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What's your favorite Christmas album/CD? Why?

mousethief 21 Nov 00 - 10:39 AM
SINSULL 21 Nov 00 - 10:44 AM
GUEST,Matt_R 21 Nov 00 - 10:48 AM
GUEST,Roger the skiffler 21 Nov 00 - 10:53 AM
DougR 21 Nov 00 - 11:10 AM
Kim C 21 Nov 00 - 11:19 AM
Dave the Gnome 21 Nov 00 - 11:24 AM
Peg 21 Nov 00 - 11:24 AM
Peg 21 Nov 00 - 11:27 AM
KitKat 21 Nov 00 - 11:37 AM
Steve Latimer 21 Nov 00 - 11:40 AM
Wesley S 21 Nov 00 - 11:42 AM
GUEST,Russ 21 Nov 00 - 11:49 AM
Whistle Stop 21 Nov 00 - 11:51 AM
Peter T. 21 Nov 00 - 12:01 PM
Thyme2dream 21 Nov 00 - 12:17 PM
Kim C 21 Nov 00 - 01:18 PM
Matt Woodbury/Mimosa 21 Nov 00 - 01:20 PM
DougR 21 Nov 00 - 01:29 PM
black walnut 21 Nov 00 - 01:36 PM
Jim Krause 21 Nov 00 - 01:41 PM
harpmolly 21 Nov 00 - 02:00 PM
JenEllen 21 Nov 00 - 02:07 PM
Greyeyes 21 Nov 00 - 02:22 PM
Matt_R 21 Nov 00 - 02:44 PM
DougR 21 Nov 00 - 03:10 PM
GUEST,Pixie 21 Nov 00 - 05:32 PM
RWilhelm 21 Nov 00 - 06:01 PM
Mountain Dog 21 Nov 00 - 06:57 PM
Musicman 21 Nov 00 - 07:12 PM
Musicman 21 Nov 00 - 07:17 PM
Musicman 21 Nov 00 - 07:19 PM
Tattie Bogle 21 Nov 00 - 07:55 PM
Thyme2dream 22 Nov 00 - 12:58 AM
Lyrical Lady 22 Nov 00 - 01:17 AM
Lyrical Lady 22 Nov 00 - 01:28 AM
jaze 22 Nov 00 - 01:30 AM
Barry T 22 Nov 00 - 02:16 AM
bob jr 22 Nov 00 - 02:43 AM
Steve Latimer 22 Nov 00 - 10:29 AM
mousethief 22 Nov 00 - 11:22 AM
Jo King 22 Nov 00 - 10:33 PM
GUEST,jayohjo 23 Nov 00 - 09:30 AM
black walnut 23 Nov 00 - 10:18 AM
mousethief 23 Nov 00 - 02:22 PM
wildlone 23 Nov 00 - 03:02 PM
Sandy Paton 23 Nov 00 - 11:07 PM
Nathan in Texas 23 Nov 00 - 11:20 PM
Nathan in Texas 23 Nov 00 - 11:21 PM
raredance 24 Nov 00 - 10:10 AM
John P 24 Nov 00 - 10:56 AM
Airto 24 Nov 00 - 11:41 AM
greenfields 24 Nov 00 - 11:03 PM
John Hardly 25 Nov 00 - 07:54 AM
Hollowfox 25 Nov 00 - 11:55 AM
Matt_R 25 Nov 00 - 04:29 PM
black walnut 25 Nov 00 - 05:36 PM
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Subject: What's your favorite Xmas album/CD? Why?
From: mousethief
Date: 21 Nov 00 - 10:39 AM

I think my favorite is George Winston's December. His lone piano just sounds like snow falling on a winter's day, and his selection of popular and obscure tunes is perfect. But "A Charlie Brown Christmas" is a close 2nd!

Alex
O..O
=o=


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Subject: RE: BS: What's your favorite Xmas album/CD? Why?
From: SINSULL
Date: 21 Nov 00 - 10:44 AM

John Denver and the Muppets. Animal shouts "Won't Go!!" and it makes me laugh every time.


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Subject: RE: BS: What's your favorite Xmas album/CD? Why?
From: GUEST,Matt_R
Date: 21 Nov 00 - 10:48 AM

Ya know, Alex, I saw the thread title, and I said "Oh, December by George Winston, hands down." Ha ha! Also, we got the Chuck Christmas CD by Vince Guaraldi just last year, and I love it. Another favorite on mine is really not that special in the way of artists, but it's special to me. It was bought during Christmas of 1978, my very first Christmas. I was only 20 days old at the time! It has my favorite Christmas song EVER on it, "Christmas Is". Of course the Kenny G album Miracles is popular in our house as well, and gets played at least 2 or 3 times a day for the whole season.

