Tag: The Last Christmas Needle

Despite consistent sell-out shows and the fact that he’s one of the finest showmen and songwriters of the past 50 odd years, Colvin’s not the household name or chart star his talent warrants. So, chances are, while this festive collection contains re-recordings of past releases, notably off the limited edition Gerry’s Christmas Baubles, for most readers these are all ostensibly new. Which, for those willing to explore, will reward them with a seasonal album that isn’t another churning out of the familiar carols and cheesy Christmas songs that turn up with dispiriting frequency from an array of country stars, but, rather, mostly originals that range from the delightfully playful to the piercingly poignant.

The album featuring his regular backing musicians of uptight bassist Jerome Davies, accordionist Trish Power and Lyndon Webb on guitar, mandolin and violin with various contributions by Marion Fleetwood, Paul Johnson and Stuart McLeish, it opens with the self-penned ‘One More Sleep’, an a cappella intro giving way to a bustling capturing of the anticipation and preparations of Christmas Eve.

That’s followed by a new, slightly longer version of the title track, quite frankly one of the best and most emotional seasonal songs this side of ‘White Christmas’ and ‘Fairytale Of New York’ as, backed by Power in the final stretch, he sings “when the last Christmas needle falls from the last Christmas tree, you will still be holding hands with me”. Pausing to wipe away a tear, Joni Mitchell gets a co-credit as he borrows the opening lines from ‘River’ for the gently circling fingerpicked wry ‘Coming Up Christmas’, that transforms it from a lament for a lost love to one for a lost Christmas spirit, wishing to return to “where before it all began before Christmas became the Christmas that it’s become” with its emphasis on commerciality where the only river is Amazon.

There are a few evergreen covers given the Colvin touch, the first being a dreamy, bass-led shuffle through Jerome Kern’s ‘I’ll Be Home For Christmas’, famously recorded by Bing Crosby and equally famously banned by the BBC who though it would be demoralising for the troops. Elsewhere, backed by accordion, he gives David Essex a run for his money on a sadness soaked ‘A Winter’s Tale’ and delivers an inspired slowed down, fingerpicked reworking of Mike Batt’s slightly retitled ‘Wombling Gerry Christmas’.

Naturally, there’s a carol, not one from the well-thumbed songbook but his own ‘The Shakespeare Carol’ which, featuring his late musical partner Nick Quarmby, is supposedly based around the bard’s own words as it calls on the men of Arden’s Grafton, Wexford, Marston, Bedford and elsewhere to come together in St Andrew’s Church in Temple Grafton, reputed to be where Bill and Anne tied the knot, to celebrate, be they Jew, Muslim or Christian. In similar traditional vein, ‘The Parting Pint On Saint Nicholas Night’ is the Scottish parting song with two final lines to pin it to the December 6 celebration, while, featuring McLeish, ‘Saint Stephen’s Day’ is his own fingerpicked waltzing ode to the Feast of St Stephen complete with accordion and tinkling chimes and an invitation to break bread and take wine in the woodlands and dance with the dryads as it breaks out into a Celtic military marching beat and the strains of ‘Auld Lang Syne’.

If you want melancholy, then there’s the accordion-backed ‘Winter In My Heart’ about a lost relationship, or by contrast he can be exceeding playful, writing his own ‘Johnny Cash Shirt’ with a festive twist as he jingles all the way through the country clopping ‘Santa Claus Hat (“I got this merry festive suit when Santa Claus fell off my roof/Been eating venison since that day”). It ends with one final cover, looking to put the grey skies of winter behind with a breezy, bass twanging, guitar strummed shuffle through the Morecambe & Wise immortalised ‘Bring Me Sunshine’. He most certainly will.

Mike Davies

Artist’s website: www.gerrycolvin.com

‘Wombling Gerry Christmas’: