while winter hymnals

1 Fleet Foxes White Winter hymnal

Robin Pecknold once described the lyrics of White Winter Hymnal as “fairly meaningless”. The enigma does not, however, detract from the magic of Fleet Foxes’ 2008 breakthrough; it’s the crisp imagery, and the indie-folk reinvention of sacred harp harmonies, that give the song its companionable atmosphere. A 21st century classic. Written by Robin Pecknold. Published by Foxes Fellowship, administered by Kobalt Music Publishing. Produced by Phil Ek. Taken from the album First Collection 2006-2009 ℗&©2018 Fleet Foxes, under license to Nonesuch Records Inc.

2 the Waterboys Winter bloWs

A master of elemental landscape music, Mike Scott began working on this Waterboys track in 1985, as part of the sessions that would result in the This Is The Sea album, before it was “superseded by other songs like The Pan Within, which had a similar groove”. Scott returned to the song in 2002, and finally completed this version in 2012, previously only available on the Cloud Of Sound rarities comp sold at Waterboys gigs that year. Written by Mike Scott. ©Puck Productions.

3 the Chills Pink Frost 13

A foundational track of the New Zealand indie scene in the 1980s, Martin Phillipps revisited Pink Frost when he resurrected The Chills this past decade. Nearly 30 years on, the song’s brittle jangle remained, the gothic lyric – about the accidental death of a lover overnight – was just as moving. A metaphorical frost descends, no doubt, but still an essential track for Winter Hymnals. Written by Martin Phillipps. 2014 Fire Records. Published by Mushroom Music. Released on Fire Records.

4 thea Gilmore listen, the snoW is FallinG

Yoko Ono’s winter meditation first surfaced on her and John Lennon’s Wedding Album in 1969, then as the B-side to Happy Xmas (War Is Over) in 1971. Gilmore, a UK singer known for assured takes on folk and Americana, captures its unworldliness on a synth-rich version from 2009’s Strange Communion. Written by Yoko Ono. From the album Strange

Communion. ℗&©2009 Fullfill LLC UK. All rights reserved. Distributed by Fullfill LLC and Universal Music Operations. www.theagilmore.net

9 P.G. six Come in/the Winter it is Past

Another 18th century ballad informs this psych-folk nugget from upstate New York’s Pat Gubler. Come In/The Winter It Is Past figures on Gubler’s 2004 underground gem, The Well Of Memory, celebrated in MOJO 309’s Buried Treasure. This fireside elegy borrows the ancient melody of The Curragh Of Kildare. Written by Gubler/Traditional, arrangment Gubler. Published by Worthy Travelers Music (ASCAP). ℗&©2004 P.G. Six. From the album The

Well Of Memory (Amish Records); https:// amishrecords.com

10 blind Willie mCtell Cold Winter day

Within the rich tradition of cold weather blues, from Sonny Boy Williamson’s Nine Below Zero to Muddy Waters’ Cold Weather Blues, here’s Piedmont’s Blind Willie McTell, key influence on Jack White, amiably berating an ungrateful lover that she’ll need him when the weather turns. Recorded in Chicago in 1935, at the time one of the coldest years in recorded American history. Written by McTell. Copyright Control. First released: 1935.

11 the albion Christmas band river

Joni Mitchell’s anti-Christmas song from Blue, posits escape from the festivities by skate, here beautifully rendered by Kellie While in a seasonal Albion Band. Key players also include Ashley Hutchings and Simon Nicol, who helped UK music re-engage with its cultural history as founder members of the Fairports. Written by Joni Mitchell, Sony ATV and arranged by The Albion Christmas Band C.C. ℗&©2006. Taken from the 2018 album Under The Christmas

Tree (TECD410, Talking Elephant Records). www.talkingelephant.co.uk

12 laura Cannell tWo Winters

East Anglian instrumentalist Laura Cannell often favours the sombre bowed tone of a violin to conjure a sound both medieval and experimental drone. On 2015’s Two Winters she creates harmonies out of a double-recorder, in a kind of radical reimagining of folk and early liturgical music at once beautiful and profoundly eerie. A midwinter ritual melody for pagans, perhaps? Published by Mute Song Ltd. ℗&©2015 Laura Cannell. From the album Beneath Swooping Talons

(Front & Follow – F&F036) http://www. frontandfollow.com

“Liz Fraser’s a Scottish folk singer now!” Sam Lee reveals a Cocteau Twin reborn, on page 52

AGOOD WINTER SONG ISN’T JUST FOR CHRISTMAS. WHILE most of the music we associate with the coldest months fixates on the festive season, there remains – especially in the British folk canon – a wealth of songs that tell of brutal climes and welcoming hearths unadorned by holly and ivy; of emotional states illuminated by the frostiest of metaphors.

