For the Ears
‘Tis the season for carols and songs of winter, but that needn’t mean the same old holiday tunes that get played until your ears bleed. Capital City Men’s Chorus has recorded a compilation of less-familiar songs of the season, most of them drawn from Celtic lands, with works from Canada, Austria, and northern Spain to round out the mix. Northern Lights ($15) may be found locally at Barnes and Noble, Waterloo Records, Lobo, Tape Lenders, and Things Celtic, or ordered from CCMC. To learn how, visit www.io.com/~ccmcaus.
If that whets your appetite for more Celtic music, you owe it to yourself to check out the Texas Early Music Project’s The Bonny Broom and Other Scottish Ballads ($15), featuring a who’s who of local singers, among them sopranos Janet Davidson, Kathlene Ritch, and Jenifer Thyssen; alto Stephanie Prewitt; bass John Aielli; and tenors Carr Hornbuckle, Chris LeCluyse, and TEMP director Daniel Johnson cutting loose on 17 18th-century Scots tunes, including “The Banks of the Devon,” “The Winter of Life,” and the one we can’t do without on New Year’s Eve, “Auld Lang Syne.” Copies may be ordered directly from TEMP by visiting www.early-music.org/broom.html.
This article appears in December 16 • 2005.