I just stumbled across one of the finest Christmas albums that I have ever heard.

Wait... what's that you say? Christmas is over? Sigh. They do say that it seems to come earlier every year.

So let me revise my statement. I just stumbled across one of the finest folk albums that I have ever heard.

Could both statements really be true of the same album? Well, sure they can, if that album bears the name Andrew Peterson. Andrew has been one of my favorite folk singers for a while now - he's one of the guys who first got me to appreciate more mellow, acoustic music, paving the way for my fandom of artists such as Nickel Creek and Iron & Wine. I was quite disappointed (though not at all surprised) to hear that Andrew had been let go from his contract with Christian label Essential records after 2003's Love and Thunder failed to move a lot of units. Andrew's stuff, with a few exceptions, has always been less immediately catchy and more gentle and cerebral, really getting at the marrow of different experiences of faith that he goes through, and sometimes telling colorful stories in that old "gather 'round the campfire" sort of way. According to Andrew, though, losing the record deal was actually one of the best things that ever happened to him. He had been there long enough to build up a small but fairly loyal fan base, and his newfound independence put him in a position to work on a personal project that had been percolating for years. See, Andrew and some of his musical buddies from within the Christian community had been performing a Christmas-themed musical around the holidays each year, and suddenly he had the time and energy available to turn that collection of songs into an excellent Christmas albums.

But wait a minute... don't I hate most Christmas albums? Yeah, I do. I tend to be the type of person who wants to duck and cover when malls and grocery stores start playing the slowest version of "I'll Be Home for Christmas" ever recorded, or some awful upbeat version of "O Holy Night", or that infernal Chipmunk Song, the day after Halloween. I'm certainly not going to seek out a CD full of sentimental shlock about big families gathering 'round in the wintertime, because quite frankly, I never had a big family, and we don't have real winters in Southern California. I love a lot of the spiritual Christmas carols, the ones that actually get at the spiritual significance behind the holiday. But most newly recorded renditions of those seem to be bad attempts at modernizing them or giving a vocalist an excuse to show off. Otherwise decent artists can often turn into cheap karaoke singers around Christmas. So it's rare that I find a Christmas album that I can actually stand - let alone one that I would bother listening to once Christmas is over.

And yet here I am, five days after the fact, and I'm still enjoying the beautiful, delicate work that Andrew and his friends have done on Behold the Lamb of God: The True Tall Tale of the Coming of Christ. Musically, this is pretty low-key stuff, a good cross between the gentle intimacy of Love and Thunder and the thick acoustic layering of Carried Along. Fairly traditional for Andrew Peterson, with a few new tricks here and there. Lyrically, this one bucks the conventions of normal Christmas albums by only featuring three traditional Christmas tunes (two of which are instrumental, and only one of which would probably be recognizable to the average person). The majority of the album is filled out by original songs that tell the story of God's people, longing for a Messiah for hundreds of years, and finally receiving that expected Messiah in a rather unexpected form. Andrew has dared to do what most Christmas albums won't - he digs into the why of Christmas and not just that what. He gets at the details, and tells his story with a good amount of wit and insight. No chronologically incorrect nativity scenes. No snow. None of that Santa Claus silliness. (No offense to those who like the sentimental non-religious stuff; it just does nothing for me, and if I had my choice, we'd celebrate Christ's birth at a more historically accurate time of year and then have a secular gift-giving holiday on December 25th and avoid confusing the two.)

I guess this isn't an album for everyone. It's surprising that it even got the wide release that it did (Andrew was going to release it independently, but Fervent Records picked it up and distributed it for him - nice to know somebody in the business still believes in the guy). It's not something that would really hit the spot for the average listener looking for the familiar comfort of their old favorites. But for those who can get into acoustic music with thoughtful, meditative lyrics, and who don't want to keep the story of Christ's birth isolated to one particular time of year, this would probably be a good item to scrounge around for in the post-Christmas clearance rack at your local Christian bookstore.

Gather 'Round, Ye Children, Come
Gather 'round remember now
How creation held its breath
How it let out a sigh as it filled up the sky with the angels...
The intermittent sound of drums leads the album off, like a cry for freedom heard from a distance. Once the acoustic guitar joins in, we find Andrew in what I like to call "campfire" mode, playing the role of a father or grandfather who is gathering up his kids for a good bedtime story. He builds this song as if it were a hymn or a very old Christmas carol, using a very literary style to describe God's decision to send Himself to the Earth in human form. But then a chorus breaks in that has more of a modern, breezy flow to it - it's more of the everyman sort of language that we're used to from Andrew. It becomes a sort of call to worship at that point, with Andrew telling us to "Sing out with joy for the brave little boy who was God, be He made Himself nothing". It's a beautiful, flowing song that would work quite well as the opening number at your average Christmas Eve service. While I don't know if any of the songs here will ever get noticed enough to become holiday standards, this would be my first pick for such a song.

