Back in 2016, over the holiday season, West Virginia’s Circa Blue released an instrumental version of the Christmas favorite, God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen, on their Bells of Home album.
Then in November of 2019, Valerie Smith with Bell Buckle Records produced a homey video for the song using stock footage that has since received more than a million views on Facebook.
This year, that video caught the attention of Ekaterina Shelehova, a young Russian-born opera singer now living in Italy, who was charmed by their bluegrass arrangement of the song. Kate also likes singing folk and popular music in addition to the classical repertoire, and she reached out to Steve Harris, guitarist, vocalist, and band leader of Circa Blue, to see if they would be open to her adding a vocal to their cut.
Steve was onboard right away, so the tracks were remixed with her singing, and the song has just been re-released by Kate’s management team.
Have a listen to the result.
Well done all!
God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen from Ekaterina Shelehova and Circa Blue is available now as a single from popular download and streaming services online, just in time for Christmas.
You can check out all the Christmas bluegrass we have covered at Bluegrass Today by following this link.
