Festive Folk

This week's blog post was intended to carry details of the latest Magpie Lane Christmas gig in Oxford last weekend but, although the performance went ahead, roads were snowed on and buses snowed off. Tales of wassails will thus have to wait for another time but in lieu of a review I thought we could rely on the web to provide a little festive goodwill.

Anyone searching for a last minute present - or just relief from the standard Christmas soundtrack (turkeys and crackers alike) - could do much worse than picking up both For Folk's Sake it's Christmas (for £1+ here) and The Line of Best Fit's second Ho! Ho! Ho! Canada album (a double album in fact, available for free download here). Both are hoping to raise money for good causes - for more details click on the links.

A few artists are playing Santa this year, starting with former RaW Folk interviewee Tamara Schlesinger & her band 6 Day Riot who offer, gratis, a faithful interpretation of The Pretenders' 2000 Miles - download now from their website. A wintry cover of The Coldest Night of the Year, originally recorded by 1960s duo Twice as Much with Vashti Bunyan, is available from Mary Epworth & Adapter Adapter via Epworth's Soundcloud page, while a reduced three-track version of KT Tunstall's 2007 Christmas covers EP is being offered on the house at the Amazon UK MP3 store. Baltimore's Beach House are also spreading seasonal cheer (sort of) - new song I Do Not Care for the Winter Sun can be downloaded free of charge here.

Karine Polwart's charmingly mellow and rather unlikely version of Slade's Merry Xmas Everybody, recorded for a BBC Radio 2 programme being broadcast tonight, meets with Noddy Holder's approval and is well worth a listen, although you do have to shell out 79p for this one. Humbug! Lastly, a word for Mark Lamarr's final God's Jukebox show, following the alternative carols on Radio 2: listen.

Merry Christmas - and check back soon for an arbitrary year-ending list. Hooray!