Eileen Ivers - An Nollaig - An Irish Christmas

There aren't a whole lot of world music Christmas albums in existence, so generally speaking, I'm happy with whatever I can get. That said, this is a great Christmas album. It's not, however, a great album by normal standards - it's perfectly good, but not great. But as far as providing holiday ambience, it'll do just fine.

Eileen Ivers has always struck me as a much better live performer than recording artists. It's not that she doesn't have the fiddle skills to pull off a good recording, it's that she tends to get a little bit too melodramatic (musically speaking) for my taste... a few too many high notes, unnecessary note-swelling, etc. However, Christmas music is supposed to be a little bit more precious than regular music. With that in mind, Ivers may have found her perfect genre - Irish-inspired Christmas Music.

The song choices are good here (and, much to my delight, do not include "The Little Drummer Boy")... a couple of classics ("Hark, the Herald...", "Do You Hear What I Hear?"), several good Irish tunes, a little Irished-up Bach ("Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring") and even "Christmas Time is Here", from A Charlie Brown Christmas. Most vocal duties are handled by Tommy McDonnell (who, if you don't recognize him from Irish music, you might recognize from The Blues Brothers), with a couple of special guests, most notably Susan McKeown on the album's strongest track, the haunting ballad "Don Oiche Ud i mBeithill".