Hi and welcome to the Dreamers Newsletter. This will be the last one of 2025 with the Christmas and New Year holidays so I’ll take this opportunity to wish everyone a Happy Christmas and a great New Year. Enjoy!
Thanks to all those who took so much trouble for the Christmas Party last Sunday, not only for the songs and sketches but, most of all, for Jill for organising a great buffet, to Ruth and Margaret for a raffle which set some sort of a record not only for the number of prizes but also for the speed with which they got through it and also, of course, to Pip for steering us through the whole evening with his usual aplomb. Well done all!
This Sunday is our last before Christmas and the New Year so seasonal songs, particularly the traditional ones we all enjoy so much, are very welcome though by no means compulsory – other offerings also welcome and there are plenty of other opportunities for seasonal singing.
Then it’s on to 2026 and our first guests of the year on Sunday 4th January with Baldricks Plan. Steve, Jinks and Helen are the current members of Baldricks, well known to many of us for their strong harmony singing. Largely based on English traditional music, but also embracing songs, ancient and modern, from other backgrounds and traditions. More on their web-site at Baldricks Plan It should be a cracking start to the Year. Later in the month, there’ll be a special Burns Night session featuring Alistair Brown, another one to look forward to.
In the meantime, the Cornish Zoom Folk Club will be meeting as usual on the fourth Saturday, 27th December for what should be another great session with performers and audience from far and near. Just email me if you need the link. We’ll start at 7.30 as always with plenty of time beforehand and in the interval for chat with friends who we don’t often get to see in person. These online sessions have proved so valuable for those who can’t get out for reasons of health, carers etc as well as building links across the miles.
Also on line this week, Live to Your Living Room features, Bryony Griffith and Alice Jones from West Yorkshire this Friday, 19th December at 7.45 (Buy tickets – Bryony Griffith & Alice Jones + Heartwood Chorus – Zoom). A festive collection of traditional winter tunes from their 2023 Christmas album Wesselbobs, including unique and memorable local versions of the classics we all know and love. A wesselbob, or wassail-bob, is apparently a decorated evergreen bough built around a spherical frame, carried by carol singers (or wassailers) in the 19th Century.
Another seasonal offering online comes from Folk on Foot (Winterfolk in West Yorkshire with O’Hooley and Tidow, Katie Spencer and Maddie Morris). They walk with Katie Spencer in Golcar, meet up with Maddie Morris on the way to a Lefty Christmas gig and end up at a gorgeous Christmas homecoming concert with O’Hooley and Tidow in “The Cathedral of the Colne Valley” – St Bartholomew’s Church, Marsden. On the way they reflect on the meaning of Christmas, spare a thought for those without family and friends at this time of year and hear seasonal songs old and new.
A final thought is to spare a thought for all those we’ve lost during 2025, their memories remain with us.
That’s all for this year, hope to see you at Dreamers on Sunday night.
All the best
Nigel