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Christmas & Seasonal Music

Two years or so ago, I made a post here about a Christmas CD that I had purchased that I thought was excellent -- not only fine music, but also very well recorded. The CD, "A Scottish Christmas", is on a small, private label called "Maggie's Music", and is the work of Maggie Sansone, who is from Annapolis, MD and plays the hammered dulcimer. The CD also features Bonnie Rideout, an internationally recognized artist on the Scottish fiddle; Al Petteway (acoustic guitar), and Eric Rigler (Highland bagpipes), who recorded all of the bagpipe music used in Mel Gibson's movie "Braveheart".

Since my original post, Maggie Sansone has recorded another half-dozen CD's of seasonal and Christmas music, several of which have received awards.

Even if you are not of Scottish, Celtic, or Gaelic ancestry, I am confident that many of you who like folk-based or "world music" will find Maggie's releases very satisfying and a welcome variation on traditional Christmas carols. For more info, go to the following link:

http://www.maggiesmusic.com/christmasproducts.html#cds

Greetings to all of you!

Scott Campbell
sdcampbell
islandear
208 posts
 
Scott, thanks for the recommendation. Wishing you a happy and healthy holiday from another Scot.
listener57
730 posts
 
Scott, I have discovered a CD which is quite a surprise despite being from well known performers.
BWE Classics at bwwe.com Telephone number- 800-654-1686
BWE 0196 titled -- A Christmas Gloria, The Morman Tabernacle Choir and The Canadian Brass.
There are pieces with and without the Canadian Brass, and the Canadian Brass play alone some of the pieces. Also, organ and percussion accompany some pieces.
My wife and I were just going to listen to one or two selections before going out, and stayed to listen all the way through when the recording proved so amazingly lifelike, and the musicianship better than previously experienced on other recordings by these famous groups.
The highest praise is that it is too good to be labelled for seasonal listening only. And, it is of "demonstration" quality, so any Audiogon member can appreciate something about this disc.
Hope others will also add to your list of lesser known CD's not to be missed.
fishboat
245 posts
 
Sd,

I listen to internet radio at work occasionally and a number of celtic stations in particular (accuradio.com). They are one of the few stations I've run across that do a good job of displaying the artist & CD title. I've assembled quite a long list of what I think to be excellent celtic music. The style I'm targeting is not strictly traditional, nor is it cutting edge head-banging rock...hard to expalin actually, but if you like celtic & high end audio, then this music may fit the bill. The list is composed of screenshot snippits. I've been meaning to post it, but it's just one of those things I haven't gotten around to.

I've heard Maggies Music & thought it was great...I remember scribbling a title down while I was driving one day. The note is in my file of CDs to look into.
More to discover