Wednesday 12 December 2012

Day 12 - 'Oh December' - Jane Taylor

Jane Taylor was an 18th/19th Century poet whose main claim to fame was writing the words to the song we now know as ‘Twinkle Twinkle Little Star’. She used to live in Colchester and the Hollytrees museum in that town has an exhibition of old Children’s toys on the top floor, where they used to play an eerie and ethereal version of ‘Twinkle, Twinkle’ as you entered the room.

Not a fanciful man by any means, the first time I went into this room, heard the music, saw the rather grotesque dolls and other artefacts, I had to leave as I come over all dizzy. Intrigued – I’m not a believer in the spirit world - I returned some months later and exactly the same thing happened! I’ve been back since but was disappointed to find they’d changed the music and somehow the feeling is different....

Anyway, this is NOT that Jane Taylor but rather a Bristol born singer / songwriter who had an iTunes hit late last year when ‘Whispering’ Bob Harris played this track on his Radio 2 Christmas Day show. She’s had a successful year as a result, supporting people such as Jools Holland and Paulo Nutini and her album ‘Compass’ won her a ‘Best Album’ award at the Independent Music Awards. She’s now working on a musical project called ‘Mrs Claus’ which is also set to become a children’s book and an animation. With an idea like that, she’s also likely to return to the Calendar at some point in the future, particularly if, like this little gem, it contains a Colliery Band. I’m a sucker for brass.

This is also in it's way quite haunting and a little magical.



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