On his gentle new album Christmas Songs from the Kitchen Table, Calum Wood strips back the festive fanfare to offer an intimate, wooden-table view of Christmas.

Scottish folk singer Calum Wood has had a busy year, releasing his debut album and three singles but he has somehow found the time to squeeze in a Christmas album, ‘Christmas Songs From The Kitchen Table, Vol. 1’. The album features gentle, organic arrangements of  familiar traditional Christmas carols, recorded without any pretension, using mostly analogue techniques.

The album is stripped back and has a beautiful rawness, predominantly performed just on acoustic guitar and voice, whilst the murmur of the fridge can be heard at times in the background. It’s fantastic to hear these songs without the usual glitz and glamour and overproduction, reminding the listener that Christmas Carols, in their own way, are still a thriving part of traditional folk songs. 

The sparseness of the arrangements beautifully shines a light on Calum’s soothing voice and understated but well articulated guitar picking. As Christmas becomes ever more commercialised and focused on consumerism, it is heart-warming to hear someone bring the soul and community essence of these songs back to life. You can well imagine sitting at a dining room table listening to Calum sing these songs around a roaring fire,  it certainly warmed me up on a cold winter´s day! It´s left me excited to hear volume 2 when it arrives, as well as looking forward to digging into Calum Wood´s debut album ´Patterns´.

The album Christmas Songs from the Kitchen Table vol.1 is available to download for free via email here:

Get the album for free!

Or listen on Spotify here

More about Calum Wood

www.calumwood.com