Customer Reviews

Acoustic Christmas

5 star:		(15)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This album is a true Grisman classic. Who else could put together such a distinct Christmas album? WHAT CHILD IS THIS is done in the old english style with mandolin accompanied by a band of minstrels playing recorders. SANTA CLAUS IS COMING TO TOWN is done bluegrass style with virtuoso Bela Fleck on banjo. Respighi's ANCIENT AIRES AND DANCES is a beautiful rendering of this classical composition done with mandonlin, mandola, and mandocello. THE CHRISTMAS SONG is a soft, jazzy, acoustic version of Mel Torme's classic. GOD REST YE MERRY GENTLEMEN is done as an acoustic jazz tune in 6/8 time. WE WISH YOU A MERRY CHRISTMAS offers a touch of comic relief with Grisman's mandolin accompanying a Donald Duck impersonator. WHITE CHRISTMAS presents jazz guitar virtuoso Martin Taylor and John Stafford on tenor sax. THE FLOWER CAROL is another old english style number done with an accompanying hurdy-gurdy, crumhorns, and recorders. WINTER WONDERLAND is done in a swing style reminiscent of the Hot Club Quintet with Django Reinhardt and Stephane Grappelli. SILENT NIGHT is done in a bossa nova (?) style with accompnying vocal percussion and vocal trumpet. AULD LANG SYNE also presents Bela Fleck on banjo with a slower beginning tempo which kicks into bluegrass overdrive upon the key modulation.

With former DGQ members Darol Anger, Mike Marshall, and Rob Wasserman providing the rhythm section this album reflects what I believe to have been the glory days of the Grisman legacy. Displaying Grisman's unique musical diversity, ingenius arrangements, and mandolin virtuosity with this all-star lineup, ACOUSTIC CHRISTMAS is a Christmas album in a class of its own. It actually makes a musical statement apart from the context of it being a holiday album. This is a must buy for fans of Grisman, jazz, bluegrass, or Christmas music in general.

This CD really gets me in the mood for Christmas. I listen to it every year starting right after Thanksgiving, if I can wait that long! This year I am giving it away as Christmas gifts to all my friends. It's really beautiful and fun!

This CD has been a Christmas favorite in my household for years. Most Christmas songs fall into one of three categories (in my humble opinion): Cheesy, Overly Cheerful, or Sullen. This CD is none and all of the above, but in perfect balance. If you agree with me on those classifications, you owe it to yourself to give David Grisman's Acoustic Christmas a shot to see if it doesn't change your mind about Christmas songs. And if you don't agree with me, you still owe it to yourself to give this CD a listen to see if it doesn't make its way into your Christmas collection.

Like the reviewer gal from Kalamazoo, MI, my copy of Grisman's masterpiece doesn't come out of the mix in my 5-disc CD player from Thanksgiving to New Years, either! It's damn near impossible to create a unique Christmas cd from the millions out there. From song selections (obscure or chestnut?) to arrangements (experimental or traditional?), how does one come up with a mix that will satisfy? Well, Grisman's done it! With mandolins, stand-up basses, flutes and a flurry of other instruments, he creates a spectacular mix of traditional and genre-bending arrangements! His steel-drum treatment of "Silent Night" as an island celebration is nothing short of mind-blowing! And being Scotch-irish, "Auld Lang Syne" is a sacred ballad to me; but once you've heard Grisman's banjo-jangly-"Deliverance" version that removes the maudalin from the song, you may never go back!!

A great album, x-mas or not. Non-sentimental and wonderful to listen to

If you like acoustic stringed instruments and you can tolerate Christmas music you will love this CD. Christmas music done in a very unique style.

Love his music and his takes on these songs is great. Very unique and great rendition of silent night. Along with some of his usual sideman this is full music with just a few musicians so everyone playing comes out clear. Recommended

A couple of online reviewers have carped at the Donald Duck vocal on "We Wish You A Merry Christmas", but they are miserable Scrooges and deserve to be pummeled with roasted chestnuts, red-hot from the open fire. Okay....let's not go that far. But listen! It is not a "Donald Duck impersonator" you hear, but Clarence "Ducky" Nash himself, the man who voiced the Donald on a jillion Disney cartoons. This I learned from David Grisman himself. I went backstage after a show at the Iron Horse club in Northampton, Massachusetts, several months after "Acoustic Christmas" came out. I complimented him on his fine Donald Duck vocal, and he told me he did not do it himself, but secured the vocal services--if "vocal" is the right word--- of Mr. Nash. And in any event, "We Wish You a Merry Christmas" is a very short cut.

The rest of the album is Duck-free, and still sounds fresh. Apart from the Respighi, every song on this album is familiar, almost too familiar. When I saw the song list (and before I heard the album), I groaned---do we really need another "The Christmas Song", another "Silent Night"? But David Grisman and his fine sidepeople scrape away the layers of dreary tedious dutiful tradition and treat each song as a new adventure in musical puckishness. Listen to "Silent Night"----it's actually insouciant!! Bouncy!! How is this possible? But he does it. A guy plays throat tromnet---playing his mouth like a trumpet---and it will make you grin like a jack-o-lantern when you hear it.

That David Grisman is a master mandolinist is hardly news. This is a charming holiday album. Give it a whirl.

A truly great addition to all my other holiday music. Be sure to skip the Donald Duck song... a waste. Otherwise it is a well-recorded beauty. The "Respighi: Ancient Aires and Dances" track is so beautiful it brings tears to my eyes. This is a very fine disc.

This is absolutely the best album of Christmas music I have found. Bought an extra copy for a gift for friends.