Advent Calendar 2021 – Day 4 🎅

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The window on my Advent Calendar has opened at Day 4 with a little bonus: as it is the weekend, there are three tunes inside today. One of them was new last year, one first appeared two years ago (i.e. in the pre-blog days), and the other is brand new (released yesterday).

Let’s get things off to a rousing start with the one that was new last year. It was very well received, so it was a natural choice for me to go with it again:

To save you having to look it up, this is an edited version of what I said about this one last year: “One of the delights of YouTube for me is finding new music from the recommendations they give, based on what I’ve watched previously, and this is how I found the beautiful young woman behind this one. She is beautiful in spirit, too – I follow her Facebook page and she is simply delightful. This is a joyful seasonal song from, possibly, the only artist who has named herself after the instrument she plays. Patricia Büchler, aka Patty Gurdy, is German, just like Fiddlers Green, the ‘Irish’ band accompanying her in this. Her command of English is excellent, and she frequently posts in English – both in video and in writing – on her Facebook page.” And an update from this year: Patty was one of those who suffered in the floods which swept through Germany earlier this year, in which she lost everything and still hasn’t been able to return to her home. But things are improving for her, and she has recently released a new video: her version of the Scottish/Irish song The Parting Glass. It is beautiful, and I hope she continues towards getting herself back on an even keel.

I promised you a brand new one. You may have noticed that ABBA have recently reformed, and they released a new album – Voyage – last month. This is one of the tracks from it. The video was published at 8am yesterday UK time, and it is their first ever Christmas song:

That may not be the best song ABBA have ever recorded, but it is charming and ideal for this time of year, and the video is great. The album, by the way, has been #1 in the UK, Sweden, Australia, Austria, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Norway and New Zealand, and #2 in Canada and the US. This is just out as a single, and it won’t be a surprise to me to see it in next week’s chart.

The bonus one for today is from my all-time favourite covers band. They have made a number of videos of Christmas songs, three of which were included here last year. This one has only been in my choices once before, in 2019, when you had to be with me on Twitter or Facebook to see them. Like everything they do, this is loads of fun:

Even if you didn’t enjoy that, little Romeo certainly did! He now has his own YouTube channel, and has featured in several of the band’s other videos. The puppets in that are very good likenesses, and it is poignant to be reminded of Mike Taylor – Beard Guy – playing piano. (He passed away from natural causes on 30 December 2018, at just 51). RIP Mike, you were taken far too soon.

That’s all for today’s bonus version of the Advent Calendar, apart from my picture of the day: a Saturday Smile for you:

It’s Sunday tomorrow, so it will be one of my Christmas Carols specials. See you then ☃️

29 thoughts on “Advent Calendar 2021 – Day 4 🎅”

  2. I didn’t care much for the Abba tune, but I liked the other two. It’s funny how I immediately recognize some of the songs you’ve repeated from previous years but not others. I don’t recall Patty Gurdy, although that one is delightful. My wife calls it selective memory.

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  5. I like the Irish flavor in a couple of your tunes this year!
    first video was great; it’s a shame what happened to her home…

    nice song from Abba…

    the song from WOTE is the best one you have psoted this year, and I think it is going to be hard to top. I loved everything about it. They are just so creative and seem to have so much fun.

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    • That special Irish flavour – so far from the US and Germany! There may be some real Irish people appearing later…

      Patty has taken it hard – she spoke to camera just after it happened and it was heartbreaking. She has recently started performing again, and her new video is lovely, so I’m hoping the worst is now behind her.

      The ABBA one isn’t really up there with their best, but it made for a nice video with lots of happy kids having loads of fun.

      The WOTE one is indeed great, but not my favourite so far – or even my favourite of theirs. They may well get another look in at some point, as they have given us several more…

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      • You haven’t lived until you’ve seen Otava Yo’s version of I’ll Tell Me Ma! I’ve also found some good Irish music from Australia, Canada, and elsewhere in Europe, including Transylvania…

        Keeping my fingers crossed for her – she’s a real sweetie.

        Plenty more WOTE to choose from…

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    • She certainly does, Keith, and I’ve enjoyed all her other videos, too. The instrument is a hurdy gurdy – hence my comment about her stage name. You won’t often find one in rock and pop music, apart from the Donovan song, but they are fairly well used in folk music. Faun, who I featured for Halloween, have one too and it helps create a distinctive sound.

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      • Now you know! I’ve just looked up on Wikipedia, which has a detailed article about the instrument, how it works, its history and where it is played. They also have a separate list of current players, which includes both Faun and Patty G – who have played together on occasion.

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