Reviewed by Tony Cummings

There are, more or less, already six albums listed on the Cross Rhythms website with the title 'Acoustic Christmas' and goodness knows how many you'd find if you googled it, so one can't offer too many plaudits to Andy Stockridge and Tim O'Brien who constitute Fadin' Shoes for their choice of title and I suppose I should also point out that they misspelt on the sleeve the name of Phillip Goss who produced the album. But with most other things these two members of the Shenley Christian Fellowship in Milton Keynes got right. It may not be the most original idea to offer acoustic instrumental renditions of "In The Bleak Midwinter", "Silent Night", "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen" and a whole pile of other Christmas evergreens but they play them competently enough and occasionally, as on the end of "O Come O Come Emmanuel", there's even a bit of neatly delivered soloing from Andy. The only slight mishap is on one track where Ed Hewitt plays a bit of below average violin, but that is more than compensated elsewhere by Alexandra Hewitt's wonderful oboe and Mr Goss's always reliable keys and percussion. All proceeds from sales of the album will go to the building fund of Stockridge and O'Brien's church. And that's another plus. All in all, a well above average instrumental album which would be enjoyable listening any Christmas time.

The opinions expressed in this article are not necessarily those held by Cross Rhythms. Any expressed views were accurate at the time of publishing but may or may not reflect the views of the individuals concerned at a later date.

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