| Christmas Grass - Various Artists | |
|
Reviewed by Jennifer Webb
When it comes to Christmas music, I can generally tolerate about two albums per season and Christmas Grass will definitely become one of the permanent fixtures to all current and future holiday seasons because of it's timeless sound and excellent quality musicianship.
An immediate mood booster, and guaranteed to make you wrap presents at a faster pace, "Christmas Time's A Coming" has the fiddle and mandolin prominently displayed as Ricky Skaggs cuts loose on a tune that reminds you of warm family memories and the love expressed during the holidays.
Beautiful when sung, but even better as an instrumental, "What Child Is This" features Alison Krauss on fiddle and Rob Ickes on dobro. The combination of those two instruments and the acoustic guitar make for a spectacular arrangement that sounds very traditional but also has a bluegrass "kick" to it.
"Silver Bells" paints the image of a picture-perfect family, especially the children, being so extremely excited about Christmas that they can taste it because of the feel of the air. The tune about bustling folks walking around town and the laughing of the children is expressed mainly in the form of a banjo played by Scott Vestal.
Another song that you cannot help but get happy and cheerful when you hear it is "Winter Wonderland," with Darrin Vincent on bass, Ronnie McCoury on mandolin, and Stuart Duncan on fiddle. There is no way you can escape from the song without tapping your toes at least a little bit as you imagine a cold and snowy day outside of your windows, no matter where you happen to live.
"Rudolph The Red-Nose Reindeer" is an instrumental that kids would love to sing along to test their abilities to sing at a fast pace because if you blink, there is a chance the song could be over before they know it. There is great character found in this track that makes the arrangement all-around fun to hear.
One of my favorite Christmas songs is "Away In A Manger" and I was so pleased to find out there is a bluegrass version on this album. Rob Ickes uses his dobro in such a way that it does the singing while the bass, acoustic guitar, mandolin, and fiddle come in a collective second place as the beautiful background music.
A bluegrass collection is not bluegrass without a track by Rhonda Vincent and she plays her mandolin on child favorite "Santa Claus Is Comin' To Town." "You better watch out, you better not cry, you better not pout I'm telling you why" is what the mandolin tells the children to do so that they can get some fun goodies in their stocking.
The only song with vocals, "O Holy Night" has The Larkins singing the wonderful tale of Christ's birth. It is a wonderful way to close the album with the story of what Christmas is all about.
This album has no fuss to it, which is what I prefer in a holiday album. The sound is timeless and will last throughout the years because of it being a collection of instrumentals. There are not any vocals to get in the way of the musicianship contained on all fifteen tracks and you are guaranteed not to tire of hearing the songs repeatedly.
Song List:
Album cover, used with permission of Audium.
Click on the button below to find the best price for this CD and purchase it from a retailer on the Internet.
