JD's 2023 Advent Calendar (07)

Colorado-based Celtic duo Beth Gadbaw and Margot Krimmel have performed together throughout the U.S., the U.K, and Ireland. Recently featured on Colorado Public Radio, their newest release Icy December was described by The Folk Harp Journal as “a wonderful compilation…that will make you feel nostalgic and warm” and by British folk magazine What’s Afoot as “an absolute joy to listen to.” All-Ireland harp champion Sylvia Woods said, “This is my favorite harp and vocal CD.”

Beth Gadbaw & Margot Krimmel perform their own unique arrangements of Celtic & American folk music, as well as their own compositions. Angelic vocals, sparkling harp, rhythmic bodhrán, and surprisingly intricate vocal harmonies define their unforgettable sound, delivered with masterful musicianship and genuine joy.

https://whitebirdsmusic.wordpress.com/about/

O Come Emmanuel

Gloucestershire Wassail

I Saw Three Ships

JD's 2023 Advent Calendar (06)

Moya Brennan- In Dulci Jubilo

What Is This Fragrance? - Celtic Christmas

"Keith and Kristyn Getty have been called the "preeminent" modern hymn writers in the world today by Christianity Today, with a venerable catalog of songs sung around the world including the renowned hymn, "In Christ Alone." 

Born in Northern Ireland and based in Nashville, they are multi award-winning artists (including a Grammy nomination for Confessio: Irish American Roots) with Keith being the first musician of the modern era to be awarded the OBE from Queen Elizabeth II for service to music and hymn writing. 

With a desire to help teach the Christian faith, their music intertwines deep theology with a unique musical genre, drawing from both inside and outside the classical church form, to reinvent the hymn. According to CCLI, they have written or published 38 of the top 500 songs sung in USA & UK churches, and Integrity Music estimates that more than 100 million people in the world sing their music each year. Learn more at www.gettymusic.com."

Keith & Kristyn Getty - God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen

Sing We Now of Christmas (LIVE) — Keith & Kristyn Getty

Sleigh Ride Medley (Live) - Keith and Kristyn Getty

JD's 2023 Advent Calendar (05)

Three more Christmas delights starting with a bit of wassailing!

Wassail, Wassail, All over the Town

Yorkshire Wassail, performed by Elektra Women's Choir

THAT CHOIR: The Holly and the Ivy arranged by Ola Gjeilo

While Shepherds Watched Their Flocks By Night (Lyngham) (StF 221)

The Christmas Tree:

This is sung in many of the pubs around Sheffield - with everyone joining in the chorus with gusto; "Ho ho ho ho ho ho ho ho ho ho ho!" I think everyone gets high from the hyper ventilation needed to sing it. Here it's being sung in the wonderful Royal Hotel in Dungworth, a small village out on the moors near Sheffield.

JD's 2023 Advent Calendar (04)

Featuring some very old traditional Christmas music:

Anúna - Mariam Matrem Virginem

"Long before Christianity took hold in Scotland and Ireland, the ancient Celts celebrated the Winter Solstice and the coming of light and hope. The echoes of Paganism still resounded in the 13th and 14th centuries, when faithful Scots sang the Vespers of St. Kentigern, Patron Saint of Glasgow. This celebration of Celtic artistic traditions, created by Jeannette Sorrell and Sylvain Bergeron, interweaves selections from the medieval Vespers of St. Kentigern with ancient pagan carols and popular tunes from 17th-century Welsh and Scottish manuscripts for lute and harp."

Apollo's Fire - Noël nouvelet from Sacrum Mysterium: A Celtic Christmas Vespers, Pt. 5/9

Noël nouvelet / 15th century French/Breton carol, Oxford English text

Coventry Carol - Clamavi De Profundis

Huron Carol:

A Canadian Christmas hymn based on a French folk song with original lyrics written by St John de Brebeuf, SJ, sung by the Canadian Tenors. Also called Twas in the Moon of Wintertime.

JD's 2023 Advent Calendar (03)

 Here is part the third featuring Cajun/Zydeco at Christmas.

I usually read the notes beneath the YouTube videos and they are often very interesting - an albino alligator called Nicolette pulling Papa Noel's boat? Well why not, it's no more fanciful than than a reindeer with a bright red nose!!

"The Christmas season is doubly blessed in Acadiana. The Cajun population of south Louisiana is predominantly Catholic and the birth of Christ is a sacred reason for them to celebrate. Also, Cajuns as a rule simply love to socialize, so their Christmas holidays often abound with visits, parties, parades, food, spirited drinks, gifts, decorated homes, and community festival of light celebrations.

Around the world Santa Claus has many names; but in the deep, swampy bayous of Louisiana, he's known as Papa Noël. In such a hot and humid place, there can be no sleds or reindeer, so Papa Noël rides the water ways in a boat that's pulled by eight alligators, with a snowy white one named Nicollette in the lead."

Cajun Christmas - ¨Joyeuses Fêtes¨

Louisiana Christmas Day sung by Aaron Neville

O, HOLY NIGHT - AARON NEVILLE

Michael McDonald: Christmas on the Bayou

La Valse Cadienne de Noël

JD's 2023 Advent Calendar (02)

Ho! Ho!! Ho!!!

Bob Dylan - It Must Be Santa

Bob Dylan Reading 'Twas The Night Before Christmas'

First snow 's falling - "Well it’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas. And for the next couple of hours, it’s going to sound like Christmas too. This is the special yuletide extravaganza edition of TTRH, chock full of Christmas themes, holiday dreams, and jingle bell schemes..."

"It’s night time in the Big City
A department store Santa sneaks a sip of gin
Mistletoe makes an old man sad
Eight reindeer land on the roof of the Abernathy building"

It’s Time for "Christmas & New Year's" Theme Time Radio Hour (episode 34) hosted by Bob Dylan, first aired 20 November 2006.

Theme Time Radio Hour was originally broadcast every Wednesday at 10:00 am ET on the Deep Tracks channel of XM Satellite Radio, a subscription-based satellite radio service.
(In the UK the seriess was broadcast on BBC's Radio2)

This special edition is two hours long - but the musical selection is eclectic as you might expect from Mr Zimmerman!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theme_Time_Radio_Hour

JD's 2023 Advent Calendar (01)

A calendar of posts by JD, starting with the theme of war (and temporary peace) at Christmas:

By late December 1914, there was no end in sight to the Great War. Morale plummeted, as the soldiers realised that they would spend winter in the miserable trenches.

Winston Churchill wrote to his wife in mid-December: “What would happen I wonder, if the armies suddenly and simultaneously went on strike and said some other method must be found for settling their dispute?” He would soon find out.

SABATON - Christmas Truce (Official Music Video)

“For a single day, the opposing forces mingled in friendly conversation and even in games. It was an amazing spectacle, and must arouse bitter thoughts concerning those high-ranking conspirators against the peace of the world, who in their mad ambition had hounded such men on to take each other by the throat rather than by the hand.” – Arthur Conan Doyle, 1916.

https://www.sabaton.net/historical-facts/christmas-truce-was-enforced/

HAPPY XMAS (WAR IS OVER). (Ultimate Mix, 2020) 

John & Yoko Plastic Ono Band + Harlem Community Choir