Wesselbobs

Wesselbobs were akin to Christmas wreaths, decorated evergreen foliage, but woven on a spherical frame. These were carried from house to house by wassailers and carol singers in West Yorkshire. In taking Wesselbobs as their title, Bryony Griffiths and Alice Jones encapsulate their intent with their excellent new album: to explore and celebrate the local – their – culture, which surely is the role of folk musicians.

‘The ’Ollins and the Ivin’ is ‘The Holly and the Ivy’; ‘Hark How all the Welkin Rings’ is ‘Hark the Herald Angels Sing’. But the language and the melodies differ. The carols are familiar, yet different, Griffith and Jones casting them in an intriguing local light.

‘I Traced Her Little Footmarks in the Snow’ is a music hall song absorbed into the repertoire of local singers, entering the oral tradition. ‘Ripon Sword Dance’ comes from that side’s mumming (folk) play. With ‘Hagman-Heigh’, they radically claim that the Hogmanay tradition has its roots in West Yorkshire… There may be trouble ahead!

‘Hagman-Heigh’ is beautifully sung, unaccompanied, in harmony. On all the other songs Griffith plays the fiddle, stoutly; Jones the plangent tenor guitar, adding ballast on the harmonium.

In ‘The Yorkshire Wassailing Song’ the singers crave food and money. Several songs speak of the cold, of snow and ice. The climate, Griffith and Jones’ choices suggest, is changing; poverty, well, less so.