There is no better way to get into the Christmas spirit than listening to this seasonal heart warming episode of the multi-award-winning Folk on Foot* podcast.
As host Matthew Bannister tours the Shropshire market town of Bishop’s Castle with concertina wizard John Kirkpatrick (Albion Band, Steeleye Span, Richard Thompson Band), there are Christmas carols in the Three Tuns Pub, muscular winter Morris dancing from the Shropshire Bedlams, a peal of Christmas bells played energetically on the concertina and John’s grandmother’s recipe for Christmas pudding which he has set to music:
“Stir up oh Lord, we beseech thee,
The fruits of the earth in our pot.
This great Christmas pud, it’ll do us all good
Come Christmas we’ll scoff up the lot”.
John also tells the stories behind pagan and Christian winter traditions, including shooting guns through the branches of apple trees to ward off witches and putting a cake with a hole in the centre on the horn of an ox to check the prospects for a lucky or unlucky New Year.
He sings “The Wassail Cup Hymn”, “The Jovial Tinker” and “The Miner’s Dream of Home” – which he recalls being sung by his relatives at Christmas when he was a child.
“Every time I do this, I can see my grandmother, tears streaming down her face, stinking of gin, belting out the chorus. I remember thinking: grown-ups are so peculiar. Hope I don’t end up like that!”
*About Folk on Foot
Folk on Foot was launched by the broadcaster and former BBC executive Matthew Bannister in August 2018, bringing together his three passions: folk music, walking and telling stories in sound.
In each episode, Matthew walks with a leading folk artist in the landscape that has inspired their music, and they sing and play on location. The list of artists taking part reads like a Who’s Who of the contemporary folk scene, and the locations are spectacular. Along the way, we also hear the sounds of the natural world: curlews circling overhead, waves crashing on the shore, campfires crackling and rivers burbling under bridges.
The episode launches today, Friday 13th November. Listen wherever you get your podcasts or at www.folkonfot.com.
