Coventry Carol is a Christmas EP that I’ve long wanted to release. It’s a short collection of 5 songs. All are my own arrangements, and two of them are written by me: The Holly in the Windy Hedge and Ode to the Season.
I’ve been enamored with Loreena Mckennitt’s work for 30 years — especially her seasonal music. I generally gravitate towards that vibe with my own holiday music; minimal and haunting. This EP is available wherever you get your music:
Coventry Carol – Apple | iTunes
The tracks:
God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen
This traditional English melody is in a minor mode and dates back to the 1650’s. I used a relentless fingerstyle technique (popularized by Gustavo Santaolalla from The Last of Us) to achieve a haunting and Celtic feel to my version.
God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen | fingerstyle guitar + TAB
Coventry Carol
The “Coventry Carol” is an English Christmas carol dating from the 16th century. Loreena McKennitt’s version is my favorite and you can find my arrangement of her performance here.
I love the sound of voices forming one single chord. My inspiration was various baroque choirs performing this and many other traditional English Christmas carols.
Coventry Carol | fingerstyle guitar + TAB
Greensleeves in D Minor
Believed to be composed in the late 16th/early 17th century, ‘Greensleeves’ never began it’s many incarnations as a Christmas song. It was only until William Chatterton Dix wrote the carol What Child Is This (set to the Greensleeves tune) in 1865 — that this traditional English folk motif became a seasonal song.
Greensleeves in D Minor | fingerstyle guitar + TAB
The Holly in the Windy Hedge
I wrote this piece as a Christmas song and it’s in *minor tone of my favorite traditional English Christmas carols. I based this tune upon a phrase in the poem: Christmas, by John Betjeman
‘…The holly in the windy hedge
And round the Manor House the yew
Will soon be stripped to deck the ledge,
The altar, font and arch and pew…’
Holly in the Windy Hedge | fingerstyle guitar + TAB
Ode to the Season
Ode to the Season, is a seasonal/Christmas song I wrote in 2018. To get the vibe, I imagined something light and lyrical that Carolers would sing. This is really the only “major key” song on the EP.
Ode to the Season | fingerstyle guitar + TAB
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Thank you for listening and playing. Merry Christmas!
Evan