In a short break from the series of posts on the church sound desk, I wanted to make a note of the tunes I contributed to today’s sing around session at The Plough Inn in Thorpe Acre.

We are still within the 12 days of Christmas, so I kicked off with the song that shares the same name. To spice it up though, I inserted humorous responses from the imagined recipient of all these gifts, fair and fowl. I remember that being part of a choir concert I sang in once down in Oxford. As far as I can make out, John Julius Norwich published a book on this theme in 1998 but online recordings have some discrepancies from the text I found so I don’t know if this undated version is copied from his book or was the source of it. For some reason, it was locked in my memory as being associated with Joyce Grenfell, who died in 1979, so there may be examples of prior art; my searches this morning didn’t turn up anything conclusive.

When my turn came round again, I dropped Free Fallin’ by Tom Petty. I was probably playing a bit too hard because half-way through the song (based on a short chordal cycle), I found the second finger on my right hand locking up. I managed to make adjustments and finish the song but it is a reminder to go gently and let the bass speak for itself.

Thirdly, I went with a version of Wade Through the Water. We’d had a few contributions which were great but not easy for others to join in so I wanted to make sure we had a piece that encourage participation as we drew towards the end of the afternoon.

Back again on Saturday 13th January… 2024!