A different take on Christmas

Reviewed December 2007

This moody, atmospheric collection of Christmas songs fave and obscure is blessed by Mann's rich, smoky singing voice and the stellar guitar playing of Duke Levine. On the other hand, the whole album is performed in the same laconic arrangement – making it a bit tough to listen to straight through. But for those who mix their music on their Mac or PC or have multi-disc CD players, this could be a winning entry when mixed in with your other holiday albums. Her imaginative take with Grant Lee Phillips on "You're a Mean One Mr. Grinch" is definitely worth checking out, as is her subdued reading of Jimmy Webb's underrecorded "Whatever Happened to Christmas." And she gets extra credit for contributing an original Christmas song, "Calling on Mary," which holds its own quite well against the more established fare.

Review by Jim Trageser. Jim is a writer and editor living in Escondido, Calif., and was a contributor to the "Grove Press Guide to Blues on CD" (1993) and "The Routledge Encyclopedia of the Blues" (2005).