What’s this? What’s this? Mince Pie Mondays…could it be…can it really be… back-to-back Christmas tunes in an Americana / Folk mode? Yes, it is. It really is. You’ll recall that last Friday we had the last Jingle Bells Friday of 2023, but we didn’t want to leave you unfestive at this festive time. And so here we are with a new tradition – Mince Pie Monday. A simple confection of buttery pastry and sweetened dried fruits, and no minced meat (well, not anymore – unless you have a Tudor one somewhere right at the back of the cupboard). Frankly – and we are not afraid of strong opinions here at Americana UK – they are absolutely delicious. Except for the flakey pastry ones that taste like a sausage roll with the wrong filling. And they are good for you – fibre of course, and the filling surely counts as one of your five a day….mmm.
And so – to the music. And we start with an old song given a folky makeover by Van Plating on her new festive single, ‘Midwinter‘. It’s a take on ‘In the Bleak Midwinter‘ of course, with the lovely “snow had fallen …snow on snow…snow on snow“, an event that seems unlikely to occur this year. The recording features Texan guitar prodigy Jack Barksdale on dobro and backing vocals. Van Plating has said: “I wanted to give my listeners something special this Christmas season. I’ve not done a release for the holidays before! I had a few days free in the studio and had just been chatting with Jack on his podcast about a possible collaboration, so I made a demo version of my own spin on ‘In The Bleak Midwinter’ and sent it over to him to see if he was down. The rest is sweet melodic history!”
Rather less in tune with the spirit of goodwill to all is The Dryes who have just one question to ask – ‘Why’d You Ruin Christmas‘. What was once the best time of year has been ruined forever by a poorly timed break-up, and now all the little rituals – the cookies, the Christmas movie favourites, the tree, in fact everything is just ruined. That was mean – as Katelyn Drye notes there were plenty of other holidays to pick, why not St Patrick’s Day?
In complete contrast Bonner Rhae is thinking thoughts of getting it together at Christmas on ‘Just Because It’s Christmas‘ – the kids are in bed, the red wine is poured and there’s someone who she wishes “would stay for the whole New Year” – and whilst they’re at it, why not head to bed for some Christmas loving? They could JingleAll The Way, the coda suggests. Quite.
Barbara Lica is our kind of person – she loves the Festive Season so much that waiting for the 25th is just too much – and so every year she convinces her entire family to celebrate a day early. Impressive – since they are Canadian, had Barbara Lica been Scandinavian then slightly less impressive. What is impressive though is that half the Bandcamp proceeds from sales of ‘On Christmas Eve‘ will go to Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières.
Another using their Festive release to raise money for charity is Skerryvore whose thoughtful ‘Angel Of Christmas‘ will be generating donations for Cash For Kids which supports children living in poverty. Vocalist Alec Dalglish says, “With ‘Angel of Christmas’ I wanted to write a song for the season which was reminiscent of the Christmas songs I remember as a kid. In a world of consumerism and self-absorption, I hope that the message of the song and our tie with our chosen charity encourages us all to be more altruistic. Christmas can be a beautiful occasion for celebration and community but it can become a more difficult and lonely time for many others. We’re probably all guilty of focusing on the trials and tribulations of our own lives, and Christmas is a great opportunity to look outward and think about what we could do to help those less fortunate even in the smallest way possible. It’s for this reason that we want this song to support Cash for Kids ‘Mission Christmas’ campaign.”
It would, of course, be totally wrong for Mince Pie Mondays to just mimic Jingle Bells Friday, and so we’ve bowed to the clamour we’ve received championing another festive instrument. Of course, we’re referring to the Cello. And so to make up for all the Cellos we haven’t been bringing you here’s a lot of cellos all at once with Portland Cello Project (featuring not one but two Prince alumni – Saeeda Wright and drummer Tyrone Hendrix). The featured song ‘What Are You Doing for New Years Eve?‘ is taken from the Portland Cello Project release ‘Under the Mistletoe with Saeeda Wright.’ In answer to the question – probably Hootenanny accompanied by a very strong snifter of some sort. There’s still a few more songs to pick from – and if there’s time then…well, let’s see.
