American Folk Songs for Christmas
American Folk Songs for Christmasamounts to an extraordinary and large collection of unvarnished American folk songs sung and played by the Seeger family with help from British friends and folksinger-playwrightEwan MacColland daughter Kitty. Unassuming and full of old-fashioned good times, this CD's simple pleasures are derived from gospel music and lost carols, mountain hymns, a sprinkling of popular standards, spirituals, and such "earthy" instruments as the concertina, fiddle, piano, dulcimer, banjo, jaw harp, whistle and plain-singing human voices and joyous handclaps. The disc's panoramic look into Christmas from another time and place is just right for those caught up in today's "simplicity" movement where less is definitely more--or for anyone wanting to get out from under the oppressive weight of so much commercialized product. Recommended.--Martin Keller