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Here’s a song from our attic in Marden…Julie Atkin sings On the Sunny Side of the Street, which was composed in 1930 by Jimmy McHugh, with lyrics by Dorothy Fields. I’m accompanying her on my 1912 Jeffries duet concertina.

It’s Bandcamp Friday – the Friday when Bandcamp generously waives its fees… So I’d like to remind you all of our lovely Bandcamp offerings!

We hope you enjoy them. Contact us at gmatkin@gmail.com if you’d like us to do a spot or a gig at your online session.

The lyrics of this unusual carol are by Spencer family aristocrat and poet William Robert Spencer (1769-1834) and were published in 1811. It’s variously said that the tune is by a Peter Preston or a Ditchling shoemaker and church musician called Peter Parsons. We think it has a lot of the best of Christmas spirit about it, including generosity, and enjoying food and drink and singing.

We’ve re-released our 2013 album of Julie’s mainly Tin Pan Alley songs accompanied by Gavin’s Jeffries duet concertina and melodeon.

It’s been unavailable for a long time, but it’s now on download from Bandcamp, priced at £5.

We hope you enjoy it!

Julie and Gavin Atkin

‘Good vocals and excellent recording quality, and good songs. The cover is good as well… ‘ – Nick Dow

‘A very good selection of material, very nicely played. Particularly pleased to hear your take on True Blue!’ – Andy Turner

‘What a lovely laid-back and relaxed album. I particularly liked the last track Archie’s Fancy + Elsie’s Waltz.’ – Rees Wesson

‘Having just heard the album I think it is lovely. A great collection of songs, and the tunes are good as well. A perfect production too! I hope it gets out to a larger audience.’ – Doug Welch

Rest You Here is on Bandcamp!

And we have some samples on YouTube:

To us, it feels like an anthem for our times as well…

Here are two interesting alternatives to the usual versions we know so well.

This Lavenders Green uses a tune and verses collected by the Reverend Sabine Baring-Gould, while Old King Cole uses the tune that appeared in a book of nursery rhymes called ‘Little Songs of Long Ago, published in 1912.

The author doesn’t tell us where the Old King Cole tune came from, but it sounds like a traditional tune to us – though of course it could be a tune of the time carefully composed to sound like something older.