BRATTLEBORO — Five years after what many assumed to be the last performance of their 40-year touring career, Nowell Sing We Clear will take the Latchis Theatre stage again on Monday, Dec. 16, at 7 p.m., to celebrate the publishing of their new book, Nowell Sing We Clear Songs & Carols for Midwinter & Christmastide.
The four members of the band (Tony Barrand, Fred Breunig, Andy Davis, and John Roberts) will be joined by two bands from the next generation - Windborne (Lauren Breunig, Jeremy Carter-Gordon, Lynn and Will Rowan) and the trio of Arthur Davis, Brian Lindsay, and Emma Schneider.
The concert will feature all three groups singing favorites from the new book, which will be for sale at intermission and after the show.
There will also be a mummers play.
The book collects much of Nowell Sing We Clear's repertoire - more than 100 songs - along with stories on the backgrounds and origins of the songs and a bit about the group's remarkable 40-year history.
“The big push when we stopped touring was that we wanted to keep Nowell alive. On many occasions, I have said to people, 'Nowell Lives,'” Davis said in a news release.
Nowell's influence has lived on locally through regular pub sings at McNeill's Brewery, including the popular Christmas Eve Sing, the music programming at the Guilford Community Church, and the music of the two bands joining them Dec. 16.
Coming off two years as featured vocalists for Christmas Celtic Sojourn in Boston, Windborne is known for powerful vocal harmony and stunning original arrangements. All four members were raised on Nowell's music - Lauren, quite literally, as Fred Breunig's daughter.
Windborne's diverse repertoire spans traditions and centuries. They were catapulted to wider recognition after a video of them singing a protest song from the 1840s outside Trump Tower went viral, gaining more than a million views on YouTube and Facebook.
Brian Lindsay and Arthur Davis met at Oberlin College and began playing together in a contra dance band. Emma Schneider met the two and began singing with Davis here in Vermont. The Dec. 16 concert will be the trio's first performance together.
Of this show, Tony Barrand of Nowell Sing We Clear says, “It's a very important moment. It took us five years of quite hard work pulling the book together. I just assumed at some point there would be another Latchis performance.”