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CD reviews: Bob Dylan's 'Christmas in the Heart,' Geoff Muldaur and the Texas Sheiks and Maria Muldaur

October 18, 2009 at 2:21AM

cd reviews holiday: pOP/ROCK

Bob Dylan, "Christmas in the Heart" (Columbia)

I've never even listened to -- let alone reviewed -- a Christmas album in October. But then Dylan has never put out a holiday disc. Going to him for a yule collection is like going to White Castle for a chicken sandwich. Dylan isn't regarded as an important interpretive singer (except of his own songs) and, frankly, his increasingly guttural, harsh voice is an acquired taste these days.

In concert of late, Dylan has sounded as if he doesn't bother to warm up his nicotine-stained voice. It usually takes him several songs to get the phlegm out, and then it's a question of: How parched does he sound tonight?

Similar issues plague "Christmas in the Heart." At times, it's painful to listen to, especially when he's singing loud and forcefully, as he does on several tracks. Some of the sustained notes make it sound like he's gargling while singing.

On the other hand, the quieter, more intimate songs -- "Have Yourself a Merry Christmas," "I'll Be Home for Christmas," "Silver Bells," "The First Noel" and "The Christmas Blues" -- will please Dylan fans. Sure, his voice is gravelly, but so was Louis Armstrong's. And Dylan aficionados love their Bob.

This casual-sounding, 15-song package contains no Dylan compositions. His arrangements of familiar holiday tunes (he produced under his longtime but apropos pseudonym Jack Frost) generally aren't adventurous or even original. The female backup vocals sound like something from a Perry Como or Nat King Cole December disc.

The most interesting approaches are a lazily jazzy "Christmas Song," the jaunty Tex-Mex polka of "Must Be Santa" and the Hawaiian-flavored "Christmas Island," which is as cheesy as the classic pinup photo of Santa's buxom helper (the fabulous Bettie Page) that graces the liner notes of this CD. By contrast, the cover painting of a two-horse open sleigh suggests Norman Rockwell and the Saturday Evening Post.

One suggestion: If you buy this Dylan, it's more enjoyable listening on speakers than headphones/earbuds.

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JON BREAM, STAR TRIBUNE

Geoff Muldaur and the Texas Sheiks, "Geoff Muldaur and the Texas Sheiks" (Tradition & Moderne); Maria Muldaur, "Maria Muldaur and Her Garden of Joy" (Stony Plain)

What a coincidence: These ex-spouses, who married while playing in the Jim Kweskin Jug Band in the 1960s, have separately but simultaneously returned to that jug-band past. And you can't go wrong with either of these delightful discs. There are some connections: Fiddler Suzy Thompson is prominent on both sets. Both albums are long on traditional material, although Maria also includes two top-flight new originals by Dan Hicks.

Maria subtitles her album "Good Time Music for Hard Times," and you can say the same for the Texas Sheiks' offering. The Sheiks, including steel whiz Cindy Cashdollar and guitarist/mandolinist Stephen Bruton (who has since died), and Maria's ensemble, which features John Sebastian, Taj Mahal and David Grisman, nimbly navigate folk, blues, swing and jazz. With the Sheiks' version of "The World Is Going Wrong" and Skip James' harrowing "Hard Time Killin' Floor," and Maria's take on such pointed fare as "Bank Failure Blues" and "The Panic Is On," the Muldaurs show just how much this resilient old music speaks to the here and now.

Maria performs Monday at the Dakota in Minneapolis.

NICK CRISTIANO,

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PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER

cd reviews xxxBob Dylan etc.What a coincidence: These ex-spouses, who married while playing in the Jim Kweskin Jug Band in the 1960s, have separately but simultaneously returned to that jug-band past. And you can't go wrong with either of these delightful discs. There are some connections: Fiddler Suzy Thompson is prominent on both sets. Geoff brings in Kweskin to sing on three cuts, while Maria delivers a Kweskin composition. Both albums are long on traditional material, although Maria also includes two top-flight new originals by Dan Hicks.Maria subtitles her album "Good Time Music for Hard Times," and you can say the same for the Texas Sheiks' offering. The Sheiks, including steel whiz Cindy Cashdollar and guitarist/mandolinist Stephen Bruton (who has since died), and Maria Muldaur's ensemble, which features John Sebastian, Taj Mahal and David Grisman, nimbly navigate the music's amalgam of folk, blues, swing and jazz. But you also get reminders of the hard times. With the Sheiks' version of "The World Is Going Wrong" and Skip James' harrowing "Hard Time Killin' Floor," and Maria's take on such pointed fare as "Bank Failure Blues" and "The Panic Is On," the Muldaurs show just how much this resilient old music speaks to the here and now. (Maria Muldaur performs Monday at the Dakota in Minneapolis.)Nick Cristiano, Philadelphia InquirerFOLKSharon Isbin, "Journey to the New World" (Sony Classical)You could call this the St. Louis Park-reared classical guitarist's folk album. The idea is to trace folk music from English Renaissance lute music such as "Greensleeves" to Joan Baez and fiddler/composer Mark O'Connor, who plays his "Strings and Threads Suite" with Isbin. This is quiet, gentle music, for the most part (the O'Connor suite is pretty flashy), that rewards close listening. "Joan Baez Suite," composed for Isbin by John Duarte, includes lovely settings of "Wildwood Flower," "Silkie" and "Where Have All the Flowers Gone" and vocals by Baez, Isbin's childhood hero.John Fleming, St. Petersburg Times

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