A Scottish Christmas

Bonnie Rideout (Artist), Maggie Sansone (Artist), Al Petteway (Artist) | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (August 20, 1996)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Maggie's Music
• ASIN: B000003JMH
• Also Available in: Audio Cassette  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (16 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #16,071 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)
  • #2 in Music > Indie Music > New Age > International
  • #2 in Music > Miscellaneous > Holiday > Classical Instrumental
  • #2 in Music > Indie Music > New Age > Celtic

Editorial Reviews

CBS-TV-

"Ancient and infectious...one of the best selling CDs of the season and so compelling no matter what the listener's ancestry."

Tempos are leisurely, the better to let the melodies ring; the tone is pristine."

"Another splendid seasonal gift from Maggie's Music that specializes in modern,Celtic-rooted music...hauntingly ritualistic and achingly beautiful."

Product Description

Celebrate the many moods of A Scottish Christmas!Traditional Scottish carols, wassail tunes, strathspeys and reels for the celebration of Christmas, Hogmanay & the New Year, featuring Bonnie Rideout on Scottish fiddle, Al Petteway on guitar & cittern, Maggie Sansone on hammered dulcimer, Eric Rigler (the piper on "Braveheart" soundtrack) on Highland bagpipes, Scottish smallpipes & Uilleann pipes, with Abby cello and percussion.A Scottish Christmas in now a national touring ensemble and this CD recording captures all the sounds and magic of the stage show with performances on Scottish fiddle, viola, hammered dulcimer, guitar, pipes and drums. It was featured on CBS-TV's Sunday Morning and praised as "ancient and infectious...one of the best selling CDs of the season and so compelling no matter what the listener's ancestry." It made The New York Times "Top 10 Holiday Picks" and was featured on both NPR's Performance Today and The Thistle & Shamrock. It was a WAMMI! E winner, "Celtic Recording," Washington Area Musicians Association. Here the THE BRAVEHEART SOUND of Eric Rigler was the piper on Mel Gibson’s BRAVEHEART; HOLIDAY FAVORITES WITH A SCOTTISH FLAIR Oh, Come All Ye Faithfull, What Child Is This LIVELY COUNTRY DANCE TUNES FOR THE HOLIDAYS: The Bottom of the Punch Bowl, Ale is Dear and SCOTLAND’S GREATEST MUSICAL GIFT TO THE SEASON: Auld Lang Syne- written by Scotland’s Greatest Poet Robert Burns .

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

38 of 38 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars What an awesome surprise this was, November 10, 2000

By 

Guardian of the Zen Sea "Indigo" (Looking after the sun and surf) - See all my reviews

This review is from: A Scottish Christmas (Audio CD)

A friend in Fairbanks, Alaska, who runs a gift store, first told me about this CD. I was mighty skeptical, I can tell you. Wailing bagpipes, and haggis-filled happiness was what I was expecting. Instead, this is a very tasteful, musically magnificent holiday album bound to please many, many folks--those who play the pipes to those who run from the room at the sight of a tartan. Each medly piece eases gently from tune to tune. The stand-alone songs like Greensleeves and Adeste Fidelis are fantastic from end-to-end. I played this CD for a friend of mine who is a highly discerning piper, and she tried to make the CD disappear into HER collection. For one piper to apprecite the music of another to that level is a compliment, indeed.

42 of 43 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Refreshing and beautiful, December 17, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: A Scottish Christmas (Audio CD)

If you can imagine the haunting tones of bagpipes playing "Oh, Come Emmanuel," this is for you. Maggie Sansone, dulcimer artist and music producer extraordinare, Eric Rigler, the Braveheart piper, and award winning Bonnie Rideout combined to create a Christmas collection both familiar and new. All of these pieces are strikingly beautiful. If you love holiday music, but don't want to hear the same things again and again in the same old tired arrangements, get this one. Better yet, get one for home and one for your car (or office). You'll play it throughout the season.

25 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Very nice seasonal world music, December 4, 2000

By 

K. N. Nelson (California, USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: A Scottish Christmas (Audio CD)

I particularly love the hammered dulcimer and on the songs where it is prominent on this CD, it is a pleasure to hear such mastery of that difficult instrument. It is especially complimented by the bagpipes that accent throughout several where they work wonderfully well together and offer their ancient, celtic flavor to the traditional Scottish songs of Christmas. The "Yeoman's Carol/Sound of Sleat" is rich with the musical harmonics of those two instruments together.

The Scottish tunes on this CD are very engaging. "Hark the Bonny Christ Church Bells", "Da a Day Dawis", "New Year's Day/On Christmas Night", "Rorate" in particular, really bring forth the feeling of Scotland. However, I did not much care for the styling on those more familiar songs, (to North American ears) such as "God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen", or "Greensleeves", and "O Come all ye Faithful". Personal taste aside, the blending of fiddle, hammered dulcimer, guitar and bagpipes offer a refreshing and interesting taste of scottish music and nicely showcase the talents of the main three award winning artists and their backup players. Plan a party, find a bottle of fine scotch and invite some friends full of mischief and a desire for fun to spend some time laughing and dancing to this high spirited musical rendition of Christmas cheer.