2. O Come All Ye Faithful
3. Christmas Waltz
4. Patapan/O Come, O Come Emmanuel
5. Little Saint Nick
6. Toyland/White Christmas
7. Winter Moon
8. Little Soldier
9. The Christmas Song
10. Silent Night
11. Winter Moon (with puppet friends)
AMAZON
ARTIST SITE
I'll be honest with you. While its nice that some artists reach back and try to create a Christmas album faithful to the Golden Age of Bing and Frank and Dean and Patti Page and Jo Stafford, it's refreshing to come across an artist making a Christmas album that's unabashedly about who she is. And somehow I knew Mindy Gledhill would be exactly that kind of artist the moment I stumbled upon her web site.
Mindy Gledhill debuted on record in 2004 with "The Sum Of All Grace", an award winning Contemporary Christian effort. It seemed as though a successful and comfortable path was before her. But, marching to the beat of her own drummer, Mindy instead chose to record music that was less about devotion and more about inspiration and empowerment. I'll point, as I've done before, to the song "Whole Wide World" from Mindy's "Anchor" CD as an exemplar of her genius. It's a simple yet powerful song of female empowerment that works (and works well) as Indie Pop, Alternative Rock or as a Children's song. It's a remarkable piece of music, imho.
On "Winter Moon", we get peppy upbeat unbridled childlike joy Mindy in songs like "Santa Claus Is Coming To Town" and "Little Saint Nick". We get a bit of flirtatious flapper girl Mindy in the title track and "The Christmas Song". And we get ethereal dream girl Mindy on "The Christmas Waltz" and the medley of "Toyland" and "White Christmas". Devout Sunday's child Mindy is here, too, with faithful renditions of "Silent Night" and "O Come All Ye Faithful". And I've never been a big fan of "Pat A Pan", but I absolutely love what Mindy has done with it here. At the very least, Mindy Gledhill combines the best aspects of Pomplamoose and Leigh Nash and brings something uniquely her own to the mix besides. I'm guessing this album will hold up well in a shuffle with She & Him come December.
Mindy Gledhill recorded "Winter Moon" over the summer. In 5 days. While she was 7 months pregnant. And I think its just wonderful. I think its nigh on perfect. Your mileage may vary, but I think Mindy's magic will win you over, too. Amazon lists an October 4 release date, but I believe that's been pushed back to October 18. Don't worry. Mindy's worth the wait. Preview the title track at Mindy's Facebook site.