I love this album soooo much. It makes me feel happy and cheerful. You have a lovely voice! I want to be like you! I'm your biggest fan! Were always listening to it in the car and I always sing along! I love your folk music better than any other artists! Thanks for becoming a singer. I was happy that you have made a Christmas album I love it. I love you Kate.!

This album for me brings back the memories of childhood Christmas carol concerts and then a hot chocolate treat on the way home. You can almost smell the pine needles when she sing. Beautiful as always.

I have been following Kate's music since the beginning but had missed this one. What a wonderful surprise. This is a beautifil CD and a great joy! Have a happy new year Kate.

Thank goodness for artists like Kate Rusby; these songs are artfully set and beautifully rendered. KR has an absolutely remarkable, effortlessly brilliant voice and her band does a top job as always. They make it sound easy to be this good. It isn't!

For me this is a bit of a mixed bag with 3 or 4 great versions but towards the end of the album it becomes as turgid as 3 day left over turkey. Great sound and production.

At last, Christmas music that is cool, quirky and listenable. Slade's Christmas classic is great for the office party, Mario Lanza for the lunch but Kate Rusby's Sweet Bells is the Christmas music for the car, making the pudding and when you have your friends and neighbours over for the pre Christmas drinks and snacks, Sets the mood without cliche

I have been hoping, waiting and searching for these songs since seeing Kate and her superb band play them on tour Christmas 2007

Lovely stuff. Thanks Kate

xxx

Brent Weller

Only heard Village Green on radio. Went to see here in Harrogate last night, WOW! What a gem. This album is brill, filled with hope and wonder throughout some fantastically arranged classic songs

What a fabulous album! Brilliant folk interpretation of familiar carols. Wonderfully sung and easy to sing along to over and over again. Sweet Bells has to be the best Christmas album ever. Have already played it over and over. Keep it up Kate.

Kate is fabulous, I love her! This is such a sweet surprise, I didn't realise she was releasing a new album, and a Christmas one at that! Kate is one of my favourite artists and her music is such a breath of fresh air. This is beautifully traditional and I think it will make some people's holiday listening to this. She is amazing, get this, or regret it! Happy Christmas everybody xxx

Sweet is the word! Many Christmas albums you play only once or twice, but this is a classic you will play tis again and again. Her interpretations of the traditional carols are truly original and the whole album is touching and joyous. Buy it and enjoy!

wwwwwoooooowwww, ive met her, i interviewed her once, its nice to see that she is well liked, buy her songs i recommend it

If you are not a Kate Rusby fan already then this album may make you a dedicated follower. Lovely arrangements of Christmas music done in a slightly unusual way - this is possibly the best version of The Holly and the Ivy I have heard. Only regret is that it is a Christmas album, however I will put up with any bad luck and plan to play this album all year round. All in all a fantastic album - Kate Rusby's done it again!

I'm a big fan of Kate already thus well disposed to enjoy the latest offering. Kate Rusby has found a folk voice that many thought had passed into history - the voice of Ewan Macoll, Sandy Denny et el picturing an England that is almost (but not quite) mythical. Rusby is smarter than the old school who simply dwell in the past. What we usually get from Kate is a new twist, some new self-penned songs from a well researched repertoire snd style. So why not five stars? Two reasons - first is that Xmas albums are a limited form and although you don't have to put up a xmas tree to listen to this album it is nevertheless season bound. More importantly I am disappointed that there isn't just a little more innovation. All the usual ingredients are there; that voice, superb guitar work, great production and new arrangements of old favourites etc. but I wanted to be surprised - or even challenged a bit more. More new songs - albeit xmas songs - would have made this better. Thanks for this Kate - really do love what you do but don't be too timid. There are many wry things to be said about Xmas and its contemporary place in society. (Lots more xmases to come though)

Great stuff from Kate Rusby. Only discovered her this year at The Larmer Tree festival when a friend i was with recommened we went to the main stage to see her. She was awesome and is now a regular on my ipod and her voice is like no other. Brilliant for something different around christmas. I hope to see her at Larmer Tree in 2009!!!

I saw Kate Rusby perform many of these songs on her winter tour in 2007 and was delighted to find that she was creating an album of them. The songs are Yorkshire versions of famous Christmas carols as sung in the local pubs, although these versions are more sophisticated than those you'd find in your average boozer. Be aware, the tunes are ENTIRELY different to those you're familiar with and, in every single case, vastly better.

First and foremost, this is more than a Christmas album. Its warmth and charm will fill you with coziness throughout the long winter months and it deserves to be listened to all year round. However, at Christmas it is sheer genius.

If you're fed up with the commercial, brash, modern Christmas then this is the antidote. Buy the album, stick it on your ipod or in the car and feel the yuletide stress ease away.

As always, the musicianship is top notch, perfectly framing Rusby's wonderful vocals. The songs range in tempo from the jaunty "Hail Chime On" which contains lines from "Oh come all ye faithfull" and "When Shepherds watch their flocks by night" to the utterly wonderful "A Miner's Dream of Home" with its gentle pace and warm but subtle brass section.

My highlights in a flawless album are "Sweet Bells" which will have all but the most unreformed Scrooges singing along (and will remain in your head for days: you have been warned) and "Hark the Herald". Now, for most of us, the title of that track will bring up an immediate melody but, as with all these tracks, forget that. This resembles the traditional version only in the sense that it shares a title and some words. It features gorgeous vocals, a warm brass section, precise and (as always) artful guitar and a truly dreamy melodeon. It will transform your view of carols.

Buy this and buy it now. Put it on before Christmas, over Christmas and afterwards. Feel the warmth and love that have been poured into this album. Oh, and go and see Kate live next year!