David Grisman's Acoustic Christmas

David Grisman's Acoustic Christmas

ASIN: B0000002G4

Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com
Words aren't required when David Grisman gets in the holiday mood. On this 1983 album, the acclaimed mandolinist strings together an assortment of holiday tunes like they're popcorn strung around an ornament-laden pine. With the likes of bassist Rob Wasserman and Bela Fleck in town, Grisman gives the dawg treatment to everything from "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen" to "Santa Claus Is Coming to Town," closing out, appropriately enough, with "Auld Lang Syne." With picking this tasteful, it's really rather a shame that Acoustic Christmas will inevitably be packed away for 11 months of the year. --Steven Stolder

Tracks:

What Child Is This?
Santa Claus Is Coming To Town
Respighi: Ancient Aires And Dances
The Christmas Song
God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen
We Wish You A Merry Christmas (Dedicated To Scrooge McDuck)
White Christmas (Dedicated To Ben Webster)
The Flower Carol (Good King Wenceslas)
Winter Wonderland
Silent Night
Auld Lang Syne

Amazon.com

Words aren't required when David Grisman gets in the holiday mood. On this 1983 album, the acclaimed mandolinist strings together an assortment of holiday tunes like they're popcorn strung around an ornament-laden pine. With the likes of bassist Rob Wasserman and Bela Fleck in town, Grisman gives the dawg treatment to everything from "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen" to "Santa Claus Is Coming to Town," closing out, appropriately enough, with "Auld Lang Syne." With picking this tasteful, it's really rather a shame that Acoustic Christmas will inevitably be packed away for 11 months of the year. --Steven Stolder

Customer Reviews:

We Wish You A Merry Christmas.......2005-02-20

Just so all you Dawg Fans know, David has revealed that it is the voice of Clarence Nash, the original voice of Donald Duck, singing on "We Wish You A Merry Christmas". It seems Mr. Nash was also a mandolin player and entertainer in vaudeville, and one day David, who is a vintage cartoon art fan, spotted a picture of Nash holding a Gibson mandolin. David's wife, a journalist tracked Nash down, and soon the two met. Here's an account by Grisman of what happened next:
"About a year later, while finishing my Christmas album, I had one of those rare flashes of vision, and imagined an arrangement of the perennial favorite, "We Wish You A Merry Christmas," featuring Clarence on vocal and myself on mandolin. Fortunately, "Ducky" liked the idea, and thanks to the kind permission of the Disney studios, Clarence and I met in a recording studio two hours before the record was to be mastered, and recorded our little arrangement. The only catch was that the Disney executives insisted Clarence not be credited on the album. Therefore, no one realized that it was the real Donald Duck doing the singing. In fact, a lot of folks thought it was me! Sadly, Mr. Nash passed away a couple of years later, and so now I'd like you all to know that it was, in fact, Donald Duck himself on the Acoustic Christmas album."

Cool, huh?

Holiday bliss!.......2004-12-05

What a truly wonderful recording! Like a breath of fresh air... or that feeling you get right after a big, heavy sigh. So pleasant and relaxing that you can just put the CD player on repeat and smile all day. This instantly became one of my favorite CDs - not just for Christmas music, but in general!

A Classic !.......2004-05-07

This album is a true Grisman classic. Who else could put together such a distinct Christmas album? WHAT CHILD IS THIS is done in the old english style with mandolin accompanied by a band of minstrels playing recorders. SANTA CLAUS IS COMING TO TOWN is done bluegrass style with virtuoso Bela Fleck on banjo. Respighi's ANCIENT AIRES AND DANCES is a beautiful rendering of this classical composition done with mandonlin, mandola, and mandocello. THE CHRISTMAS SONG is a soft, jazzy, acoustic version of Mel Torme's classic. GOD REST YE MERRY GENTLEMEN is done as an acoustic jazz tune in 6/8 time. WE WISH YOU A MERRY CHRISTMAS offers a touch of comic relief with Grisman's mandolin accompanying a Donald Duck impersonator. WHITE CHRISTMAS presents jazz guitar virtuoso Martin Taylor and John Stafford on tenor sax. THE FLOWER CAROL is another old english style number done with an accompanying hurdy-gurdy, crumhorns, and recorders. WINTER WONDERLAND is done in a swing style reminiscent of the Hot Club Quintet with Django Reinhardt and Stephane Grappelli. SILENT NIGHT is done in a bossa nova (?) style with accompnying vocal percussion and vocal trumpet. AULD LANG SYNE also presents Bela Fleck on banjo with a slower beginning tempo which kicks into bluegrass overdrive upon the key modulation.

With former DGQ members Darol Anger, Mike Marshall, and Rob Wasserman providing the rhythm section this album reflects what I believe to have been the glory days of the Grisman legacy. Displaying Grisman's unique musical diversity, ingenius arrangements, and mandolin virtuosity with this all-star lineup, ACOUSTIC CHRISTMAS is a Christmas album in a class of its own. It actually makes a musical statement apart from the context of it being a holiday album. This is a must buy for fans of Grisman, jazz, bluegrass, or Christmas music in general.

Thirstyhersh is right!.......2003-06-04

Like the reviewer gal from Kalamazoo, MI, my copy of Grisman's masterpiece doesn't come out of the mix in my 5-disc CD player from Thanksgiving to New Years, either! It's damn near impossible to create a unique Christmas cd from the millions out there. From song selections (obscure or chestnut?) to arrangements (experimental or traditional?), how does one come up with a mix that will satisfy? Well, Grisman's done it! With mandolins, stand-up basses, flutes and a flurry of other instruments, he creates a spectacular mix of traditional and genre-bending arrangements! His steel-drum treatment of "Silent Night" as an island celebration is nothing short of mind-blowing! And being Scotch-irish, "Auld Lang Syne" is a sacred ballad to me; but once you've heard Grisman's banjo-jangly-"Deliverance" version that removes the maudalin from the song, you may never go back!!

An All-Time Christmas Classic.......2003-02-24

This album is so much a part of our holiday season I have a copy put away in the fire-proof safe with our mortgage paperwork and old family photos. The Holidays wouldn't be the same without it. It doesn't come out of the mix in our 5-disc CD player from Thanksgiving to New Years. Buy it, you'll love it.

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