Advent Calendar Day 6

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It’s Sunday, in case you hadn’t noticed: the days of the week tend to blend into each other in the Year of Covid, don’t they? I’m not particularly religious, but over the years I’ve been sharing Christmas songs I’ve tried to give you carols on Sundays. However, if you’re looking for angelic choristers with treble voices, I’m afraid I’m about to disappoint you. Today’s two songs are both fairly recent versions of traditional carols, done in markedly different ways.

The first one is fronted by a singer of whom I’ve long been a fan:

Maddy Prior has been a part of the English folk music scene since the late Sixties, and was a founder member of Steeleye Span, one of the two bands (with Fairport Convention) at the forefront of the development of our folk-rock tradition. She is still in the band but each Christmas – apart from this year, for obvious reasons – she has also been with the Carnival Band, who do a series of gigs putting their own slant on traditional carols. This is a typical example: they have a lot of fun doing these shows, and from the roar at the end it seems our typically stuffy British audiences enjoy them too! As a side note, the fiddle player is Giles Lewin, who was a founder member of Bellowhead: I featured them on Day 4.

I recently reblogged a post from 2019, Under The Covers, in which I gave you examples of exceptionally good cover versions of some of my favourite songs. One of the bands I featured in that was Foxes And Fossils, who have become something of a YouTube success in the past few years. They originally shared videos of live performances but in the past year or so, even before the pandemic started, they have concentrated on studio recordings. Over the years there have been three ‘Foxes,’ though only two at a time, but the studio versions have enabled them to include all three. Last December they shared their version of a carol:

If you don’t think that is lovely, then I’m afraid you might need to get your hearing checked! Tastefully understated playing, and beautiful vocals. A couple of their videos have recently passed the 3m views mark, and they have been gaining new subscribers to their YouTube channel at a rate of knots. Not band for a semi-pro band, really! They have a growing collection of videos and if you like good music I can highly recommend visiting them on YouTube.

I’m having difficulty restraining myself with my image of the day: many of those I’ve collected over the years are a little (or a lot) risqué, and I wouldn’t want you to think any worse of me than you probably already do. Especially as it’s Sunday, a vaguely religious one for you:

I hope you have a peaceful and enjoyable day, and I’ll see you again tomorrow.

25 thoughts on “Advent Calendar Day 6”

  1. Pingback: Advent Calendar Day 6 – Rush Naf

  3. You recently shared A Foxes and Fossils tune with us, so I started checking them out a little more. Such beautiful harmony on this one. It’s one of the best versions of this song I’ve ever heard.

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    • Glad you like them both. Interesting that you see bluegrass in the first one, as to me it is very much an English folk arrangement. Proof of the way musical styles interrelate, I think. I’m also pleased you like the images: I’m having a really hard time adhering to the clean ones, though 😉

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      • Perhaps my comment was influenced by the fact that I just finished watching an eight part series on country music by Ken Burns. The series showed how much of our music is related to each other and there’s a lot of Bluegrass in there. Once I hear fiddles I think Bluegrass and Irish music. I know what you mean about trying to keep things clean, I try to do the same with my blog.

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      • I saw that Ken Burns series (last year, I think) and it was good at making the connections. I think most would agree with you that fiddles make them think of Bluegrass and Irish music, but the instrument is a staple of English folk music too. All those connections…

        I have some very funny cartoons in my collection, none of which can ever appear on the blog!

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      • the Ken Burns series was great. we have saved it to ur DVR, so we can watch it at any time. There are a few people I want to go back and listen to more of the their music. Johnny Cash, Dolly Parton, and Emmylou Harris come to mind…

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      • It was one of the most enjoyable documentary series I’ve ever seen – so much good music, and the narrative was superb. I wish I’d recorded it! Maybe BBC4 will show it again, if I’m good…

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    • Thank you for dropping in, and I’m glad you enjoyed them. F&F do have great voices, don’t they! The story is that they were trying to think of a name before their first gig and the name came in a flash of brilliance to one of the Fossils – life in the old dogs yet, it seems 😉

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    • I’d have loved to see Steeleye at Kentwell, it must have been a great setting for the show. It frightens me that it’s nearly 50 years since I first saw them! F&F are well worth exploring further: a very talented bunch of people.

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