O brilliant !!!! - best blugrass Christmas album yet ?
Peter Durward Harris | Leicester England | 11/24/2002
(5 out of 5 stars)
"After the various O brother and O sister compilations, it was perhaps inevitable that an album with O Christmas in the title would follow - but it's well up to the standard I hoped for, as well as including some wonderful surprise new singers.
First, the expected - Rhonda Vincent opens the set with a magnificent rendition of Christmas time's a-coming, which seems to appear on every bluegrass Christmas collection (including the one by Patty Loveless), but rarely appears anywhere else. Some day, a rock band will discover this song, record it and take it to the wider audience that it deserves.Other excellent performances from established names in bluegrass include The friendly beasts (The Johnson mountain boys), Go tell it on the mountain (Cox family), Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer (Lynn Morris), O Christmas tree (Rhonda Vincent) and a medley by Doyle Lawson and Quicksilver.I was also pleased to see Jeannie Kendall's name here - this was not a surprise as she also appeared on O sister 2. Jeannie uses her unique voice to sing Smoky mountain Christmas.Perhaps the biggest surprise is the quality of the recordings by some of the new names that Rounder have chosen to introduce.You've heard Winter wonderland and Here comes Santa Claus many times, but the Shankman twins (two sisters that are new to me) sing them with such entusiasm that really captures the fun of Christmas. Unquestionably, these are among the finest recordings of these songs I've heard, maybe the best of all.Another interesting new act is Open road, who also do two songs - Christmas is near and Blue Christmas (this is given a completely different, uptempo arrangement - I'm not sure if it really suits the song, but it makes a nice change and is very well done).This is an outstanding album of all-new recordings by singers and pickers who clearly enjoyed themselves. The general feel is very upbeat, making it suitable for playing at any time over the Christmas period. It deserves to win many new fans for bluegrass music."
Track Listings (17) - Disc #1