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This year's holiday music selections offer
a variety of warm-fuzzy,
good-feeling options.
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Originally Published November 10, 2004 -- Your Wellness
Guide
Define Your Holiday
Experience -- 2004 Music Review
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The
holidays are as much defined by religion, gifts, and décor as by the
emotional and mental impact of sounds and smells. Simply by turning
on a familiar song we are brought to places, times, and feelings
quicker than by picture or conversation alone.
This
year’s holiday music selections offer a variety of warm-fuzzy,
good-feeling options. Here are my 2004 favorites — |
Christmas in
the Northwest 7
(RBC Dain Rauscher, $13.99) Christmas in the Northwest is Volume 7 in a
series of Christmas albums created for the purpose of benefiting U.S.
Northwest region’s children’s hospitals (www.christmasinthenorthwest.com).
Since 1985, Children’s Music Fund, which has produced the album and
previous volumes, has raised over $650,000 for the area’s children’s
hospitals.
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The
album is stunning in talent, recording, and uniqueness. The
arrangements are deep and interesting. If you have a friend or loved
one serving in the military this season, this music would be a
fabulous gift; the first song on the CD is called “Saving Up
Christmas,” an original song sung by talented Artist Loni Rose (www.lonirose.com)
that tugs at your heart strings as it refers to saving up your
Christmas love and spirit to give after your service man or woman
comes home.
Christmas Favorites
(Sourcebooks, ISBN 140220325X, $19.95) While the songs are not unique in this product,
the packaging and content is special. This is actually a music gift
book with an included Christmas CD.
The
volume takes each song on the CD and in a beautiful layout gives the
written history and interesting background of such favorites as “The
Holly and the Ivy,” “What Child Is This?” and “Rudolph the Red-Nosed
Reindeer.” Then, each song’s sheet music is printed after the
story. Who knew that Rudolph’s name came from a 1939 Montgomery Ward
promotional campaign? Or that “Santa Claus Is Comin’ To Town” is
ranked in the Top 100 Most-Recorded Songs list?
Sleigh
Full of Songs
(Available at Starbucks or at
www.starbucks.com, $12.95) Nothing like
the classics bring you back to thinking about favorite Christmas
movies, hustle-and-bustle shopping, and fireside family fun.
Sleigh Full of Songs is a compilation CD of holiday standards sung
by such artist greats as Frank Sinatra (Jingle Bells), Tony
Bennett (The Christmas Song), Bing Crosby (The Little
Drummer Boy), Ella Fitzgerald (What Are You Doing New Year’s
Eve?), and Dean Martin (Winter Wonderland). |
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If you don’t
yet own a Christmas classics set, would like them all in one compilation,
or would like to upgrade to a crystal-clear recording, this is an
excellent choice.
Mannheim
Steamroller Christmas Celebration
(American Gramaphone, $16.95) What would Christmas be without Mannheim
Steamroller music? Christmas Celebration commemorates the 20th
anniversary of the group’s first Christmas album.
I
interviewed the group’s lead composer and performer, Chip Davis, not long
ago and found him to not only be charming and down to earth but deeply
engrossed in music creativity and the feelings music brings to our lives.
For all Fresh Aire fans, this new album does not disappoint,
including not only favorite songs from years past but also new tracks
called “Celebration” and “Traditions of Christmas.”
Terra
Wellington
is a
national authority on creating a wellness lifestyle.
www.terrawellington.com
© Copyright Terra
Wellington
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