If you like early music, it's almost automatic that you will already be aware of singer Maddy Prior's Christmas collaboration with the Carnival Band and their collection of ancient and less-so instruments.

If you are a folk fan, as well as liking early music too, you already know about this stirring act of minstrels and their slant on Christmas with their various degrees of reverence and authenticity as they trawl back through to the origins of those myriad Christmas melodies.

The live show features Christmas Music played on medieval and modern instruments. Festive favourites such as The Holly and the Ivy and I Saw Three Ships rub shoulders with secular carols like The Boar's Head, dance tunes like Old Joe Clark.

If life is determined by a series of happy accidents, then somebody upstairs was beaming long and hard the day the Carnival Band happened across Maddy Prior. Beginning as a one-off experiment for a Radio 2 Christmas Special, their collaboration has become an ongoing concern - with regular tours and five albums released.

With no Christmas Tour last year, devotees of this hugely popular show will be delighted to hear that Maddy Prior and the Carnival Band will be coming together once more during the Festive Season 2007 with their unique celebratory show.

Like their previous seasonal excursions, this one sees Maddy and the Carnival Band putting their unique stamp on a range of familiar (and not-so-familiar) festive material, while also exploring some new and exotic directions.

The Carnival Band themselves, and leader Andy Watts in particular, are accomplished musicians with a lust to restore energy into much of the stiff, dry, medieval and renaissance material they tackle. They mix ancient, modern and ethnic instrumentation with a refreshingly cavalier attitude and plenty of humour, a quality they share with Maddy Prior.

"I love working with the chaps," Maddy muses, "it's just so different and they're so off the wall. Coming from a folk background I can relate to a lot of their dances and early music, but anything less like serious academic concerts when we tour you can't imagine. When we go out at Christmas, it's all streamers, balloons and lunacy."

New Christmas Album out November
info@parkrecords.com