This is among my favorite christmas cds
Kevin Gill | San Francisco, CA United States | 12/08/2006
(5 out of 5 stars)
"This is a great album. McKeown, accompanied principally by upright bassist / backing vocalist Lindsey Horner, have produced a bittersweet ode to the christmas season. The music has a melancholy reflective of the "bitter frost and snow," and the lack of sunlight, of the winter season. And yet, "through" the melancholy (as the title implies), there is a warmth and a smile that reminds you of blazing yule log, christmas lights, a hot cup of egg nog or buttered rum, and friends and family huddled together.
In some ways it pairs well with the Chieftain's christmas opus, The Bells of Dublin. This one is a little more jazzy, think perhaps of Vince Guaraldi-esque wandering basslines. I'm not going to do a song-for-song breakdown, because I think the album has such a great flow that the whole composition is greater even than the individual numbers.
I hope you enjoy this christmas cd as much as I do."
A winter album you feel in your bones
R. Robbins | 12/05/2009
(5 out of 5 stars)
"A wonderful musical effort. I love Susan's voice and she uses it here to great effect. Wonderful song arc with great versions of traditionals such as "Green Grow'th the Ivy" and "Auld Land Syne" and a top notch version of Leo Kretzner's wonderful song "Bold Orion". Marvelous ensemble playing in a jazzy celtic manner."