The definitive mandolin Christmas recording list

[Scott Tichenor]

We don't have one! Although there are hundreds of threads that list a few here and there I'm almost embarrassed we've never developed a definitive list as a community. So, take this list and expand on it if you may, provide a link where you can get it, etc. I'm going to start with some more familiar ones but there are too many for one person to catalog I'd think:

Butch Baldassari's Evergreen -amazon | Elderly | SoundArt Recordings
David Grisman's Acoustic Christmas - amazon | Acoustic Oasis
Karen Mal & Will Taylor, A Mandolin Christmas - amazon
Brian Oberlin, Solo Christmas Swing - amazon | CDBaby
Alan and Bonnie Epstein, Come In From The Cold - Elderly | amazon
A Skaggs Family Christmas Vol I - Skaggs Family Records | amazon
A Skaggs Family Christmas Vol II - Skaggs Family Records | amazon
Rhonda Vincent, Beautiful Star: A Christmas Collection - amazon
Emory Lester, Christmas Carols - Elderly | amazon
Bluegrass Christmas Collection: Christmas Time's a Comin - amazon
Acoustic Mandolin Christmas - amazon
Nashville Mandolin Ensemble, Gifts - amazon
Modern Mandolin Quartet, Nutcracker Suite - amazon
Eddie Russo, A Mandolin Christmas - amazon
Lara & Reyes, Navidad - amazon
Tony Williamson Trio Christmas at Doobie Shea - amazon.com
Simon Mayor, Winter with Mandolins - Elderly | out of stock at amazon
Sugar Hill Compilation, Tinsel Town - amazon
New Grange, A Christmas Heritage - amazon
Evan Marshall, Mandolin For Christmas - amazon
Mair-Davis Duo, The Sounding Joy - amazon
Laurie Lewis & Tom Rozum, Winter's Grace - amazon
Alison Brown, Evergreen - amazon
Adam Phillips, Songs of Old (A Christmas Album) - iTunes | amazon
Spencer Capier, Christmas Instrumentals - amazon
Peter Ostroushko, Heartland Holiday Live at the Fitzgerald - amazon
Ronnie McCoury, Norman and Nancy Blake, Vassar Clements, James Bryan, and Roy Huskey Jr., An Americana Christmas - amazon
Ugo Orlandi, Alessandro Bono, Quintetto A Plettro "R. Chalace", Orchestra Di Mandolini E Chitarre "Città Di Brescia" & Claudio Mandonico, Christmas With Mandolins - amazon
Dayton Mandolin Orchestra, Sound of Angels - CDBaby | CDUniverse
Inez Lancaster, Snowed In With A Mandolin On Christmas Day - amazon
John Darnall, A Mandolin Christmas - amazon
Robin Bullock, Christmas Eve is Here - amazon | CDBaby
Jesse McReynolds, A Mandolin Christmas - from artist
Novel Arch, December - amazon

Recordings we're featuring for a day on the Cafe home page this month:

[Sergio Lara]

Lara & Reyes - "Navidad"

http://www.amazon.com/Navidad/dp/B00...+reyes+navidad

[AlanN]

Christmas At Doobie Shea

http://www.cmt.com/artists/tony-will...graphy/157867/

[John Rosett]

My favorite Christmas record:

[coletrickle]

Simon Mayor "Winter with Mandolins" available at Elderly and iTunes. This is a great recording...non standard carols. Just discovered it and got it this year.

"Tinsel Tunes" is a Sugar Hill compilation on iTunes that is great. Chris Thile playing "Bring a Torch", killer twin mando version of "Sleigh Ride" with Sam Bush, Nashville Bluegrass band, Pychograss, etc.

Newgrange's Christmas album is nice with Mike Marshall and Tim O'Brien on mando and mando family instruments.

Evan Marshall's solo mando Christmas album is great.

The Mair-Davis Duo "The Sounding Joy" (at Elderly) is a fine classical approach to mandolin/guitar Christmas and related carols...including many that you don't hear. One of my favorites.

Also, if you can find it...Laurie Lewis and Tom Rozum "Winter's Grace" is a great CD with a lot of mando playing on it. Not sure if it is available anywhere, which is a shame if not.

[coletrickle]

Oh yeah...and Alison Brown's "Evergreen" album features a lot of mando from Joe Craven. It is also a great recording in general.

[Scott Tichenor]

My favorite Christmas record:

OMG... be still my heart. How did I miss that one? Must head to YouTube to see if I can find cuts. Thank you.

