Jerry Christmas: Jerry Douglas

Jerry Douglas

Jerry Christmas



Jerry Douglas was a bit hesitant when he came to recording Christmas music. The Nashville based musician has played on hundreds of recordings, been part of Transatlantic Sessions for years, and has many other fine musical credits, still, these are classics which many have recorded. Douglas needn’t have been concerned. Jerry Christmas lives up to its title because is just that -- this fine instrumentalist’s unique touch, ideas, and style in service of seasonal pieces, both sacred and secular.

Aside from Douglas doing a ‘scary Santa voice’ on Santa Claus is Coming to Town, there is only one song. Maura O’Connell, who has often worked with Douglas before, lends her voice to Boo Hewerdine’s quiet meditation on sadness and hope, New Year’s Eve, and offers a spot on reading of the bittersweet emotion of the song. Douglas does that too across the music he’s chosen, expressing varied emotion with no words at all on The First Noel, In the Bleak Midwinter, Christmas Time Is Here, and an especially lovely take on Mary, Did You Know? Luke Bulla, Todd Parks, Gordie Trapp, and Doug Belote do an excellent job of supporting and framing Douglas’s work on Dobro, lap steel guitar, and electric guitar. It’s a very fine collection of familiar music made new, played with creativity and grace.

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Favorite Love Songs: Tuning Up for Valentine's Day

As it’s coming up on Valentine’s Day, that has me thinking about love songs. My favorite ones include






from Kathy Mattea
Goin' Gone

Untold Stories
Asking Us to Dance


from Cathie Ryan
The Farthest Wave

What's Closest to the Heart

from Carrie Newcomer
Tornado Alley

Only One Shoe

Hold On

From Tish Hinojosa
Amanacer
Everything You Wish

from Eddi Reader
Wild Mountainside


from Danu
Follow On

from Emmylou Harris
Someone Like You

from Maura O’Connell
Blessing



What they have in common, I think, is recognition that deep true love includes the hard stuff as well as the joy, and that part of the gift of love is helping us live with and through the humanness of all that. I’m not sure the artists who wrote or who sing all of these necessarily thought of them as love songs, either, but for me they work that way. See what you think, and please share some of your favorites by leaving a comment if you’d like.