Passover Us
So the years went by, and the people, they whined and they wandered
And only sacrifice atoned for the sins of the land
So you see, the priest, he placed upon the holy altar
The body of a spotless Lamb...
The second song on the album digs deep into Jewish tradition, and while you wouldn't expect a song about Passover on a Christmas album, Andrew smartly notes the parallels between the sacrifical Lamb whose blood covered the doors of the Jews' houses during the final plague on Egypt, causing God's spirit to literally "pass over" and not judge them. The song treads similar musical ground to a lot of Andrew's medium to slow-paced songs from past albums ("Steady as She Goes" comes to mind), but there's a subtle African influence to it near the end, in the background vocals that appear underneath the chorus. It's kind of an odd element to include in an Andrew Peterson song, and he might approach the boundaries of being too clever with this one (see the line "Denial ain't just a river, you know"), but it tells its story effectively and provides a basis for the brief history lesson that the album will give us.

So Long, Moses
Hello prophets, the kingdom is broken now
The people of God have been scattered abroad
How long, O Lord?
This six-minute epic proves to be one of Andrew's finest compositions, not just on this album, but on any of his albums, using a tense chord progression, vaguely Eastern-sounding strings, and subtle but effective electric guitar and background vocals from Caedmon's Call member Andrew Osenga. Running through a lot of history in a relatively short time, the two Andrews capture the weary spirit of the Jews after being set free from Egypt, as they faced one political dilemma after another, always longing for a new king or prophet or some sort of leader to deliver them from persecution. This, of course, sets the stage for the Messiah who was yet to arrive, who would not be a king in the Earthly sense, or a warlord, or any sort of a politician - but of course, they didn't realize that. Andrew has really done his homework here, citing a bevy of Bible verses in the liner notes that relate to the song, and paraphrasing the book of Isaiah as it foreshadows the character of Jesus, all over an uneasy rhythm of 7/8 which seems to be tripping over itself due to its eager anticipation.

Deliver Us
Our ankles bear no callouses from chains
Yet, Lord, we're bound
Imprisoned here, we dwell in our own land...
Here, Andrew makes the interesting move of allowing former Caedmon's Call member Derek Webb to take lead vocals - Andrew only show up for a brief "response" vocal at the end, but he plays acoustic guitar throughout the song, carefully picking out a delicious, bittersweet melody that sounds like it could have been written a millennium ago. It's just got that timeless quality, and Derek's voice is in fine form, turning it a better performance than anything from his recent solo album (in other words, he's smooth and not raspy). I love how the words refer to Israel as being a captive unto itself, refusing to live in freedom even though, politically speaking, its chains have been loosed. Having Derek play the role of the people of Israel while Andrew answers back from God's perspective actually seems to be in line with a lot of the songs on Derek's solo albums, where he envisions the church as the Bride of Christ and kind of sets up an ongoing dialogue between the two.

O Come, O Come Emmanuel
One of my very favorite Christmas carols - which really does have an anicent melody that is probably about a millennium old - is played here by multi-instrumentalist Gabe Scott, a former member of Andrew's tour band who brings along a few other guys to play fiddle and mandolin. The result is a lot like something that Nickel Creek would come up with, speeding up the melody on occasion just to give it more of an adventurous feel. This one sounds like it would be at home at a Renaissance Fair.

Matthew's Begats
David, he had Solomon by dead Uriah's wife
Solomon, well, you all know him
He had good old Rehoboam...
If you ever thought all of the genealogies listed in the Bible were long, boring and pointless, then this song is for you. Using an upright bass, mandolin, banjo, and what the liner notes refer to as "uber happy acoustic guitar", Andrew traces the lineage from Abraham all the way through to Jesus in about three minutes' time, stopping to offer cute little asides on a few of the characters in between. It's one of those songs that's so cute it's kind of dorky, as if you might hear it in a child's Sunday School class, but since the album is framed in sort of a storytelling motif, as if Andrew is using these songs to pass the Christmas story on to his own kids, it works really well. I can't listen to this one and not smile.

It Came to Pass
And I wonder whether either was aware enough that day
To know the child would bring a Kingdom
And the old would come to pass away...
We often hear a lot about Mary come Christmastime, and not that that's a bad thing - I mean, the girl had to have been a teenager at the time, giving birth to a baby that God had impregnated her with in a dirty stable full of animals, so we have to admire her bravery. But poor Joseph - the guy never gets enough credit for his role in the whole story. Andrew realizes this, and dedicates a song to Joseph here, citing him as being "the noblest of men". I guess you'd earn that honor if you actually stuck with your pregnant wife despite the scorn of society, when you could have legally cast her aside and started over with some other nubile young bride. Andrew's tune here reminds me a bit of "Loose Change", and if there's any one weakness on this album, it's that I'm starting to notice the similar feel of a lot of his compositions. But lyrically, it's an admirable piece that looks at the Christmas story from a less common viewpoint.

