The Albion Christmas Band
Album: One For The Road
Label: Rooksmere
Tracks: 19
Website: http://www.rooksmererecords.com

Recorded on last year's 15th anniversary tour, the winter-only folk institution drop their first live album before heading out on the road for another reel around the fountain this Yuletide.

Having evolved out of some special seasonal shows undertaken by The Albion Band's last incarnation, Simon Care (Edward II, Albion Band) suggested to The Guv'nor - that's Ashley Hutchings (founder member of Fairport Convention, Albion Band and Steeleye Span) for the uninitiated - that he put together a once-a-year outfit just to celebrate the nation's various Christmas tradition. Having recruited fellow former Fairport man Simon Nicol and the Albion's estimable Kellie White they've trod the boards every year since presenting a perfectly mulled blend of carols, readings, jokes, anecdotes and dance.

But if you're after folky versions of all your favourite carols, then you've come to the wrong place. What this offers is a taste of a much older, deeper Christmas Past as the Gloucester Hornpipe makes a telling segue to Hutchings' original Mr Trill's Song.

Kellie White affecting take on Dave Goulder's poem The January Man is a highlight, the perfect antidote to a superfluous, over earnest stomp through Past Three o'Clock.

More conventionally perhaps there is a beautiful setting of Christina Rosetti's mid-Victorian poem In the Bleak Midwinter and the group brings all its experience to bear on Sidney Carter's lesser-known gem, Julian of Norwich. Throughout the show Hutchings is a willing and entertaining teller, offering background, exposition and context where required and just having a laugh when it's not - I'm sure even the most tender sensibilities of the border Morris massive can take a gentle ribbing from The Guv'nor.

One For the Road is much more than a souvenir of a fine live show; it's a Christmas album that's not afraid to be really good. The band is well worth seeing on their travels, but if you miss them they'll be back next year… The Albion Christmas Band really is just for Christmas.

Nick Churchill
www.thegranvillechambers.co.uk