--Matt


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Subject: RE: BS: What's your favorite Xmas album/CD? Why?
From: GUEST,Roger the skiffler
Date: 21 Nov 00 - 10:53 AM

I avoid the "made for Xmas" stuff like the plague but one tradition we stick to is to play the LP (that's vinyl for you youngsters) of the 9 lessons & carols from King's College Cambridge chapel while we drink a glass of something bubbly and open our presents after lunch (herself, my old dad & moi).
I hope I'll have something new to listen to after that!
RtS


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Subject: RE: BS: What's your favorite Xmas album/CD? Why?
From: DougR
Date: 21 Nov 00 - 11:10 AM

"Songs of Christmas," Robert Shaw Chorale.

DougR


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Subject: RE: BS: What's your favorite Xmas album/CD? Why?
From: Kim C
Date: 21 Nov 00 - 11:19 AM

I cannot say that I have ever been a big Joan Baez fan, take her or leave her.... but her Noel album is just about my favorite. I just love her singing on it.

Also I like a bluegrass collection called Sugar Plums. I think there is now a Sugar Plums II, which I will have to get.

And, of course, Christmas from Harmony Ranch by Riders in the Sky!


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Subject: RE: BS: What's your favorite Xmas album/CD? Why?
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 21 Nov 00 - 11:24 AM

Anne Sofie von Otter - Home for Christmas

Swedish opera singer but the CD contains bits of allsorts - Jazz, Folk, Classical. So good I listen to it all year round!

Highly recommended for those of gnomish tastes;-)

Dave the Gnome


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Subject: RE: BS: What's your favorite Xmas album/CD? Why?
From: Peg
Date: 21 Nov 00 - 11:24 AM

Love the Guaraldi trio album! It ain't Christmas without it...

I also have "On Yoolis Night" by Anonymous Four, and it has some wonderfully haunting medieval stuff on it...also a tape I got in the UK years ago called "The Service of Venus and Mars" by Gothic Voices has some great medieeval Yule songs...

But I gotta admit, there is still a soft spot in my heart for a battered old 8-track (!!!) my parents had--A Dean Martin Christmas.

(ooh, I am gonna get it for that one!)

If making a holiday compilation tape I would include some of these more obscure items:

A Christmas Song, Jack Frost and the Hooded Crow, and Ring Out, Solstice Bells, and God rest Ye Merry Gentlemen, all by Jethro Tull
Come, O Come Emmanuel
O Magnum Mysterium by Palestrina
O Virgo (recorded by Libana)
Oaken Logs (lyrics by Circle in the Greenwood)
Yule Carol?? (by Darragh Nagle)
Gaudete by Steeleye Span
Red and Green by Maddy Prior

peg


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Subject: RE: BS: What's your favorite Xmas album/CD? Why?
From: Peg
Date: 21 Nov 00 - 11:27 AM

oops! Forgot to include The Boar's Head Carol; can anyone recommend a good recording? maybe including some other old-fashioned favorites like The Holly and the Ivy; Here We Come a Wassailing; Wassail, Wasssail All Over the Town, etc.?

I am having a Yule party December 16th and now I have a bee in my bonnet to go make this tape...


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Subject: RE: BS: What's your favorite Xmas album/CD? Why?
From: KitKat
Date: 21 Nov 00 - 11:37 AM

It has to be 'Winter With Mandolins' by Simon Mayor. It is a wonderful collection of traditional carols and tunes played with real soul. If you haven't heard it, you must give it a try.


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Subject: RE: BS: What's your favorite Xmas album/CD? Why?
From: Steve Latimer
Date: 21 Nov 00 - 11:40 AM

Pretty Paper. Why? Cuz it's Willie.

Least favourite? Elvis's Christmas album. When I was in my early twenties a friend of mine was an Elvis fanatic, everyone in our circle of friends had a Christmas party and he would bring and play that everywhere. Drove me nuts by the time Christmas finally arrived.

I've always had a soft spot for Bing Crosby & David Bowies duet of Little Drummer Boy.


