The winter holidays are, you might say, an evergreen source of inspiration and challenge for musicians. What do you do with songs that everybody seems to know -- how do you keep them fresh and five your own take on them, while still serving the sprit of the song itself? Are there new holiday songs that aren’t so well known? What about writing new holiday music yourself -- is there anything that hasn’t already been said? Check out these recordings for creative ways musicians have answered these questions.

Jerry Douglas, in fact, put off making a holiday album for years, though he’s done several solo recordings and as a Dobro player extraordinaire has played on more than 200 recordings by other artists. Turns out he has plenty to say about familiar seasonal music and that through his at once clear and soulful touch on the strings, without (except in one case where he takes on a scary Santa voice to remind you to be good) saying a word. Jerry Christmas comprises twelve tracks of familiar carols and popular seasonal music, well chosen and well sequenced. Maura O'Connell joins for the one vocal track, a thoughtful and thought provoking reflection from Boo Hewerdine on the uncertainties and hopes inherent in New Year’s Eve. Douglas has a fine small acoustic ensemble backing him, too, with especially notable work from Luke Bulla on violin.

Thoughtful and thought provoking music is the center and substance of Gretchen Peters’ take on winter holiday music, as well. “I wanted to make and album that you could out on after you come home from too much of the seasonal stuff out there,” she says of her cd, Northern Lights. She’s done that, a offering a refreshingly quiet look at the not always so upbeat side of the season that is clear eyed and true, and also filled with hope. Peters is an A list Nashville writer whose songs have been recorded by George Strait, Etta James, Martina McBride, and Bryan Adams to name a few, but there’s no high profile flash here, just quiet respect for the season. Peters opens things with the longing of Gordon Lightfoot’s Song for a Winter’s Night, reinvents (with the help of pianist Barry Walsh, who offers stellar support through all the tracks) Angels We Have heard on High, creates an timeless and timely song of hope and mystery in Waitin’ on Mary, looks at Mary the mother rather than Mary the icon in December Child, and mixes in traditional songs including In the Bleak Midwinter and Silent Night.

Silent Night is a classic Fiona J. Mackenzie chose to include in her two disc set Duan Nollaig -- A Gaelic Christmas, as well. She sings in it Scottish Gaelic though, so it is called Ciuin an Oidche. Mackenzie is an award winning singer and Scottish Gaelic educator from the Highlands. Both of those ideas come to the fore here, as the first CD comprises carols and songs old and new which focus on melody, such as In the Bleak Midwinter and Child of Bethlehem, and the second disc includes favorites of young and old alike, such as translations of The Twelve Days of Christmas and We Wish You a Merry Christmas. There are familiar carols and new songs, all sung in Scotttish Gaelic in an inviting way that should appeal to young and old, Gaelic speaker and not.

John Cowan brings an equally expressive voice from the other side of the world -- his background is in American bluegrass and newgrass. You might recall him as the lead vocalist with the groundbreaking progressive bluegrass band New Grass Revival. Comfort and Joy isn’t --precisely -- a bluegrass album, though. Cowan has always had soul and blues in his repertoire too, and those are as much a part of the music here as are folk, country, and bluegrass. “I’ve sung these lyrics for as long as I can remember,” Cowan says. “But I bring something different to them now: more memories, more emotions, more of the ups and downs of life.” Songs include Christmas Everyday, I’ll Be Home for Christmas, and O Holy Night.

Banjo player and composer Alison Brown has a background in bluegrass too, but she likes to make music that doesn’t fit into any box, mixing elements of bluegrass, folk, country, jazz and Celtic styles to offer arraignments and fusions of traditional and contemporary music that are both refreshing and inviting. That’s what she and the members of her quartet do on the their holiday album Evergreen. O’Carolan’s Welcome to Christmas weaves music from Irish harper Turlough O’Carolan with Dr. Seuss’s Welcome Christmas and matches Carol of the Bells with We Three Kings, and there’s a nice version of Sleigh Ride with touches of sleigh bells.

Kerry Dexter is the Music Editor for Wandering Educators.
Kerry's credits include VH1, CMT, the folk music magazine Dirty Linen, Strings, and The Encyclopedia of Ireland and the Americas. She also writes about the arts and creative practice at Music Road. You may reach her at music at wanderingeducators dot com.