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Clancy Brothers Christmas
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| Price: |
14 new or used available from $32.90
Average customer review:
Track Listing
- Jingle Bells (Buala Bas)
- Sing We the Virgin Mary
- Holly Tree
- Angels We Have Heard on High
- When Joseph Was an Old Man
- Christmas in Carrick
- Silent Night
- Lovely Far off City
- Christ Child Lullaby
- Curoo, Curoo
- Wren Song
Product Details
- Amazon Sales Rank: #42169 in Music
- Released on: 1993-08-31
- Number of discs: 1
Customer Reviews
It's fun. It's pretty. It's a little bit strange.
The disc opens with the excellent rollicking Irish version of "Jingle Bells (Buala Bas)", and also features a great Christmas drinking song, "Christmas in Carrick". It closes with the unusual "Wren Song" traditionally sung by "wren boys" going door-to-door with a dead wren on St. Stephens Day and begging for money to bury the bird. Most of the other songs are more solemn, religious Christmas carols done in the Clancy Brothers Celtic-folk stlye. But there is one strikingly strange song in the middle of the disc that you might not notice if you don't pay attention to the words of "When Joseph was An Old Man". Upon closer review, you find a song about Mary breaking the news of her pregnancy to Joseph, who then refuses to pick cherries for her from a tree, saying that the father of the baby should do it, only to have Jesus command (from within Mary's womb!) the tree to bow down and give cherries to Mary. They don't write 'em like that anymore.
It isn't Christmas without the Clancy Brothers Christmas!
The threads of this music are woven so deep within me it is hard to remember when they weren't there. This album was an important part of my childhood Christmas, and I have my Dad's copy of the album and a very old cassette tape that has somehow whethered the years. When I worked as a Flight Attendant, one Christmas morning I played the tape for my passengers-they loved it. And each year I don't allow myself to listen to it until my birthday on Dec. 14th, as my family brings in the Christmas tree. The "Clancy Brothers Christmas" is very special indeed.
The greatest Irish Christmas album ever!
My father bought this album when it was first released back in the 1960s and it graced our turntable every Christmas since. I cannot think about Christmas without this album and I will pass it on to my children as well. The CD re-release is excellent and has liner notes by famed Philadelphia musical historian Paddy Maloney.
This album deftly combines more familiar works such as "Silent Night" and "Angels We Have Heard on High" with lesser know Celtic and Appalachian traditional pieces such as "Curoo, Curoo" and "Lovely Far Off City". There are also some rousing Irish renditions of Jingle Bells (in gaelic) and The Wren Song that will get the Guinness flowing and the feet dancing.
Overall, this is a brilliant blend of ethereal and rowdy, familiar and new. It will make a fine addition to any Irish/Celtic music fans collection (or anybody looking for an alternative to the bland contemporary holiday music).
