$17.98  Laurie Lewis - True Stories |
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 [Larger view] | Laurie Lewis, Tom Rozum - Winter's Grace
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Average user rating:  | |
 A mellow bluegrass/folk Christmas album | |
| Laurie and Tom begin this album with The messenger, a long story song (sung by Laurie) which makes it clear that this a very unusual Christmas album.
The best known songs here are Merle Haggard's If we make it through December (sung by Tom) and the bluegrass classic Christmas time's a coming (sung by Laurie), this being about the most upbeat song here. Laurie sings lead on Earth moves in a mysterious way, The gift and Wintergrace. Tom sings lead on Wassail song and Hot buttered rum. Both Laurie and Tom are accomplished musicians, and there are three instrumentals - The snowy road, Heiligste Nacht and Cold frosty morning. This is one of the more unusual Christmas albums. This is great for Christmas music fans (like me) who are always looking for something different, or for fans of folk and mellow bluegrass music. | |
| A soulful acoustic holiday offering | |
| A nice, understated acoustic holiday set, which -- appropriately enough -- drifts into sorts goopy, Berkeleyesque folkie territory. ("The Earth Moves In Mysterious Ways," for example...) Nina Gerber, Todd Phillips, Mike Marshall and other Bay Area folk scene stalwarts pitch in on this refreshingly original set... The instrumental numbers are really nice, and overall this has a pleasantly heartfelt vibe. Worth checking out, especially if you want a little break from Bing and Sting during the holiday season... | |
 Not your average Christmas fare | |
| I own many Tom Rozum and Laurie Lewis CDs and consider them at the vanguard of Newgrass music. All their efforts reflect a passion for the music and excellent musicianship. Winter's grace is not their best, but has it's moments. The 3 song's with Tom taking the lead locals, Hot buttered rum , Wassail song and Merle Haggard's If we make it through December , for me are the highlights.I was also very impressed by Laurie's fiddle playing on this CD. She has a real gift for dragging every once of emotion from the violin on slower numbers. The couple of instrumental numbers on the CD are great. The choice of songs is interesting and varied with some songs having a real Celtic feel. The one disappointing choice , for me, was the very new age, mother earth hymn ,Earth moves in mysterious ways, which is strangely out of place in a Christmas season album and was quite frankly , a bit tedious. I don't see the connection with Christmas, but I should have been warned by reading the discription of the music as Winter solstice music in the liner notes. I guess there will be no tree hugging for me this Christmas. But as a whole, a pretty good, but non traditional Yuletide offering. |
