Robert Hugill’s Classical Christmas Evergreens

ROBERT HUGILL'S CLASSICAL CHRISTMAS is a collection of must-read reviews of Classical Yuletide fare, from choral works to small vocal ensembles, as appraised by Mr. Hugill in Deep Roots from 2013 to the present day. All to make...
by David McGee
 

 
 

Ho-Ho-Ho, Who Wouldn’t Go?

IVY FORD offers a delightful holiday treat in HAPPY HOLIDAYS 2020, her EP featuring five tasty Christmas carols and songs, available as a free download at her website. To say the price is right is to be guilty of understatement.
by David McGee
 

 

 

The Deep Roots Yuletide Baedeker 2020

Welcome back our CHRISTMAS BAEDEKER, the all-inclusive guide to the best in holiday fare, from movies to cartoons to music to stories behind the songs to Christmas poetry to...well, you name it, we got it! Buon Natale!
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
 

 

 

‘A Wonderfully Grand Way to Hear the Familiar Carols’

For choral music lovers, two beautiful Christmas albums from British sources: CHRISTMAS FROM WORCESTER BY THE WORCESTER CATHEDRAL CHOIR and CHRISTMAS FROM SELWYN, with the CHAPEL CHOIR OF SELWYN COLLEGE.
by David McGee
 

 
 

The Man With All the Toys

Updated for Yuletide 2020, BRIAN SETZER's 2015 holiday gem, ROCKIN' RUDOLPH, shows off the master showman and ace guitarist at his best, along with his hard-working, gifted elves (the Orchestra), rocks and croons masterfully on...
by David McGee
 

 

 

A Bluer Shade of Christmas

An update of our 2019 review of four essential Christmas blues anthologies: Volumes 1-3 of BLUES, BLUES CHRISTMAS and Legacy Recordings' DEATH MIGHT BE YOUR SANTA CLAUS.--a bluer shade of Christmas, if you will.
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
 

 

 

‘How Inexpressibly Sad Are All Holidays’

1863. HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW's wife had died in a fire, his son had been seriously wounded in the Civil War. The poet, in despair, still found a reason to believe and wrote the stanzas that later became a beloved seasonal s...
by David McGee
 

 
 

Alternate Routes, Same Destination

New holiday fare by KRISTIN KORB and Canada's folk duo SILENT WINTERS take alternate routes to arrive at the same destination: the heart--ours and the season's.
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 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