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Subject: RE: BS: What's your favorite Xmas album/CD? Why?
From: Wesley S
Date: 21 Nov 00 - 11:42 AM

Easily my favorite is The Waverly Consorts "Renaissance Christmas". After that comes the Chieftains "Bells of Dublin" , Doug Smiths solo acoustic guitar CD, Ed Gearharts solo guitar CD's and Butch Baldassari's mandolin CD's


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Subject: RE: BS: What's your favorite Xmas album/CD? Why?
From: GUEST,Russ
Date: 21 Nov 00 - 11:49 AM

Jean Ritchie's Kentucky Christmas -- Old and New (Greenhays 717)- simple, beautiful, perfect, and it takes me home

Handel's Messiah (Eugene Ormandy, Philadelphia Orchestra, Mormon Tabernacle Choir) - I've been listening to this since it was first released. Never found a version I liked better. Still have it on vinyl.


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Subject: RE: BS: What's your favorite Xmas album/CD? Why?
From: Whistle Stop
Date: 21 Nov 00 - 11:51 AM

"Christmas" by Ed Gerhardt -- great fingerstyle guitar arrangements of Christmas tunes

"A Scottish Christmas" by Maggie Sansone with Bonnie Rideout and Al Petteway -- acoustic versions of Christmas carols on hammer dulcimer, fiddle and guitar.

Why? They set a nice warm, cozy mood for sitting by the fire. They stand up to close scrutiny, but work well as background music for other holiday activities. And the playing is perfect for guitar wonks like me.


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Subject: RE: BS: What's your favorite Xmas album/CD? Why?
From: Peter T.
Date: 21 Nov 00 - 12:01 PM

Any album that people start playing on Christmas Eve and not before. yours, Peter T.


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Subject: RE: BS: What's your favorite Xmas album/CD? Why?
From: Thyme2dream
Date: 21 Nov 00 - 12:17 PM

I love Kathy Mattea's Christmas album, 'Good News' with "Mary did you know" and the lovely round "Emmanuel"...the round is fun to teach to everyone at Christmas and sing together before dinner!


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Subject: RE: BS: What's your favorite Xmas album/CD? Why?
From: Kim C
Date: 21 Nov 00 - 01:18 PM

Steve Latimer, surely you agree that the background singers on White Christmas are JAMMIN! So sappy they're great. And the brunt of many a Christmas joke at my house. :)


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Subject: RE: BS: What's your favorite Xmas album/CD? Why?
From: Matt Woodbury/Mimosa
Date: 21 Nov 00 - 01:20 PM

Mae West:
"Mae in December"
delicious camp.

Mimosa


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Subject: RE: BS: What's your favorite Xmas album/CD? Why?
From: DougR
Date: 21 Nov 00 - 01:29 PM

Peg: Check out the thread on Boar's Head Carol for some suggested recordings.

I didn't satisfy Alex's original question in my earlier posting. I like that CD (or just about any Robert Shaw Chorale recording) because I first heard it in about 1949 when it was released on a 78 RPM album. When LP records came out, RCA re-issued it on LP. Now it's on CD. My kids were raised on those carols and that album in particular, and Christmas just wouldn't seem the same without hearing it. (They also loved the Mitch Miller Sing Along LP also)

DougR


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Subject: RE: BS: What's your favorite Xmas album/CD? Why?
From: black walnut
Date: 21 Nov 00 - 01:36 PM

'Wintertide'.....guitar renditions of traditional carols, performed by Don Ross. Don is one of the best guitar players on the planet (and I'm proud to say he's Canadian). I should clarify....Don actually plays 6 and 7-string guitars, dobro, mandolin, keyboards and crickets on this album. A few other people add harp (his wife, Kelly), percussion, upright bass, digeridoo, and the like. This is one of the few CD's in my collection that I never tire of hearing over and over and over again at this time of the year. Silent Night, and In the Bleak Midwinter, on dobro....well, there's nothing like it.

~'nut


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Subject: RE: BS: What's your favorite Xmas album/CD? Why?
From: Jim Krause
Date: 21 Nov 00 - 01:41 PM

Wesley S: I am also a big fan of the Waverly Consort's A Renaissance Christmas. My copy is so old, it's on vinyl, and sounds like an old 78. I gotta get a new copy of it on CD. I also play a rather much worn copy of Handel's Messiah.
Soddy


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Subject: RE: BS: What's your favorite Xmas album/CD? Why?
From: harpmolly
Date: 21 Nov 00 - 02:00 PM

OK, don't laugh...

