BEN FINLAY selects some festive listening for your delectation, edification and jollification.

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‘Tis the season to be jolly and all that. Yes, we’ve reached that time – the season of consumerism, gaudy decorations, and awful TV adverts. However, every year, I choose to bypass and ignore the overly Americanised version that Christmas has become, and tap into the British traditions of folklore, Dickens and the BBC’s A Ghost Story for Christmas – and of course, our traditional music.
In compiling this list, I’ve disregarded the more commercialized hits and dug a little deeper to search for albums that compliment Yuletide and simply suit the mood. While some titles here explicitly evoke a folky Christmas, some are just great records that include an appropriate festive or winter tune. Indeed, the season of winter is included as a theme here, and the whole top ten is conceived as a ‘mood’ piece, very much in the vein of my previous autumnal albums list. So, happy Christmas and I hope you find these selections and the accompanying playlist enjoyable.

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10 Lindisfarne, Nicely Out of Tune (1970)

The creeping cold has fingers
That caress without permission
And mystic crystal snowdrops
Only aggravate the condition

Lindisfarne’s debut album is often overshadowed by its successor, the number one hit Fog on the Tyne. However, it is here that the band’s real soul resides, with highlights such as ‘Lady Eleanor’ and ‘Clear White Light’ revealing their tight harmonies and folk-influenced writing. The real standout is Alan Hull’s magnificent ‘Winter Song’, regarded by none less than Elvis Costello as ‘as one of the greatest songs ever’. Indeed.

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9 Benjamin Britten, Vaughan Williams, A Boy Was Born (1990)

These recordings were made in the uniquely atmospheric setting of King’s College Chapel, Cambridge. Benjamin Britten’s ‘A Boy is Born’ was recorded in 1990 and is a superb performance. Britten’s genius as a choral composer centered around his ability to write rewarding parts for young singers; his choice of treasurable texts, set and scored in a way which makes his music seem the only possible partner for the words; and a technical command which can achieve those perfect settings. All these attributes are evident in the trio of Christmas works on this collection: an early and virtuosic carol symphony, ‘A Boy Was Born’; and a pair of small masterpieces from the 1940s, ‘A Ceremony of Carols’ and ‘Rejoice in the Lamb’.
The second part, Vaughan Williams’s ‘Fantasia on Christmas Carols’ was directed by Sir David Willcocks and recorded in 1962 as part of the choir’s collection for Argo entitled On Christmas Night. While the Fantasia is often heard played by a full orchestra, the version for strings and organ used here is more effective and ideal for a chapel choir recording in the English tradition.

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8 Jethro Tull, The Jethro Tull Christmas Album (2003)

Tull’s most satisfying album in years, this seasonal themed offering sees new compositions and older, Christmas appropriate Tull favorites re-recorded acoustically, with a folk-leaning sound that harks back to late 1970s classics Songs from the Wood and Heavy Horses. And yes, the ubiquitous ‘Ring Out Solstice Bells’ is here, alongside deeper cuts such as ‘Fire at Midnight’ and ‘Weathercock’. Also notable is a jazzy adaptation of ‘God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen’ reminiscent of ‘Bouree’ from Stand Up (which is also revisited on this recording). The whole record is a seasonal delight that I always revisit every Christmas.

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7 St Agnes Fountain, Night of a Million Stars (2021)

Formed in 2001, St Agnes Fountain are Fairport Convention’s Chris Leslie and multi award-winning duo Chris While and Julie Matthews, who come together every December as ostensibly a Christmas act, performing live around Britain. They have also recorded several albums, Night of a Million Stars being particularly notable, featuring the wonderful country-flavoured ‘Beautiful Star of Bethlehem’.

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6 Anne Briggs, Anne Briggs (1971)

The reclusive Briggs has cast a large influence over the British folk scene: she was the subject of songs by Sandy Denny and Richard Thompson, and the album The Hazards of Love (2009), while American indie band the Decemberists were inspired by Briggs’s 1963 EP of the same name. Her self-titled album is the best of her small collection of recordings, and while decidedly not a Christmas album, it features a beautiful acapella version of the traditional ‘The Snow It Melts the Soonest’, and the record’s uncluttered simple production sounds like entering an intimate fireside recital in the deep midwinter. One of the greatest British folk albums ever.

