Sunday Music Volume 5: Holiday, various artists (Big Helium)

This is a series of compilations that is sold at Barnes and Noble stores. The idea is that this is music to relax by, mostly current artists with some of their mellower tunes. This 2008 holiday compilation follows right along with the concept. We've covered the songs by The Bird and the Bee, KT Tunstall, Over the Rhine and Sufjan Stevens before, but there are some tunes here that are billed as exclusives. Ingrid Michaelson adds to her Hotel Cafe holiday offering with the original "Snowfall," Ashton Allen gives us the ballad "Until Christmas," Sono sings the a capella "White Winter Hymnal" and Eastmountainsouth offers a stripped-down lounge band version of "Ave Maria." Also on here are Lou Rawls with a big-band "Merry Christmas Baby," Ray Charles' "Little Drummer Boy," Imogen Heap's ballad "Just For Now," Norah Jones' "Peace" and Celtic Woman's "Panis Angelicus." Capping off this collection is "O Holy Night," the jazz horn choir version performed on "Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip." The performance was a plot point in the show's Christmas episode, in which musicians from TV show house bands were calling in sick for a week to allow New Orleans musicians displaced by Hurricane Katrina an opportunity to work. If you remember the show, this is a nice souvenir to have.