"Christmas means a lot of different things to a lot of people," says Christine Lavin, whose new album of Christmas/Hanukah/Solstice/New Year's songs, Just One Angel (Yellow Tail Records), lives up to its sub-heading "New Holiday Classics" with songs by her and 21 other acoustic artists.
"My favorite quote about the compilation is, 'it goes from the haunting to the hilarious,'" says Lavin, who could be singling out Megan McDonough's "The Christmas Guitar," about getting her first guitar as a Christmas gift, on the "haunting" end. "Hilarious" could refer to Roy Zimmerman's "Christmas On Mars (Eenie Kaveenie Klibadavac)," or maybe Sally Fingerett's "Jewish Kid Born On Christmas Day Talkin' Blues" or Lavin's own "When You're Single At Christmastime"--though that one kind of cuts both ways.
Lavin's song is sung with award-winning a cappella group The Accidentals, who also supply "I'm Not Going Home For Christmas." The other artists on the disc are Jeff Daniels, Erik Frandsen, David Rasche, Ruby & Ava Locknar, Hilary Field, Sue Matsuki, Debi Smith, Lori Lieberman, Erik Balkey, Julie Gold, Larry Murante, Darryl Purpose, Uncle Bonsai, Deirdre Flint, David Ippolito, Kate Taylor and Janis Ian.
On Christmas Day Lavin will host a two-hour Just One Angel special for Sirius/XM satellite radio's folk channel The Village, to air at 6 p.m. ET. She's producing the show in a studio as opposed to the back room in her mother's house, where she's done a few past shows for the channel.
Just One Angel follows two other seasonal Lavin albums: The Runaway Christmas Tree (2003) and On A Winter's Night, a 1994 compilation featuring the likes of Judy Collins, Patty Larkin and John Gorka. It caps a typically busy year for the star contemporary folk singer-songwriter, during which she published her autobiography Cold Pizza for Breakfast: A Mem-wha??
[The Examiner is cited on Page 362 of Cold Pizza For Breakfast: A Mem-wha??]
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Comments
This is a terrific CD. It's become my holiday 2010 soundtrack. Highly recommend!
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