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5 Pentangle, Solomon’s Seal (1970)

The title of the final album from Pentangle’s original incarnation refers to the Seal of Solomon – a mythical signet ring with magical powers, sometimes associated with the pentagram symbol adopted by the band. While sometimes overlooked in the group’s catalogue, it features a great reading of ‘The Snows’ (also recorded by Anne Briggs as ‘The Show It Melts the Soonest’ – see previous entry) and the traditional ‘Cherry Tree Carol’. Of note are Jacqui McShee’s haunting vocals and Danny Thompson’s wonderful double bass playing. The sleeve design is splendid.

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4 Eliza Carthy & Jon Boden, Glad Christmas Comes (2023)

‘If I ever make a Christmas album, shoot me,’ said Eliza Carthy in 2021. Well, the folk legend must have changed her mind, because just two years later she was back with Bellowhead’s Jon Boden and this wonderful collection of joyous seasonal tunes that are warmly sung and played. The CD contains extensive sleeve notes on each song, and the choices are exemplary. Notable is ‘I Want a Hippopotamus for Christmas’ written by John Rox in 1953, a protest song commenting on the commercialism of Christmas and the disregard for the health of the natural world to feed our greed. The arrangement is lovely, with concertina and trombone giving way to a full brass band playing in a traditional, New Orleans jazz style. Have no doubt, this is a rich recording of great musicianship and heartfelt performances from two contemporary folk leading lights. Wonderful.

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3 The Unthanks, In Winter (2024)

The most recent record I’ve ever written about, In Winter features classic Christmas and winter songs, as well as several new compositions and is a superb, dark and melancholic offering. It is flawlessly played by the regular five-piece band expanded to include strings, vibes, and reeds which provide a rich musical texture. The album is a complete piece, sequenced without gaps and plays like a contemporary folk/prog epic, and there are wonderful takes on ‘Gower Wassail’ and – again – ‘The Snow It Melts the Soonest’. Best of all is the brooding ‘Dark December’ which simply ascends with the advent of the horn solo. Essential.

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2 Steeleye Span, Below the Salt (1972)

Below the Salt was the group’s fourth album, and with founder Ashley Hutchings now departed, it sees the group move into a different musical direction, this time encompassing a medieval influence, with the twin guitars of Tim Hart and Bob Johnson bringing a harder edge to the group. Of course, ‘Gaudete’, a sacred Christmas carol, thought to have been composed in the sixteenth century became a top twenty hit for the band in 1973. Bob Johnson had heard the song when he attended a folk-carol service with his father-in-law in Cambridge and brought it to the attention of the rest of the band. This single is one of only two top-twenty British hits to be sung fully in Latin (the other was a recording of ‘Pie Jesu’ from Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Requiem). When it was performed on Top of the Pops, the resident dance troupe Pan’s People walked onto the set in medieval-style robes, holding candles, followed by the members of the band. Alan Partridge is also a fan: ‘Listen to this it’ll blow your socks off!’

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1 The Watersons, Frost and Fire (A Calendar of Ritual and Magical Songs) (1965)

This classic album, one of the finest British folk records, takes us through a year’s calendar, and as the sleeve notes by A. L. Lloyd remind us, ‘encompass seasons of anxiety, seasons of joy’. The common people the Watersons sing of had their rites of propitiation and triumph, older than the rituals of the church and closer bound to their daily lives.’ Recorded in a two-room flat in North Villas in Camden Town, Frost and Fire features songs that accompany these ceremonies, season by season. Christmas is of course represented, with no fewer than five Yuletide-themed songs, a highlight being ‘Jolly Old Hawk’, a Twelfth Night carol sung beautifully by Norma Winstone. An album that can be enjoyed at any time of the year, it particularly resonates during the dark winter evenings and remains an absolute favorite.
Frost and Fire proved to be an influential album (its version of ‘John Barleycorn’ was adapted by Chris Wood for Traffic’s 1970 hit album of the same name), and the record is just as vibrant today. Reissued a few years ago by Topic, it is one of the essential recordings of British music.

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