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Artists Seek New Audiences Around Holiday Season

by Published: Dec 2, 2009

Releasing albums with a mix of old and new songs, per­form­ers look to change their style for the holidays

holidayalbumsWhen “Sleigh Bells” starts play­ing, Nick Maddox feels a lit­tle more in the hol­i­day spirit.

Maddox, a junior in the mechan­i­cal engi­neer­ing pro­gram, per­formed the piece in high school and has loved it ever since. Some artists are look­ing to put their own mark on hol­i­day favorites as they per­form new ver­sions of old songs and flood the mar­ket place.

Bob Dylan released a Christmas album titled, “Christmas in the Heart” and has pledged pro­ceeds from the album to the Feed America charity.

Both the Jackson Five’s album, “Ultimate Christmas Collection” and Ray Charles’ “The Spirit of Christmas” have been reis­sued, remas­tered and made avail­able in time for the season.

Even Pope Benedict XVI is releas­ing a series of record­ings of songs and prayers backed by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and the Choir of the Philharmonic Academy of Rome.

Sting, Tori Amos and Sugarland have also released holiday-themed albums with some orig­i­nal, but mostly typ­i­cal sea­sonal music.

Neil Diamond has rec­og­nized an avenue for his Christmas album, play­ing off one of his past top hits, his “A Cherry Cherry Christmas” is his third hol­i­day album in recent years.

New albums or old ones don’t mean as much to senior in applied math­e­mat­ics, Jack Mulvaney. For him, the win­ner for best hol­i­day song has always been, “Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer.”