Calumwood.com

Calum Wood is a singer-songwriter from the northeast of Scotland, whose music blends strong folk roots with a storyteller’s sensibility. He first came to prominence as a member of The Banana Sessions, a much-loved festival band known for their energetic performances and genre-hopping style. With the group, Calum played at major UK festivals including Glastonbury, T in the Park, Knockengorroch, and Beat-Herder, becoming a familiar name on the UK festival circuit.

As a solo performer, Calum spent six years performing in The Taste of Scotland, a popular Edinburgh show that welcomed around 40,000 audience members annually. Alongside his solo work, he has continued to collaborate widely, contributing to projects such as She Wynds On, a commissioned EP for the Snow Roads project by the Cairngorms National Park. The record featured acclaimed musicians including Ross Ainslie, Charlie McKerron, and Robert Black. Liverpool Sound and Vision called it “a poetic reflection of the stunning beauty found by travellers through the Cairngorms,” awarding it 9/10.

Earlier, Calum curated and released Royal Oak: Best of Folk (2008), a compilation featuring some of Scotland’s best-known contemporary folk artists, including Aberfeldy, Kris Drever, and John Langan, with a foreword by author Ian Rankin.

His most recent release, Patterns (2025), is a stripped-back folk album centred on recurring themes in both Calum’s personal life and the wider culture. Folking.com praised it for “bobbing and leaping between moods with an agility born of its composition,” highlighting the track Square of Fabric as “possibly the best song written on the subject.”

Christmas Songs from the Kitchen Table Vol. 1 is a collection of traditional Christmas carols sung from the comfort of the kitchen table. It is a warm, unvarnished celebration of songs that have soundtracked generations, recorded simply with guitar and voice using analogue techniques.

“I wanted it to feel like you were sitting around the table with me,” says Wood. “You can hear the sound of the room and the buzz of the fridge. It’s not a glossy studio album. It’s Christmas the way I know and love it: real, close, and sometimes imperfect.”

For Calum, these songs aren’t just seasonal standards; they are part of his musical DNA. “I learned these songs through osmosis, as most schoolchildren did in my part of the world,” he reflects. “They were sung in school assemblies, in the church on a Sunday. They were on the radio and TV; they just seeped into you. It’s only now, as I’ve got older, that I realise what an unbelievable canon of music we’ve been gifted. What great songs they are.”

That deep affection for tradition drives Christmas Songs from the Kitchen Table Vol. 1. The album follows a busy year for the Scottish folk artist, who released a debut album and three singles. With this new collection, Wood returns to where it all began: the songs that shaped his childhood, recorded with warmth, honesty, and a touch of nostalgia.