JANICE BURNS & JON DORAN – GREAT JOY TO THE NEW

Janice Burn and Jon Doran will be bringing the new album to Spring bank Arts, New Mills on November 29th for an evening of festive folk songs. Tickets can be bought here: https://wegottickets.com/event/624990

This winter album from Janice Burns & Jon Doran has been a long time coming – in fact, it’s been in the making for the last 7 years. Since the duo first met, they’ve come together each December to find and share festive songs. This annual tradition has been a cornerstone in their lives and careers, even as the world has shifted around them. Now at last, Great Joy to the New is set for release on Friday 22nd November.

Many of the songs on the album were first chosen and arranged while Janice and Jon were living in Norway, studying Norwegian traditional music. Being in rural Telemark, surrounded by mountains and deep snow which arrived in October and stayed until early May, was a source of inspiration as they began to gather their early material. During their time in Norway, Janice and Jon also met singer Mari Bjørkøy and collaborated on an arrangement of Haugebonden, a medieval ballad from Telemark, where Mari is from. They decided to revive this song on the album, and asked Mari to sing it with them.

In more recent years, Janice and Jon’s festive gigs have become something of a tradition. The duo first performed their winter songs to an audience during the second 2020 lockdown when they decided that some festive cheer was needed (along with lots of mulled wine!). They hosted a ‘pay as you feel’ livestream which was so well attended that it became their best paid gig of the year. Since then, the demand for a Christmas album has grown annually, as their winter gigs have grown in popularity each year.

The album is rooted in tradition, in all senses of the word. It draws strongly on traditional material, as well as the customs and rituals that draw people together through the winter to bring light to dark nights. These beautiful, colourful, musical traditions – born of necessity, and linked by the need to sustain us through harsh winters – are the themes that Janice and Jon have explored in Great Joy to the New. It’s a collection of folk songs, not just about Christmas, but about looking forward with optimism for the new year ahead.

Since meeting, Janice and Jon have compared their own winter rituals and become fascinated with the traditions of their ancestors. Jon – being raised in the west country – found wassailing and mumming commonplace, whilst Janice – from Glasgow – recalled more of a focus on family parties and first footing at Hogmanay. The album explores customs from across the UK – from the wren boys in Pembrokeshire, to the ram plays in and around Derbyshire. Despite not being religious, Christian customs have also played a huge part in Janice and Jon’s experiences of winter traditions. Having both grown up attending church, singing well known hymns at Christmas has always felt natural, whilst finding older, more unusual or lesser known songs about Christmas has been a point of inspiration.

One of Janice and Jon’s favourite festive traditions takes place at The Cumberland Arms in Byker. ‘The Cumby’, as it’s affectionately known, is the backbone of folk music in Newcastle, hosting sessions and folk dance rehearsals almost every night. On Mondays throughout December, the pub plays host to the Sheffield Carols (quite a long way from Sheffield!), and this was the starting point for Janice and Jon’s interpretation of While Shepherds – with a new tune penned by Jon. The pub played a central role in the album’s production, with the duo choosing to record backing vocals and take their press photos there, and it will also host the duo’s hometown album launch gig on 19th December.

It wouldn’t be Christmas without gathering friends around, and Janice and Jon are joined on this album by an array of collaborators, including Ben Nicholls (Seth Lakeman, Sam Sweeney Band) on double bass, Mari Bjørkøy leading a traditional Norwegian winter song, and a brass band playing on 4 of the tracks (The Derby Ram, Carol of the Beasts, Dunstan Lullaby, and Sans Day Carol) with arrangements by Jon Boden of Bellowhead. The duo also enlisted the help of a few friends to form a mini choir for backing vocals, including folk legend Sandra Kerr; fellow musicians Amy Leach, Alasdair Paul, Suze Terwisscha (aka Catch the Sparrow) and Sam Baxter; plus Keith Hudson (a member of Janice’s choir) and the duo’s agent, Lucy Shields. The record was produced, recorded and mixed by Andy Bell, and mastered by Sam Proctor.

Great Joy to the New will be released on 22nd November 2024. It will be available to pre-order from 18th October at https://janandjon.bandcamp.com/