Songs: Carol Of The Bells, Christmas Waltz/Fum Fum Fum, Silver Bells, God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen/Joy To The World, O Holy Night, Masters In This Hall, Christmas Blues A' Comin', The Little Drummer Boy, Silent Night, What Child Is This, The Coventry Carol/Patapan, Santa Baby, The Last Noel, Jesu Bambino/The First Noel

Personnel: Dan Crary--guitar; Beppe Gambetta--guitar; Radim Zenkl--mando-ukulele; John Cephas--guitar and vocal; Phil Wiggins--harmonica; Kay Jaffe--gemshorn, medieval harp, renaissance harp, drum; Michael Jaffe--lute; Billy Oskay--violin

Suddenly it's Christmas right after Halloween. These are the first words of Loudon Wainwright III's song Suddenly It's Christmas, it a classic take on the commercialization of the holiday season. And such is how a CD reviewer feels having to listen to Christmas music in October in order to meet the deadline for a December publication. Yet there is one new holiday recording that is a real treat to listen to anytime and it is called Holiday Guitar by guitarist Dan Crary.

Dan Crary is well known to bluegrass fans, as he was part of the bands Berline, Crary and Hickman, California, Bluegrass Alliance, and Sundance. Unlike most bluegrass pickers who are raking in zillions of dollars from touring and album sales, Crary also has a day job. He is a Ph.D. and a full-time professor of speech communications at Cal State Fullerton. But on Holiday Guitar this speech Prof. lets his fingers do the singing, as all but part of one song is instrumental.

As you might expect on a recording called Holiday Guitar, there are some of the usual carols covered, such as Carol of the Bells, Silver Bells, God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen, Joy To The World, Holy Night, The Little Drummer Boy, Silent Night, What Child Is This, and The First Noel. But there are also some songs that go back to the 17th and 18th centuries, such as Christmas Waltz, Fum Fum Fum, Masters In This Hall, The Coventry Carol, and Patapan, as well as the Crary originals Christmas Blues A' Comin' and The Last Noel. Fortunately for everyone there are no jingle bells rockin', and no red nosed reindeer running over hapless grandmas on this CD. And for the most part acoustic guitar is the instrument of choice carrying the melodies. But with the help of some friends playing mando-ukulele, harmonica, gemshorn, harp, lute, violin and just a touch of drum on one song, Crary has put together one of the most pleasant sounding Christmas recordings in recent memory.

Besides being wonderful acoustic music that would be great to listen to during holiday meals or sitting by the fire with a good book, another nice thing about Holiday Guitar is since it is mostly instrumental you can do your very own Karaoke singing to a lot of the songs. That is, as long as there is no one else within earshot. There is no need to spoil the holiday spirit for others.

If your old John Fahey instrumental Christmas recording is worn out, and the Windham Hill recordings are just not bluegrassy enough for you, you will want to have a copy of Dan Crary's Holiday Guitar to add to your holiday collection. And don't wait until December to start listening to it again next year.