Cold Blow These Winter Winds

Various Artists (Artist) | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (October 26, 2004)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Green Linnet
• ASIN: B0002WZS8U
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #511,758 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Celtic folk music for Christmas, December 9, 2005

By 

Peter Durward Harris "Pete the music fan" (Leicester England) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Cold Blow These Winter Winds (Audio CD)

Originally conceived as just a studio album project, the idea developed into a live concert album that was also be broadcast on BBC Radio Scotland. The concert, held at the Queen's Hall in Edinburgh, also raised money for a charity (Marie Curie Cancer Care). This album shows little evidence of it being live as there is no patter between songs and not much applause. One song mentioned in the liner notes as being recorded (Santa Claus is coming to town) is omitted but I do not know whether it was used in the concert or not.

Mixing contemporary songs with traditional fare, there is something here for every fan of Celtic folk music, especially as there are male voices, female voices and instrumental tracks - even (on the final track only) a child singer, who actually does quite well. Fairytale of New York (a cover of the Pogues and Kirsty MacColl classic) and Christmas in prison (a cover of a John Prine song) are the major contemporary songs, though three of the others (Blue December, Lullaby, It's Christmas time) are originals, two having been written by Dean Owens and the other by Andy Lang. The remaining songs can all now be regarded as traditional (the newest of them, Blue Christmas, is over fifty years old) though they aren't all famous. I'd never heard two of them (Balulalow, Dives and Lazarus) before.

The singers and musicians are Rory Campbell (vocals, border pipes, whistles), Eliza Carthy (vocals, fiddle), Corrina Hewat (vocals, harp), Andy Lang (vocals, guitar), Mary McMaster (vocals, harp), Rory McLeod (vocals, guitar), Tim Matthew (vocals, fiddle), Billie Owens (child vocals), Dean Owens (vocals, guitar), Karine Polwart (vocals, guitar), Marianne Campbell (fiddle), Donald Hay (drums), Aaron Jones (bouzouki), Kevin McGuire (bass) and Dave Milligan (piano). Of course, they don't all join in every track - indeed, most tracks feature very few people. Indeed, Eliza Carthy (the only artist I was already familiar with) sings Dives and Lazarus just by herself, without any accompaniment.

This is an interesting album that all folk music fans can enjoy.