1. Jolly Old St. Nicholas
2. What Child Is This
3. Branch's Arms
4. Holy Winter
5. Auld Lang Syne
6. Silent Night
From the video, you might conclude that Hilary Grist is in the same Indie Pop bag as Pomplamoose. But the pretty Canadian has a lot more depth and diversity. Sure, she can do Indie Pop, but she can also do Jazz and Folk and Folk Jazz and Indie Folk Jazz Pop. She can give you all that and more and, here, she seems to be doing it with just her voice and her keyboards. I'm a fan. I liked "Jolly Old St. Nicholas" well enough. But then came "What Child Is This" and I thought, "Hey, wait a second, there's something here." The original "Branch's Arms" could easily translate to most any genre, though it takes the Folk Jazz spin here. "Holy Winter" was enrapturing--absolutely spellbinding. And then, the coup de grace--Hilary makes "Auld Lang Syne" into something completely fresh and new--part hymnal, part torch song. I wouldn't have thought it was possibly to make that one sound fresh. The set closes with "Silent Night" but, to be honest, I was still focused on "Holy Winter" and "Auld Lang Syne". Truly an excellent little EP, which you can currently get free by going to Hilary's web site and clicking where it says "free download" (naturally enough). But, once you've got the EP, why don't you step inside and look around awhile. "It's Officially Winter Now" and you look like you could use some hot cocoa (OK, just trying to work in the album title. But it is a nice web site).
2. What Child Is This
3. Branch's Arms
4. Holy Winter
5. Auld Lang Syne
6. Silent Night
From the video, you might conclude that Hilary Grist is in the same Indie Pop bag as Pomplamoose. But the pretty Canadian has a lot more depth and diversity. Sure, she can do Indie Pop, but she can also do Jazz and Folk and Folk Jazz and Indie Folk Jazz Pop. She can give you all that and more and, here, she seems to be doing it with just her voice and her keyboards. I'm a fan. I liked "Jolly Old St. Nicholas" well enough. But then came "What Child Is This" and I thought, "Hey, wait a second, there's something here." The original "Branch's Arms" could easily translate to most any genre, though it takes the Folk Jazz spin here. "Holy Winter" was enrapturing--absolutely spellbinding. And then, the coup de grace--Hilary makes "Auld Lang Syne" into something completely fresh and new--part hymnal, part torch song. I wouldn't have thought it was possibly to make that one sound fresh. The set closes with "Silent Night" but, to be honest, I was still focused on "Holy Winter" and "Auld Lang Syne". Truly an excellent little EP, which you can currently get free by going to Hilary's web site and clicking where it says "free download" (naturally enough). But, once you've got the EP, why don't you step inside and look around awhile. "It's Officially Winter Now" and you look like you could use some hot cocoa (OK, just trying to work in the album title. But it is a nice web site).
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