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
 

 
 

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
 

 

 

The Man With All the Toys

With four Christmas albums to his credit, BRIAN SETZER and his ORCHESTRA occupy rarified air in the holiday music realm.
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
 

 

 

A Yuletide Evergreen Grows Here

LISA BIALES's first holiday album may become essential to keeping Christmas well in our time ahead. Hearing is believing.
by David McGee
 

 
 

Christmas As He Knew It

JOHNNY CASH's CLASSIC CHRISTMAS ALBUM is a sampling from the three Yule albums the Man in Black recorded for Columbia Records. Family and faith are the major, moving themes here.
by David McGee
 

 

 

Again the Heart With Rapture Glows

The NEW YORK CITY CHILDREN'S CHOIR summons the solemnity and joy of the Christmas season in CHRISTMAS IN NEW YORK, a work of inestimable beauty
by David McGee
 

 
 

‘Coventry Carol’: The Darkest of All Christmas Songs

Lamenting the Slaughter of the Innocents in the 12th Century, “Coventry Carol” remains a somber standard.
by David McGee
 

 

 

No Words Necessary

If you were to select only all-instrumental albums of holiday music, you could hardly do better than to latch onto disparate Yuletide forays by LEROY ANDERSON and JOHN FAHEY
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
 

 

 

The Deep Roots Video Holiday Card

From DEEP ROOTS to our readers, a holiday card of the video variety, featuring the ghost of Jacob Marley, Ralph Kramden of The Honeymooners and Louis 'Satchmo' Armstrong in memorable seasonal moments
by David McGee
 

 
 

The Deep Roots Yuletide Baedeker 2024

A holiday celebration of the best of seasonal music, movies, cartoons, literature, poetry--behold the 2024 Yuletide.
by David McGee