[HPFGU-OTChatter] RE: Favourite Holiday Music?

[Aberforth's Goat]

As usual, by the time I get warmed up to a topic, it's about as interesting
as cold scrambled eggs ... but still, I couldn't help but chime in:

My tastes in music aren't usually much to brag about. I play electric bass
and find that mainstream, top-40s pop has the kind of bass playing I like
best. Heck - I even learned a bass line from a CD by those Hanson boys ...

But round about Christmas time, I get a hankering for older American music.
That's when I want to hear Bing Crosby, big bands, elegantly insouciant song
writing and jazz chords. Rudoloph, Silver Bells, Santa Clause is Coming, the
Toy Shop and Sleigh Ride are some of my favorites. But the very best of all
is the Christmas Song (Chestnuts Roasting ... ) - even if I do get lost
every time I try to sing the funky chord at "folks dressed up like Eskimos."
(Somehow, "everybody knows" always ends up in the wrong key, goll ding it!)

My favorite Christmas album just now is Anne Sophie von Otter's _Home for
Christmas_. (Deutsch Gramaphone '99) What a voice - and what a mix of
classic, jazz, folk and medieval! Her renditions of Deck the Halls (with
accordion and violin) and Tomorrow Will Be My Dancing Day (with brass and
great percussion) are amazing. Barnes and Noble has samples on their site:
http://music.barnesandnoble.com/Search/product.asp?ean=28945968520. (Though
the samples sound awful on my laptop's  speakers.)

Baaaaaa!

Aberforth's Goat (a.k.a. Mike Gray)
_______________________

"Of course, I'm not entirely sure he can read, so that may not have been
bravery...."