Holidays in Harmony is a very simple, no-frills approach to the holiday season. It features the lovely vocals of Nonie Crete and Brenda Lewis, combined here as the Snow Angels. Crete also plays guitar and harmonica, while producer Eugene Rea adds mandolin, whistle, bouzouki and autoharp.

The album features several well-known Christmas songs, all nicely arranged but unremarkable beyond the unarguable quality of Crete's and Lewis's voices. Among them, "Silent Night," "A Christmas Song," "O Holy Night" and "What Child is This." A brief "Away in a Manger," sung by the very young Kathleen Crete, begins the album. A particularly nice touch, however, is the inclusion of several Chanukah songs: "Y'did Nefesh," "Blessing for the Candles" and "Chanukah/Solstice Round." There's also a variant melody for "Auld Lang Syne" (misspelled as "Auld Lang Sang" on the CD) that's infinitely preferably to the tune usually sung on New Year's Eve.

Like I said, there are no frills on this album, but anyone in the mood for a simple recording of Christmas and Chanukah songs will enjoy this production.

- Rambles
written by Tom Knapp
published 21 December 2002

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