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Jim Watson's
Christmas at the Cave
Review from Raleigh News & Observer
November 25, 2012
By Jack Bernhardt
Each of the past 46 (webgal
note: it's really 26) Decembers, Jim Watson has carried his acoustic
guitar, songbooks and lyric sheet handouts to Chapel Hill’s Cave, and invited
all to join in an evening of Yuletide cheer. Watson’s Christmas singalongs
have helped make “the season to be merry” ever more so. Last year’s concert,
recorded live by the Rubber Room’s Jerry Brown, is an early 18-track gift
that will brighten days and nights leading to the arrival of Old St. Nick.
A founding member of the
Red Clay Ramblers and current member of Robin and Linda’s Fine Group, Watson
lends his distinctive tenor to an engaging set of classic and recently
penned songs that celebrate the sacred and secular sides of the season.
“Christmas at the Cave” features such familiar favorites as “Christmas
Time’s a-Coming,” “O Little Town of Bethlehem,” “I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa
Claus,” “White Christmas” and “Away in a Manger.”
Watson also shares equally
charming, if less well-known, “modern classics” including John McCutcheon’s
poignant World War I tale “Christmas in the Trenches,” Steve Earle’s “Nothing
but a Child,” Joe Newberry’s “On this Christmas Day,” and Tim O’Brien’s
“Making Plans.” The album closes with “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas,”
a goal made easier with this singalong feast of seasonal cheer as pleasant
and inviting as “Old Toy Trains.”
Jim Watson’s Christmas show
will take place Dec. 21at the Cave, and Dec. 23 at the Depot in Hillsborough.
To order “Christmas at the Cave,” send a $17 check to Jim Watson, 132 Justice
St., Chapel Hill, N.C. 27516.
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