Wintersong

by Sarah McLachlan

Overview

Because no artist's career is truly complete without a holiday album, Sarah McLachlan took yet another step toward establishing her place in sentimental adult contemporary radio history with Wintersong. For the most part, the singer chooses the darker, more melancholic, and "wintry" pieces to cover (there's no "Joy to the World" or "Angels We Have Heard on High," for example), focusing as much on the Christmas season and the general feel of the holiday as on its religious connotations. She brings together the folk spiritual "Mary Mary" -- also called "Virgin Mary" when covered by Joan Baez on her 1966 Noel or "Mary What You Gonna Call That Pretty Little Baby" when a black gospel song -- and the traditional "The First Noel," showing off not only her own impressive range but her ability to adapt to different vocal styles while still remaining wholly herself. Her version of Gordon Lightfoot's "Song for a Winter's Night," which was originally released on the 1994 Miracle on 34th Street soundtrack (and then on McLachlan's Rarities, B-Sides & Other Stuff), is pretty and sweet, using as acoustic guitar as well as layers and layers of vocal harmonies to create a sense of space and warmth, and her cover of Joni Mitchell's "River" is lovely, too, using a guitar and arpeggiated synths to push the song sadly along. The synths, in fact, are used frequently on Wintersong, sometimes in their string form on "O Little Town of Bethlehem" or "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas," which works nicely, but more often as slightly new agey background effects that get a little tedious, especially considering the fact McLachlan has always been able to carry herself on more organic instrumentation, and sound good doing it, too. She does manage to just stick to only the sad, reflective piano chords on which she has earned her living -- nice in their simplicity -- on the title track, the one original song on the album, which sounds a lot, both thematically and musically, like "River," using Christmas as a way to contemplate a lover ("And this is how I see you/In the snow on Christmas morning..../Oh I miss you now, my love, merry Christmas," she sings). McLachlan's voice sounds great, and her interpretations stick pretty close to the originals while still expressing her own artistic individuality (with the exception of "What Child Is This [Greensleeves]," in which she goes too far, taking liberties with the melody and changing the song too much); but in making everything so soft and ethereal, instead of increasing their poignancy (which is certainly a goal of hers), she kills some of the songs' immediacy and power, unfortunately rendering Wintersong a little lifeless, albeit soothing, at the end. ~ Marisa Brown

Product Details

Release Date:	10/04/2024
Label:	Sony Legacy
UPC:	0196588928710
Rank:	215

Album Credits

Performance Credits

Sarah McLachlan   Primary Artist,Vocals,Harp,Dobro,Piano
Diana Krall   Primary Artist,Guest Artist,Piano,Featured Artist
The Sarah McLachlan Music Outreach Children's Choir and Youth Choir   Primary Artist,Choir/Chorus,Featured Artist,Children's Chorus
Colin Cripps   Dobro,Guitar
Pierre Marchand   Keyboards,Synthesizer Bass
Vince Mai   Flugelhorn,Trumpet
Bill Dillon   Bass,Mandolin,Guitar (Acoustic),Guitar (Electric)
Jim Creeggan   Double Bass
Bob Doidge   Sleigh Bells
Dave Kershaw   Keyboards
Dave Sinclair   Guitar
Luke Doucet   Guitar
Robert Mersey & His Orchestra   Orchestra
Darryl Johnson   Bass
Ashwin Sood   Drums,Percussion
Brian Minato   Bass

Technical Credits

Pierre Marchand   Audio Engineer,Audio Production,Mixing,Composer,Engineer,Lyricist,Producer,Treatments,Programming
Gordon Lightfoot   Composer
Walter Kent   Composer,Lyricist
Gary Pacheco   Producer
Sarah McLachlan   Arranger,Composer,Lyricist
Traditional   Composer
Hugh Martin   Composer
Yoko Ono   Composer,Lyricist
Bob Ludwig   Mastering
Bob Doidge   Guitar Engineer
Christopher Marc Potter   Mixing,Engineer
Kim Gannon   Composer,Lyricist
Ed Korengo   Engineer
Lee Mendelson   Composer
Ralph Blane   Composer
Vince Guaraldi   Composer
John Kurlander   Engineer
John Lennon   Composer,Lyricist
Mark Howard   Bass Engineer
Joni Mitchell   Composer
Jeremy Lubbock   Composer,String Arrangements
The Sarah McLachlan Music Outreach Children's Choir and Youth Choir   Performer
Kharen Hill   Photography
John Rummen   Graphic Design
Steve Bartels   Producer
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow   Composer
Jean Baptiste Calkin   Composer
Dan Okano   Assistant Engineer
Charlie Paakkari   Engineer
Buck Ram   Composer,Lyricist