Kathleen Battle's Christmas concert with the Harlem Boys' Choir is actually really beautiful.

I also saw a "Celtic Christmas" special on OPB(?) once that I've been trying to find ever since. I just remember randomly switching channels and coming upon a group singing the Christ Child's Lullabye, which is my very favorite Christmas song (I've been addicted to it since I heard Anuna sing "Suantrai" with Gaelic lyrics on their first album).

I also like Loreena McKennitt's "A Winter Garden."

Moll


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Subject: RE: BS: What's your favorite Xmas album/CD? Why?
From: JenEllen
Date: 21 Nov 00 - 02:07 PM

Have mercy, Sins..you can come to dinner and you can bring the music too!! The Muppets one ranks pretty high for 'music to decorate by'. I love MsPiggy's "Oh I knew that..." Same goes for Christmas at Harmony Ranch. The song about the Christmas goose. Another great one is Elvis' "Santa Claus is Back in Town". Damn...

A personal fave at our place is off Harry Connick Jr's first Christmas album..."Must've been old SantaClaus" Happy hohoho to YOU

But the best is saved for Christmas Eve, when we snuggle in and listen to JeremyBrown and JeanieTeale.

~Elle


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Subject: RE: BS: What's your favorite Xmas album/CD? Why?
From: Greyeyes
Date: 21 Nov 00 - 02:22 PM

A collection of carols by the choir of Kings College Cambridge, including a recording of Adam Lay Y-Bounden that makes all the hairs stand up down the back of my neck every time I hear it.


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Subject: RE: BS: What's your favorite Xmas album/CD? Why?
From: Matt_R
Date: 21 Nov 00 - 02:44 PM

Oops, forgot The Cheiftains' Christmas album, The Bells of Dublin. It has my favorite version of The Boar's Head Carol on it.


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Subject: RE: BS: What's your favorite Xmas album/CD? Why?
From: DougR
Date: 21 Nov 00 - 03:10 PM

Oooooo! Matt, that Chieftains album sounds great! Got to get one of those!

DougR


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Subject: RE: BS: What's your favorite Xmas album/CD? Why?
From: GUEST,Pixie
Date: 21 Nov 00 - 05:32 PM

It ain't Christmas in our house til Emmylou Harris' "Light of the Stable" is put on the turntable.....yes, you read right.....I can't find it on cd and it is such an incredible recording. Forgive me this but the Judds Christmas album (also vinyl) is a fave, and Harry Belafonte's Christmas album is getting worn out from too much air time....

I'm warming up to Jewel's Christmas cd from last year.....


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Subject: RE: BS: What's your favorite Xmas album/CD? Why?
From: RWilhelm
Date: 21 Nov 00 - 06:01 PM

"The Holly Bears the Crown" by the Young Tradition which includes "The Boar's Head Carol."

"The Best of Nowell Sing We Clear" - Roberts, Berrand, Breunig & Woodruff

"Christmas Island" - Leon Redbone, with the great "Christmas Ball" which is also on the new Geoff Muldaur CD, "Password"


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Subject: RE: BS: What's your favorite Xmas album/CD? Why?
From: Mountain Dog
Date: 21 Nov 00 - 06:57 PM

For me, it's a close tie between Winter Solstice by John McCutcheon, which includes the haunting "Christmas in the Trenches", and "The New Possibility: Christmas Soli" by John Fahey. I have the first on tape and the second on vinyl, but each is worth tracking down in any form you might find them in.


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Subject: RE: BS: What's your favorite Xmas album/CD? Why?
From: Musicman
Date: 21 Nov 00 - 07:12 PM

for me..... kings college cambridge, david willcocks conductor, an album they did 'years' ago ( i have both vinyl and cd), Awesome choir, beautiful arrangements.... followed by Cheiftan's Bells of Dublin... we did the 'Past Three O'clock' with our children's choir years ago...... and my brother in laws album Acoustic Christmas, an incredible collection of carol arrangements (available at A&B sound in Canada or from me)

(sorry, couldn't help the plug, but it is a great CD!)


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Subject: RE: BS: What's your favorite Xmas album/CD? Why?
From: Musicman
Date: 21 Nov 00 - 07:17 PM

get it right will ya!!!!

here


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Subject: RE: BS: What's your favorite Xmas album/CD? Why?
From: Musicman
Date: 21 Nov 00 - 07:19 PM

once more

here


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Subject: RE: BS: What's your favorite Xmas album/CD? Why?
From: Tattie Bogle
Date: 21 Nov 00 - 07:55 PM

Praetorius Mass, especially the "In Dulce Jubilo" bit with all that brass echoing round some Cathedral: hair-stand- -on-end stuff to be sure!


