Album Review: Welcome Winter from Bryan Lubeck

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Album:  Welcome Winter
Artist:  Bryan Lubeck
Label:  Vineyard Music Productions
Website:  www.bryanlubeck.com

Welcome Winter, the latest offering from guitarist Bryan Lubeck is an acoustic assemblage of holiday classics with the title track being an original score composed by him and highlighting his Spanish guitar stylizing. The cozy atmospherics nestle the listener in fireside-imbued warmth, tinted in an amalgam of silky guitar chords and contemporary grooves.  Lubeck redefines each track with reflective musings in his chord patterns and Latin flavored intonations to a pristine finish.

His interpretation of "The Christmas Song" is fashioned with breathy woodwind-textured swirls and candlelit guitar riffs, coruscating ethereal terrain.  The jangling beats of "Jingle Bells" stoke the festive flames of his bubbly guitar verses, riffing off the melodic motifs and honing twinkling improvisations.  Lubeck has a penchant to make his notes twinkle and flare like in his reimagination of "What Child Is This," shrouding the tune in a peaceful sheath of willowy strings and glittering chimes.

His fresh reworking of "Mary Did You Know" is a hybrid of contemporary intonations and traditional harmonic forms, shaping a series of crests and ebbs that emote a penetrative tenderness.  The tender reflections continue through "Carol of the Bells," as the ministrations of the flute swirls dance in time to the pulsating chimes and buttery glide of Lubeck's guitar strings.  

Lubeck's perspective of these classic Christmas tunes has a traditional lilt swaddled in a dreamy, ethereal glaze.  In a press release, Lubeck is quoted, saying, "I envisioned this collection of songs to be an auditory journey to a place where only the crisp sound of snow underfoot can be heard. Then, off in the distance, the faint sound of the destination: a holiday party with music that begins to fill the night air - a moment in time to savor the welcoming melodies and laughter aloft in the chill of the night air before arriving at the festivities."

The recording is a lovely way to reign in the holiday season.

Musicians:
Bryan Lubeck - lead guitar
Ryan Herma - rhythm guitar, mandolin and bass
Jon Paul - bass
Joel Norman - vibraphone
Neil Artwick - piano
John Erickson - melodica
Luke Ratley - drums/percussion
Nate Lacny - percussion
Ted Yoder - dulcimer
Eric Salazar - clarinet
Don Stiernberg - mandolin
String Arrangements: Ryan Herma and Erik Rumsa
Katherine Hughes - violin
Mathew Agnew - cello
Lewis Hul Stahl - violin
Erik Rumsa - violin
Nick Bisesi - flute

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