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When I heard the title track of The Runaway Christmas Tree, I didn't know whether to laugh or groan. Whether PC Poem or PSA, The Runaway Christmas Tree is the kind of cute story that could only come from the imagination of Christine Lavin. I had been extremely curious about the story, of course. After all, who ever heard of a runaway Christmas tree. I mean, except for maybe in that Christmas Vacation movie with Chevy Chase.

But a runaway Christmas tree is only the start. Expect the unexpected from Christine Lavin. Look for songs sung a cappella, in rounds. Look for selections informed by the Chipmunks. Look for Christine's incomparable voice. I don't know whether Christine Lavin is a happy person, but no other recording artist sounds as happy as she. And few can match the breathless wonder she conveys in all of her work.

Here, she is joined by the Mistletones (haha): Gregory Clark, Julie Gold, Ervin Drake, Emily Bindiger, David Lutken, Margaret Dorn, and Andrea Vuocolo (who perform a lot more noticeably than the microscopic print where, with the help of strong light and stronger glasses, I eventually made out their names --note to ed: fact-check all spellings of names).

As often as she sings she is telling strange and wondrous Christmas stories, stories filled with silly images and Lavinesque flights of fancy, stories that, if they aren't based on facts, do tell optimistic truths. Usually, I am unsusceptible to Children's stories (no brag), but the stories work for me here because Ms. L. and her Mistletones animate them in such a way that, like Bullwinkle and Rocky, they offer something for adults, too. I would have liked at least a small dose of her folk guitar. Perhaps that's because I am accustomed to hearing her tell stories during guitar breaks in her quirky ballads. (That's right, I said quirky. A wornout adjective for this artist, I'm sure. Sorry.) Maybe it is because of the stark sparseness of the work, which rests primarily on her vocal range and character. But having voiced that picky little complaint, it's true I completely gave myself over to this unique and important work, Tacobel Canon and all.

--Richard Banks
(Reviewed in 2003)

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From the press release -

"Do you ever want to hear those dogs barking "Jingle Bells" again? Neither does Christine Lavin -- this "comic observer of human manners" (The New York Times) says she "just couldn't find a good Christmas/Kwanzaa/Solstice/Chanukah/Ramadan/Boxing Day album., so I had to make one." So she rounded up seven other vocalists, assembled a sackful of characteristically humorous, offbeat, and occasionally moving seasonal songs, added a couple of original stories, and created this lighthearted a cappella alternative to the usual cloying Christmas-season songbook, a fresh delight for children and adults alike."

The Mistletones are Gregory Clark, Julie Gold, Ervin Drake, Emily Bindiger, David Lutken, Margaret Dorn and Andrea Vuocolo.

The CD was produced by Emily Bindiger.

Christine Lavin is a goddess.

Christine Lavin and Mistletones

The Runaway Christmas Tree

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Track List