The day 17 window of my Advent Calendar opens on two songs that I’ve never featured before. Fingers crossed you like them!

Ten years ago – how time flies! – BBC4 showed a programme in their ‘Sessions’ series imaginatively entitled Christmas Sessions. This featured many of the best folk music acts from this country: the show was led by Bellowhead, who you may have seen on Day 4 of my series and, in keeping with their usual style, much fun and frolics ensued. Victorian attire was the dress code for the evening, and the whole hour flew by. My first song for today is taken from that:

Thea Gilmore has been releasing records, both on recognised labels and independently, since 1998. To date she has a total of eighteen albums to her name, eight of which have reached the UK top 100 chart (her highest placing is #39, twice), plus eight singles, three of which have hit the top 100 (best placing #35). I think it is a real shame that she hasn’t had more commercial success, as her albums are generally excellent and have been well received critically: I guess that’s what comes of being a folk musician here! A notable release was her 2011 album Don’t Stop Singing, which came about as Wikipedia describes:

In late 2010, Gilmore was commissioned by Sandy Denny’s estate, in conjunction with Island Records, to write melodies for unfinished manuscripts, lyrics without music, and works in progress and so to finally bring some of Denny’s last works to the world.

It’s a lovely record, and I commend it to you. And if this has piqued your interest in the Christmas Sessions programme, you can find it here.

As a certain tv show used to say: and now for something completely different. I found this one from a YouTube recommendation and, as I hadn’t heard of the band before, I followed up on their background. This is the Trans-Siberian Orchestra (TSO), who, as their name so obviously suggests, are a prog-rock outfit from the US! I’ll tell you more after you’ve seen this, the Christmas Canon:

I think that is absolutely beautiful. As its name suggests, it is to the tune of the well-known Canon In D Major by Johann Pachelbel, which I’ve always found to be a lovely piece of music – my Mum used to play it on the piano when we were kids, and it holds a lot of memories for me. TSO’s recording was originally on their 1998 album The Christmas Attic, and this song has been released as a single: it currently stands at over 900,000 digital sales. Quoting again from Wikipedia, rather than just presenting it as all my own work:

Trans-Siberian Orchestra (TSO) is an American rock band founded in 1996 by producer, composer, and lyricist Paul O’Neill, who brought together … the core of the creative team. O’Neill died on April 5, 2017. The band gained in popularity when they began touring in 1999 after completing their second album, The Christmas Attic, the year previous. TSO has sold more than 10 million concert tickets and over 10 million albums. The band has released a series of rock operas …TSO is also known for their extensive charity work and elaborate concerts, which include a string section, a light show, lasers, moving trusses, video screens, and effects synchronised to music.

So now you know! TSO have also recorded a rock version of the tune called, of course, Christmas Canon Rock. The gentle treatment they gave it is nice, with understated guitars, but I prefer this version. If you’re interested, the rock version is easily found on YouTube: this is the link.

So, a couple of different ones for today: do let me know what you think, please. I’m guessing you might be more familiar with at least one of tomorrow’s songs, as I’ll be getting closer to the mainstream again – well, as much as I ever do.

As ever, I leave you with my image for today:

Back for Day 18 tomorrow 😊