spector christmas1 featured

The Mythic Weight Of Phil Spector’s Christmas Gift

In 1963, PHIL SPECTOR thought his CHRISTMAS GIFT FOR YOU album would be a career-defining event. Then a not-so-funny-thing happened to him on his way to musical world dominance. BILLY ALTMAN fills us in.
by David McGee
 

 
 
B.B. Christmas Celebration

A Soul Ever More Grateful For What It Knows Of Love

An updated review of a holiday classic: B.B. KING's A CHRISTMAS CELEBRATION OF HOPE. Indeed it is.
by David McGee
 

 

 
death might be featured

Christmas in All Hues of Blues

CHRISTMAS IN ALL HUES OF BLUES, an updated review from 2012, spotlighting four classic blues-oriented Yuletide collections: DEATH MIGHT BE YOUR SANTA CLAUS and tBLUES, BLUES CHRISTMAS, Vols. 1-3
by David McGee
 

 
 
dickens featured

What Christmas Is As We Grow Older

From CHARLES DICKENS's twopenny weekly, Household Words, a 1951 meditation, 'What Christmas Means as We Grow Older,' an optimistic paean written the same year the author's father and daughter died.
by David McGee
 

 

 
vince guaraldi featured

Sublime & Swingin’

A tribute to the late, great VINCE GUARALDI, and his masterpiece within a masterpiece, the score for the holiday classic TV show, A CHARLIE BROWN CHRISTMAS
by David McGee
 

 
 
Album Cover

When ‘Strictly for The Birds ‘ Is a Compliment

Veteran singer-songwriter STEPHANIE SEYMOUR is a bird brain--that is, the former Aquanettas member studies and loves birds. So much so that she's released an album of original bird-oriented songs.
by David McGee
 

 

 
7imp 3 1

Sergio Ruzzier Returns (And Brings a Legend With Him)

Famed illustrated SERGIO RUZZIER publishes a new book featuring a previously unpublished text by the legendary RUTH KRAUSS. JULES gets the inside story in an interview with Ruzzier.
by David McGee
 

 
 
giovanni palestrina

Palestrina

In his Memoirs, published in 1896, composer CHARLES GOUNOD reflected on the exalted heights PALESTRINA and MICHELANGELO reached in their respective arts and the points of similarity between the two geniuses.
by David McGee
 

 

 
north wind featured

Nature as The Ultimate Matchmaker

THE NORTH WIND WAS A WOMAN, comprised of three intriguing chamber works by DAVID BRUCE, features stirring mandolin work by AVI AVITAL. Review by ROBERT HUGILL.
by David McGee
 

 
 
october featured

October Knowledge

In an exclusive seasonal essay, CHRISTOPHER HILL poetically, evocatively reflects on the passage from summer to fall to the cusp of winter, and the ghosts and dreams in the air along the way.
by David McGee
 

 

 
7imp 2

Robert Neubecker’s Little Plane That Could

Two superb new children's books are on JULES's radar: ROBERT NEUBECKER's charming LITTLE SMOKEY and, from the legendary ELOISE GREENFIELD, a personal look at midwives in THE WOMEN WHO CAUGHT THE BABIES
by David McGee
 

 
 
john muir featured

Letter to a Friend

In 1868, JOHN MUIR, then a University of Wisconsin student, wrote to his 'spiritual mother' to tell her of his recent travels and his growing devotion to a joyous and reverent communion with Nature.
by David McGee