Holiday gift ideas: 3 Albums for the Winter Season

Winter: it is a season of celebration and quiet, of gathering and solitude.

Music goes along with all of those things. One of the great things about music is that it may be enjoyed alone and in company.

With those thoughts in mind, here are further ideas of music for your holiday gft list, for yourself or others.

For the album A Fiddler’s Holiday, Jay Ungar, Molly Mason, Ruth Ungar, and Michael Merenda join up with the Orchestra of the University of Mary Washington in Virginia for a seasonal and holiday themed excursion.

There are songs quiet and fast paced, about a snowstorm, the harvest, a silent night in a famialr way snd as a two step, a Quebecois medley about children’s toys, Jay’s classic tune Ashokan Farewell, and more. If you or or someone you know is celebrating Chanukah, the song in this could be a great song for to share. If that holiday is not in your tradition or if the days of celebrating it are past when you read this, I think you will still enjoy this lively song.

The recording on which you will find it is called A Fiddler’s Holiday. There is a dvd available of the live concert, too.

Hanneke Cassel offers a reflective look at Advent and the winter season as she pairs O Come O Come Emmanuel with her original tune Star of Wonder.This is the title track from her new Christmas album O Come Emmanuel.

The music is a selection of original, traditional, and contemporary tunes and songs of faith and of the winter season, led by Hanneke’s fiddle, with contributions from musical friends including Christopher Lewis, Keith Murphy, Yann Falquet, Mike Block, Jeremy Kittel, Jenna Moynihan, Casey Driessen, and Tim Downing and selection of guest singers including Helene Blum, Luke Bulla, Jennifer KImball, and Aoife O’Donovan.

It is Cassel’s fiddle which illuminates each track, however whether leading tunes such as The Snow March or surrounding and supporting singers such as on a thoughtful and creative arrangement of Silent Night, with words sung in several languages.

Cassel is an award winning player, composer, and educator, a past US Scottish National Fiddle Champion who has taken her Celtic rooted music across the world. She is also a woman of strong faith. It’s been a longtime dream of hers to create a Christmas album. She felt this year was the right moment. Take a listen, takee several, in fact, to each of the ten tracks on O Come Emmanuel, to hear why she is right about that. Uplifting, reflective, creative, hopeful, O Come Emmanuel is a Christmas classic, and a fiddle classic, in the making.

April Verch and Joe Newberry decided this was the right year for a holiday album too, and they were alos right about that. Verch, who comes from the Ottawa Valley in the Canadian province of Ontario, and Newberry, who draws on Ozark and Appalachian roots, intertwine those musical sources to great effect on their album On This Christmas Day. Joe Newberry plays banjo, guitar, and fiddle; April Verch plays fiddle and stepdances. They both sing, and they both write songs. Most of the songs on this album are originals, in fact, joined by a few well chosen covers.

It might be a bit of a challenge to write a Christmas song, given all the seasonal music already in existence. It’s a challenge each artist meets well though, creating music that explores by turns the joy and mystery of the holiday season. Though they come from different geographic areas, both Joe and April grew up with Christmas traditions celebrating home and hearth, traditions they continue to celebrate and enjoy. For several years they’ve been doing holiday season tours together. On This Christmas Day is the first time they have put the seasonal music on record, though.

Warm and welcoming, with top class musicianship and songwriting, the album will make a great choice for your own music library and as a lasting gift for friends who enjoy bluegrass and old time music along with excellent singing and playing.

Here is the title track from On This Christmas Day. Joe wrote it after soundcheck in a restored church in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

There’s more to come here along the music road, both gift ideas and seasonal favorites old and new to enjoy. Stay with us as the season unfolds.

You may also enjoy
On this Christmas Day at April Verch’s web shop
First story of this season’s holiday gift ideas: Albums from Sarah McQuaid, the Spell Songs Singers, and the band Staran
Hanneke Cassel’s website
Music for Autumn’s Landscapes at Wandering Educators
Second in this season’s holiday gift ideas: music from Graham Rorie, David Milligan, Karine Polwart
Jay Ungar and Molly Mason’s website

Photograph by Jill Wellington

In times when you are able to listen to much music at no cost, take this as a gentle reminder that if you enjoy this music, help support the work of these artists and the cause of good, thoughtful music everywhere by purchasing their music. Direct purchase from an artist’s site is one way. Bandcamp is also a platform which supports artists’ work.

