JACKIE OATES & JOHN SPIERS
A Midwinter’s Night
John Spiers adds to the impression of being the busiest man in Folk, taking time out from Bellowhead, Gigspanner, his partnership with Jon Boden and a multitude of other activities, to reunite with Jackie Oates and bring their series of Christmas collaborations to CD (other forms are available), just in time to tour the results.
As might be expected, the musicianship and vocals are of the highest quality, Jackie’s voice and ‘Squeezy’ John’s melodeon are to the fore throughout the album, with Jackie’s 5-string viola an almost constant presence, but the list of additional instruments is as long as it is impressive, adding further flavours to a feast of seasonal tunes.
Ah yes, Christmas albums. In a crowded market, perhaps the best way to assess them is by considering what interest they bring to the familiar and how interesting is the unfamiliar they bring.
To start with the former, their version of O Come, O Come, Emmanuel has a sparse beauty that places the emphasis on ‘rejoice’ and even though the feel of the song is at odds with much of the collection, it yields its own joy. God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen is paired with The Somerset Wassail and has the type of bounce to it that you might expect. The Halsway Carol is, in folk circles at least, perhaps the classic secular seasonal offering of recent times, and with literally hundreds of versions out there, our duo’s offering stands tall amongst them.
Beyond the familiar, and as may be expected from students, lovers and researchers of folk traditions, we are taken on a voyage of discovery, visiting Brittany, Sweden and Iceland, as well as Wales and the Quantocks, dropping in on Cyril Tawney and The Copper Family along the way. In fact, where tunes have been learned from others, the sleeve notes do acknowledge them. There is a variety throughout that, along with changes in pace and tone, and even voice, as John takes the lead on a wassail. It is not so much the shock of the new as a gradual and pleasingly unfolding of the hitherto unknown.
Of course, the distinction between the known and the new can be blurred, or perhaps more accurately, blended, as The Gloucestershire Wassail is paired with the traditional Swedish Hymn Julvisa Från Älvdalen, and under John’s stewardship, and inspired by The Headington Quarry Mummers Play, God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen and The Somerset Wassail become conjoined on the basis of shared melodic qualities.
Ah yes, the sleeve notes. They are pretty much essential given the esoteric nature of the selection on offer. Without them, for example, we may never know that ‘As I Lay on Yoolis Night’ is a resetting of a 14th Century carol, discovered in a manuscript of 1372 from Franciscan Friar John of Grimestone and is paired with the tune from a Breton carol of 1688, rounded off with a mazurka Boules Et Guirlandes, sourced from Breton band, Skolvan. Of such things are new traditions created and there is a rich seam of such nuggets of knowledge to be mined.
To resume an earlier theme, what is known is returned with interest and what is new is a discovery of delights. You may revel in the minutiae of the accompanying information or simply enjoy the musical offerings, but perhaps the two are best enjoyed together!
