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Pickin'. There is no better picked Christmas music than bluegrass, and no more authentic Christmas pickers than Hillbilly pickers. Pickin, pickin, pickin. And gospel singin. That's what this record has, and lots of it. I'm glad this came in early, because it is the kind of effort that gets me fired up.

I'm not familiar with any of these artists, not a single one, and I haven't heard all of the record as I write. (I accidentally listened to some of some of it in August as I was looking for the total time. It jumped out of my puny little computer speakers as bold and sweet as something on the big stereo. But all the big stereos are on the blink, anyway, so it is just a stroke of luck to have a Pinecastle Christmas Gatherin' first at hand.)

Bluegrass music is mostly an unexplored country for me, and since I stopped listening to Folkways, I haven't been getting any kind of bluegrass fix for awhile. Maybe that's why the timbre and earnestness of this collection is falling sweetly on the ear.

White Christmas as interpreted by Charlie Waller & The Country Gentlemen represents the best of this collection, an understated and startlingly clear breath of the holidays, and this on a song I usually don't get warm and fuzzy about. Their lilting southernness takes some of Bing Crosby's maudlin seriousness out of the mix. But I shouldn't drone on about individual songs, because this is really a label effort (and possibly the value pick of the season). And because it has the kind of depth of individual recordings that I will pick other favorites as I give it a fair listen. (Yep, second time through I liked Wildfire's There's A New Kid In Town; third time, I noticed Nothin' Fancy's Snoopy's Christmas.)

There are consistently good performances, bell-clear audio, novel inclusions (The Village Singers A Carpenter, A Mother, And A King (written by Bobby Hart and Danny Jennsen) was something I had not heard before.) Holy Moses, at 58 minutes this could be the bluegrass holiday record I've been waiting my whole life for, at least for this year.

--Richard Banks
(Reviewed in 2003)

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From the liner notes:

Artists appearing on A Pinecastle Christmas Gatherin', in order of appearance, are Scott Vestal, Wayne Benson, Jeff Autry, Aubrey Haynie, Mark Schatz; The Village Singers; Michele Nixon and Drive; Jim Hurst and Missy Raines; Larry Stephenson, Jessie McReynolds and The Virginia Boys; Ross Nickerson; Charlie Waller and The Country Gentlemen; David Parmley and Continental Divide; Eddie and Martha Adcock; Josh Williams; Nothin' Fancy; Sally Jones; The Special Consensus; Wildfire; WhiteHouse.

Various Artists

A Pinecastle Christmas Gatherin'

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Track List