CHRISTMAS ON THE MOUNTAIN, by Sheila Kay Adams & Jim Taylor

Copyright 1998 by PearlMae/Granny Dell Records 006-2, and available from:

Sheila Kay Adams,
PO Box 1401,
Mars Hill, NC 28754

Also check Jim and Sheila's website at here.

Cost: $16 each (includes postage).

Tracks:

1. Deck the Halls/Hark! The Herald Angels Sing (instr.)
2. Frosty Morn (instr.)
3. Sherburne (shape-note singers)
4. Joy to the World (instr.)
5. Silent Night (instr.)
6. Away in a Manger (Sheila – unaccompanied vocal)
7. Old Christmas/Good King Wenceslas (instr.)
8. God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen (instr.)
9. A Mountain Home Christmas (written by Jim Taylor, instr.)
10. Star In The East (shape-note singers)
11. The Cherry Tree Carol (Sheila – unaccompanied vocal)
12. Breaking Up Christmas (instr., with some vocal by Sheila)
13. Christmas 1982 (written and sung by Jim Taylor)
14. A Christmas Miracle (a story by Sheila)

As a person who began collecting Christmas albums nearly fifty years ago with Harry Belafonte's classic RCA Victor album "To Wish You A Merry Christmas", I want to highly recommend this 1998 album by Sheila Kay Adams and her husband, Jim Taylor. I have loved and treasured the Christmas "folk" music by Odetta, Mike & Peggy Seeger, Pete Seeger, the Clancy Bros., Jean Redpath & the Angel Band, Jean Ritchie, and many others for years. This morning I heard "Christmas on the Mountain" for the first time. I can only say that I am sorry that it has taken me four years to discover this cd. As one who has become somewhat hard-hearted about this whole season, I was really moved by this music. Jim and Sheila's album now tops my list of favorites. Since I could find no references to this album anywhere on Mudcat, I decided to offer this review.

This album is a mix of very traditional music with two contemporary pieces written by Jim Taylor, one intrumental – "A Mountain Home Christmas" – and the other a vocal – "Christmas 1982". One could only wish that there were more vocals by Jim! There are two traditional shape-note hymns, "Sherburne" and "Star in the East" ("Brightest and Best") that are very well done. Sheila's two unaccompanied songs, "Away In A Manger" and "The Cherry Tree Carol" are worth the price of the cd! Her concluding story, "A Christmas Miracle" is pure and priceless Sheila, for anyone who has ever seen and heard her in person, and enough to restore even the most hard-hearted to some sense of the beauty and magic of Christmas.

The balance of Sheila's banjo, played in the Dwight Diller style, and Jim's hammered dulcimer is what one could only wish for on so many of the hundreds of hammered dulcimer albums that have now glutted the market. As one who has grown weary of hammered dulcimer "Celtic" music, this was like a trip to an uncontaminated mountain spring. The addition of the mountain fiddle, played by Donna Cavanaugh, and the mountain dulcimer, played by Don Pedi, places the instrumentals squarely in the mountain music tradition. They move right along with a sense of the seasonal spirit tempered by the style of fine old time music. Joe Holbert's very sensitive guitar work adds a whole other kind of feeling to a number of pieces, and especially Jim's song, "Christmas 1982". On all of the tracks, the instruments are well blended and never overpower one another. The engineering by Van Atkins at Horizon Music, out of Arden, NC is superb.

For those who already know Jim's and Sheila's works, this cd will be a fine seasonal addition to your collection. For those who have yet to discover either or both of these North Carolina musicians, you are in for a grand time of it! For those who collect and are always on the lookout for another great Christmas album and who haven't come across this one, it will restore your desire for good traditional Christmas music. Treat yourselves and rediscover a rare sense of what the holiday season might be all about.

T.O.M.