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Subject: RE: BS: What's your favorite Xmas album/CD? Why?
From: Thyme2dream
Date: 22 Nov 00 - 12:58 AM

OH...How could I forget?? TRANS-SIBERIAN ORCHESTRA! 'Christmas Eve and Other Stories' is an amazing CD...I especially love 'Mad Russian's Christmas' and 'Christmas Eve Sarajevo 12-24', but the whole thing is delightful...it's really for a "wildthyme" Christmas I guess.


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Subject: RE: BS: What's your favorite Xmas album/CD? Why?
From: Lyrical Lady
Date: 22 Nov 00 - 01:17 AM

My favorite is 'Northern Variations ... In The Moon of Winter' ... 10 voices a cappella..recorded in Victoria BC, by Simon Norton, and Pavarotti's 'O Holy Night'. Can't wait 'til Dec 1 ... that's when they get to come out to play again! ...LL


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Subject: RE: BS: What's your favorite Xmas album/CD? Why?
From: Lyrical Lady
Date: 22 Nov 00 - 01:28 AM

Ooops...forgot to say 'Why' ... well, I suppose because the singing is so pure, the harmonies are brilliant and the arrangements awaken your ear anew to beautiful old carols. As for Luciano, he sings my all time favorite Christmas song, 'O Holy Night' the way I wish everyone would. ...LL


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Subject: RE: BS: What's your favorite Xmas album/CD? Why?
From: jaze
Date: 22 Nov 00 - 01:30 AM

Emmylou Harris---Light of The Stable John Fahey--The New Possibility Judy Collins--Come Rejoice--(best version of Silent Night I've ever heard) Kenny G--Miracles Joan Baez--Noel Supremes!--Merry Christmas


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Subject: RE: BS: What's your favorite Xmas album/CD? Why?
From: Barry T
Date: 22 Nov 00 - 02:16 AM

Merry Christmas, one of the two Christmas albums by the New Christy Minstrels, is my personal favourite. The style and choice of songs are a refreshing contrast with the offerings normally found on the shelves these days. The big folk sound has always impressed me (especially having seen them perform live), and I just love their arrangements and harmony.

I confess to playing the album at other times of the year!


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Subject: RE: BS: What's your favorite Xmas album/CD? Why?
From: bob jr
Date: 22 Nov 00 - 02:43 AM

second vote for vince guaraldi trio charlie browns christmas captures the right balance of sentimental and sad,cant listen to it in the wrong state of mind....also like phil spectors christmas album cause its so silly


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Subject: RE: BS: What's your favorite Xmas album/CD? Why?
From: Steve Latimer
Date: 22 Nov 00 - 10:29 AM

Amen Peter T. I hate being bombarded with Christmas stuff weeks, even months before the actual day.


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Subject: RE: BS: What's your favorite Xmas album/CD? Why?
From: mousethief
Date: 22 Nov 00 - 11:22 AM

You party-poopers go off and form your own thread, okay? Maybe you can call it "Bah! Humbug!" and get people to write about how much they hate all this Christmas nonsense. Be sure to remember the "BS".

Thanks everybody who remembered to say WHY you like a particular album/CD. That helps me (and presumably others like me) when deciding on new stuff to buy for the ol' Christmas Album Collection.

I think this year I will pick up the Chieftains, if that's available on CD (I assume it is). I don't think I've ever heard the Boar's Head Carol.

Alex
O..O
=o=


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Subject: RE: BS: What's your favorite Xmas album/CD? Why?
From: Jo King
Date: 22 Nov 00 - 10:33 PM

Ho, ho, ho

My favourite would be a toss up amoung these 3

Vince Guaraldi Trio - A Charlie Brown Christmas. Because it makes me spontaneously break into the "Peanut gang dance/twitch/shrug"

Don Ross - Wintertide (Guitar Music For Christmas) . Because his ability and artistry blow me away.

Bruce Cockburn - Christmas. Because of his ability, a great selection of tunes, and his refreshing/genuine approach to them.

Listening to all three of these just make me feel good.