Pull up a chair, then, and keep the wind at bay. Our latest MOJO compilation draws deeply on the most elemental romances, from shepherd’s plaints and gypsy prayers to solstice revelations and modern-day heartbreakers. There are jangling electric guitars from Boston and Dunedin, ethereal revamps of classics by Yoko Ono and Joni Mitchell, an uncompromising blast of the blues, and perhaps the heaviest recorder quotient in MOJO history.

Midwinter is a time of reflection as well as celebration, and we’ve designed White Winter Hymnals to see you through these long and unforgiving nights until spring returns. As Joanna Newsom puts it in Leaving The City, contemplating the shortest days of the year, “I’d hold my ground, I’d endure…”

5 Galaxie 500 SnowStorm

The legendary Boston trio also had a crack at Yoko’s Listen, The Snow Is Falling on their final album, 1990’s This Is Our Music.But Snowstorm is their own contribution to the whiteout genre, from 1989’s masterpiece On Fire. Dean Wareham’s forecast of impending blizzard prefaces a delicate psychedelic freakout using the most brittle guitars. Written by Krukowski, Wareham, Yang. Published by Zebulon Music (BMI) adm. Rough Trade Publishing ℗&©1989 20/20/20 from the album On Fire http://www.20-20-20.com/

6 VaShti Bunyan winter iS Blue

A gorgeous trinket of ’60s popbaroque from Vashti Bunyan, caught just before she set off on the rustic odyssey which would result in 1970’s masterpiece Just Another Diamond Day. Winter Is Blue first surfaced on Peter Whitehead’s Swinging ’68 doc, Tonite Let’s All Make Love In London. Publisher: Branch Music Ltd. ℗1968 Instant. © 2016 Charly Acquisitions Ltd. © 2016 Sanctuary Records Group Limited, a BMG Company. An Original Instant Recording, Courtesy of Charly Acquisitions Ltd, Licensed from LicenseMusic.com Edited version on the Immediate Records / Instant remastered soundtrack LP Tonite Lets All Make Love In London (INLP 002).

7 rachel unthank & the winterSet January man

Before they renamed themselves as The Unthanks, Rachel and her sister Becky pivoted The Winterset, pursuing that filigree take on the British folk tradition. From 2005’s debut, Cruel Sister, January Man is a 1970 song by relatively unheralded Dave Goulder, a paean to the changing seasons, cycling around to “walk along the icy road he knows so well” as each new year begins. Written by Dave Goulder. ℗&©RabbleRouser Music 2005. Taken from the album Cruel Sister.

8 the waterSonS Stormy windS

The first family of British folk in characteristically raw, rousing form, on an ancient song first identified in 1793 under the title We Shepherds Are The Best Of Men. A heroic view of shepherds braving “cold and grimy mornings” in “jovial company” and “a-drinking of strong liquor”. From 1981’s Green Fields. Written by Martin Carthy, Lal Waterson, Michael Waterson, Norma Waterson. Published by EMI Songs Limited. ℗&©1981 Fernie Court Management, taken from the album Green Fields

(Topic Records); https://www.topicrecords.co.uk

13 Joanna newSom leaVinG the city

From the extraordinary singersongwriter, harpist and pianist’s last album, Divers (2015), Leaving The City ostensibly describes a move to the country, and submission to the visceral impact of the environment. In the midst of December, death hovers, but spring is equally disturbing, “deranged”, even. The music, meanwhile, sparkles and is ravishing, even as it reflects the wild intensity of the lyrics so effectively. Written by Joanna Newsom. ℗&©2015 Drag City, Inc. Label: Drag City, Inc. Publisher: Joanna Newsom, BMI Album: Divers.

14 Sam lee the moon ShineS BriGht

In this month’s interview with the adventurous song collector (page 52), Lee ends up at the home of folk matriarch Shirley Collins, who sang this old Sussex gypsy carol with her sister Dolly in 1978. Listen for the unmistakable, rarely-heard voice of ex-Cocteau Twin Elizabeth Fraser at 1:48, embroidering in the Scottish traditional Wild Mountain Thyme. Traditional – arranged by Sam Lee, James Keavy. Published by BMG. Copyright control. ℗&©Sam Lee under exclusive license to Cooking Vinyl Limited, from the album Old Wow (Cooking Vinyl): www.cookingvinyl.com

15 Plinth hearth

The stealthily productive Michael Tanner is another musician to fall under the spell of Shirley Collins; he even moved to her hometown of Lewes. Like Laura Cannell, Tanner’s multiple projects (see his sometime band United Bible Studies) hover in a misty interzone between the traditional and the avant-garde… Not that they’re daunting or inaccessible, as the flickering, near-ambient atmospherics of Hearth make clear. Written by Tanner, DaCosta. 2001 from the album Wintersongs (Kit Records); http://www.kitrecords.co