A very original Christmas collection
Peter Durward Harris | Leicester England | 10/05/2002
(5 out of 5 stars)
"Various artists Christmas collections usually contain plenty of old chestnuts, but there are not many here. That suits me fine, though whether the casual buyers at whom this is targetted will appreciate it, I'm not sure.The most famous songs are Little drummer boy, I'll be home for Christmas and It's the most wonderful time of the year. Most of the other songs are original, though Nothing but a child (Leaa Ann Womack) was written by Steve Earle. My favorite track here is Two step round the Christmas tree, a song Suzy Bogguss co-wrote. The version here is her first solo recording of the song. Suzy also recorded it as a duet with Michael Martin Murphey (that version can be found on his first Christmas album, and also on Volume 4 of this series) and later re-recorded it for her own Christmas album.There are many other great songs here, some of which can be found on Christmas albums by the individual singers, but not all. For example, the excellent Brooks and Dunn song, Cabin in the valley, can only be found (at the time of this review) here or on another great Christmas compilation, Star of wonder - when they eventually released a Christmas album, this song was not included.This is a wonderful Christmas collection, especially for those who are tired of hearing the same old songs."