Album Notes

Take a Christmas Walk with Raison D'Etre...

Raison D'Etre carols each winter at an event called "Frontier Christmas" near Maysville, KY. "Christmas Belles" is their effort to preserve the feeling of those three-hour outdoor performances along the rough stone footpaths of Old Washington, an 18th Century settlement along the Ohio River. Often described by the trio as their "bonnet head" gig, since pioneer attire is required for most performers and artisans, this caroling renews Raison D'Etre each season and reminds them how good it feels to make a joyful noise.

OK, so sometimes the carols sound decidedly 20th Century. Part of the charm of caroling is surprising the unsuspecting revelers with an occasional Andrews Sisters tune. So while you're gathered in your cozy room, listening to older carols, smelling that cabin wood smoke, tasting that hot cider, and remembering all those marvelous carved Santas you saw on your Christmas Walk, delight in a few "creative anachronisms" that suddenly transport you to the Christmas celebrations of the 1940s or to the Sea Islands of South Carolina, or even to the contemporary beauty of "Light of the Stable."

Your own personal Christmas Walk ends with the contemplative poem by Longfellow, "Christmas Bells."
Can there be peace on earth? Ask the bells. For those who listen, heaven and earth are always singing.