As promised, today we begin a new theme – Unusual Chrismas Albums. Not I realise that it is quite common for an artiste to produce a collection of well worn Christmas songs at this time of year, just to separate their fans from their hard earned cash. However, occasionally something unusual emerges from the studio. Unusual either because of the choice of song or because of the artiste concerned. Our first offering is a good example of the latter. No one could have predicted that Bob Dylan would release a Christmas Album but here it is.
Christmas in the Heart is the 34th studio album and first Christmas album by American singer-songwriter Bob Dylan, released in October 2009. The album comprises a collection of hymns, carols and popular Christmas songs. All Dylan’s royalties from the sale of this album benefit the charities Feeding America in the USA, Crisis in the UK, and the World Food Programme in perpetuity.
Dylan said that, although he was born and raised Jewish (he converted to Christianity in the late 1970s), he never felt left out of Christmas during his childhood in Minnesota. Regarding the popularity of Christmas music, he said, “… it’s so worldwide and everybody can relate to it in their own way”. The album opened at No. 1 on the Billboard Holiday Album chart, No. 5 on the Folk Album chart, No. 10 on the Rock Album chart and No. 23 on the overall album charts. As with most of Dylan’s 21st century output, he produced it himself under the pseudonym Jack Frost.
The album was recorded at Jackson Browne’s Groove Masters Studio in Santa Monica. In addition to Dylan’s Never Ending Tour band, the sessions featured contributions from other musicians including Los Lobos, David Hidalgo, Chess Records veteran Phil Upchurch and a choir that included Amanda Barrett and Abby DeWald (better known as folk music duo The Ditty Bops).
In an interview published by Steet News Service, journalist Bill Flanagan asked Dylan why he had performed the songs in a straightforward style, and Dylan responded: There wasn’t any other way to play it. These songs are part of my life, just like folk songs. You have to play them straight too. When Flanagan reported that some critics thought the album was an ironic treatment of Christmas songs, Dylan responded: Critics like that are on the outside looking in. They are definitely not fans or the audience that I play to. They would have no gut level understanding of me and my work, what I can and can’t do—the scope of it all. Even at this point in time they still don’t know what to make of me.
While the unexpected move by Dylan to record a Christmas album was received with skepticism at first, the outcome of the project was lauded by critics for bringing a fresh breath of air into these classics. Slant Magazine‘s critic Jesse Cataldo awarded the album 4 stars out of 5 and said: This enjoyable sense of exploration, which prizes levity in a genre that usually amounts to an artistic wasteland, is invaluable. It also proves how much life is left in the songs, and how much other artists have succeeded at butchering them.
