Music Notes

God Rest Ye Merry (Irish Instrumental)

My seventh track for "12 Days of "Christmas""  is an Irish instrumental rendition of God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen, by artist Alisa Jones.

Super long and peculiar story behind this one… years ago on an old-fashioned Christian radio station, Mom and I heard a really cool version of God Rest Ye Merry, with a lady singing. It sounded Russian. I've never been able to track down that exact version. I even contacted the radio station, and they said they had no idea what I was referring to. They sent me an audio file of a mashup from some down-home rustic family band, which wasn't it at all.

So last year I went on a quest to collect, if not a vocal of God Rest Ye Merry, since none of them compared favorably to that one amazing unknown, at least a high-quality instrumental version, since the melody has such good bones. I ended up with several versions, some of which got tossed out, until I had two remaining: an instrumental by Simply Three (you might guess they're one of my favorite instrumental artists) and this one.

I enjoy the way this rendition builds upon the same repetitive instrumental "verse," opening with the flute and gradually adding a drum, a violin, and whatever else (bagpipes?), in a way which seems as though it should go on for longer than two and a half minutes. That would probably get boring, though. As it is, it's just right, with that ever-so-slightly danceable vibe which I remember from the mysterious vocal version.

Words: 255.