Speaking of support, if you’re in a position to do so this holiday season, your support for Music Road is most welcome. Here’s one way:

-->Your support for Music Road is welcome and needed. If you are able to chip in, here is a way to do that, through PayPal. Note that you do not have to have a PayPal account to do this. Thank you.

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Holiday Gift Ideas

It is a season of celebration, of holiday gift giving, and holiday gift lists. Music always makes a fine gift to give and to receive. Still working on your holiday lists? Consider these ideas

note click on the album covers and text links to learn more about these recordings.

for those who love the music of Ireland
Cathie Ryan is often honored for the quality of her singing, and well deserved those honors are. Ryan is also a gifted songwriter and song collector, and a woman who interprets the stories of her Irish and American heritage with intelligence and grace. All of these things are found in her most recent album, Through Wind & Rain. The Farthest Wave is another recording of Ryan’s to consider

Irish Ways is a project which brings together tracks by many musicians of ireland, on song and tunes which, in keeping with the title, are focused on things particularly Irish. Lumiere, Luke Kelly, John Spillane, Dervish, At First Light, and Niamh Ni Charra are among the wide selection of folk represented.

note click on the album covers and text links to learn more about these recordings.

for those who love Scotland
The quiet side of the music of Scotland is the substance of Celtic Airs, a collection the people at the Greentrax label put together in response to requests for just such a focus for an album. Mediative and reflective, it makes a fine companion for winter’s quieter days, and includes music from Fiddlers’ Bid, Ian Hardie, Lorne MacDougall, The Cast, and Wendy Stuart.

Capercaillie’s latest album At the Heart of It All is a mix of song a tune, work song love song and through it all songs and tunes which evoke the land that is Scotland.

for those who love Ireland and Scotland both
Julie Fowlis is from the Western Isles of Scotland and Muireann Nic Amhlaoibh is from west Kerry in Ireland. Both are fine singers and song collectors, and gifted instrumentalists as well. The two friends joined up for an album called Dual in which they share the connections through song of the their two languages and landscapes.

for the classical music lover
Tony McManus is a top notch Celtic guitarist. At a festival, he admired a friend's playing of a classical piece, and was challenged “Learn it then!” So he did, and that led to a side excursion from his Celtic path resulting in the album Mysterious Boundaries which includes pieces from Bach and Satie among others. “It’s not traditional classical guitar repertoire,” McManus says. “It’s very much a Celtic guitar player’s look at some pieces of classical music.”

for those who love country and Americana music
The mandolin is John Reischman’s instrument of choice, On Walk Along John he burns up bluegrass flavored pieces and takes turns toward reflective ones as well, and offers tasty original music woven in to a lively and engaging set.

Kathy Mattea has been thinking about her native West Virginia and the coal country in the Appalachian mountains lately. One result of her reflections is the recording Calling Me Home. Songs of change, songs of work, songs of faith, and through it all threads of love for the mountain landscape.

seasonal music
speaking of Mattea, she has two fine holiday albums out. Take a listen to Joy for Christmas Day and Good News.

and speaking of Americana, think Snowed In. That is the name of a five song seasonal EP Mindy Smith has out just in time to put on your holiday gift list. Tomorrow Is Christmas Day is a whimsical and welcoming original that catches the anticipation of the season. There are thoughtful versions of What Child Is This? and Silent Night. The title track, Snowed In, is a fine reflection on the quieter side of holiday joy, and smith looks to the new year with her take on Auld Lang Syne -- all these are among the gifts she offer on this fine seasonal journey.

note click on the album covers and text links to learn more about these recordings.

This is just a taste of the fine music there is to discover, for yourself and for those you’re putting on your holiday gift list. Take a listen to these, and explore the archives here at Music Road, too.

photograph by Kerry Dexter. it is copyrighted, and thank you for respecting that.

You may also wish to see
Cathie Ryan: teaching tradition
listening to Christmas: Shannon Heaton, Cathie Ryan, Mary Black, Hanneke Cassel

-->Your support for Music Road is welcome and needed. If you are able to chip in, here is a way to do that, through PayPal. Note that you do not have to have a PayPal account to do this. Thank you.

You can also