Found Wandering Christmas Concert 2021

I've written several times before about Found Wandering, the Pennsylvania-based trio of Colin and Sarah Comstock and Jake L'Armand, plus their many extraordinary musician friends.  Found Wandering's entire Christmas Music collection is on my essentials list, and they performed the absolute most killer version of "Silent Night" ever.

They are amazing musicians, and also mighty fine members of the human race.  Every year Found Wandering performs a Christmas concert to support a local charity.  Last year the pandemic forced them to do a streaming concert compiled of footage from their shows over the years, interspersed with stories from Colin, Sarah, Jake and their friends, and also featuring some adorable children :-)

Found Wandering Christmas Concert

This year Found Wandering is back performing live with a nine-piece band, and the concert is available via streaming for those of us living in the four corners of the country.

The concert stream is free to stream, but please remember that they are performing to support a good great cause.  Found Wandering will be collecting a love donation to support Redemption Housing, a Philadephia-based organization that supports our brothers and sisters who are transitioning from incarceration back into the community.   Their stated mission:  "Our mission is to bring God’s healing and restoration to those affected by incarceration and homelessness, holistically serving them as they transition back into the community, while providing a safe space where they can connect with social services, find meaningful employment, and locate long-term housing."

Found Wandering

Found Wandering's concert is Sunday, December 19, 2021 at 7PM Eastern time.  Details and a link to the live stream can be found at https://www.foundwandering.com/christmas.

I encourage you to connect to their Christmas Concert and enjoy some of the best Christmas music you'll hear this season.  And please be generous and consider supporting Redemption Housing as a part of your holiday giving.  I thank you.

Found Wandering website

Found Wandering Bandcamp site

Donate online to Redemption Housing

"Silent Night" from their Christmas Concert 2018:

New from Found Wandering: "Silent Night"

Found Wandering - the Pennsylvania trio of Colin Comstock, Sarah Comstock, and Jake L'Amand - is a favorite of Merry & Bright.  We've written about them a few times, and we selected their entire Christmas catalog as an essential in every serious Christmas music connoisseur's collection.  To me, they are the best band I've discovered since starting this blog ten years ago.

In addition to being a great band, they seem to be great people.  Every year, Colin, Sarah, and Jake expand their band and bring in an amazing group of their musical friends for a benefit concert.  This year's concert will be held on December 22, 2019 in Narberth, PA and will benefit the Philadelphia Project.

For all of us outside of Pennsylvania and have to enjoy Found Wandering through their recorded work, they have released a new EP this year, with three live songs from their 2018 benefit show.  "Silent Night" includes the title song, plus "Everything", written by Taylor Leonhardt,  and "Sweet Little Baby Boy" by James Brown and Nat Jones. 

"Silent Night", the song, is (in my humble opinion) a tough one for a band to tackle and really make special.  Many artists do very good, reverent versions of the song, but few are memorable.  I love the song, I love its history, and firmly believe it deserves its place in the upper echelon of Christmas standards.  Still, most versions fail to capture and hold my attention.

Not so from our Pennsylvania friends.  In their hands, "Silent Night" is transformed into a 7 minute 9 second bluesy masterpiece, with haunting vocals from Sarah Comstock and a guitar solo from Jake L'Amand (or possibly guest guitarist Erik Sayles).  While I'm very fond of Bing Crosby's recording as the seminal modern recorded version and Les Paul & Mary Ford's simple reverence, Found Wandering has given this staid Christmas classic new life.

"Everything" and "Sweet Little Baby Boy" are standouts in their own right.   "Everything", originally recorded by Taylor Leonhardt on her "River House" album, is an unconventional Christmas song, without the usual tropes and sleigh bells, but listening intently uncovers the meaning of the song, or, at least, one possible meaning that spiritually belongs in our celebration of Christmas. 

"Sweet Little Baby Boy" closes out the album, and is performed beautifully, the coda to gorgeous, moving offering to the world of Christmas music 2019.  "Silent Night" is available as a download purchase at the band's Bandcamp site.  Please visit and listen (I think you'll buy a copy, too).

Found Wandering "Silent Night" Bandcamp site
Found Wandering website

Please enjoy Found Wandering performing "Christ Was Born On Christmas Morn"

Der Bingle's Essentials: Everything by Found Wandering

Found Wandering, that trio/seasonal quintet from yon Pennsylvania way. They make the best Christmas music in the land, says I. Singer Sarah Comstock has the voice of an angel, perfectly sublime, created from the heavens to make Christmas music. Instrumentalists Colin Comstock and Jake L'Armand are supremely talented (and I won't leave out Sarah's talent on the mandolin). Found Wandering describes themselves as "a unique blend of gospel-folk, americana and indie rock", an apt description that is indisputable.They arrange classic Christmas carols and infuse them with new life, and they write and perform originals. Ah - pure Christmas music bliss.