Labor of Love
And the stable was not clean
And the cobblestones were cold
And little Mary, full of grace
With the tears upon her face
Had no mother's hand to hold...
Of course, a song about Joseph would seem out of place if there wasn't a song about Mary, and appropriately, Andrew turns the vocal reigns over to a woman for this song. Jill Phillips, another folk singer who was collaborated with Andrew in the past, takes the lead here, singing a starkly beautiful song about how "It was not a silent night" and how the birth of Christ was actually a pretty messy, painful, non-pristine event. We don't like to look at it that way, but come on, human birth is a rather gruesome thing to behold, and the conditions weren't exactly sanitary in this case. Despite that, there's a definite sense of awe and wonder in this process of giving birth that really comes through in the song, so it can be a bit of an emotional moment even if it's very subtle and low-key.

The Holly and the Ivy
Another traditional song is offered up as an instrumental here, this time by Andrew's current right-hand man, Ben Shive. It's a lovely, circular melody that incorporates mandolin, fiddle, hammered dulcimer, and of course, Andrew's trademark guitar playing. He really has a lot of talent on his instrument, and I'd love to hear more instrumental breaks on future albums, even as much as I love most of the lyrics that he writes.

While Shepherds Watched Their Flocks
The heavenly babe you there shall find, to human view displayed
All meanly wrapped in swaddling bands, and in a manger laid...
"The Holly and the Ivy" actually works as a nice segue into this, the last of the three traditional songs. There's no break in the 6/8 rhythm at all, and the tunes match up extremely well, so you're not likely to notice that the track has changed if you're just listening casually. Andrew has added a few words to this particular carol - most likely the simple chorus of "Hallelujah, Christ is born", but then he could have added the coda as well - I'm not sure. It's a simple, celebrative song of the shepherds seeing the bright star in the sky on the night of Christ's birth, and the angel of the Lord appearing to the new parents and proclaiming glory to God. Like the best Christmas carols, it puts you in the middle of the event and allows you to feel the surreal but joyful nature of that holy night.

Behold the Lamb of God
Broken hearts, behold our broken hearts
Fallen far, we need You
Behold the Son of Man...
Here Andrew is joined by the soothing vocal presence of Fernando Ortega, for a song led by a quiet, intimate piano and some strings that doesn't sound too far removed from something that Fernando might record on his own. This is the theme song of Andrew's musical, and it continues the mood of quiet reverence. It's here that the "lamb" metaphor takes on new meaning for some people who may have not realized that there was an intentional connection between that phrase and the sacrifical lambs used in the Old Testament (as Andrew described in "Passover Us"). This song is actually pretty simple and repetitive, but it's also delicately woven in terms of the interplays between the vocals and the strings.,

The Theme of My Song/Reprise
So rejoice, ye children, sing, and remember now His mercy
And sing out with joy, for the brave little boy is our Savior...
The finally song is essentially a recap of the album, which, in true "musical theater" fashion, brings together characters who have appeared elsewhere in the album to reprise snippets of their songs. The first minute or so is a wonderful tapestry as all of the voices swirl around a tribal-sounding chorus of praise, which finally breaks into a final repetition of the chorus from the album's first song. It's a beautiful way to cap off the album, and quite a compositional feat, since none of the songs being thrown together here actually sounded like each other, and yet they all fit, and it's one of those "epiphany" sort of moments where the meaning of it all comes together. Tacked on to the end of this grand finale are two brief "bonus" songs, or perhaps they're meant as a response to this final song. One is a faint chorus of people singing "O Come All Ye Faithful" at a Christmas service, and the other is a snippet of Andrew's kids singing a children's song about how "God is so big, so strong and so mighty, there's nothing my God cannot do (clap, clap)". It's cute and all, but the whole "have my kids sing on my album" thing is getting a bit old, and in this case, his kids seem to barely know the song, so it makes for a bit of an awkward ending. Nevertheless, it works well thematically, because this is the next generation, who is grasping a basic understanding of the story, and who will grow up to pass it along to their children someday.

This album might just be Andrew Peterson's finest hour. At the moment, I'm kind of torn between this and Carried Along in deciding what his best work is so far - but there's no doubt that Behold the Lamb of God is certainly his most ambitious. It's a feat to have a seasonal project that rises above the usual limitations of those types of albums, and that manages to sound as good after Christmas as it did before. Lord only knows what's next for Andrew, not having a permanent label home and all, but I can tell that his creative well is nowhere near running dry, and I hope that whatever he comes up with next, someone at a record label somewhere decides to get behind it. This guy is just too good to be kept locked away in a small corner as one of Christian music's best kept secrets.

Merry Christmas... er, Happy New Year, y'all.

ALBUM WORTH:
Gather 'Round, Ye Children, Come $1
Passover Us $1
So Long, Moses $2
Deliver Us $2
O Come, O Come Emmanuel $2
Matthew's Begats $2
It Came to Pass $1
Labor of Love $1.50
The Holly and the Ivy $1.50
While Shepherds Watched Their Flocks $1
Behold the Lamb of God $1
The Theme of My Song/Reprise $1.50
TOTAL: $17.50

Website: http://www.andrew-peterson.com

Great Music to Play While: Taking down your Christmas decorations (come on now, don't be one of those people who leaves them up until July!)

Recommended: Yes