Reviewed by Doug Holland

There are very few believers who will not be familiar with the majority of these tunes ("Ding Dong Merrily On High", "O Come All Ye Faithful", "The First Noel" etc) presented here, but few will have heard them arranged anything like this. Guitar (acoustic, electric and slide - all played by the album's producer Dan Wheeler), cello, mandolin, drums, flute and whistle join in with the piano to give a fresh and uplifting sheen to these classic tunes. This is a brave thing to do, given the familiarity the listener will have with the songs played in a more traditional fashion, but wonderfully it works. The arrangements are brilliant and the instruments are used thoughtfully and indeed cleverly; there is excitement and sensitivity, radicalism and traditionalism, four-to-the-floor bass and medieval jig. With absolutely no sense of tampering and spoiling that which we know and love, this collection (12 tracks, 44 minutes) enriches and updates, adding a lot and taking nothing away (apart from the lyrics, of course).

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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