Christmas Music

I'm listening to more Christmas music this year than ever before. There has been an increase in the number of holiday-specific releases over the last few years. Many are little more than attempts to 'cash in' on the current popularity of the artist and consequently the music performed is pretty lightweight. I have highlighted a couple of releases that I think are worthy of mention. "Bethlehem" by Brian McKnight stands out by virtue of the amount of original material as well as the breadth of the styles contained therein. The only downside to the experience is to realize that since this CD was released in 1998, Brian's marriage has ended in divorce...which tends to nullify certain of the sentiments he expresses on the album.
"Christmas Worship" by John Tesh surprised me, because I had felt that John's new 'worship' direction deprived us of his undoubted original composing skill which had graced his earlier recordings such as "AVALON" and "ONE WORLD". However his foray into modern worship has allowed his skill as an arranger and adapter of other works to come to the forefront. The result is an extremely well performed and arranged selection of christmas favorites as well as two of the best 'new' christmas songs in years, "This is your gift" and "Without You".