Bruce Cockburn

Item: Christmas
Author: Steven S. Baldwin

Christmas

(1993)

Reviewed by Steven S. Baldwin

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Label MyrrhThe Phantom Tollbooth1998

acoustic folk rock

Today's lesson is on the blessing of Bruce Cockburn's Christmas. This hallowed album has become my most-often played favorite of the season for several reasons. First of all, I don't need the snowy month of December to roll around to have an excuse to play it--it's good all year round. Cockburn's music is never schmaltzy, stagnant or superficial. As a guitar player, the man is one of the planet's best kept secrets, and demonstrates his finger-picking skill tastefully throughout this album. His back-up band also provide a sound that is gentle and warm here, playing with incomparable skill and effectiveness. Among the mostly acoustic-focused arrangements, there is plenty of Cockburn's trademark variety in pacing and playing, which creates an album that is at all times enjoyable, ranging from moody and reverent to upbeat and giddy.

Secondly, Cockburn's creative choices are appealing. Many of these songs are obscure, ranging from old Spanish hymns to Medieval English carols, and to resurrect them from some dusty monastery might seem a bit pretentious to some, but in Cockburn's hands these songs gain new life. For example, Cockburn appropriately turns the spiritual "Go Tell It on the Mountain" into a down home hoe-down and a rollicking act of bona fide worship.

Which brings me to the third and final point of this sermonette: every single one of these songs is about Jesus, the babe born in the stable to bring light and life to the world. No happy Frosty. No Decking the Halls. No mistletoe, and Santa Baby please come home, and absolutely no Santa Claus and no sap. Just Jesus, plain and simple, honored creatively by lyrical focus and superior musicianship. This is Christmas down by the church in the hearts of humankind, not via the mall dipping into the pocketbooks.

In conclusion, congregation, this album not only honors the Christ Child, but it never fails to create a joyful mood encouraging the requisite reflection and rejoicing at advent. Cockburn's Christmas is great art in praise of the greatest Artist. Follow a star to your nearest record store and get this one. Receive now the benediction: Go in peace, for the Prince of Peace has come to Earth to bring joy to the world!

5 tocks