Ukulele Christmas

I received a kind request from Ben, who devotes his life to playing the ukulele and travelling . He has just made a Christmas ukulele album and asked me to write my opinion of it. I was happy to oblige. He sent me the album as a Christmas present, I listened to it, and I can say nothing but good things about it.

First of all, I think it sounds very good. The ukulele sparkles throughout every song. Some tracks contain fewer additional instruments and others contain more. Let us be honest: that is a good thing, because twelve songs accompanied by ukulele alone might feel a little thin. As it is, the tasteful arrangements show that the studio did a very professional job. The singing is lovely, and in places the sound reminds me of The King's Singers – the vocal tone, the harmonies and the English pronunciation. They have covered all the popular English-language Christmas songs; you can see – or rather hear – that the album was not simply thrown together. It was produced professionally.

So here is the track list:

1. We Wish You a Merry Christmas

2. Let it Snow

3. Jingle Bells/Vive le Vent

4 Have Yourself a Merry little Christmas

5. O Tannenbaum

6. God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen

7. The First Noël

8. Minuit Chrétiens (Holy Night)

9. Stille Nacht/Silent Night/Douce Nuit

10. O Come All Ye Faithful

11. The Christmas Song (Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire)

12. White Christmas

A small sample:

If you like these songs and have not yet grown tired of hearing them piped into your ears in every shopping centre , you can safely buy the CD; you will not be disappointed. Of course, I hope that at Christmas our beautiful Hungarian carols will be heard first and foremost, but there is no reason why the occasional song from this CD should not be played as well.