Holly Head, Kate Rusby (Pure)

Yet another case of me being blissfully unaware that this English folksinger has made a second career out of Christmas music, starting with 2008's Sweet Bells, 2011's While Mortals Sleep, 2015's The Frost is All Over, and 2017's Angels and Men. For 2019, we have this, another full album of Christmas-themed music. Her being a folkie, most of these are familiar carols from the ancient repertoire, like "Yorkshire Three Ships," "While Shepherds Watched 6," "Bleak Mid-Winter (Yorkshire)," "Mistletoe Bough," and "Lu Lay (Coventry Carol)." Definitely not a part of the ancient repertoire is "Hippo For Christmas," the Gayla Peevey number that was revived by Dr. Demento, in a gentle arrangement propelled by tuba. She also wrote "The Holly King" and "B.B.B.B.," the latter apparently a continuation of the story of Big Brave Bill, who Kate has sung about on previous occasions. This is a modern pop production of what is essentially folk music, and pretty mellow for all that.