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Sing Christmas |
As I write this, the first Christmas in the new millennium is approaching. Today I have decided to break a long standing rule of mine: to review releases in the order I receive them. Today, I will allow a recording to jump the queue. Because of its content, I feel I have the choice of reviewing Sing Christmas now or holding it for another year. Like a tempting foil wrapped package under the tree, this recording is just too wonderful not to enjoy now.
The actual title of this release is "Sing Christmas and The Turn of The Year" along with the subtitle "The LIVE Christmas Day 1957 Broadcast on CBC Radio" and that about tells the whole story.
In 1957, I was ten years old and living on the Canadian prairies. The radio was our internet, connecting us with the greater world. Weekday mornings, my mother would listen to "Ma Perkins" and her other soaps. Before church on Sunday mornings, we would listen to our serials, "Superman" and "The Lone Ranger" among others. There was Canadian material too: the captivating "Maggie Muggins" and W. O. Mitchell's "Jake and the Kid." And there was music, a seemingly infinite variety of wonderful music. At Christmas, the radio would fill our home with carols and special live broadcasts.
It seems radio across the world, with some regional variation, was much the same. This recording of the BBC sounds enough like our CBC to bring back memories of those long ago prairie Chistmas days. I suspect it would do the same for American listeners. While Sing Christmas is sure to be nostalgic for us who are of a certain age, I also suspect it will appeal to listeners of all ages who may long for simpler times.
The quality of this recording is outstanding, demonstrating that recording technology may not have advanced so far after all in forty-plus years. This program was recorded on the old transcription machines, recorders that used metal needles to cut grooves in large discs in the years before we began to record broadcasts on tape. The sound is as good as anything you'll hear today. With Sing Christmas rolling in the background as I go about my business, it feels as though I am actually listening to the radio and my mind is transported back to that distant place and time.
Host Alan Lomax is a Texan noted as an influential promoter and supporter of folk music around the world, and especially in Britain and his native America. With live remote links to "the seven sides of Britain," Lomax and his five producers pulled together an elegant tapestry of British cultures through the music of England, Ireland, Scotland, Wales, and Cornwall. There is an international feel to the program, which also includes songs from the Caribbean, Africa, and the United States.
The music on Sing Christmas is wonderfully eclectic. There are beautiful carols several hundred years old. There are contemporary folk songs and American spirituals. There is calypso and Ghanaian high-life. There is dixieland and skiffle. There are mummers and buskers, professional singers and talented amateurs, single voices and choirs. Among the music, there are scattered interesting stories and commentary and even excerpts from Christmas plays. Many of the performers are unknown to us and some are as well known as Ewan MacColl and Peggy Seeger.
Except for one track, none of this music has previously been released.
For those interested in such things, this release includes a forty page booklet packed with information on Lomax and this broadcast, photographs of several participants, and the complete script for Sing Christmas. It's a joy to read.
This recording is thirty seconds short of one hour but, with something like forty songs included, the listener gets a real sense of that Christmas long ago. This is the sort of record that could become a Christmas morning staple for many families, something real and comfortable as backdrop for a special family day.
The programmers at Rounder are to be commended for preserving and making commonly available this very special Christmas recording. I would highly recommend it as part of the Christmas record collection for any family.
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