In All Weathers, Glad Tidings

The Persuasions were just not any group of a cappella practitioners--they were the best, solid in every way, with lead singer Jerry Lawson standing out as one of the great singers of his time. The group's Christmas album, like...
by David McGee
 

 
 

Suffused With Beauty

Nancy Lamott and beauty were on intimate terms. It radiated from her warm personality, resonated in her tender vocals, and suffused the recordings she made before succumbing to cancer in 1995 at age 43. Her lone Christmas albu...
by David McGee
 

 

 

Tales of Two Carols

Origin stories: 'In the Bleak Midwinter' and 'Angels We Have Heard on High'
by David McGee
 

 
 

Hag Saw It All Coming

Originally issued on Capitol in 1973 as Merle Haggard's Christmas Present: Something Old, Something New, Merle Haggard's Christmas album has only 10 cuts, but all have a special--and many a prescient--feeling about them. Hag sa...
by David McGee
 

 

 

From The Inkwell: An Animated Christmas

Four DVDs, five timeless holiday shows worthy for inclusion in any Christmas video collection. Stories well told, with humor, warmth, sensitivity. wisdom and outstanding animation. All essential titles for any serious Yuletide ...
by David McGee
 

 
 

Timeless Enya, for All Seasons

Irish enchantress Enya has offered not a Christmas album, but rather an album-length meditation on the Yuletide season, its sound, its totems, its joys, its summons to reflection and introspection.
by David McGee
 

 

 

‘Zat You, Santa Claus?


Brian Setzer puts on his cat clothes and rocks the yule again...and again, putting his indelible stamp on rock 'n' roll Yuletide fare for all time.
by David McGee
 

 
 

Strictly Coolsville

A trio of brilliant holiday albums bearing title variations of WONDERLAND rank with the essential anthologies of seasonal fare. Released in 2003, the recordings range from rare to familiar, the artists from obscure to beloved. ...
by David McGee
 

 

 

A Christmas Classic For A Nuclear Armageddon

A seasonal classic born of an interfaith couple’s mutual concern for the fate of the world during the Cuban missile crisis in 1962. The origin story of 'DO YOU HEAR WHAT I HEAR?'
by David McGee
 

 
 

The Coolest Yule

The Uptown Vocal Jazz Quartet's first seasonal outpouring, FOOLS FOR YULE, offers some bracing surprises in its mix of original songs and classic holiday fare.
by David McGee
 

 

 

Don’t Mean a Thing If It Ain’t Got That String!

Canada's THE SULTANS OF STRING and their guests put a new spin on the spirit of the season, but it's is still the spirit we’ve known for bringing good tidings of great joy. Dig the best Christmas album of the 2017 Yuletide se...
by David McGee
 

 
 

The Soft, The Warm, The Syncopated Yule

A trifecta of outstanding stocking stuffers for this--and every--Yuletide season: AMBER WEEKES's THE GATHERING; ROBERT PRESTA & ADRIANA SAMARGIA's FIRST SNOW; and RALLY 'ROUND THE CHRISTMAS TREE, PARAGON RAGTIME ORCHESTRA
by David McGee