Customer Reviews

The Clancy Brothers Christmas

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

The disc opens with the excellent rollicking Irish version of "Jingle Bells (Buala Bas)", and also features a great Christmas drinking song, "Christmas in Carrick". It closes with the unusual "Wren Song" traditionally sung by "wren boys" going door-to-door with a dead wren on St. Stephens Day and begging for money to bury the bird. Most of the other songs are more solemn, religious Christmas carols done in the Clancy Brothers Celtic-folk stlye. But there is one strikingly strange song in the middle of the disc that you might not notice if you don't pay attention to the words of "When Joseph was An Old Man". Upon closer review, you find a song about Mary breaking the news of her pregnancy to Joseph, who then refuses to pick cherries for her from a tree, saying that the father of the baby should do it, only to have Jesus command (from within Mary's womb!) the tree to bow down and give cherries to Mary. They don't write 'em like that anymore.

My father bought this album when it was first released back in the 1960s and it graced our turntable every Christmas since. I cannot think about Christmas without this album and I will pass it on to my children as well. The CD re-release is excellent and has liner notes by famed Philadelphia musical historian Paddy Maloney.

This album deftly combines more familiar works such as "Silent Night" and "Angels We Have Heard on High" with lesser know Celtic and Appalachian traditional pieces such as "Curoo, Curoo" and "Lovely Far Off City". There are also some rousing Irish renditions of Jingle Bells (in gaelic) and The Wren Song that will get the Guinness flowing and the feet dancing.

Overall, this is a brilliant blend of ethereal and rowdy, familiar and new. It will make a fine addition to any Irish/Celtic music fans collection (or anybody looking for an alternative to the bland contemporary holiday music).

The threads of this music are woven so deep within me it is hard to remember when they weren't there. This album was an important part of my childhood Christmas, and I have my Dad's copy of the album and a very old cassette tape that has somehow whethered the years. When I worked as a Flight Attendant, one Christmas morning I played the tape for my passengers-they loved it. And each year I don't allow myself to listen to it until my birthday on Dec. 14th, as my family brings in the Christmas tree. The "Clancy Brothers Christmas" is very special indeed.

Most of the songs on this record are original Irish christmas balads. If you like a good religious Christmas song combined with robust Irish sound of the Clancy Brothers you'll love this record. It has become a Christmas tradition for our familiy for many years. Simply put it's the best Christmas album of all time to me. None even come close. It's an album that really grows on you. I can't wait for it to come back into circulation.

Songs such as "Sing we the Virgin Mary" are sung with such feeling and passion. Most of the songs you'll not hear by any other artist. And of course between the more serious Christmas songs there is few lightharted Irish Christmas pub songs. All of them are great.

Get back to the innocent life and the purity of Christmas. Make the Clancy Brothers Christmas Album part of your Christmas tradition. You'll end up loving them and you'll get an ear for Irish music.

The CD version of this '60's LP was released ten years ago in limited quantity, so it is rare to come across it now. While the program is short, there is a nice variety of Irish-flavored carols and Yuletide ditties on here. Fast songs, slow ones, moments of beauty and even of weirdness. I love "Angels We Have Heard on High" but all of the tracks are well-done. I found my copy in a music store bargain bin five Decembers ago for a few bucks. May you be so lucky, and may the road rise with you and lead you to the Clancy's sounds this season.

We begin every Christmas season the Clancy Brothers Christmas Album. And it doesn't seem like Christmas until we do. The music is full of family and joy and is just the right spirit for Christmas.

One of the joys of this Christmas album is the choice of selections tailored to the Clancys rousing folk style. Most of the songs are traditional folk songs that sound fine because they have not been overexposed like so much Christmas material is. Amongst the highlights are "When Joseph Was as Old Man," "Christmas in Carrick," "The Wren Song", and "Curoo Curoo." Bobby Clancy joins his three brothers in this LP, and the Clancys retain their distinctive and delightful musical sound.

I've always enjoyed the Clancy Brothers traditional tunes and was glad to see they had a Christmas collection.
They put their own special spin on Jingle Bells, Silent Night and other holiday standards. The ones less familiar like Christmas in Carrick and Curoo, Curoo are refreshing. This makes a nice change from hearing "101 Strings Playing Christmas Tunes Until You Are Sick of Them."

While Teo Macero was a great producer for Columbia on jazz titles, he had no ear for how to handle the Clancy Brothers. He produced many of their latter-period Columbia albums and they pale in comparison to their earlier work. Generally too overproduced and too effected/mannered. While any Clancy Brothers album is better than none, there are many better Clancy albums to seek out first. Also, the album's running time is pretty short at under 30 minutes--surely in this day of enhanced CDs, there were unreleased tracks which Columbia could have added to stretch out the playing time, or they could have made this a two-fer and added one of the Clancy albums which Columbia has refused to release on CD. Finally, this is the post-Tommy Makem version of the group, which means that part of their soul and spirit is missing.

Was a delight to listen to the Clancy Brothers Christmas carols again - we had originally had this album on a reel-to-reel tape in the 1970's. While there are some celebration songs, including the Gaelic "Jingle Bells", most of the songs are Christmas carols, and I enjoy having a Christmas album that focuses on carols, not later "secular" songs. This album had been a Christmas staple in our festivities, and will be so again.