The 35th anniversary edition of this celebration of the season!Even the Vermonters agree that we are having real snow, and it wouldn't be wise for them or all of us to travel in an active storm.
We are all really sorry to have to cancel this event, and we'll try to get at least John and Tony back down some time in 2010.
John Roberts, Tony Barrand, Fred Breunig & Andy Davis present an entertainment celebrating the Christmas story and customs of the winter solstice and the new year, featuring songs old and new, carols and dance tunes. Bring your voice!
This will be the thirty-fifth touring season of Nowell Sing We Clear with its unusual songs, carols, stories, and customs. Drawn mostly from English-language folk traditions, the songs tell both a version of the events and characters involved in the Christmas story and detail the customs which make up the twelve magical days following the return of the light at the winter solstice. Many of these ancient customs are the basis of the today's holiday traditions, such as visiting and feasting, gift-giving, carol singing from door-to-door and the adorning of houses and churches with garlands of evergreen.
Nowell Sing We Clear celebrates Christmas as it was known for centuries in Britain and North America and as it continues in many places to the present. The songs come from an age when the midwinter season was a time for joyous celebration and vigorous expression of older, perhaps pagan, religious ideas. There is not always a clear line between these and the rejoicing at the birth of Jesus bringing a fresh light into the world at this dark midwinter time. A special and unusual treat is the enactment of a Mummers Play from Kentucky. Performed in the traditional manner, the play is typical of folk dramas which survive to this day throughout Britain and North America symbolizing and portraying the death of the land at midwinter and its subsequent rebirth in the spring.
While much of the singing is done in unaccompanied style, the pageant is also stamped with the energetic dance band sound of fiddle, button accordion, electric piano, drums, and concertina. The audience will be supplied with songsheets and encouraged to sing along, though after three decades of touring in New England, a whole generation of young people have grown up with these songs and carols and sing along with as much as they can. Some "new," that is "different," songs and carols are introduced every year. Performers are John Roberts and Tony Barrand, widely known for their lively presentations of English folk songs, and Fred Breunig and Andy Davis, well known in New England as dance callers and musicians.
Nowell Sing We Clear has become a regular part of some communities on the Eastern seaboard, including ours. The group has several recordings of songs from the show which have been popular items in many households at this time of year. Their CDs are drawn from songs learned for their concerts: The newest is Nowell, Nowell, Nowell. Others are Just Say Nowell, Hail Smiling Morn (which has a cover designed by famous Vermont artist, Mary Azarian) and Nowell Sing We Four. The first three LP recordings are all well represented on a compact disk, The Best of Nowell: 1976 - 1985. All recordings are available from Golden Hind Records.
Advanced tickets available here on the FSGW website (just click "Sign-Up" and have a credit card ready), or by sending a check and a self-addressed-stamped-envelope to Marty Summerour, 5212 Juliet St. Springfield, Va. 22151. Advanced tickets requested by mail in the days immediately before the concert will be held at the door.
For further information, contact Marty Summerour at 703-354-6460 or by e-mail (click here).
