Customer Reviews

Wrapped in White: Visions of Christmas Past

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(0)
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This album is a masterpiece. It blends sounds from many different instruments. It lights memories in the listener. If it is possible to wear out a CD, this is one we will wear out! It is peaceful, joyous, and melodic. This is the perfect instrumental Christmas CD.

Dave & Susan

Oregon-based musician John Doan is a master of many instruments, and on this CD he has chosen to play traditional, old-time Christmas music on instruments popular at the end of the 19th century. This choice gives the music an atmosphere of peppermint and mulled wine not found on most seasonal recordings. All the carols are carefully selected, peaceful and very wonderfully played. The selection of songs is flawless. There is even a Christmas greeting from Thomas Edison as played on an old grammaphone. I love this CD, and play it every Christmas season on a Public Radio program in Alaska. Part of the appeal is that the music doesn't seem to have any age barriers. This would make a wonderful, and unique, addition to your Christmas collection.

A beautiful, fascinating combination of classic music songs. Notes have a lot of information about the instruments used and history of the songs. This should be part of everyone's Christmas music collection.

Wow, what a treat this CD is! I ran across it by accident and after listening to the samples, ordered 3 copies immediately, for myself and as gifts. I've always loved the sound of old acoustic instruments, and there's such variety here, coupled with pure virtuosity of performance that I don't know how I lived this long without owning anything by John Doan.

The harp guitar has great range and a wonderful "sound" for this music. It's perfect for background while doing other things, but also complex enough to listen to intently, alone. The piccolo trumpet featured in O Come, O Come will take your breath away. Turn the volume up!

I love the 30-second intros followed by the full songs. Whoever arranged the CD is a genious. The toy piano on Jolly Old St. Nick, and the scratchy Edison wax cylinder on Joy To the World are fun and unique. The mando-bass accompanying the classical banjo on Jesu Joy brought back memories of doing this song in high school choir 35 years ago, but John does it so much better than we did!

If your taste in music is eclectic like mine is, and if you appreciate clean performances by master musicians, you'll love this CD like I do. This is my first ever review after shopping here for almost all my music. Guess it took a great performance like this to get me started. Am I gushing here? Sorry. This is my all-time favorite Christmas music.

I heard selections from this CD on our local "Hearts of Space" radio program. It's wonderful - the perfect winter music. The album notes are especially interesting.

Holiday, Christmas, Winter, take your choice. A very relaxing CD, John knows his business. You won't dance to it, but after a long hard day, a good way to smooth out the bumps.