ROCKIN' ROD'S RECORD REVIEW

Ho Ho Ho...lets rock around that ole Christmas Tree. Tis da season to place that needle on the old vinyl grooves and get into the spirt of the season...and one of the best projects that I could recommend is Bruce Cockburn's CHRISTMAS. This is not your run of the mill smaltzy album that every singer known to mankind has put out. It has a flavor of its own...that is mighty tasty to the seasonal palate.

Not everybody will enjoy this project. My friend the British Bulldog (woof, woof) has given it an emphatic three fingers down...and has declared that this is the worst Christmas album known in the free world...and beyond. NOTE: Don't worry Red...CLR is alive and well. He has placed the CD in his microwave and made the sparks fly as it has curled up into a nice ashtray. Oh well...as Rick Nelson said in his classic GARDEN PARTY..."You can't please everyone...so you got to please yourself.".

Cockburn has taken traditional...and non-traditional songs from the Original Latin title of O Com, All Ye Faithful...entitled Adeste Fidelis...to the racous Early On One Christmas Morn...recored by The Cottentop Mountain Sanctified Singers in 1929...to the Spanish composition in the villanciao genre' from the 16th century of Riu Riu Chiu (that translate to "one born today is actually his mother's father...and the one who created her is said to be her son.) Now this is what I called ecclectic.

One of my favorite songs is GOD REST YE MERRY, GENTLEMEN... commonly misquoted as God rest ye, Merry Gentlemen. The emphasis is on how the gentlemen should rest...and that would be MERRY.

NOTE: Years ago...a bunch of manly men...including Ole Rockin' Rod... performed a dance at our church using Cockburn's God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen as our music. On Wednesday nights at Smyrna Assembly... Claudia Peterson...leader/servant of Praise In Motion...has a class for the guys...on dance. If you have a dance in your heart and skip in your step... come on...and DANCE.

I guess what may throw people off is that all of these songs are not joyous even to the point of being morose...but when you think about how the birth was the entrance way for the suffering Messiah...the twinge of prophetic sadness is the precursor of the joy to come...much like Jesus did...

"Therefore since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us...let us also lay aside every encumbrance and the sin that so easily entagles us...and let us run with the endurance the race that is set before us...fixing our eyes on JESUS...the author and perfecter of faith...who for the JOY SET BEFORE HIM...endured the cross...despising the shame.. and has sat down at the right hand of God. For consider Him (Jesus) who has endured such hostility by sinners against Himself...so that you may not grow WEARY...and LOSE HEART." (Hebrews 12:1-3)

Soooooooooo....put on your favorite Christmas music...get the warm fuzzys going...get in the "Christmas Spirit"...but don't overlook this gem in the midst of the hoopla...BRUCE COCKBURN CHRISTMAS.

This is Rockin' Rod...spinning the platters that and playing the tunes...that I want to hear. Keep your ears open...and you lips smiling until next time.

Love and Ecclectic Kisses
Rocking "55 and Still Rockin" Rod