When I See Winter Return Song Information and Liner Notes | Lyrics   The January Man, 4:24 Dave Goulder Tomorrow Shall be my Dancing Day, 4:28 traditional English Lo, How a Rose E'er Blooming, 3:04 traditional German Quant Je Voi Yver Retorner, 3:49 traditional French/Annette Brigham The Trees Are All Bare, 2:56 traditional English The Woodcutter's Song, 2:07 traditional English Over the Hill and Over the Dale, 5:21 J. M. Neale I Saw Three Ships, 5:01 traditional English Ring in the New Year (Ring It In), 4:04 Hermann Auld Lang Syne Robert Burns In recent years we've had the great pleasure of taking part in the Magical Strings Family Celtic Yuletide concerts in the Pacific Northwest. We've collected a number of seasonal songs for the concerts and, after many requests for them we decided to put out this collection. William first heard The January Man sung by that foremost singer of English songs, Martin Carthy. It was written by Dave Goulder, an English songwriter and master builder of dry stone walls. Over the Hill and Over the Dale came to us by way of our friend John Roberts in his Nowell, Sing We Clear group. We fell in love with its beautiful images and phrases crafted by J. M. Neal (the same fellow who brought you Good King Wenceslas.) Our friends Telynor recorded a version of Quant Je Voi Yver Retorner (When I See Winter Return) The lyrics tell of a wandering musician looking at the aproaching season and wishing (advertising?) for a rich and kind patron to provide food and shelter in exchange for music. With the help of Felicia's mother we added extra verses decribing more of the wonderful things musicians might dream of when the weather turns cold and a decription of the many benefits of sheltering wandering minstrals (Tell Bill Gates we're open to offers!) Ring in the New Year (Ring It In)) has become a tradition at the Yuletide concerts. A round takes on a life of its own when about 900 people are joining in. We added parts in the studio (though not quite that many of them.) The opening notes of the great Irish harper, O'Carolan's Planxty Loftus Jones sound very much like Joy to the World. The traditional German carol, Lo, How a Rose E'er Blooming is a melody lovely enough to stand without much beyond a voice or two. We added a few whistles though. The Woodcutter's Song provides some valuable information for those with fireplaces or wood stoves as well as an atmosphere of warmth and light. The Copper Family is one of the first families of song in England and their Christmas Song The Trees Are All Bare reminded us of some of the traditional songs that crossed the Atlantic and settled in the Apalachian Mountains hundreds of years ago. As fans of nautical music, we couldn't resist the urge to take a few liberties with I Saw Three Ships by giving it the feel of a sea shanty. The jig that follows comes from the fine Irish tune collection, The Northern Fiddler. Our version of Tomorrow Shall be my Dancing Day uses only the Christmas verses of a much longer song. Usually done played to a Morris Dance tempo, we've slowed it down considerably. The great Scottish poet Robert Burn's best know song, Auld Lang Syne closes our album as it used traditionally to close out each year and welcome in the new.   Produced by William Pint & Felicia Dale Recorded at JB Productions, Bellevue, WA., Engineered by Jim "Engineer Boy" Bachman and Alicia Healey Cover photo by Annette Brigham, Photo by R.Carroll Graphic design by Adrienne Robineau Waterbug Records WBG 0039 ©1997 William Pint & Felicia Dale Felicia Dale vocals, hurdy-gurdy, whistles William Pint vocals, acoustic guitar, Octave mandolin, bodhran. Thanks to: Captain Dale for financial and moral support Adrienne Robineau J.B. for his ceaseless good spirits