Get all 4 Kofi Young releases available on Bandcamp and save 20%.
Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality downloads of Rat-Tailed Rover: Songs from Small Saga, Drunken Sailor / Cooley's Reel / Old Maui / Wellerman, The Wassailant, and Shrove Tuesday.
1. |
Wassail Carol
04:21
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We’ve been a while a-wandering among the leaves so green;
And here we come a-wassailing so fair to be seen.
And we have got a little purse of stretching leather skin;
We want a little of your money to line it well within.
Love and joy come to you, and to you your wassail too;
And God bless you and send you a Happy New Year
And God bless you and send you a Happy
Send you a Happy New Year.
Our wassail cup is made of the rosemary tree,
And so is your beer of the best barley.
Our wassail cup is made of the rosemary bough,
And so, my good neighbours, we'll drink unto you.
Love and joy come to you, and to you your wassail too;
And God bless you and send you a Happy New Year
And God bless you and send you a Happy
Send you a Happy New Year.
Call up the butler of this house, put on their golden ring.
Let 'em bring us up a mug of beer, and better we shall sing.
And where you have one barrel now, we hope that you'll have ten
Next year so that we may have beer when we return again.
Love and joy come to you, and to you your wassail too;
And God bless you and send you a Happy New Year
And God bless you and send you a Happy
Send you a Happy New Year.
We know by the moon we are not too soon,
And we know by the sky we are not too high.
We know by the stars we are not too far,
And we know by the ground we are within sound.
Good noble folk and gentry, while you're sitting by the fire,
Pray think of us poor wassailers who wander in the mire.
And if we all should live until another New Year,
Perhaps we may call and visit you who live here.
Love and joy come to you, and to you your wassail too;
And God bless you and send you a Happy New Year
And God bless you and send you a Happy
Send you a Happy New Year.
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2. |
Lob Lie-by-the-Fire
03:25
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Lob Lie-by-the-fire
Sleeping off the hangover of fruitful harvest-home.
Lob Lie-by-the-fire
Dreaming of the spring and the country roads you’ll roam.
You’re older than the hills
You’ve put giants in their graves; named the first-born flowers.
And still your green-song thrills
To the tune of the tractor and of the plough.
And it calls to you, echoing brightly down the years.
Even when we shut you out.
Lob Lie-by-the-fire
Shake off your slumber, there is work to do now.
The days are getting brighter
Life begins afresh, time to start anew, oh.
You’ve been quiet as the dead;
Not a rustle from your hedge, just a snap of hoar-frost.
But in your teeming head
The song of the green is never lost.
And it calls to you, echoing brightly down the years.
Even when we break your trust.
We’ve spent these months apart
Do you still remember life before rain and snow?
Does the song within your heart
Still beat loud enough to make us grow?
Will you call to us, echoing brightly down the years?
As melodies of seasons flow?
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3. |
Cherry Tree Carol
03:46
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Joseph and Mary walked through an orchard green
They saw berries and cherries fair to be seen
As Mary and Joseph walked in the wood,
They saw cherries and berries as red as any blood.
Then bespoke Mary amidst that orchard wild:
“O Pluck me one cherry, Joseph, for I am with child.”
And then up bespoke Joseph with words unkind:
“Let him pluck thee a cherry that brought thee with child.”
O then spoke the babe all in his mother's womb:
“Bow you down you tall cherry tree and give my mother some.”
Then down bowed a cherry tree to Mary’s hand
And she cried, “See, Joseph, I have cherries at command.”
Then Mary plucked a cherry as red as the blood
She rode on to Bethlem with her heavy load
And in Bethlem, Mary sat her babe on her knee,
Saying, “My dear heart, tell me what this world will be.”
“O I shall be as dead as the stones in the wall
All the stones in the streets shall mourn me all
And on Easter morn uprisen I'll be
For the sun and the moon shall both rise with me.”
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4. |
Blow, thou Winter Wind
03:56
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Blow, blow, thou winter wind,
Thou art not so unkind
As man’s ingratitude;
Thy tooth is not so keen,
Because thou art not seen,
Although thy breath be rude.
Sing, heigh-ho! unto the green holly:
Most friendship is feigning, most loving mere folly.
Then, heigh-ho, this life is most jolly:
Most friendship is feigning, most loving mere folly.
