|
| This is an excerpt from the print edition of Dirty Linen Magazine #97 (December 2001/January 2002). The magazine is available on newsstands and by subscription. |
Holiday Recordings
Triakel
Wintersongs
NorthSide NSD6061 (2001)
Triakel is an acoustic group comprising Emma Härdlin (voice, Garmarna), Kjell-Erik Eriksson (fiddle, Hoven Droven) and Janne Strömstedt (harmonium, or pump organ, Hoven Droven).
In May 1998 they released their first recording, and they knew right away that they'd like their next recording to be a Christmas CD. While anyone familiar with the hard-driving sound of Hoven Droven and Garmarna might expect a fairly raucous sound, Triakel takes one by surprise with a straightforward, unadorned, pure (as opposed to muddy) sound, full of warmth and gentle light. Wintersongs is both charming and lovely.
The songs, collected from various regions of Sweden and sung in Swedish, include an Advent song, Christmas hymns, and staffanvistas (St. Stephen's Day songs). All are traditional except the anthemic "The Silence of the Dawn," a hymn composed by Benny Andersson of ABBA to express the hope of the new millennium. Liner notes include information about sources and English lyrics (if you want the Swedish lyrics, check the NorthSide website).
Play this one on a cold night, sitting beside a fire with a plate of ginger cookies and a glass of spirits nearby. You'll surely find yourself humming along on the catchy refrains and, should movement be necessary (say, for a refill), you'll find yourself waltzing to the kitchen.
— Susan Hartman (Baltimore, MD)
Various artists
Stony Plain's Christmas Blues
Stony Plain SPCD 1269 (2000)
Duke Robillard anchors this spicy sampler of holiday-related blues recordings from Canadian label Stony Plain. The multiple W.C. Handy Award winner plays guitar on six of the album's 14 tracks, backing up artists like Billy Boy Arnold and Maria Muldaur. There are selections fit for that slow dance under the light-up angel, like Rosco Gordon's "Merry Christmas Everyone," and family-fun numbers like Long John Baldry's skiffly "On a Christmas Day" (complete with an elementary school choir) and Big Dave McLean"Santa Came Down" (he came down with the blues, so "Dancer ain't dancin', Prancer ain't prancin' "), but this album's strengths are wake-up-and-celebrate numbers to set your CD player/alarm clock to, such as Asleep at the Wheel's "Switchin' in the Kitchen" (with the Roomful of Blues horns) and "Mama" by David Wilcox (the north-of-the-border one).
— Pamela Murray Winters (Arlington, VA)
Priscilla Herdman, Anne Hills, and
Cindy Mangsen
At the Turning of the Year
Hand and Heart HHN (2000)
Priscilla Herdman, Anne Hills, and Cindy Mangsen each have flourishing careers as solo folk singers — but they like to sing together, too, especially around the winter holidays. Their second seasonal collection finds the three women exploring all the autumn and winter themes, from the coming of autumn in "Goodbye to the Roses" to the return of spring on Gillian Welch's "Winter's Come and Gone." In between, they take a funny look at Thanksgiving and the perils of political correctness with "Uncle Dave's Grace," celebrate a girls' night out (on brooms) at Halloween with "Away Ye Merry Lasses," and mark winter solstice with Mangsen's new-yet-ancient-sounding "Solstice Round." For Christmas and Epiphany, they offer two very different, very gentle meditations on the holidays' meanings with Beth Nielsen Chapman's homecoming song, "Years," and a Southwestern vision of the wise men, "Corn, Water, and Wood." Hills' lovely new song "At the Turning of the Year" marks endings and beginnings, and there are also songs about Candlemas and Mayday, a scary murder ballad about a snow-filled night, and a lively round of flu advice set to music. All this is held together by the trio's gorgeous harmonies and tasteful knowledge of when to be humorous, serious, reverent, or just plain crazy. It's much like spending an evening near the holidays with three very talented musician friends — and given the range of songs, it's appropriate for play through the winter months as well as at Christmas.
— Kerry Dexter (Tallahassee, FL)
Trifolkal
Songs of the Season
Kira (2000)
The trio Trifolkal (Laura Pole, Greg Trafidio, and Neal Phillips) has put together a relaxed collection of 10 seasonal tunes, ranging over traditional selections such as "The Cherry Tree Carol" and "Bring a Torch, Jeannette, Isabella," contemporary tunes (the title track, by Steve Gillette and Rex Benson), and several originals, including a modern-day tongue-in-cheek holiday lament called "20th Century Christmas" and a more meditative "Midwinter's Night."
