Christmas

• music

Canadian Bruce Cockburn's understated musical and vocal strengths belie his more ardent political folk-pop in a career that never found a wider U.S. audience. Too bad, because Cockburn deftly mixes folk, rock, country, gospel, and international music without making it seem forced or found. On Christmas the singer takes artistic and poetic license to rearrange "Silent Night," "Adeste Fidelis," and other more reverent standards alongside "The Huron Carol," "Go Tell It on the Mountain," and "Mary Had a Baby," another beautiful gospel tune often overlooked by more mainstream singers. Cockburn's quiet intensity ignites most of these--and his liner notes are brief but poignant and informative.