Their three albums - "Christmas in Country Village" (2011), "On a Christmas Night" (2015), and "Pass the Peace" (2016 EP) are beautiful, with twenty-nine songs across the three records. When you hear "Angels We Have Heard on High" from "On a Christmas Night", you'll believe you've heard the best Christmas song ever. But then your song shuffle plays "In the Bleak Midwinter" from "Country Village", and you're awe-stricken at perhaps the best arrangement of all time of this, one of the oldest carols.

Found Wandering is now an annual selection on my yearly Christmas comp. I've featured a song of theirs each of the last two years on my DJ gigs on a local radio station, and I wrote a guest piece about them over at "200 Days of Christmas".

I can continue to gush on and on about Found Wandering, but I want you to visit their website and listen to their music. Click here: https://www.foundwandering.com/#albums-christmas
For me, Found Wandering defines "Essential Christmas Music" just as much as ol' Bing himself.

Found Wandering: Christmas Music Perfection

My biggest “oops” of the 2015 season was my failure to cover the excellent album “On a Christmas Night” by Found Wandering. This was a major oversight on my part, as Found Wandering had submitted a digital version of their album to me, and it got lost in the shuffle along the way, only to be discovered way too late in the season to do a meaningful review. So, to make things right, I want to devote this blog post to Found Wandering, their beyond-excellent 2015 release “On a Christmas Night”, and also their previous Christmas album “Christmas in Country Village”. I hope that this post, even though it is a season overdue,  renews attention to these records and exposes a new audience to the music of Found Wandering.

Found Wandering is a trio – Sarah Comstock (vocals, mandolin), Colin Comstock (guitar, banjo, ukulele), and Jake L’Armand (violin, guitar, mandolin) hailing from Pennsylvania. There are many words than can be used to describe their sound – roots, Americana, folk, blues, a little soul in there. Lively, harmonious, moving, serene, spiritual, uplifting – all of these also apply to their music.

 
What an experience it is for a Christmas music lover to queue up “On a Christmas Night” and hear the first few bars of “Angels We Have Heard On High”. If you didn’t know better you’d swear that Sarah Comstock is one of those angels you are hearing. Sarah’s voice is heavenly. It’s a perfect fit for the arrangements, instrumentation, and style. It’s strong yet subtle, confident yet without a hint of diva.

The album progresses through “I Saw Three Ships”, “Sweet Little Baby Boy”, and a rousing version of “Christ was Born on Christmas Morn”. Then we get to “Lo, How a Rose E’er Blooming”, one of the finest recordings I’ve heard of this centuries-old song, with Sarah’s vocals complementing wonderfully controlled instrumental tension and release. “Sing We Noel” follows, one of my personal favorites on the album, with its moderated and varied tempos, and a subdued lyrical melody.

“On a Christmas Night” contains 11 songs, each and every one a joy to hear. What could be better than a front to back excellent album? Well, how about one of the best album covers I’ve ever seen? I absolutely love the cover art. The simple, serene, Christmas countryside at night. It’s beautiful, and it perfectly fits the music of Found Wandering.

So, I loved this album. Loved it so much that I had to go and buy Found Wandering’s previous Christmas release, 2011’s “Christmas in Country Village”. Fourteen songs grace this album, leaning towards the traditional and the spiritual after kicking off with an up-tempo, energetic “Go Tell It On the Mountain”, complete with barnyard backing “musicians” to kick off the song.

A wonderfully understated and serene “O Holy Night” follows. It’s traditional, yet their own. Jake’s violin adds a layer of beauty that one rarely hears in other recordings. This is the ultimate Midnight Mass version, quietly concluding the service and sending you home silently in the gentle snow of the early morn.

The album continues with “What Child Is This”, “The Wexford Carol”, “Carol of the Bells”, a believe-it-or-not uptempo, sprightly version of “In the Bleak Midwinter”, and others, ending with “Amen”, a 39 second conclusion to an amazing record.

Sarah, Colin, and Jake are outstanding musicians. All three show their instrumental talent throughout their albums, complementing and highlighting each other, and blending together as a seasoned band. These two albums are among the best Christmas records that I have, conveying the true feeling and spirit of Christmas through the listening experience. And, they seem to get better every time I play them, as I hear new nuances in their performances. They are among the best Christmas music albums, not only of their release years of 2011 and 2015, but of any year. There are many wonderful Christmas albums by thousands of artists out there in the world of Christmas music. Found Wandering's contributions to the genre are as close to perfect Christmas music as you'll ever find.

"On a Christmas Night" Amazon link

"Christmas in Country Village" Amazon link

Found Wandering website

Found Wandering on Facebook

Found Wandering on Soundcloud

Found Wandering on Bandcamp