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Amazon.co.uk Review
Carol singing and Yorkshire would seem to go hand in hand. Who better to record an album of Christmas carols then, than South Yorkshire’s own Kate Rusby? Regarded as one of the UK’s best folk singers thanks to breathtaking albums like Hourglass, Sleepless and the recent Awkward Annie, Sweet Bells gives us Rusby’s own repertoire of Christmas favourites. She mostly keeps things pared down to voice, guitar and accordion (played by frequent collaborator Andy Cutting), as well as the odd splash of brass from the Grimethorpe Colliery Band. Festive favourites mingle with lesser-known songs like “Poor Old Horse”, “Serving Girl's Holiday” and “A Miner's Dream of Home,” as well as reworked classics like her reflective version of “Hark! The Herald Angels Sing” and interesting – and, some might say, irreverent - treatments of “While Shepherds Watched Their Flocks” and "The Holly and the Ivy". A mix of joyous celebration and melancholy moods, Sweet Bells makes for an all-round Christmas treat. --Danny McKenna
Review
It's something she proved back in 2002 when she provided the delicious Little Jack Frost for a BBC Christmas cartoon, so it's no surprise that half a decade on, Sweet Bells underlines the fact brilliantly.
The album couldn't be more aptly titled. It shines with sweet innocence and chimes with season's greetings, collecting up a selection of Christmas folk songs from around her beloved South Yorkshire and delivering them with all the happiness and love that Kate can muster.
Such things could become a little saccharine, but the honesty with which she embraces the tunes means she mostly avoids such bumps.
As a result, Here We Come A-Wassailing gleams with all the splendour of a new year, Candlemas Eve burns with a bittersweet edge, and Awake Arise Good Christians is suitably stirring, thanks in no small part to the joyful brass of the Grimethorpe Colliery Band.
Of course, there are weaker moments - the odd versions of While Shepherds Watched Their Flocks that sit inside both the title track and Hail Chime On or the downbeat take on The Holly And The Ivy for example - but it would be a hard heart that found offence in them.
Instead, the album should be taken as it was so obviously intended - as a sincere and well-meant Christmas gift from one of the purest folk voices we have. --Chris Long
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Customer Reviews
In much the same way as she has defied the Folk Police to make 'folk music' appeal to a wide audience without compromise, Kate Rusby's "Sweet Bells" will even beguile those who "don't do Christmas." I first enjoyed the songs on this thoroughly inspired seasonal collection during Rusby's "Christmas Kate" tour and have been eagerly awaiting their release on CD ever since.
Whilst I'll concede that I might receive concerned and sympathetic looks from others if discovered savouring the delights of "Hark The Herald", "Sweet Bells" and "Here We Come A-Wassailing" in mid-July, I don't care. I'll just draw the curtains, sit next to the fridge and turn up the volume to drown out the buzzing bees.
Such is the beauty of Rusby's voice and the originality of the instrumentation - provided by diehards Andy Cutting, Ian Carr and Andy Seward amongst others including two brass bands (from Yorkshire naturally!) - that the eleven songs on "Sweet Bells" will continue to delight long after the last Christmas tree has been dismantled and resolutions forgotten.
In fact, several songs have their roots very much in the winter but convey sentiments which aren't exclusively the preserve of the festive season. "Serving Girl's Holiday", hauntingly sung to the pure accompaniment of Andy Cutting's diatonic accordion is a good example. Likewise the exquisite "Miner's Dream Of Home" and the charming "Poor Old Horse".
Unusually, there are no entirely Rusby originals here. However, as always she makes each and every song her own; living and breathing every word, hitting each note perfectly as on "Candlemas Eve".
The Best Christmas Album ... Ever? Oh yes, by a Yorkshire mile. And the best version of "The Holly & The Ivy" you'll ever hear.
Breathtaking ... as always. Thanks Kate.
I hadn't heard of Kate Rusby until one evening returning from an evening out turned on the radio and there was a... Read more
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