Reviewed by Lins Honeyman

This release sees Birmingham's very own classical guitar virtuoso Gerighty delve into the Christmas music market with a mixture of original and established festive tunes. Proceedings get off to a jolly start with a straightforward rendition of "Ding Dong Merrily On High" before Gerighty portrays the Christmas story through his own compositions "The Visit", "Journey Of The Magi" and "No Room" - the latter relying less on Gerighty's guitar skills and letting an impassioned performance from his wife Nellie on recorder take centre stage. Whilst some instrumental Christmas releases can be accused of being a mechanical and emotionless affair, Gerighty bucks the trend and expertly uses his music to create a mood that reflects different parts of the Nativity tale. For example, "No Room" is longingly sombre whilst the slow build up of "Journey Of The Magi" portrays the majestic expectation of the wise men's journey. Careful to appeal to a wider audience, carols such as "Away In A Manger", "O Come All Ye Faithful" and "Joy To The World" are included and, whilst they don't stray too much from the traditional readings of these old chestnuts, they round off a pleasant yuletide album.

The opinions expressed in this article are not necessarily those held by Cross Rhythms. Any expressed views were accurate at the time of publishing but may or may not reflect the views of the individuals concerned at a later date.

Interested in reviewing music? Find out more here.