Jethro Tull has remixed and expanded a 2003 Yuletide album which served as their last with stalwart guitarist Martin Barre. The Jethro Tull Christmas Album: Fresh Snow at Christmas is set to arrive on Dec. 6.
The multi-format return of Jethro Tull’s 21st studio album includes a limited-edition deluxe 4CD/Blu-ray box with all-new artwork and additional live material. This set features the original album mixes (disc one), 2024 remixes of the LP by Bruce Soord of the Pineapple Thief (disc two), Christmas Live at St. Bride’s 2008, also newly remixed by Soord (disc three), the previously unreleased Ian Anderson Band Live at St. Bride’s 2006 (disc four), and Dolby Atmos, 5.1 Surround Sound and high-resolution stereo mixes on a Blu-ray disc.
The Jethro Tull Christmas Album will also be released on vinyl for the first time, with a gatefold 180g 2LP set also featuring the 2024 remixes. See a complete track listing below. Pre-orders are already underway.
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Highlights include Jethro Tull interpretations of age-old songs like “God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen,” “Greensleeves” and “Hark! The Herald Angels Sing” as well as holiday-inspired originals like 1968’s “A Christmas Song,” the B-side to the group’s first U.K. charting single “Love Story.”
“Some of the tracks are not necessarily Christmas songs,” frontman Ian Anderson said in a news release. “They’re more seasonal so that gives a broader window – and then there are a couple of them that I quite often play in the middle of summer and say, ‘It’ll soon be Christmas – it’s in the diary. So let’s kick it off now.’ And that’s part of what I’ve done over the years since October of 1968 when I went in to record ‘A Christmas Song.’ So, yes – it goes back a long way.”
Also included are reworkings of “Ring Out Solstice Bells” from 1977’s Songs from the Wood, “Weathercock” from 1978’s Heavy Horses and “Another Christmas Song” from 1989’s Rock Island. Barre composed the closing instrumental, “A Winter Snowscape.” The live recordings feature updates of Tull favorites “Thick as a Brick” and “Aqualung,” too.
“Part of the joy of redoing those things,” Anderson added, “is that you can … not necessarily recreate, but you can keep all the essential elements of the song and maybe declutter it a little bit and give it a fresh look, but essentially still staying faithful to the original arrangements.”
Jethro Tull’s lineup was completed by keyboard and accordion player Andrew Giddings, bassist Jonathan Noyce and drummers Doane Perry and James Duncan.
‘The Jethro Tull Christmas Album: Fresh Snow at Christmas’ Track Listing
Original Mixes/Remixes
“Birthday Card at Christmas”
“Holly Herald”
“A Christmas Song”
“Another Christmas Song”
“God Rest Ye Merry Gentleman”
“Jack Frost and the Hooded Crow”
“Last Man at the Party”
“Weathercock”
“Pavane”
“First Snow on Brooklyn”
“Greensleeved”
“Fire at Midnight”
“We Five Kings”
“Ring Out Solstice Bells”
“Bouree”
“A Winter Snowscape”
Christmas Live at St. Brides 2008
“Weathercock”
“Introduction: Rev. George Pitcher / Choir: What Cheer”
“A Christmas Song”
“Living in These Hard Times”
“Choir: Silent Night”
“Reading: Ian Anderson, Marmion”
“Jack in the Green”
“Another Christmas Song”
“Reading: Gavin Esler, God’s Grandeur”
“Choir: Oh, Come All Ye Faithful”
“A Winter Snowscape”
“Fires at Midnight”
“We Five Kings”
“Choir: Gaudete”
“God Rest Ye Merry Gentleman / Thick as a Brick”
Ian Anderson Band Live at St. Brides 2006
“Living In The Past”
“Griminelli’s Lament”
“A Christmas Song”
“Mozart”
“Pastime With Good Company”
“Holly Herald”
“Pavane”
“We Five Kings”
“Aqualung”
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Gallery Credit: Ryan Reed