Various Artists – Where Will You Be Christmas Day?

Various Artists – Where Will You Be Christmas Day?

As if the Ghost Of Christmas Past is suddenly haunting your speakers, Where Will You Be Christmas Day saves twenty-four dusty and ancient devotional hymns from the inescapable coffin of oblivion. Time traveling between the periods 1917 to 1959, musical genres hopscotch from the Alabama Sacred Harp sung hymnals “Sherburne” (1957), the New Orleans hot jazz swing of McKinney’s Cotton Pickers version of “Gee, Ain’t I Good To You?”(1929), to prison chain gang acappella harmonization on “Holy Babe” (1939). Curated by musicologist and programmer of the Obsolete Music Hour on Washington D.C. radio station WAMU, selections range from the secular wishing for Santa Claus to the religious praising of Jesus Christ. The commercial rush of modern Christmas can often bury the holiday cheer under mounds of commerce-related receipts. Hearing this, you step back into a simpler world where jam, butter and fresh baked bread are acknowledged as esteemed gifts.