Be well. JK


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Subject: RE: BS: What's your favorite Xmas album/CD? Why?
From: GUEST,jayohjo
Date: 23 Nov 00 - 09:30 AM

At last someone else mentioned phil spector's! Love it, just soooooo much fun.

XX


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Subject: RE: BS: What's your favorite Xmas album/CD? Why?
From: black walnut
Date: 23 Nov 00 - 10:18 AM

Jo King....

If I'd have picked THREE favourites, instead of only one (you'll see that I chose Wintertide), it would have been the same as your three!!!

And for all the same reasons....

~black walnut


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Subject: RE: BS: What's your favorite Xmas album/CD? Why?
From: mousethief
Date: 23 Nov 00 - 02:22 PM

Except that weird song on Cockburn's Christmas about blood and stuff. What's THAT about? But the rest of the album is very good.

Alex


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Subject: RE: BS: What's your favorite Xmas album/CD? Why?
From: wildlone
Date: 23 Nov 00 - 03:02 PM

Christmas Night,carols of the nativity
The Cambridge Singers The City of London Sinfonia
conducted by John Rutter
COLCD106
any of the Maddy Prior and the Carnival Band cds


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Subject: RE: BS: What's your favorite Xmas album/CD? Why?
From: Sandy Paton
Date: 23 Nov 00 - 11:07 PM

John Roberts and Tony Barrand have just released a new Christmas CD titled Just Say Nowell. It's available through Folk-Legacy. See the links page, or call us at 800-836-0901. A commission goes to Mudcat.


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Subject: RE: BS: What's your favorite Xmas album/CD? Why?
From: Nathan in Texas
Date: 23 Nov 00 - 11:20 PM

"'Twas on a Night Like This (A Christmas Legacy)" by Cathy Baton and Dave Para on Folk-Legacy. Why? The musicianship is great but comfortable: hammered & mountain dulcimers, autoharp, guitar, banjo, fiddle, and concertina. The vocals are smooth and interesting. The song selection is great: none of the "Top 40" Christmas tunes that we've heard so many times we're bored with, but also, nothing chosen just because it's obscure. Nothing raucus, forced, cloying, or annoying: How many albums can you say that about. Besides Dave and Cathy, contributing musicians include:Caroline Paton, Sandy Paton, Ed Trickett, Skip Gorman, Dave Paton, Robin Paton, and Gordon Bok.


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Subject: RE: BS: What's your favorite Xmas album/CD? Why?
From: Nathan in Texas
Date: 23 Nov 00 - 11:21 PM

That's Cathy Barton, of course. (Can you fix that for me?)


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Subject: RE: BS: What's your favorite Xmas album/CD? Why?
From: raredance
Date: 24 Nov 00 - 10:10 AM

I have too many favorites and some have already been mentioned. Here's some others.

"On Christmas Eve" by Benjamin Luxon & Bill Crofut. Contains my favorite version of "the Sussex Carol". Luxon & Crofut specialize in blending different carols or different versions of the same carol (e.g. English & American tunes for "O Little Town of Bethlehem" and "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen/ O Come Emanuel" sung simultaneously).

"The Christmas Revels Wassail! Wassail!" by John Langstaff et al. contains a diversity of of American music with chorus, solos, children, bands. There are actually 4 Revels Christmas recordings. One of the others a Solstice collection contains the "Boars'Head Carol" sought above and the infrequently recorded "There Was A Pig Went Out To Dig".

In the category of recordings that turned out to be better than I expected is "Christmas Time with Ralph Stanley" (1993 Freeland Recording Co., Asbury , WV, FRC-CD-639). It includes Stanley's version of "Beautiful Star of Chirstmas" and "Christmas Time's A Comin'" both bluegrass Christmas standards. Also some Stanley originals and some other songs you won't find anywhere else.

When the day is over and you're done trimming the tree or opening presnets or whatever and you just want to sit down with some nog, turn out the regular lights and stare at the tree, a great mellow album is Neal & Leandra's "Listen to The Angels". The do a mixture of their own compositions and others. The title song by Neal is lovely. They have some Chritmas lyrics to "The Water is Wide" tune. They have a lullaby take on "Bring A Torch Jeanette, Isabella". And Neal does a rather mesmerizing version of an 1860's hymn by Katherine Hankey, "Tell Me The Old Old Story".

