A Mandolin Christmas, by Karen Mal & Will Taylor

A Mandolin Christmas

by Karen Mal & Will Taylor

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Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality downloads of Gone for Now (for David Glaser), Garden by the Sea, You've Got a Friend in Me, Everything About You, Wild Mountain Thyme, Just Like Today (2020), Friends Attached Sampler 2020, Norwegian Wood, and 29 more. , and , .
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1.	O Christmas Tree (instrumental) 02:10		buy track
2.	O Come O Come Emmanuel 03:31		buy track
3.	Hark the Hearld Angles 02:04	info	buy track
4.	In the Bleak Midwinter 02:45		buy track
5.	Joy to the World 02:02	info	buy track
6.	What Child is This 02:47		buy track
7.	Angels We Have Heard on High 01:40		buy track
8.	Lo, How a Rose E'er Blooming 05:01		buy track
9.	It Came Upon a Midnight Clear 02:18		buy track
10.	O Little Town of Bethlehem 02:35		buy track
11.	What Child is This 02:51		buy track
12.	Coventry Carol 01:25	info	buy track
13.	The First Noel 02:00		buy track
14.	Jolly Old St. Nicholas 01:42		buy track
15.	O Come All ye Faithful 03:02		buy track
16.	Away in a Manger - Silent Night 05:12		buy track
17.	We Three Kings 01:06		buy track
18.	We Wish You a Merry Christmas 01:19		buy track
19.	God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen 02:11		buy track
20.	Auld Lang Syne 01:55		buy track

about

A jazz musician, a folk artist, 20 fingers pulling 14 strings & 19 ancient melodies that time has polished.

A Mandolin Christmas

Deep in the throes of the hottest summer on record in Austin, TX, Karen Mal and Will Taylor decided to make a Christmas album. It was a 112-degree "Silent Night" in their un-airconditioned recording studio in August. Even the cat was sweating. The couple had collaborated on many musical projects; his, hers, and their ensemble's, but a "Mandolin Christmas" is purely a duet in every sense of the word. It's a dance between two partners: the mandolin and the classical guitar. And that's it. Karen and Will are perhaps better-known as vocalist and violinist, respectively, but as the tracks blossomed, the two instruments just didn't seem to want any company. There's a simple elegance in the combination that makes for a classic record. "A Mandolin Christmas" is also a duet between traditional folk music and jazz. The music includes pristine old-style classical arrangements, and also subtle and playful jazz harmonizations, weaving around familiar melodies that sound like home. You can practically smell the sugar cookies coming out of the oven, see the kitchen windows steaming up. Even the packaging is a duet. Karen staged the shots in their vegetable garden. That's a real Calabacita squash with the bow on it. (we ate it for Thanksgiving) Will took the photos and fit everything into the artwork templates. If you like Christmas music even a little, you're going to love this album. You're going to love it again when you dig it out next year, and again and again, every holiday season.

credits

released December 1, 2011

Will Taylor: Guitars
Karen Mal: Mandolins

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Will Taylor & Strings Attached Austin, Texas

🎻 Violinist heard on The Office, NPR, & Collaborations w/Willie Nelson, Pearl Jam, and Shawn Colvin. ❤️ Will Taylor and Strings Attached has made a name for itself by reworking iconic music like the Beatles ‘White album’, as well as Joni Mitchell, Pink Floyd, Paul Simon, and Jimi Hendrix—adding jazz and roots flavors along with string arrangements to lovingly assembled acoustic renditions. ... more

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