1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Unaccompanied traditional folk singing and stories, September 7, 2009
This review is from: Yorkshire Christmas (Audio CD)
Originally recorded for a local radio station (Radio Tees), this album attempts to recapture Christmas from a bygone age. I don't know if this was ever released on vinyl, but its 2005 release on CD is most welcome, providing a stark contrast with the vast majority of festive music.
Of the songs, the most recognizable is O come o come Emmanuel, here simply titled Emmanuel but sung to the familiar tune. Holly bears a berry, the opening track, is actually Holly and the ivy, though I was slow to recognize it as such because it is sung completely differently from the familiar arrangement. Yes, I knew that song had different arrangements historically, but the combination of a different title and a different arrangement caused me initially to expect a different song.
The second track, While shepherds watched their flocks, is familiar in Britain, but even though there seems to be a standard arrangement these days, there are apparently more than 100 different arrangements to this song. I was not familiar with the arrangement here.
Elsewhere, the songs are mostly obscure, but fans of traditional folk music will certainly recognize Here we come a-wassailing, which used to be a Christmas standard. With the act of wassailing passing into history, the song has to some extent done likewise, but its inclusion here is entirely appropriate.
Interspersed with the songs are stories narrated by three natives of Yorkshire (Kit Calvert, Mabel Race and Norman Benson) who reminisce about Christmas as it used to be. I wish the text to these stories (and the lyrics to the songs) were included in the booklet, but they aren't. The liner notes are very limited and the writer was more interested in telling us about Kit's pony and Kit's role in saving Wensleydale cheese than in the stories Kit tells on the CD.
Two of Kit's stories (The Hawes tragedy, The loss of the Scotch express) are about a train disaster that occurred at Christmas in 1910, the first being a straight narration and the second being a poem written by John Thwaite. These two tracks are presented consecutively, which is sensible on one level, although I wonder how many people really want to spend six or seven minutes at Christmas listening to a disaster story. I do, but I've long been interested in stories of old trains. If you are curious, you can find full details of the actual disaster on the net simply by searching for Hawes Junction.
Kit's other stories (The Yorkshire nativity story, The blunderbuss gun, Christmas wages) are also interesting, as are the stories told by Mabel and Norman.
The market for a Christmas album such as this is probably very limited, but if you enjoy traditional folk music, it's definitely worth a listen.
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