Midwinter - Live in Concert

With the annual Christmas tour cancelled in 2020, this new album aims to fill the void, capture the energy of a live show, and wish good health ("wassail") to all in these difficult times.

It was recorded on the last night of the 2019 All On A Winter's Night Tour - with eight tracks never recorded before*.

The band comprises Paul Burgess (Old Swan Band) on fiddle, recorders and vocals, Dik Cadbury (ex Steve Hackett, Mike D'Abo) on guitars and vocals, Geoff March (ex Decameron) on cello and vocals, Mick Candler (Kevin Brown, Bob Porter Project) on drums, and Gareth Sampson on bass guitar.

The album was recorded at the 500 seater Bacon Theatre in Cheltenham and is Johnny's first-ever live album. With the concert edited down to 74 minutes, the 21 tracks include music from all four of his Christmas albums. Included are popular original songs - the menacing Innocents' Song (recorded by Show of Hands), the atmospheric Song For Loders and Astrologers' Journey, plus the timeless final encore Keep The Flame. There are up-tempo songs like Drive The Cold Winter Away, and Welcome In Another Year by Zoe Mulford (USA), plus traditional material such as The Gloucestershire Wassail, O Holy Night, and Wassail! - a medley of wassail songs from Kent, Somerset, Devon, and Cornwall.

*Eight tracks have never been recorded before, including: two new originals, Waiting For The Light, and The Five Valleys Wassail written for the annual Stroud Wassail event and wishing good health to everyone that makes Stroud such a lively and creative town.

Other new songs on the set list are: Ange Hardy's acapella song When Christmas Day Is Near; two songs from Canada - The Christmas Trilogy a clever and entertaining 3 part song by Shelley Posen (The Finest Kind), and The Eve of Christmas Day by Allison Lupton; plus the classic Irish song Miss Fogarty's Christmas Cake, and The Lighthouse Keeper - co-written and sung by Dik Cadbury. Album cover image is by Martin Fry FRPS. Design by John Neilson.

Running Order:
1. Intro / Drive The Cold Winter Away
2. Song For Loders
3. Gabriel's Message
4. Snow in the Street
5. Wassail!
6. The Lighthouse Keeper *
7. When Christmas Day is Near*
8. All On A Winter's Night
9. Gloucestershire Wassail

10. Welcome in Another Year
11. The Five Valleys Wassail*
12. Waiting For The Light*
13. Astrologers' Journey
14. Mummers' Jig
15. O Holy Night
16. The Christmas Trilogy*
17. Innocents' Song
18. The Eve of Christmas Day*
19. Miss Fogarty's Christmas Cake*

Encores:
20. Boogie Woogie Santa Claus*
21. Keep The Flame

Price £13 inc P & P (£16 for European mainland / £17.50 for rest of the world) to order: telephone 01453 885088 please leave a message and your phone number and name; or email your phone number to johnny@johnnycoppin.co.uk so I can call you back for card details; or post a cheque to "Red Sky Records", P O Box 27, Stroud, GL6 0YQ. UK.