Is anyone else here familiar with the 'Padre Choristers?'

Franciscan seminarians at St. Anthony's Seminary at Mission Santa
Barbara (California) in the late 50's/early 60's.

They put out two albums, 'Songs of the California Missions'
and 'Christmas at Mission Santa Barbara.' The former was
narrated by Bing Crosby, and I think only available as a set
of 45's. The latter was available on '45 or as an EP. Both RCA.

All in Spanish.

They were directed by Fr. Owen da Silva, who also did the
arrangements.

Two of my cousins, John and Jim Cosgrove, were members of the
group; Jim was the tenor soloist. A sweet, high Irish tenor whose
voice I've always envied. He went on to be ordained 'Fr. Ernan.'
Both have passed away.

Since a family member (a priest!) was in the group, I literally
grew up with this music. It was our favorite family Christmas
music, on both sides of the family.

As a 'labor of love' I used Audacity to
clean up a noisy copy of the Christmas album, putting the EP on
the first track with no need to flip the record. Then I cut out
the kind of cheesy organ and narration and did separate tracks
for just the musical 'meat.'

Naturally, when I finished this, the Mission gift shop put both
recordings up for sale on a single CD for $9.95. Available on-line.

Good stuff!