Apple Tree Wassail from The Watersons, and more...

Christmas is coming! Wassail! 

One of my all time favourite unaccompanied folk-singing groups - The Watersons: a brother, two sisters and a husband. Singing the-opposite-of close-harmony.

Is anything better than this to instil the Christmas spirit? No - equaled, yes; but never bettered...

 

In an earlier incarnation, and another Wassail song; the bass was sung by a cousin:

 

...And a reprise of magical early Steeleye Span - with the same bass singer as in the first Watersons song (i.e. the legend that is Martin Carthy; who I once met on a train, queueing for a cup of coffee). 

This one is about the seasonal practice of hunting, killing and displaying the corpse of a little Jenny Wren, door to door, for money. Ah, the charm of traditional country life...