Advent rumbles on, bringing the big day ever closer. We’re already up to Part Three of my Advent Countdown, and as before I’m playing five tunes for you. Four of these are making a welcome return, and one is brand new. I’m also sharing a new ad today as well, this year’s offering from a pub in Northern Ireland who I have featured before – it’s another little beauty.

But first, onto the music. This one always goes down well to get us off to a lively start:

Patty Gurdy with Fiddler’s Green, and The Yule Fiddler. 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 speaking and in writing – on her Facebook page. She is also one of those artists who responds to comments made by fans, rather than leaving it to her ‘team’ to do the work, which is always good for brownie points from me, and she is an absolute delight. Her commitment to supporting mental health issues is to be admired, too, especially after she lost just about everything in the floods that hit Europe a few summers ago. She has played in several bands and has had a number of musical collaborations, including one with Faun, another band who you may have noticed that I really like. This song is the opening track on Patty’s 2020 EP Frost & Faeries: she also has another two EPs (Shapes & Patterns and Folk And Pop), several singles and two full length albums (Pest & Power, from 2019, and Tavern, released last year) to her name. She took up the hurdy gurdy in 2014, and is making a mark for herself with it. It is an instrument that is clearly important to German folk bands: Faun also has a hurdy gurdy player.

My next one is another favourite. The song is well known and has been covered countless times, but this is the one I like best, by Bob Seger. When I have played this in previous years I have used an animation that also includes shots of Bob in the studio, but having checked them the two that I could find were both restricted from view in the US – go figure! But I did find something a little different, a rather charming family-made video:

Denise McChesney, the proud Mum who posted that, doesn’t tell us her kids’ names, but just says that they were 5 and 4 years old. That was 12 years ago – I wonder if they are still as cute?

The Little Drummer Boy (originally known as Carol of the Drum) was written by American composer Katherine Kennicott Davis in 1941. It was first recorded in 1951 by the Trapp Family (yes, that one), and has been recorded many times since. In the lyrics, the singer relates how, as a poor young boy, he was summoned by the Magi to the Nativity of Jesus. Without a gift for the Infant, the little drummer boy played his drum with approval from Mary, recalling, “I played my best for him” and “He smiled at me”. It is a nice little song, and Bob Seger’s version is lovely. It was recorded in 2011 for a charity album, A Very Special Christmas, but has never appeared on any of his own albums or singles, though it did feature in a retrospective compilation, also in 2011.

Not being especially religious I tend to turn to alternative versions of Christmas Carols for my music, and those are often provided by our folk musicians, as you may have seen last week. Here’s another:

This is simply delightful. You may know the story of the Fisherman’s Friends, about how they were ‘discovered’ by BBC Radio DJ Johnnie Walker while he was on holiday in Port Isaac, in Cornwall, and how his manager joined him to negotiate a record deal for them. They had already released three CDs through small local companies, but their debut album on a major label became a huge seller (UK #9), giving rise to several more albums, two of which also reached the UK top thirty, world tours, and two very enjoyable movies based loosely on their story. This is very typical of their style, and they are as friendly a bunch as this might suggest – I’ve seen them play live, and the after show meet and greet was a riot!

Up next is the fourth of today’s return visitors, with another lovely video:

Ingrid Michaelson and Zooey Deschanel with Merry Christmas, Happy New Year. This is such a charming little song and a great video: the animation is incredibly good, though I would always recommend taking the teabag out of the cup before drinking! Ingrid Michaelson is a singer-songwriter and actor, in that order. Zooey Deschanel, younger sister of Emily (the Bones lady), is primarily an actor but also has a long musical career to her name, both as part of the band She And Him and also on collaborations like this. I think this is lovely, and couldn’t resist playing it again this year – I think that makes four times now! If you want to hear more like this, it was a bonus track on the deluxe version of Ingrid’s album Songs For The Season, which was released in October 2018.

I promised you a new one for today’s final song. This was released at the end of November, so I think that counts as new-ish. It’s another overload of cute – I must be going soppy in my old age! You may need to click the CC button to bring up a translation of the lyrics if you want to know what they are singing about:

That was Masaka Kids Africana with Merry Christmas. They are phenomenally successful on YouTube, where they have over 4.4m subscribers. They say “We believe in the power of dance to spark joy across the globe and ignite hope in the hearts of young children here in Masaka, Uganda. Our mission is to ‘DANCE, RISE & SHINE’ – using our talents to uplift spirits worldwide while investing in the education and social well-being of the next generation in our community.” They do a lot of work for charity, and have links with the Playing For Change organisation, about whom I have written before. I mentioned in that post that I was particularly taken by the Ugandan kids in the final video, of Kool and the Gang’s Celebration, and whilst they are only credited as a Ugandan Kids Choir in that it is definitely them. They give us a very happy conclusion to today’s tunes.

And to close, here is the ad I promised you. For the past couple of years Charlie’s Bar in Enniskillen, Northern Ireland, have released a video which, whilst promoting the pub, has really got to the spirit of the season. And now they have done it for a third time – this was released on Sunday:

Isn’t that gorgeous? And, as with my old favourite Hafod Hardware, they prove that you don’t need a megabucks budget to make something meaningful and impactful. I love it!

That’s all for today and, as always, I hope you’ve enjoyed my slightly offbeat take on Christmas songs. See you again soon for Part Four, and until then I hope you stay warm and well 🤶