Winter is a season which lends itself to both reflection and celebration.
John McCutcheon chose to honor the varied nature of this season in his recording Winter Solstice, with songs and tunes that speak to Christmas, Chanukah, the winter season, and the turning of the year. These include traditional songs such as The Huron Carol and Un flambeau Jeannette, Isabella. There is Josef Hader’s Ereve Shel Shosanim, and Si Kahn’s Detroit, December. McCutcheon mixes in a generous helping of his own songs and tunes, as well. It’s a thoughtfully chosen program that’s seasonal without being focused on one holiday. It is an all acoustic affair, with McCutcheon playing hammered dulcimer on most of the pieces. He’s a fine guitarist, too, as you’ll see in the video of his his song Christmas in the Trenches. It is a story about how connection through song brought even war to a pause one holiday, and it has become a holiday standard which many have recorded.
Tish Hinojosa takes a wide ranging view of the holiday season for her album From Texas for a Christmas Night -- which is only right, as Texas holds landscapes from hill country to desert to waterside to mountain within its borders, and an equally diverse range of cultures and communities too. Hinojosa is first generation Mexican American, a background which comes through beautifully in her choice to sing A la Nanita Nana, a song that is often sung during the posadas, as the Holy Family’s search for a place to stay the night is re enacted in Hispanic communities. Hinojosa has a gift for writing thoughtful seasonal songs, from an unexpected look at the heart of the Christmas story in Building Number Nine to the tale of her own yearly chats with the family Christmas tree, a song called Arbolito which she’s made in both English which and Spanish. It's filled with fun in both languages. There’s Hanukiah, a lively song in Spanish for Chanukah, the graceful waltz of the title song, and Silent Night with verses sung in English, Spanish, and German, along with other seasonal favorites and original music.
On Comfort and Joy, you’ll find Boys of the Lough, Cherish the Ladies, Maddy Prior, Aine Minogue, and other artists from Celtic backgrounds, in a collection of music assembled by Brian O'Donovan, host of the long running show Celtic Sojourn on public radio station WGBH in Boston. “ I think of the show as like having friends and family sitting around in my living room and saying, have you heard this great piece, or I got this album over in ireland, have you heard this?” O'Donovan says. Over the years he noticed that Christmas music was an especial favorite of his listeners, and decided to create “an audio sculpture, so to speak, a piece that would be a whole in itself,” he says. This recording, with its journey from the welcoming God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen from Maddy Prior through Shepherds Arise from Waterson:Carthy to harpist Minogue's Horn Dance to Cherish the Ladies with O Holy Night, does indeed fulfill that promise. There’s more that came from it, too: if you are in the New England area in mid December you may have the chance to catch Christmas Celtic Sojourn live, as it marks ten years of bringing the warmth and connection of seasonal music, stories, songs, and dance to the stage. This year artists will include the band Solas, fiddle and harp duo Chris Stout and Catriona McKay, singer Lindsay O’Donovan, and dancer Cara Butler along with many other artists, among them those who are new to the program and those who have been joining in over its ten year span of holiday concerts.
Kerry Dexter is Music Editor for Wandering Educators. You may reach her at music at wanderingeducators dot com
She writes about the music of Ireland, Scotland, North America and about the reflective side of being an artist at Music Road. You may also find her work at Strings, Perceptive Travel, Journey to Scotland, and other places.