01	Carol Of The Bells						02:35
	02	Oh Christmas Tree						03:47
	03	Greensleeves (What Child Is This?)						04:58
	04	Jesu, Joy Of Man's Desiring						02:42
	05	God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen						01:33
	06	"Unto Us A Child Is Born"						03:45
	07	Jingle Bells						02:10
	08	Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence						04:18
	09	Happy Xmas (War Is Over)						03:55
	10	Silent Night						04:22

California Guitar Trio - A Christmas Album

Released: 2002
Label: Inside Out Music
Cat. No.: IOMCD 114
Total Time: 34:12


Reviewed by: John "Bo Bo" Bollenberg, November 2002
The season of good will is with us again. Thinking of music during the festive season practically automatically makes you think of Bing Crosby and the hundreds of one day wonders who wrote a song based on Christmas. A very high percentage of that musical output is vocal, with choirs having a field day performing the music live all over the world. Indeed X-mas is the biggest karaoke ever, which is why this album by the California Guitar Trio comes as a very welcome gift due to its pure instrumental nature. No Christmas dinner will be spoiled by vocal overloads ever again thanks to this little album. And little it is, because with only ten "classics" and traditionals, the playing time of this disc is rather on the short side, although this is rumoured to be a full price album! Surely there must be much more music to be treated the CGT way in order to lift the duration in the region of the fifty minutes scope.

Don't expect a rousing version of the Wham! hit "Last Christmas" or seasonal chartbusters by Slade, Wizzard or Elton John. They could have done "I Believe In Father Christmas" by Greg Lake or even "In Dulci Jubilo" by Mike Oldfield to keep with the progressive tradition, but apart from some obvious traditionals our "three wise men" have gone for classical material by Bach, Handel and Pierpont. In Bach's "Jesu, Joy Of Man's Desiring" the guitars almost sound like a harpsichord. In order not to fall into the trap of only delivering "older" material our friends have also added two contemporary compositions, the first being the Ryuchi Sakamoto delight "Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence," part of the soundtrack to the film featuring David Bowie. The music is ever so wonderful and fragile. The John Lennon million seller "Happy Xmas (War Is Over)," however, sounds more like pure muzak, copying the vocal melody for acoustic guitar. The album closes with the most popular tune of them all in the form of Gruber's "Silent Night," taking you right back towards the essence of the true Christmas spirit. The only thing that should have been delivered with this album is a little bag containing artificial snow. However maybe you'll get real snow on the day, as nothing beats the original!

More about A Christmas Album:

Track Listing: Carol Of The Bells / Oh Christmas Tree / Greensleeves (What Child Is This ?) / Jesu, Joy Of Man's Desiring / Unto Us A Child Is Born / God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen / Jingle Bells / Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence / Happy Xmas (War Is Over) / Silent Night

Musicians:
Bert Lams - guitars
Hideyo Moriya - guitars
Paul Richards - guitars
Bill Janssen - saxophone

Contact:

Website: www.cgtrio.com
Note: will open new browser window





The California Guitar Trio - A Christmas Album
Country of Origin: USA
Format: CD
Record Label: Inside Out Music
Catalogue #: 693723654225
Year of Release: 2002
Time: 24:10
Info: Click here
Samples: Click here

Tracklist: Carol of the Bells - Traditional (2:35), Oh Christmas Tree - Traditional (3:47), Greensleeves (What Child is This?) - Traditional (4:58), Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring - J. S. Bach (2:42), God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen - Traditional (1:33), "Unto us a Child is Born" - G. F. Handel (3:45), Jingle Bells - J. Pierpont (2:10), Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence - Ryuichi Sakamoto (4:18), Happy X-mas (War is Over) - John Lennon, Yoko Ono (3:55), Silent Night - F. Gruber (4:22)

Only days after Rob had received his copy of the latest CGT release CG3 + 2 did the postman drop another package containing a CGT CD on DPRP's doormat. Since the other album wasn't really Rob's cup of tea, he asked me to take care of this one, which turned out to be a christmas compilation album. Now, let me share a little secret with you ..... I'm an absolute sucker of Christmas and Christmas songs. Though not really any type of religious believer I adore the atmosphere, the decorations and the warmth of Christmas. As far as the music goes, I really like the Phil Spector approach of some of the Christmas songs, which really put me into somewhat of a cuddling mood (I know, I probably am a big softy at the end of the year). As such, I didn't have any objections regarding reviewing a Christmas CD.