The harmonies are tasteful and the arrangements well chosen — it's a pleasant holiday outing for listening by the fireside.
— Kerry Dexter (Tallahassee, FL)
Nancy Wilson
A Nancy Wilson Christmas
Manchester Craftsmen's Guild MCGJ1008 (2001)
If you think Nancy Wilson is the blonde member of Heart, you're probably too young for this collection of standards. It's your loss. The opening track, "Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow!" featuring the Dizzy Gillespie Alumni All Star Big Band, is a tinsel-bedecked extravaganza, and while some of the other tracks are a little too reminiscent of one of those Andy Williams TV specials with the designer sweaters, Wilson's sexy yet motherly alto is strong throughout. Her jazzy takes on traditional favorites "All Through the Night" and "Carol of the Bells" will either annoy or delight; I'm in the delighted camp. Proceeds from this album aid the Pittsburgh-based Manchester Craftsmen's Guild with its programs to bring arts to a diverse urban community.
— Pamela Murray Winters (Arlington, VA)
Fred Koch
Tis the Season: Holiday Songs for the Child in All of Us
Melody House MH-D 46 (1994; ri 2001)
A Santa-Christmas-Hanukkah party album can make or break the December holidays. Dull and plodding "Hark the Herald Angels Sing" standards sweetened with heavenly choirs leave me snowy cold, while over-the-top Devo-like "Away In the Manger" free jazz improvisations make me dizzy and dehydrated. Fred Koch, who writes for Parents magazine, is a clever arranger and singer who knows how to tackle a festive tune or two so that it bounces like sugar plums. These traditional Christmas songs are given new life and a halo as Koch mixes in some Tex-Mex ("Feliz Navidad"), swing jazz ("Here Comes Santa Claus"), Dixieland ("Up On the Housetop"), and klezmer ("Hanukkah Medley"). The cutesy kids' chorus in the background never gets out of hand, and Koch's Santa impersonations sound like the real McCoy. If you need to pick one album that can gather three generations 'round the fireplace to throw chestnuts onto the burning coals, this may be the pick of the reindeer litter.
— T.J. McGrath (Woodbridge, CT)
Various artists
Sing Christmas and the
Turn of the Year
Rounder 11661-1850 (2000, orig. rec. 1957)
Stuffed as full of musical treats as a fruitcake is stuffed full of those green things, this recording of a live BBC broadcast of 1957 is likewise full of spirits. The original broadcast was a technological feat: multiple hookups across the British Isles allowed listeners to hear "the seven sides of Britain linked by radio." Narration by Alan Lomax and others ties together all-too-short samples of mummers' dances, Welsh choirs, brass bands, skiffle groups, and the sublime voice of Shirley Collins. Cyril Tawney, then a petty officer of the HMS Murray, made his first visit to a recording studio to deliver a rapt reading of "I Wonder as I Wander." This recording of holiday wonders belongs under the tree of every Anglophile and trad-music lover.
— Pamela Murray Winters (Arlington, VA)
Smithfield Fair
The Winter Kirk
Stevenson SP122890 (2001)
Featuring husband, wife, and nephew with various and sundry relatives as guests, the Smith family's religious tribute to the Christmas holiday is an engaging one for Christian or non-Christian alike. Though based mostly on songs of Scottish (and some Welsh) tradition, there is a great amount of diversity within that, from "What Shall I Give Him," a lyric by Jan Smith based on a Christina Rossetti poem and set to the tune of the traditional "Ash Grove," to the one secular song, "Deck the Halls," which they play and sing with as much enthusiasm as the religious material. Three familiar tunes end the CD: a lovely version of "What Child is This" linked with "The Lord's Prayer," spoken with great diction and engaging Scots brogue by Tom Murray Sr., a version of Night" sung by their 12-year old daughter, and the perhaps inevitable but no less perfect finale, a bagpipe version of "Amazing Grace." Traditional tunes abound, but the original songs sit comfortably side by side with them in a style influenced by traditional hymns rather than modern gospel or Christian rock, and even the traditional songs are often arranged in a fresh way or set to new tunes or lyrics. The playing, particularly Dudley-Brian Smith's mandolin playing, is wonderful, and the harmonies are exquisite, particularly on the traditional Scottish folk song "The Apple Tree."
