When Vintage Becomes Timeless
DAVID IAN did it in 2011 with Vintage Christmas, and does it again in 2012 with Vintage Christmas Wonderland: gather the combo, pare the set list to five songs and deliver a Christmas gem.
David McGee
Shimmying Down the Chimney
Not wanting to be the only artist on the planet without a Christmas album, MARIA MULDAUR delivers a holiday evergreen in MIDNIGHT AT THE OASIS, recorded live in San Francisco.
What Christmas Is As We Grow Older
In his 1851 essay, 'What Christmas Is As We Grow Older,' CHARLES DICKENS emerged from despair to summon his youthful optimism about the future course of human events.
In Which He Keeps Christmas Well
The old curmudgeon, you ask? No, NICK LOWE is now the old sentimentalist, complete with his own Christmas album, QUALITY STREET. Be ye not dismayed: it's unlike other Yule fare.
Essential Sondheim
STEPHEN SONDHEIM's life and music, inextricably linked, are explored in captivating fashion in the new HBO documentary, SIX BY SONDHEIM, airing through December. Review herein.
Christmas Beyond the Blue
BLUES, BLUES CHRISTMAS VOLUME 3 leads this revised and updated review of four essential blues Christmas albums, including last year's DEATH MIGHT BE YOUR SANTA CLAUS
Cuddle Time
This delectable five-song missive--an unassuming but undeniably moving seasonal communiqué--is an affecting followup to Ms. Smith's 2007 Christmas gem, My Holiday.
The Murky Origins & Everlasting Life of ‘Jingle Bells’
In 1850 JAMES LORD PIERPONT, inspired by one-horse open-sleigh races in his home town, wrote a Thanksgiving ditty for his father's Sunday School class. Thus the humble origin of 'Jingle Bells.'
BEYOND TOMORROW (1940)
In DEEP ROOTS THEATER: a charming holiday movie, BEYOND TOMORROW. Three elderly industrialists killed in an airplane crash return to earth as ghosts to help reunite a young couple whom they initially brought together. Plus: Popeye.
Very Mary Indeed
Unquestionably the top new Christmas release of 2013, A MARY CHRISTMAS, the DAVID FOSTER-produced holiday long player from MARY J. BLIGE, is an instant soul Christmas classic.