For the person above, the Emmylou Harris "Light In The Stable" album was reissued by Warner Brothers on remastered CD in the earlier 1990's and has been frequently available in the Christmas bins.

rich r


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Subject: RE: BS: What's your favorite Xmas album/CD? Why?
From: John P
Date: 24 Nov 00 - 10:56 AM

I can't say that this is my favorite Christmas album, but perhaps the weirdest I have heard is called "A Toolbox Christmas" by Woody Phillips. Instrumentation includes 2x4s, nails, circular saw, spray paint cans, ratchets, table saw, pipes, etc, etc., with occassional assists from mandoin or dulcimer. It is astonishingly musical.

My favorite album of early music for Christmas is "Christmas in Anglia" by the Ensemble for Early Music. My all time favorite is an album my wife and I recorded a few years ago. I guess it's not surprising that I like it -- we picked some of our favorite Christmas music and arranged it the way we wanted to hear it. It's encouraging to me that I still enjoy listening to it.

John


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Subject: RE: BS: What's your favorite Xmas album/CD? Why?
From: Airto
Date: 24 Nov 00 - 11:41 AM

Loreena McKennet's Winter Garden is great, especially her version of God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen.

The Voice Squad's version of The Wexford Carol is also fine.

Miles Davis - Blue Christmas.

Rocking Around the Christmas Tree

Best of all, because of personal associations, is Chuck Berry's Run Run Rudolf.


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Subject: RE: BS: What's your favorite Xmas album/CD? Why?
From: greenfields
Date: 24 Nov 00 - 11:03 PM

My favorite right now (I started playing today--I have about 15 Christmas albums/CDs/whatevers...and if I don't start the day after Thanksgiving I don't get to hear enough of them in the season) is Jessye Norman's "Christmastide". The title song is beautiful, and I've never heard it anywhere else, and it has a lot of beautifully arranged good songs--"The Holly and the Ivy", Once in Royal David's City", O Come, O Come, Emmanual", "I saw three ships..." AND it is sung with the American Boychoir from Princeton, whose voices really do sound angelic.

I also like the Chieftains "The Bells of Dublin" like several other folks here, and two more. One is Chanticleer, "Sing We Christmas"--a lot of classical, but the last part is a 12-minute rendition of various spiritiuals in their harmony. The word beautiful is overused, but...it is!!

And, last year, bought The Irish Tenors Christmas album. Just listened today...they do a wonderful version of "Amazing Grace", John McDermott is particularly wonderful. AND they do a great job on "The Holy City", which is sometimes called "Jerusalem".

I belong to a CD club that sends out flyers on holiday music, and it's unbelievable how much Christmas music has been recorded, by everyone from Ray Charles to Asleep at the Wheel. Ray's version of "The Little Drummer Boy" is also wonderful!


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Subject: RE: BS: What's your favorite Xmas album/CD? Why?
From: John Hardly
Date: 25 Nov 00 - 07:54 AM

My favorite new one is Joel Mabus' "How Like The Holly"--It's refreshing to hear a new take and some originals for a change.

There's a lovely Christmas song by Bob Franke called "Staw Against The Chill"--a new favorite.

John


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Subject: RE: BS: What's your favorite Xmas album/CD? Why?
From: Hollowfox
Date: 25 Nov 00 - 11:55 AM

I just love this stuff (in season, I don't listen to it much in June). My favorites that haven't been mentioned yet are the cd by the baltimore Consort, "Star Carol" by "Tennessee" Ernie Ford (what a voice!), and when I'm sick ant tired of the commercialism, "Arrest These Merry Gentlemen" by the Kipper Family.


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Subject: RE: BS: What's your favorite Xmas album/CD? Why?
From: Matt_R
Date: 25 Nov 00 - 04:29 PM

Well wait one durn minnit! No one even mentioned our own Seamus Kennedy's Christmas album! I love it! As my mom said this morning "I hope Seamus knows we're wearing out his CDs!"

--M


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Subject: RE: BS: What's your favorite Xmas album/CD? Why?
From: black walnut
Date: 25 Nov 00 - 05:36 PM

i believe the song you were asking about, mousethief, must be 'Down in Yon Forest'.

the liner notes to the Cockburn album say:
"If there were a contest for the title of the spookiest Christmas carol, this ought to win hands down. Collected earlier in this century by John Jacob Niles, it hails from North Carolina. I believe it to be of great age, though, both because of the melodic style and because of the lyrics, which resonate with the Grail myth, and with the ancient custom of every few years draining the blood out of one's king onto the soil to ensure its continuing fertility."

if anyone knows more...

~black walnut


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