— Dave Soyars (Sherman Oaks, CA)
Joan Baez
Noel
Vanguard 79596-2 (2001, ri 1966)
The most welcome re-release of the season may be Joan Baez's 1966 Christmas album, featuring Baez, at the height of her vocal powers, backed by a consort of recorders and viols, lute, harpsichord, Baroque organ, winds, strings, and percussion, arranged and conducted by Peter Schickele. Schickele had gained recognition as the presenter of the music of the "highly figmental composer" P.D.Q. Bach, but the professional ear of Vanguard co-founder Maynard Solomon recognized the musical skill behind the humor. Solomon enlisted Schickele to create a sound "reminiscent of the musical periods in which the various carols were written." The result was an instant classic, and this re-release, digitized from the original analog tapes, includes six tracks omitted from the original release for space reasons. An eerie rendition of "I Wonder as I Wander," with Baez crooning wordlessly in a modal harmony with a backing horn, is one of the album's many sublime moments. With new liner notes by Schickele joining Baez's original liner-note poem on peace and brotherhood, this album bridges the decades — and ultimately the centuries — with surpassing grace.
— Pamela Murray Winters (Arlington, VA)
John Harbison
Six String Christmas Solo Acoustic Guitar
Adelphi GCD 1038 (2000)
Various artists
Hawaiian Slack Key Christmas
Dancing Cat 08022-38044-2 (2001)
Although playing Christmas carols instrumentally on the acoustic guitar is hardly a new concept, these two discs both take this musical conceit in new and entertaining directions. John Harbison's solo fingerstyle romps through 15 standards (with two Christmas originals thrown in for good measure) takes some unexpected, but mostly pleasing, liberties with these familiar melodies, throwing in an ascending series of arpeggiated notes before resolving into "Frosty the Snowman" or the almost zither-like tone produced on "We Wish You a Merry Christmas." All in all, this is a fine recording to promote peace and serenity around the old Christmas tree.
Although Hawaii has long been a prime vacation spot for the Christmas holidays, there is a striking contrast between the holiday's wintry overtones and the sunny, laid-back rhythms of the Islands, or similarly, the languidly beautiful spell cast by the masters of Hawaiian slack key guitar. This lovely Dancing Cat anthology handily bridges the gap between sun and snow with a collection of a dozen Christmas favorites (plus a couple of holiday originals) done up Hawaiian style. Keola Beamer's slippery run through "Away in a Manger" is particularly pleasurable, as is the 30s cartoon music ambience of Led Kaapana's and Bob Brozman's "Jingle Bells." Dennis Kamakahi's wry "My Hawaiian Christmas" deals lyrically with the ambiguities of Christmas in the Islands. The lush overtones and mellow tempos of these and the other slack key masters included here should serve nicely to take the chill off of a white Christmas, yet would be equally perfect for New Year's on the beach.
— Michael Parrish (Downers Grove, IL)
Various artists
A Holiday Feast, Vol. 5
Hungry for Music HFM 0013 (2000)
Washington, D.C.'s Hungry for Music released its fifth compilation of mostly local artists' holiday music in late 2000. This one continues the high standards of its predecessors and might be the most eclectic yet: The lively, calypso-flavored opener "Christmas is Everyday" by Gumbo Junkyard is followed rather abruptly by Eva Cassidy's ethereal-blues love song, "It's Not the Presents," suggesting the unusual mix to come. The Velveteens' "Get Your Channakuh On" is a bracing klezmer/Jamaican-rap break from all the sleigh bells offered on so many holiday collections. Darryl Purpose, one of the out-of-towners, offers a moving lost-soul take on "You Must Go Home for Christmas"; Steve Key is similarly downtrodden but hopeful on "Christmas Hideaway." On the Hula Monsters' sprightly, string-driven "Sleigh Ride," Dave Giegerich and Dave Chappell swap some sparkly licks. Much of the collection offers variations on the witty roots-rock sound that D.C. artists do so well, including the Grandsons' "The First Mo*el" (about a hot-sheet hideaway with dysfunctional neon). By the time you read this, Vol. 6 will undoubtedly be out, but don't overlook Vol. 5 — not a lump of coal in the whole stocking.
— Pamela Murray Winters (Arlington, VA)
