SANTA'S MIXED MUSICAL BAG

By Richard Harrington
December 12, 1997

{If} Santa Claus were delivering all the new Christmas albums released this year to your house, he'd probably need a much bigger sleigh and you'd need a much wider chimney. The 1997 crop includes more than 120 releases with, it would seem, 120 versions of "The Christmas Song," the Mel Torme-Robert Wells chestnut that hardly needs an open fire to bring a warm glowing feeling to ye old royalty account.

There may be only one "The" Christmas song, but there are thousands of others available this year, performed in just about every form imaginable, from the ancient instruments heard on the Christmas Revels' "Drive the Dark Away" to the little drum machine boys of "Acid X-Mas." You can find good cheer and good fellowship, or songs as bleak as any midwinter, and sounds ranging from the sacred to the secular. So, as Asleep at the Wheel puts it, "Merry Christmas, y'all and y'all, a good night."

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