Almost all of the songs are renditions of old Christmas classics, whether traditional songs like Oh Christmas Tree or the excessively covered God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen (of which every guitarist on earth seems to have his own version), classical compositions by Bach and Handel, or pop songs like Lennon's Happy X-Mas or Sakamoto's score to Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence. Now, as far as the proggy point of view is concerned, don't expect a lot. Most of these renditions feature mainly acoustic guitars and don't offer any real suprises. The only exceptions to this turned out to be the improvisation in the middle of Greensleeves and the uptempo rock & roll version of Jingle Bells. Still, any version of Happy X-Mas without Yoko Ono (read: Oh No !) gets my two thumbs up.

If you are into the combination of Chistmas music and instrumental guitar renditions of classics you might find this an interesting release. However, I doubt if this CD has more to offer to the average prog fan than any of the X-mas CDs in department store's bargain bins, which often turn out to be complete strangers playing covers of popular originals. Not being very familiar with the style of CGT, to me this is just another one of such CDs of cover versions, and with it's 24 minutes a rather short one as well. Depending on the price at which this album is sold this could be reasonable or a complete ripp-off.

To conclude, this is certainly not a must-have for prog fans and only comes recommended for fans of CGT and Christmas music completists.

Conclusion: 6 of 10.

Ed Sander




:: California Guitar Trio - A Christmas Album ::


Release Date: November 2002

Hideyo Moriya - Guitar, Mando-Cello
Bert Lams - Guitar, Tenor Guitar
Paul Richards - Guitar, Slide Guitar


:: Review ::

For those of you who are independent musicians publishing your own CD's, you probably know that it's not a good idea to send your new material off to the replicating plants between early August and about mid-November. They are all busy producing Christmas albums from everyone under the sun, and your expected delivery date goes from about two weeks, to about six during this time. Christmas albums are, traditionally, some of the biggest selling items for many musical groups.

The California Guitar Trio is no exception to this tradition. I was recently given a copy of "A Christmas Album" to review. This album contains ten tracks, most of them quite familiar to all of us. The lineup for this release is Hideyo Moriya, Paul Richards and Bert Lams, all superbly excellent guitarists and they do a wonderful job of reproducing some of our favorite Christmas tracks on this recording, with
songs like "Carol of the Bells", "Oh Christmas Tree", "Greensleeves", "Jingle Bells" and a rendition of the well know John Lennon/Yoko Ono song "Happy Xmas (War is Over)". Oh, and who could forget "Silent Night"?

This album, to my ears, is lushly produced and recorded, capturing some very nice acoustic work by all three players. There are some additional things like saxophone on "Jesus, Joy of Man's Desiring" originally by J.S. Bach), played by Bill Jannsen and Roger Lambson. Saxophone can also be found on the "Jingle Bells" track, played by Henry Miller. I can't quite say I've ever heard Sax in "Jingle Bells" before, but it works well in this arrangement. Very interesting.

I have to admit, that it is somewhat hard writing a review on an album that is, for all intents and purposes, a compilation album and one containing songs I've heard a million times in my life. This is not original stuff. However, it is handled quite well by expert musicians and, as mentioned above, lushly produced. Plus, you don't often hear many of these songs presented from a guitarist's point of view.
For what it is, I would give it 10 keyboards out of 10.
Well Worthy of your Christmas Music Collection.

Rating: 10/10
Reviewed By: Rowen Poole


:: DISCOGRAPHY ::

The Bridge Between - 1993 - as Robert Fripp String Quartet
Yamanashi Blues - 1993
Invitation - 1995
Pathways - 1998
An Opening Act: Live On Tour With King Crimson - 1999
Rocks The West - 2000
Monday Night In San Francisco - 2000
Robert Fripp String Quartet - Live In Japan - 1992 (video)
Live At The Key Club - 2001
CG3+2 - 2002
A Christmas Album - 2002