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I was quite taken by this record, as well as being taken completely by surprise. There was just something about it I couldn't quite put my finger on at first. Although I had never heard Gerri Gribi or her music, I felt completely at home with all of the songs and arrangements. It occurred to me that I seemed to hear, in her voice and in her arrangements, somebody who remembered Christmas much the same way I did. Her arrangements are traditional and straightforward, her voice strong and sure. I heard just a hint of Joan Baez at times. I believe what I am getting at here is a sense of nostalgia, remembering hearing these selections performed in a similar mode during my own central plains childhood in the 1960s. I've never met Gerri Gribi, but I feel I got to know her at least a little bit listening to her Christmas record.

What shines through for me in this record is the raw emotion of the holiday season. Families intact and making the best of their time together. People scraping together enough for Christmas gifts by denying themselves other pleasures throughout the year. A simpler, if not in all ways a better time.

Approporiately, Ms. Gribi is joined by her mother on Silent Night and, at what is no doubt a Christmas day recording session, performs Getting to Know You with her sister, Mary Beth.

This is a very satisfying Christmas record.

--Richard Banks
(Reviewed in 1998)

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From the liner notes:

Gerri Gribi: Vocals, dulcimer, autoharp; guitar on What Child Is This?
Lee Nichols: Guitar and vocals
Ellen Rosewall: Vocals on Lo How A Rose, and Still Still Still
Michael Rosewall: Piano on Lo How A Rose and Ave Maria; piano and vocal on Still Still Still
Lawrence W. Frye: Viola on Silent Night

Produced by Gerri Gribi for Lilyfern Records
Engineered by John Croarkin, Made Ya Look
Cover Design by Beverly Watkins
Cover Photo by Charles L. Gribi, 1956

Gerri Gribi

Home for Christmas

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Track List