Celtic Christmas -Silver Anniversary Edt-

A Celtic Christmas: Peace on Earth Number five in Windham Hill's Celtic Christmas series, this may be the best of the lot with evocative compositions and arrangements that don't slip into seasonal sentimentality, better known as schmaltz. Produced by Micheal O'Domhnaill, the guitarist and founder of Nightnoise, th...	Celtic Christmas III Bright pennywhistles, lonesome fiddles, mysterious flutes, strumming guitars, the brushed and pounding bodhran sounding like a horse at gallop over snowy roads, and female voices so clear and focused they might be angels calling out through the ether of time. All these elements c...	Celtic Christmas, Vol. 2 [Windham Hill] A lullaby of an album, Celtic Christmas II features two James Galway flute pieces ("The Wexford Carol" and "I'll Rock You to Rest") that set the tone for this gentle collection. Some of the usual suspects, Nightnoise, folkie Luka Bloom, Capercaillie, Triona Ní Dhomhnaill, and ot...	Celtic Christmas: A Windham Hill Sampler Another satisfying collection of Celtic music, traditional and contemporary, that includes such modern-day folkies as Luka Bloom and, for the lack of a better term, New Age composer Loreena McKennitt. Fans who remember Planxty, the Bothy Band, Silly Wizard, and Capercaillie will ...	Celtic Christmas IV With contributions from Uillean piper Liam O'Flynn, Dire Straits guitarist Mark Knopfler, former Skara Brea singer Maighread Ní Dhomhnaill, harpist Patrick Cassidy, and country singer Ricky Skaggs, the fourth in Windham Hill's Celtic Christmas sampler series is a varied and some...
The Very Best of Celtic Christmas Ten years on, there are five volumes available in Windham Hill's hugely popular Celtic Christmas series and this collection gathers together more than 75 minutes of highlights from them. Special gems include the Irish band Altan's lovely and ethereal Soillse Na Nollag, the late S...	A Winter's Solstice: Silver Anniversary Edition Since the Windham Hill imprint's Winter Solstice series was born in 1985, the concept has gone through some changes, bottoming out with 1999's abysmally kitschy Winter Solstice on Ice. With this Silver Anniversary Edition, Dawn Atkinson, who produced the first Winter Solstice dis...	Narada Presents: The Best of Celtic Christmas The Best of Celtic Christmas is a captivating double CD that is sure to set the right tone for a more reverential Christmas feast, and/or revelry. Packed with fiddles, flutes, and angelic voices, the first disc features a variety of Ireland's most loved traditionalists, from Alta...	A Windham Hill Christmas The songs are familiar carols, but A Windham Hill Christmas retains the Windham Hill Winter Solstice series tradition of unusual arrangements and performances that evoke the mood of the season, especially if your take on that mood is a Northeast, snow-covered landscape, like that...	Windham Hill Christmas II

Gentle music with some backbone
This CD is mostly instrumental and beautiful. It doesn't play the usual Christmas carols to which we are subjected in department stores etc. so it can more easily be enjoyed all year long when one wishes to have contemplative, restful background music. Number 4 is one of my favorite pieces for babies because the hammered dulcimer somehow enters their world in a special way. Many of the pieces are lullaby-like. The pieces move through an array of featured instruments; the variety and contrast makes it more interesting. They include very rustic folk music as well as sophisticated urban fare.There are soft,non-intrusive vocals on a couple of the selections. I have listened to this one for twenty years and have not grown tired of it. It makes a lovely gift.

On a Christmas Album??
Brian Dunning & Jeff Johnson's version of Christ Child Lullaby is quite striking and meditative, and just might be worth the purchase price in and of itself. Sliabh Na mBan, on the other hand, although Liam O'Flynn does a very nice job with it, what's it doing on a Christmas album?? With my lack of Irish, I can't tell what the other Irish-titled songs are, but I'm really having doubts as to whether this is truly a *Christmas* album.

Basically relaxing, non-familiar music with a Christmas feel
As pointed out in another review, there are only three vocals here, each a lovely female Celtic voice, and only one in English. But it's not the words but the feeling evoked here. The instrumentals include sounds of accordian, guitar, fiddle, harp, flutes, pipes and whistles. Almost half of them are traditional Gaelic or Breton melodies.This is indeed fine music for one's Christmas mood with the Celtic flavor. There's nothing you can likely sing along with the performers on, but there are haunting melodies and enchanting rhythms here.

A Wonderful Alternative for the Holidays
So why am I reviewing a Christmas album the day AFTER Christmas? (Because it was half price the day after Christmas!) The silver anniversary edition features all new recordings and if you're familiar with earlier volumes, this one will not disappoint. Each track has a soothing, haunting quality to it. And since none of these songs are recognizable as Christmas songs, you can enjoy this music all year. There are only four vocals here--tracks 1, 3, 10 and 13--and only "On a Winter's Day" is sung in English. The Gaelic vocals and celtic instrumentation provide a wonderful alternative to more traditional holiday fare. This is very enjoyable and calming music. [Running time: 53:14] RECOMMENDED