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One of those intriguing CDs I noticed surfing Amazon, I was expecting to hear a competent folk record, just from the cover alone. But I wasn't expecting to find such a delicately crafted treatise on folk Christmas through the ages. Although I don't usually comment on liner notes, I found the notes in A Folk Christmas to be concise, informative, and complementary to Jeanie Fitchen's particular folk artistry.

I like all Christmas music, but am more a fan of the moderns than the ancients. It is a credit to her delightful and accessible arrangements that I enjoyed even those Middle Age carols that don't usually offer much challenge to the modern ear. Her arrangement of The Coventry Carol, featuring both Ms. Fitchen and Dennis Devine on guitar, was soothing and engaging.

In what must have been either a grueling studio session or an interesting picture, Jeanie Fitchen plays guitar, recorder, and dulcimer on her original composition, a simple ode to the Christ child called This Child of Mary. This song, as well as several others, is rendered with an appealing Appalachian sound, made possible by Jeanie Fitchen's Carter family voice and competent dulcimer work. But while some selections had this old-timey feel, other arrangements were fresh and uplifting. I particularly liked the sometimes gospel, sometimes Greenwich Village folky sound of Go Tell it on the Mountain.

Jeanie Fitchen blends old and new with the dexterity and feeling of an artist who truly knows and loves the Christmas season.

--Richard Banks
(Reviewed in 2001)

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From the liner notes:

Jeanie Fitchen writes and performs songs about her Florida roots and was the 2001 winner of the Florida Folk Heritage Award.

Jeanie Fitchen

A Folk Christmas

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Track List