Christmas Bells - Single

by Nick Wyke & Becki Driscoll

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about

A brand new single, on early release for Christmas 2016!
This track is part of the forthcoming album "The songs of Edward Capern" to be released in March 2017 alongside a novel based on Capern's life "The Postman Poet" written by Liz Shakespeare.
Sales of this single are helping to fund the album release, so please give generously, or just buy it for a pound!
For more information about the project, please visit www.englishfiddle.com or
www.lizshakespeare.co.uk/the-postman-poet/
Thank you - Nick & Becki

lyrics

Christmas Bells

Ring out ye merry bells, welcome bright icicles
Welcome old holly-crowned Christmas again
Blythe as a child at play, keeping his holiday
Welcome him in from the snow peak and plain
Up with the holly bough, green from the winter’s brow
Lock up your ledgers and cares for a day
Out to the forest go, gather the mistletoe
Old and young, rich and poor, up and away

Up with the holly bough, ay and the laurel now
In with the yule log and brighten the hearth
Quick, he is here again, come with his joyous train
Laughter and music and friendship and mirth
Up with your holly boughs, high in each manor house
Garnish the antlers that hang in the hall
Yes, and the neck of corn with a gay wreath adorn
Rich as the bloom on the cottager’s wall

Wealth has it’s duties now, Christians you will allow
Think then ye rich whilst your tables are spread
Think of those wretched ones, poverty’s stricken sons
Weeping whilst children are asking for bread
Ring out ye merry bells, ring till your music swells
Out o’er the mountain, and far on the main
Ring till those cheerless ones catch up your merry tones
Singing come Christmas again and again.

Words by Edward Capern, 1819 - 1894
Edward Capern was a Victorian postman and poet who lived for much of his life in Bideford, North Devon.
Many of the poems he composed were meant to be sung and he published 12 of them set to music in "The Devonshire Melodist" in 1862. Christmas Bells was in this collection and we have used the original melody and some of the original accompaniment in our version of the song.

credits

released December 1, 2016
Nick Wyke - Fiddle, Vocals
Becki Driscoll - Fiddle, Glockenspiel
Ellen Driscoll - French Horn
James Budden - Double Bass

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Nick Wyke & Becki Driscoll England, UK

Nick & Becki are highly respected players and composers firmly rooted in North Devon and the West Country. They blend melodic, emotive violin and viola with driving fiddle chords and powerful vocals to produce an unforgettable sound.

englishfiddle.com

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