Freeze, freeze, thou bitter sky,
That dost not bite so nigh
As benefits forgot:
Though thou the waters warp,
Thy sting is not so sharp
As friend remembered not.
Sing, heigh-ho! unto the green holly:
Most friendship is feigning, most loving mere folly.
Then, heigh-ho, this life is most jolly:
Most friendship is feigning, most loving mere folly.
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5. |
Sounds of the Winter
03:08
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Sounds of the winter too,
Sunshine upon the mountains – many a distant strain
From cheery railroad train – from nearer field, barn, house,
The whispering air – even the mute crops, garner'd apples, corn,
Children's and women's tones – rhythm of many a farmer and of flail,
An old man's garrulous lips among the rest, Think not we give out yet,
Forth from these snowy hairs we keep up yet the lilt.
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6. |
Minuet
02:36
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7. |
Unto Us
04:22
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If Christ from heaven descended low and came today as a stranger
Would he pick a hospital or stick with hay and manger?
Would our politicians lavish him with perfumes, incense, jewels?
Or would the system swallow him and pack him off to school?
Would his teachers know the saviour in his shabby uniform?
Or just see a precocious child and force him to conform?
Would we fail him like we fail so many of our own?
Jobless, homeless, down-at-heel, abandoned and alone?
Would we hear his message or would we just think him mad?
Streaming sermons on the mount – another viral fad?
Would we monetise his words just like we did before?
Would we twist his news of peace and use it to breed war?
Would he win the people’s trust? Would he enjoy our favour?
Or would his race, his class, religion, ruffle people’s feathers?
Would he be a victim of our rigid social system?
Would he be rejected, hated, beaten into submission?
Would our leaders, sore afraid, take steps to guarantee his silence?
Would he fade away or would it end again in violence?
And if you think the centuries have made us more enlightened,
Just think on how we demonise the poor, the sick, the frightened.
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8. |
Bethlehem Green
03:33
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Bethlehem Green – where the world seems
To shrink and retreat from your head
And your path can be seen
Shining bright through the haze of confusion ahead
And you lay down your load –
Nowhere you’d rather be
For a day – in the glow
Of the fireplace breathing the air
Spiced with cinnamon,
Sweet tangerine
On Bethlehem Green.
There’s a moment of peace – there’s a moment
Of splendour where care gently sleeps.
There’s a moment’s relief –
Bethlehem Green is your haven
Your refuge, your keep:
And you cast off your fears,
Whatsoever they be,
For a day: be of good cheer
And join in the happy scene.
Old feuds forgotten,
And love evergreen
On Bethlehem Green.
Bethlehem Green – no angels here
And the shepherds and wise men have fled.
But you take my hand
And the warmth of your smile
Breathes a love song unsaid.
And we’re perfectly flawed –
As life’s tapestry
Joins us to all that has ever been,
All that may be,
While the fireside beckons
All cinnamon, tangerine –
– On Bethlehem Green.
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9. |
The Wind and the Rain
05:03
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When that I was and a little tiny boy,
With hey, ho, the wind and the rain,
A foolish thing it was but a toy,
For the rain it raineth every day.
But when I came to man’s estate,
With hey, ho, the wind and the rain,
’Gainst knaves and thieves men shut their gate,
For the rain it raineth every day.
But when I came, alas! to wive,
With hey, ho, the wind and the rain,
By swaggering could I never thrive,
For the rain it raineth every day.
But when I came unto my beds,
With hey, ho, the wind and the rain,
With toss-pots still had drunken heads,
For the rain it raineth every day.
A great while ago the world begun,
With hey, ho, the wind and the rain,
But that’s all one, our playing is done,
And we’ll strive to please you every day.
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My old rock-paper-scissors nemesis, Jess packs some of the wittiest lyrics around. My top track: Some Kind of Carthy.
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supported by 151 fans who also own “The Wassailant”
excellent narrative album containing space pirates, reworkings of classic folk tunes and a fascinating retelling of European fairy tales
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by Matt Dorrien
Portland singer/songwriter delivers a gorgeous Christmas EP, fashioned in the lush style of classics by Bing Crosby and Johnny Mathis.
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Darkness begins to creep into the corners on the latest from Itasca.
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