Well, the album has arrived, and... not what I expected, but there are some high points (for me, anyway). "The Snow It Melts The Soonest" and "Christmas At Sea" stand out for me. If the rest of the album had been like "The Snow...:, I would have been ecstatic. I actually prefer the original version of "Gabriel's Message" to this one. And there are several numbers on here that I can identify (thanks to my son, the lyric baritone) as "Art Songs" -- usually only sung by soloists in the context of choir recitals. These songs are often performed in different voice, that is, the singer sings them in such a way that his voice is nearly unrecognizable when compared to his regular, "normal" singing voice. I think that's what he was trying to do on a few of these where his voice sounds almost muddy. I'm not a fan of art songs, so these are not my favorites. My other comment is that this is clearly a Christmas album, albeit a very dark and different one, with a few winter songs thrown in, and not an album of winter songs. But since most of the songs are really dark, it probably wasn't marketable as a Christmas album. On some tracks I can hear echoes of past jazz influences that are pretty palatable, and if you just listen to the music and ignore some of the macabre subject matter, it isn't as dark/depressing/scary. I always liked "The Hounds of Winter", and I like this version too, but no more than the original. So yes, I guess I'm disappointed with this album. I would have enjoyed more traditional Celtic fare with his personal stamp on it, although Peter, Paul and Mary's "Soal Cake" (traditional spelling there!) is more to my liking than this version. And for the record, I really liked the lute album, but again, that was all one theme and one genre of music. This album, although it has a theme, seems a lot less cohesive than that one. <sigh> Not the review I hoped to post, but an honest one. Have a good week, my friends. Holly