Jan and Jon embrace the seasonal baton with relish and it is anything but a turkey, vegetarian or otherwise. Hallelujah!

Release Date: 22nd November 2024

Label: Wylam Records

Format: CD / digital

Uh-oh, it’s that time of year again, which means a veritable Santa’s sack of seasonal libations are in the offing. It’s odd, isn’t it, how such a concept seemed historically always so irredeemably naff, the preserve of TV slebs and fading country singers, with a smidgeon of soul stalwarts also getting in on the act as the decades rolled by. But, fast forward, now the Christmas album is de rigeur in Folkland, with the great and the good all getting in on the act, having me bite down hard, so as to avoid airing my customary curmudgeonly humbuggery about such gifts.

blame the watersons

Of course, it is those Watersons I blame, with their 1975 release, For Pence And Spicy Ale, even if it wasn’t, being a summer release with a couple of wassailing songs. Anyhap, hot on the heels of last years releases from Waterson scion, Eliza Carthy, (with Jon Boden), A Winter Union and Kate Rusby, who, of course, has been doing this for years, amongst many others, here’s one for this year, and, like those, it is a corker. And I’m not even saying that through gritted teeth.

Burns and Doran are undoubtedly rising stars, their anglo-scots pairing as fine an example of acoustic tradition as one can find, either of both sides the Tweed. Jon Doran, the archetypal morris dancing completist, plays guitar and bouzouki, his rich voice ringing out with appealing resonance, and he is the perfect match for Janice Burns, who shares playing a tinkling mandolin with a pure and clear voice perfect for bothy ballads. Put them together and they become testimony to the worth of cross -border relations.

b & D with added brass

We enjoy them, here at ATB, and had this to say about their debut. This is a little different, in that, alongside the pair of them, it also has the presence of some evocative brass, to fill out the sound. Acoustic bass-meister, Ben Nicholls, brings also his atmospheric bottom end to the party. The songs they have been covering a while, for Christmas touring has always been part of their gameplan, but the additional warmth brought to bear in these expanded renditions is little short of perfect. And, worry not, there is enough secular content to avoid overload; this is as much about Yule as it is Christmas, and about celebration more than prostration.

As such, The Derby Ram provides a game opener, starting with just Doran’s striking vocals and bouzouki. over a spritely melody. After a brace of verses, the reassuring brass quintet chime in, with Burns adding her choral vocal, as well as a mini-choir of friends. The brass is Rob Deakin and Sam Fisher on cornets, Dean Jones and Christian Hines on trombones, and Rob Browne on tuba. The chorus is of six chosen friends, and includes Sandra, mother of Nancy, Kerr. Derby? Ram? Christmas? Probably explained by this song, about slaughtering a giant ram, aka, possibly, the devil, and was amongst those adopted by wassailers, in the lead up to year’s end.

…and more brass

Further warm brass ushers in Carol Of The Beasts, a traditional French song, with Doran singing lead and Burns on harmony. Essentially, the sound is of a rustic waltz and it is both graceful and enticing. Dipping away from good cheer to all men (and beasts) comes the grisly Month Of January, the beautiful melody hiding the grim detail of deceit. (Take that, Baby Jesus!) Burns takes the lead over Doran’s bouzouki and her own mandolin, the Irishness of the song easily apparent within the arrangement. Nicholls holds the arrangement all in place, his notes both guide and metronome.

Green Grows The Holly has a backstory of being written by Henry VIII. Whether true or otherwise, the pair give a sparse and spare rendition, Burns again taking the lead, her voice a distant witness that hovers over the plucked guitar and the ghostly background choir. A fiddle is also slowly simmering, also provided by Burns. From that lesser known and deigned “failed classic” to possibly the most well known song here, next up is The Wexford Carol. Fiddle again accompanies Burns singing of this, with Doran offering a deliberately sharp harmony, which adds rather than detracts.

The gaunt beauty of Down In Yon Forest follows, a variant that derives from Corpus Christi Carol. Barely raising his voice above a whisper, Doran displays quite how he is fast being seen one of our finest interpreters of song. With mandolin spilling out some high pealing notes, it demands all attention of the listener.

the glow of a tankard of mulled cider

The bleak On Christmas Day is delivered acapella, a further song that requires suspension of any other activity. In fact, stop what you are doing, and play it now. Dunstan Lullaby, possibly collected by Ralph Vaughan Williams, is a song local to Northumberland, to which Doran has added some further bars of melody. The brass quintet augment this finely, it worth a mention that is was Jon Boden who arranged the brass. Mandolin and guitar now dance out for The Trees Are All Bare, aka Christmas Song, at least in Sussex, when in the hands of the Copper Family. A melody that bobs along, I am envisaging a robin redbreast, hopping across some frosty grass. Their two voices provide the glow of a tankard of mulled cider.

The Wren I know best from the Steeleye Span version, then otherwise entitled as The King. This is a much gentler iteration, the two voices lilting over a guitar and piano arrangement, into which cornet then breaks gloriously. It is a marvellous re-imagining that removes the somewhat strident deeper voices that dominate the 1971 version, a version I have been known to sing in the shower. This version needs the calmer surroundings of a bath.

Talking of singing, try not to join in with Sans Day Carol, which instantly reveals itself to be The Holly And The Ivy, one of the darker narratives we take for granted at this time of year, blithely ignoring the comfortless lyric. Good cheer it ain’t, even if sleight of ear suggests there are rather more bounteous notes here, in this softer sounding version, than in the sometimes angular school assembly version.

flock watching/sock washing…

Haugebonden you won’t be familiar with, not least as Doran is again applying his compositional skills, rearranging what was initially a medieval ballad from Telemark. In an earlier life the duo both spent time in Norway, studying traditional song. This stems from that time, as indeed do many the arrangements, album wide. A Norwegian friend, the singer Mari Bjørkøy, joins them for the delicately voiced rendition here. It is hard not to hear it as a highlight. It sets also the right mood for another new tune, this time for While Shepherds. Yes, it is the watched their flocks/washed their socks one, beloved of nativity plays, but the new tune eradicates out any ubiquity, allowing it to be listened to with new ears. It’s not a bad old song, you know!

Well, they have done quite a feat with this project. OK, I am biased toward them, but there isn’t here a single song to make me gag. I can see this playing, chez Og, over the festive period, once Noddy gives the go ahead and allowance to let it begin. You could do a whole lot worse!

Here’s the Derby Ram to whet your Christmas spirits. The pub in the video is the celebrated Cumby, or Cumberland Arms, in Newcastle upon Tyne, home of many a folk session over the years. Whether the duo processioned there all the way from Derby is not indicated.

Janice Burns & Jon Doran online: Website / Facebook / X (formerly Twitter) / Instagram

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