This American Yule

With conductor/artistic director HARRY CHRISTOPHERS at the helm, the HANDEL AND HAYDN SOCIETY offers a journey through traditional carols using American tunes.
by David McGee
 

 
 

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
 

 

 

Where the Old Christmas Lives, and Breathes…

Timeless sacred and secular Christmas music, largely from the 16th and 17th centuries, by composers such as Michael Praetorius, impeccably performed on period instruments and with sensitive vocalizing by THE YORK WAITS. A lost ...
by David McGee
 

 
 

Pt. I: ‘God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen’ & The Lost Punctuation Mark

What Americans hear when they listen to 'God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen' is not anything like what the English peasants meant when they first sang this song more than 500 years ago. So claims best selling author ACE COLLINS.
by David McGee
 

 

 

More Than Holly Leaves and Christmas Trees

TOM MASON's third Yuletide album, UNDER A MISTLETOE SKY, offers a fine option with which to make Christmas merry and bright, in a year when we really need it to be so…
by David McGee
 

 
 

The Holly & The Ivy: A Small Gem

A different kind of Christmas movie, no less moving for the nuanced role Christmas actually plays in the story. DVD now available.
by David McGee
 

 

 

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.
by David McGee
 

 
 

Christmas Kisses from Glenna, Serena & Leslie

Four outstanding Yuletide performances by four outstanding singer-songwriters: GLENNA BELL, LESLIE COURS MATHER, SERENA MATTHEWS & LISA MILLS. Christmas kisses all around!
by David McGee
 

 

 

Tales of Two Carols

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

 
 

Our Christmas Best to You

In the late '80s BONNEVILLE MEDIA COMMUNICATIONS sent out a press-only holiday tape that is an unassuming classic of its kind--funny, moving and heartwarming. Hear this lost gem exclusively at Deep Roots.
by David McGee
 

 

 

Our Christmas Best to You

An unassuming tape from the late '80s, sent as a holiday gift to media friends by what its now BONNEVILLE INTERNATIONAL, turns out to be the most heartwarming of Yuletide messages, an instant seasonal classic.
by David McGee
 

 
 

Home is Where the Heart Is

On HOME FOR CHRISTMAS, vocalist JAN DALEY offers a little something for all tastes here, ranging from an opportunity to luxuriate in seasonal romance even as the program gently reminds listeners of why we’re here in the firs...
by David McGee