[mandocrucian]

A more recent version of the CD incorporates a second live concert disc:
Special two CD edition of this holiday release from the veteran Rockers featuring the original Jethro Tull Christmas Album (2003) plus the more recent recording Jethro Tull - Live At St Brides. Last Christmas (2008), Jethro Tull performed and recorded a live concert at St Bride's Church in London. The profits from all tickets sold for the service, went to The Connection at St Martins, a charitable facility for the care of London's homeless community. Ian Anderson's view is that "we all have a duty of care and responsibility to help the less fortunate."

[mrmando]

No mando, but the Flecktones' Christmas album is a real hoot.

[AlanN]

If we are going beyond mandolin

[mrmando]

For learning, not just listening, there's Roland White's Mandolin Christmas:
http://www.rolandwhite.com/mandolin_christmas.htm

[Joe Mendel]

Dan Crary's Holiday Guitar is a good one too: http://www.amazon.com/Holiday-Guitar...ords=dan+crary

[David Rambo]

This would be for a non mandolin content list, but Bruce Cockburn's "Christmas" contains excellent material.

[MandoSquirrel]

This would be for a non mandolin content list, but Bruce Cockburn's "Christmas" contains excellent material.

That's what supplanted Grisman's "Acoustic Christmas" as my favorite Christmas recording years ago. It's hard to find though, the last I knew.

[aphillips]

Well you can check out my Christmas Album - there is mandolin on It Came Upon a Midnight Clear, Come Thou Long Expected Jesus, The First Noel, and Sweet Little Jesus Boy is just voice and mandolin.

https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/so...um/id484788600

[Scott Tichenor]

Well you can check out my Christmas Album - there is mandolin on It Came Upon a Midnight Clear, Come Thou Long Expected Jesus, The First Noel, and Sweet Little Jesus Boy is just voice and mandolin.

https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/so...um/id484788600

This is a very nice recording. Folks should definitely check it out.

[Richard Singleton]

I am very fond of St Agnes Fountain for holiday music. Chris Leslie of Fairport Convention provides the mandolin playing.

http://www.whileandmatthews.co.uk/aggie.php

[MandoAblyss]

"Snowbound" by Jim's Red Pants, Hillary and Rick Wagner, extraordinary multi-instrumentalist duo in Dayton, OH, http://www.rickandhillarywagner.com/Welcome.html.

I recommend #16. Christmas Morn at http://jimsredpants.bandcamp.com/album/jims-red-pants, a compilation from their six CDs (can't find Snowbound on-line).

Hillary and Rick also are devoted teachers of adults and school children on classical violin, mandolin, guitar and banjo; can't count how many kids they have launched into a life of music.

[Ted Eschliman]

No mando, but the Flecktones' Christmas album is a real hoot.

Don't dismiss this as completely "no mando." Andy Statman is on several cuts. Terrific and typically eclectic.



Jingle All the Way

[mandolino maximus]

Sorry, calling piracy on that download. Plus, providing a link to a .zip file on the web is begging for trouble.

[mandopete]

A Very Special Acoustic Christmas - Various artists including Sam Bush, Ricky Skaggs, Dan Tyminski, Rhonda Vincent (mandolin perspective). Theres a great version of "Let It Snow, Let It Snow, Let It Snow" by Sammy!

[Paul Kotapish]

Also, if you can find it...Laurie Lewis and Tom Rozum "Winter's Grace" is a great CD with a lot of mando playing on it. Not sure if it is available anywhere, which is a shame if not.

That's one of our favorites, too, and it's available on Laurie's website: http://www.laurielewis.com/store.htm#

[sgarrity]

I just ordered Winter's Grace. Then I realized their downloads are on a seperate page!! Only $10 for the MP3

[mrmando]

Don't dismiss this as completely "no mando." Andy Statman is on several cuts. Terrific and typically eclectic.

Cool. Sorry, I saw the live show, complete with Casey Driessen on fiddle and a band of Tuvan throat singers, but no mando ... and must have leaped to a conclusion about the recording. Of course I'm not interested in recordings if they're not exactly like the live show, and I refuse to listen to Andy Statman playing Christmas music unless he sticks to the melody ... whoops, wrong thread.

Oh! Hey! Check it out -- complete MP3 album is only $5 at Amazon:
http://www.amazon.com/Jingle-All-the...cktones+jingle

[foldedpath]

It's just one track on the album, but there is a cool tune called "Little Christmas" on the Liz Carroll & John Doyle "Double Play" album, where John plays mandola. It's the first of three tunes in the set, and he comes back on mandola for the third tune. You can hear a brief sample at the Amazon link below. The rest of the album is stellar too, but no mando content:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...p_trk12?ie=UTF