Our Review
I listen to a lot more Christmas music than is healthy and no matter how many records I receive where I can say "hey, that's new and different!", the fact is that even new and different becomes the same old same old after I have heard 50 or 60 new and different CDs just like it, if you follow. But the Concord Music Group's reissue of The Staple Singers The 25th Day of December is not new and different at all. Dug out of the Riverside Records vault after 45 years, this marvelous collection of gosple classics (and one "Pops" Staple original) features highly stylized soul vocals, set against the backdrop of sparse R&B instrumentals. In other words, it is old and different. Well, to me, old and different is very new and different. What I am trying to say in my own clumsy way, is that for soul, gospel, or R&B fans in general, and for everyone else, in particular, this Staple Singers reissue is the best Christmas CD news to come down the pike in quite some time.
I loved loved loved every track. And some of these songs--take, for example, The Last Month Of The Year--typically have the power to positively annoy me when performed by your garden variety church choir. Here, the simple gospel arrangements, with minimalistic instrumentals --Pops Staple's blues guitar licks and Maceo Woods' staccato, churchy improvisations on Hammond organ--blew me away on every track. Each number plays better than the last.
Released at a relatively date, during their "acoustic" days while still signed to Riverside Records (not long before The Beatles landed in America), this period piece is the kind of "Christmas" music that can be listened to all year. Truth be known, I tend to delete most holiday music from my iTunes after a day or so. But with The 25th Day of December, I just don't think that's going to happen.
--Richard Banks
(Reviewed in 2007)
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From the liner notes:
Sung by Roebuck, Mavis, Yvonne, and Pervis Staples
The Staples Singers are accompanied by
Roebuck Staples - guitar
Maceo Woods - organ
Al Duncan - drums
Produced by Orrin Keepnews
Recorded at Universal Studios, Chicago, IL, on July 27 and 28, 1962
The Staple Singers
The 25th Day of December
Order from Amazon
Artist site
Label: Riverside Records
Length: 30 minutes
Genre: Gospel
Release: 2007
Track List
| Song Title |
|---|
| The Last Month Of The Year |
| The Virgin Mary Had One Son |
| Go Tell It On The Mountain |
| Joy To The World |
| Holy Unto The Lord |
| The Savior Is Born |
| Sweet Little Jesus Boy |
| No Room At The Inn |
| There Was A Star |
| O Little Town Of Bethlehem |
| Wasn't That A Mighty Day |
| Silent Night |