This is the original Christmas Revels recording from 1978 and my very first Revels experience. I purchased it in the 1980s, without even giving it a listen, simply because, judging by the cover, it looked to be right up my alley. It was, and it still is.

In this house, we listen to this and all our Revels recordings throughout the Christmas season, from around Solstice Night all the way to Candlemas. This is a recording of the show that started it all: the original medieval Christmas Revels from which all of Revels' years of merry, musical mischief first began. A jovial king prepares his castle to make merry through dark midwinter, inviting his entire kingdom, from the highest lord to the humblest villager, to join the fun. All the Revels standards are here, including Susan Cooper’s poem “The Shortest Day” as read by WGBH Boston presenter Robert J. Lurtsema and, of course, the original “Lord of the Dance,” a feature of every Revels production, as first sung by Revels founder John Langstaff. Also includes a reading of Fra Giovanni's Letter to a Friend, which has inspired three of the prints in our Copperman's Day print series (Take Joy, Take Heaven, and Take Peace).

This is a compact disc, not a download. Here at Convivio Bookworks, we still enjoy popping a disc into a proper stereo and we especially love reading the accompanying liner notes in the analog booklet that comes with the CD. I know. Very old school and not nearly as cool as vinyl... but then again, perhaps we are on the cutting edge of an upcoming renewed interest in CDs. Stranger things have happened.

Full song list for this CD:

1. Abbots Bromley Horn Dance
2. Room’s Opening Lines
3. Wassail Carol
4. Father Christmas Verse
5. The Boar’s Head Carol
6. Constant Billy
7. Here We Come A-Wassailing
8. Villagers All!
9. There Was a Pig
10. The Monks’ March
11. Dargason
12. Fra Giovanni
13. The Holly and the Ivy
14. Fool’s Verse
15. Lord of the Dance
16. Brass Fanfare
17. Masters in this Hall
18. Shakespeare Lines
19. Nova! Nova!
20. Nativity
21. Alle Psallite Cum Luya
22. The Moon Shines Bright
23. St. George’s Verse
24. Sword Dance Tunes
25. The Shortest Day
26. The Wren Song
27. Apple Tree Wassail
28. The 12 Days of Christmas
29. The Fool’s Farewell
30. Sussex Mummers’ Carol

Total time: 44:56