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Our Review

The Castle of the Holly King: Secular Songs for the Yuletide is a welcome feast of music from the Medieval, Celtic, and British traditions. This excellent album encompasses both vocals and instrumentals, including fiddles, the medieval harp, hammered dulcimer, piano and more. For those who relish early music, this release has something for everyone, and everything is exquisitely performed.

Although the very talented Shira Kammen, a seasoned performer with Medieval ensembles, is the principal here, thirteen performers entertain, including eight vocalists. Of the 15 tunes presented, I was somewhat familiar with only three, although all pieces burst with life and excitement of discovery. The extensive liner notes are filled with helpful (and intriguing) information about the selections.

The Castle of the Holly King opens very well with the lovely "The Holly Bears a Berry" with warm fiddling and exquisite harmonies. A favorite cut is "Apple Tree Wassail," a bubbly a cappella rendering that ends with "Hip Hip Hurrah" as the singers entreat the listeners to purchase apples. The album booklet even includes a recipe for "Wassail For 8 (Anonymous)." Wassail, anyone? This release presents an outstanding mix; by my count, there are four instrumentals (including the truly terrific "Rafe's Waltz" with piano and fiddle), four a cappella selections, and at least three numbers with voices singing/speaking over a great percussive foundation ("A Counting Song" is especially great).

Very, very nice! Shira Kammen's first-class production is an excellent choice for the early music aficionado.

--Carol Swanson
(Reviewed in 2005)

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From the liner notes:

The performers are:
Shira Kammen (Vielle, Fiddle, Voice)
Shay Black (Voice)
Peter Maund (Percussion)
Pamela Swan (Bodhran)
Anne Hodgkinson (Voice)
Mitchell Sandler (Voice)
Robin Petrie (Hammered Dulcimer)
Susan Rode Morris (Voice)
Suzanne Elder Wallace (Voice)
Paul Cummings (Voice)
Lydia Heather Knutson (Voice)
David Morris (Viola da Gamba)
Charlie Hancock (Piano)

Produced by Shira Kammen

#3,4,7,10,13 & 15: arranged by Shira Kammen
#1,2,5,6,8,9 & 12: arranged by Shira Kammen and the performers on each track
#14: Anonymous English 15th-century

The time of "Yule" (from the Norse "iul" meaning wheel) marks the vanquishing the Holly King, the God of the Waning Year, by the Oak King, the god of the Waxing Year. These strong images from the Celtic traditions represent other dualities as well--among them light and dark, death and rebirth. Perhaps these are two different faces of the Green Man, the pagan spirit of the greening earth: half man, half tree, with leaves and foliage sprouting from his mouth, eyes and ears. After the Holly King is defeated by the Oak King at Yule, he then reigns until Midsummer when the two battle again, this time with the Holly King as victor.

From the Web site:

Shira Kammen received her degree in music from UC Berkeley and studied vielle with Margriet Tindemans.

A member for many years of Ensembles Alcatraz and Project Ars Nova, and Medieval Strings, she has also worked with Sequentia, Hesperion XX, the Boston Camerata, and the King's Noyse, and is the founder of Class V Music, an ensemble dedicated to performance on river rafting trips.

She has performed and taught in the U.S., Canada, Europe, Israel, Morocco and Japan, and on the Colorado and Rogue rivers. Shira happily collaborated with singer/storyteller John Fleagle for fifteen years, and performs now with several new groups: a medieval ensemble, Fortune's Wheel; a new music group, Ephemeros; an eclectic ethnic band, Panacea; and Trouz Bras, a band devoted to the dance music of Celtic Brittany.

Shira Kammen

The Castle of the Holly King: Secular Songs for the Yuletide

Artist link

Track List