries reborn

Blame cast upon thy neighbor’s home

The Beast is free to roam

Brian O'Connell - voice, bass guitar, fretless bass, touch guitar, 12-string acoustic guitar, keyboards, synthesizers, sintir, percussion

Mike Harmon - drums, cymbals, percussion

Recorded at Studio Vinniechops and Wachusett Recording.

History Book Sources

"Tituba - Reluctant Witch of Salem - Devilish Indians and Puritan Fantasies"
by Elaine G. Breslaw, New York University Press, 1996

"The Devil's Dominion - Magic and Religion in Early New England"
by Richard Godbeer, Cambridge University Press, 1992