melannen | (no subject)

Have some Williamsburg-y-ish music! Only not very, because as noted it's hard to find good vocal versions of old-fashioned Christmas carols, and if I find good CDs here it will be hard to not buy them.

But anywho.

Tinsmith - Greensleeves.mp3
As the man who was playing at dinner said, this doesn't technically turn into a Christmas carol until, oh, next week sometime - until then it's just the old folk tune about My Lady Greensleeves, which some people say is a reference to Goddess as spirit of the evergreen, so I suppose you can pretend it's actually a Solstice carol anyway.
Mediæval Bæbes - The Holly And The Ivy.mp3
Another of my very favorite carols, and authentically ancient-flavored, though if the tour guide tonight was correct, all the greenery around here this time of year is actually not historically accurate, can you believe it?
Duke Froggus - Joy to the Creek.mp3
"Joy to the World" is actually a carol that first came into popularity in late Colonial Virginia, right about where I am right now. Of course, this is actually a cover in faux-swing style, starring a keyboard that plays frog and owl noises.
Clam Chowder - Have Some Madeira, M'dear.mp3
Not actually a Christmas song, but I did have some Madeira tonight! Malmsey to be specific. And it was actually good. Very strong-flavored, but in a way that wasn't alcohol-tasting-y. I liked it. Even if Sister only got it 'cause it was the cheapest drink on the menu. And this is an excellent fun song full of wordplay that my sister had never heard of. So I share.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

I thought Greensleeves was a reference to Anne Boylene? It was written by Henry VIII, IIRC. It's been a while.

Current theory seems to say that the tune is too old to be Henry's, and the words are too new.

(Though even if he did write the song, his marriage to Nan Boleyn the Witch was part of his efforts to return the British Crown to the original Plantagenets' adherence to the Old Religion, so you can still pretent it's a Goddess hymn. ...At least that's what it says in one of my Big Books of Wicca, so it must be true. :P )