For some reason, the details of music never go out of focus for me. Even Christmas music, which has become so ubiquitous that many people have stopped listening. Not me. I like to celebrate the season by picking up one new Christmas record per year. It's fun to gauge an artist's idea pool by checking out their twists on the traditional. Vince Guaraldi, John Fahey, Wynton Marsalis. All of them filter that tradition through their own pasts.
This year, I've added Aimee's Mann's One More Drifter In The Snow to my Christmas pile. It's so good that I'll no doubt be returning to it in the middle of next summer. It's worth the price just for her take on "You're A Mean One, Mr. Grinch," but there are several other selections that push it far, far beyond the regular celebrity holiday covers record. There's the Michael Penn and Jon Brion-penned "Christmastime" that features all of the subtle sonic elements you would expect from anything with the Brion name attached to it. Then we have Duke Levine adding his signature guitar to an almost swampy "Winter Wonderland." It would be hard to beat the sparse intensity of her "White Christmas." Go ahead, you deserve this record. Trust me.
One More Drifter In the Snow starts off with Jimmy Webb's "Whatever Happened To Christmas," an interesting and pensive song that asks "...whatever happened to it all?" Yeah, that's what I want to know.
Merry Christmas everybody.
Article comments
1 - Tom Johnson
I'm a bit embarrassed to say that I still haven't picked this thing up yet.
2 - Mark Saleski
you need to fix that. today. ;-)
i'm totally hooked on that "Whatever Happened To Christmas" tune.
3 - Bliffle
Sorry you have mixed feelings about your musical choice.
Personally, I am listening, at this moment, to the PBS broadcast of the Beaux Arts Trios performance of Beethoven which I recorded a couple months ago on my HDTV DVR. Outstanding! The high quality of the digital sound augments the visual effect of this performance beautifully. I must say that I rather prefer the Beethoven piano trios over the more famous string quartets.
Beaux Arts Trio, 50 years playing great music! With the same piano player!
4 - Gordon Hauptfleisch
Mark--I trust you on this of course, but in addition: Mann is one of those artists with the right instincts, whose albums I pretty much routinely buy before reading reviews, etc. That would include Christmas albums, too.