Horslips Christmas Album 50th Anniversary re-release

Known for their impact on Celtic Rock and the incorporation of Irish traditional music, Horslips have a special release for fans.

Horslips have announced they will release the 50th anniversary re-issue of Drive The Cold Winter Away on November 7.

The acoustic folk album was originally recorded in Dublin and released in 1975.

"While it probably wouldn't be the first time a rock band recorded an “unplugged” album, we thought to give it a unique twist by making it a seasonal record," said Horslips drummer Eamon Carr.

"Everyone in the band had fun suggesting tunes and songs and it was a joy to hear the arrangements take shape. Getting back to Trend Studios in Dublin, where we’d recorded our first demos and early singles, and work again with larger than life studio engineer Fred Meijer, was another important milestone."

Horslips are considered by many to be the 'founding fathers of Celtic rock' and are regarded for their Irish traditional music influences. The band came into the scene in 1970 and performed their final show in 2022.

Track listing

SIDE A

1. Rug Muire Mac Do Dhia
2. Sir Festus Burke / Carolan's Frolic
3. The Snow That Melts the Soonest
4. The Piper in the Meadow Straying
5. Drive the Cold Winter Away
6. Thompson's / Cottage in the Grove
7. Ny Kirree Fo Naghtey

SIDE B

1. Crabs in the Skillet
2. Denis O'Connor
3. Do'n Oíche Úd I mBeithil
4. Lullaby
5. The Snow and the Frost Are All Over / Paddy Fahey's
6. When a Man's in Love

Ny Kirree fo Niaghtey

William Henry Gill (24 October 1839 - 27 June 1923) was a Manx musical scholar who wrote and composed anthem of Isle of Man, "Arrane Ashoonagh Dy Vannin". He lived most of his llife in London.

Words by W. H. GILL

Air, 'Ny Kirree fo Niaghtey'

The snow's on the mountains, the snow's in the gill;

My sheep they have wander'd all over the hill;

Uprise then, my shepherds, with haste let us go

Where my sheep are all buried deep under the snow.

The dogs in the haggard are barking aloud

At the moon, as she struggles from under the cloud;

Uprise then, my shepherds, with haste let us go

Where my sheep are all buried deep under the snow.

Take staves and take lanterns, put on your carranes (shoes);

We'll hunt in the mountains; we'll hunt in the plains;

Uprise then, my shepherds, with haste let us go

Where my sheep are all buried deep under the snow.

Then up rose those shepherds; with haste they did go

Where my sheep lay all buried deep under the snow;

They sought them with sorrow; they sought them with dread,

And they found them at last, but the sheep were all dead.

A version by Horslips in Manx can be found here.