A Lost Hollow Christmas sounds like a lot of fun, this album takes songs you know and rearranges them into something new and fresh and also mixes them with some Lost Hollow originals to make an excellent record - perfect for this time of year.
"God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen" comes as a folky reinterpretation rich in mandolins, fiddles and guitar,and a soaring middle section that seems to keep on rising, "Silent Night" has kept the words but has had its tune completely rearranged to the point that you could easily not even recognize it. Tommy and Lorrie's voices joining perfectly together over gentle acoustic guitar and subtle suitable strings.. Lorrie takes centre stage on "Little Drummer Boy" where initially the main change is to the "rum pum pum pum" line but its enough to completely change the feel of the song.
It is in the original songs though where the real nuggets are to be found, "Heaven Knows" co written with fellow C2C attendee Leslie Satcher, sees Tommy and Lorrie taking the parts of Mary and Joseph with a realistic portrayal of the sort of doubts and reactions they would have had. "Just A Little While Longer" sees them taking a number of characters initially as Mary and Joseph searching for a room., They then take on the roles of the Shepherds and the 3 Wise Men. with a beautiful string accompaniment and the test of a great Christmas chorus that could easily have been used in another non Christmas song!! If things has been mainly Americanaish so far then "Jesus and Santa" is something completely different, an old time jazz country swing that almost defies description.
Of the other two tracks "On To Bethlehem Town" is apparently a traditional Welsh hymn and carries with it the ring of an aged tune while "Coventry Carol" is the certainly the oldest Christmas song you'll hear this Christmas, as it dates back to the 16th Century and concerns itself with Herod killing all children under the age of two, The vocals, violin and gentle acoustic guitar have a timeless feel about it and had they played it 150 years earlier i'm sure they would have garnished as much praise as it deserves today.
As if all this was not enough those lovely folk at Lost Hollow HQ are giving this away for free in the true spirit of Christmas and so for the price of an email address you too could settle by the fire and enjoy a a Lost Hollow Christmas.
http://losthollowmusic.com/christmas/?fbclid=IwAR2ieaLz2OWubL90wsxxxZcEhUZlxEnKHH5EFLHcgMiyUpJzSuj_mhIsCHk