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Festive folk

Fantastic English folk duo Belshazzar's Feast offer up a platter of seasonal treats with their inventive new album... By staff reporter - 01/12/09

The perfect unique Yuletide offering for folk fans across the land is ‘Frost Bites’, the latest album from the folk music and wry humour factory that is Belshazzar’s Feast.

A consummate English folk outfit, this duo combines the talents of Paul Sartin (Bellowhead) and Paul Hutchinson (Hoover The Dog), with a seasonal offering that delves back as far as the 18th century in search of rare Christmassy gems from English folk history and beyond – you’ll not be getting too many well-known favourites in here, but they’re very lovely, nonetheless.

Glorious and evocative, ‘Frost Bites’ will chase the Winter gloom away, nipping at the heartstrings rather than the fingers, with sumptuous arrangements of

traditional Xmas songs and carols including the opener ‘The Cherry Tree Carol’ – Joseph falling out with his other half – and a show-stopping rendition of ‘The Hampshire Mummer’s Song’.

With its obscure but beautiful song choices (there’s nay a Jingle Bell in sight), this will be up there with my Phil Spector album as the Christmas music of choice – alongside Bob Dylan’s aligned but in my opinion brilliant Christmas oeuvre.

It’s refreshing on ‘Frost Bites’ to hear some festive tunes that aren’t played so much every December that you want to strangle somebody.

The lads’ release is followed by an extensive Christmas tour, aptly named Yuleogy, which finishes on December 20th 09, taking in venues including The Gulbenkian Theatre in Canterbury (Dec 3rd), Cecil Sharp House in London (Dec 4th) and Wilshire Music Centre in Bradford-on-Avon (Dec 13th).

The concerts will feature music from ‘Frost Bites’, but are also likely to dissolve into the usual mayhem, this time involving carol sheets, sing-alongs and that unique brand of humour that belongs exclusively to Belshazzar’s Feast.

For a full list of tour dates, visit www.belshazzarsfeast.co.uk.

***COMPETITION***

We have 5 copies of 'Frost Bites' to give away -

For your chance to win one, just answer the question and fill out the coupon in this week's Irish World, page15 (downloaded coupons from digital version also acceptable). Closing date for entries is midnight, Friday 11th December.

Good luck!