Staying in the Christmas Spirit

After Patty Loveless released “Mountain Soul,” her magnificent return to her Kentucky roots, back in 2001, she stayed with the bluegrass influences for a little longer and quietly released a wonderful Christmas record, “Bluegrass and White Snow,” the following year. I’m going to try to post a few tracks from that record this week in honor of the season, but I was having a hard time deciding which one to pick first. Luckily, this past Saturday, I had the pleasure of seeing the wonderful up-and-coming St. Louis band Rough Shop (disclaimer: my good friend John Wendland is one of the band’s founders and frontpeople—but I’d still think they were great even without knowing John) perform “Beautiful Star of Bethlehem” at their CD release/Christmas show. Pretty much everyone in the band is a multi-instrumentalist and vocalist, so I’m already having trouble remembering who played what when they performed that particular song (I’m pretty sure keyboard player Nate Dahm handled the mandolin part, though). But I do know for sure that the virtuosic Andy Ploof sang lead, and Anne Tkach added a gorgeous harmony. I had tears in my eyes by the end of the song.

As wonderful as Rough Shop’s version was, though, I have to admit that I like Patty Loveless’s better. Then again, I could happily listen to Patty Loveless sing the phone book…as long as the recording didn’t have the evil copy protection that Sony BMG inflicted on her current CD, “Dreamin’ My Dreams.” But griping about that is getting away from the Christmas spirit, so on to happier matters: “Beautiful Star of Bethlehem” as sung by Patty Loveless.