Search - New Christy Minstrels :: Vol. 2-Merry Christmas!I: 42 Years Later

Everything Old Is New Again

Michael G. Batcho | McAdoo, PA (USA) | 11/14/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Thomas Wolfe the great southern novelist once wrote a title "You Can't Go Home Again" . . . well . . .



I was given an LP of The New Christy Minstrels' "MERRY CHRISTMAS" back in December of 1963. I was sick with the flu and my dad brought me a copy of the album. That album became a classic "event" for each successive Christmas to follow . . . (i STILL have that original LP . . . complete with the scratches and pops that accrue with time and use) but eventually got it on cassette tape . . . and then more recently on CD . . . and the magic replays each time i listen to it . . . and i listen to it "year round", not just at Christmas time . . .



i didn't think that the "wonder" i experience first back in 1963 when my dad handed me that LP and i unwrapped the cellophane shrink-wrap and read the liner notes as i put that record on the stereo . . . but . . . now there's The New Christy Mionstrels' "MERRY CHRISTMAS VOLUME II: 42 YEARS LATER" !! . . . and Thomas Wolfe was mistaken: you CAN go home again!!



This album has the very same feel and spirit as that original Christies' Christmas gift. The songs are all "folk rooted" and a mix of light-hearted humor and religious message, as was that first Christmas album. "Everything old is new again."



An additional contribution to the "sound' and experience on this newest Minstrels' contribution to Christmas was made by additing the accompaniment of the "Missoula Children's Theatre Chorus" and the "Gilro High School Choir". (Not since The Limeliter's "THROUGH CHILDREN'S EYES" have i heard that happy joining of the exuberance of children's choral embroidering the more mature vocals of a "folk group" creating a recording which will for certain become a "classic" to be played for decades and decades to come.)



Thanks Mr. Randy Sparks for keeping "the spark alive" and fanning it back into a living dancing musical flame once again . . . and thanks to The New Christy Misntrels for decades of wondrous music and song . . . and may there be many more yet to come. :)"