Violets for your Furs

I love Christmas music. I'm happy to listen to the standards, but I love what Barry does with his Christmas albums. He's not content to put out the standard album. He bumps it up a notch and finds some gems to include that he can produce with his genius musical talent. Violets for your Furs is one of those gems.

Another thing Barry does that I absolutely love is combining songs with one another. It's as if they were made to fit together and he finds the perfect harmony and syncopation that makes them flow so smoothly.

Barry's Christmas music reminds me of why I fell in love with his music in the first place. Every year when I pull them off the shelf and put them on I have to smile because those old feelings come back--the ones that stir up my memories and emotions; the ones that get me excited about hearing new music from him; the ones that remind me that it was and always is all about the music.

It always surprises me that some people can't see past the persona into the person and the talent. It's sad that in order to be received as a musician, someone has to create a marketable persona to attract fans. What does this say about the fans? And what does this say about how easily we are distracted from the music?

Something to think about,
Texas Fan

P.S. Congratulations to Barry for his Grammy nomination--next year it will be for his new album "Fifteen Minutes" (impatiently waiting to hear this masterpiece!)