Full Review: Dustin Kensrue – This Good Night Is Still Everywhere

The good night is often wrapped up in thoughts of greed and materialism but the raw acoustic guitar and Dustin Kensrue’s weathered voice seems to bring a sense that Christmas is about more than just presents. More than just familiar classics this release also provides 2 original tracks which personalizes the season in a way that few can.

“Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)” opens with the most polish of any of the tracks providing a gateway into this ‘once a year’ world. “Christmas Blues” though quickly jumps into the bluesy acoustic material that Dustin does so well. Busting out the harmonica during the song, it may border on too country for some much in the same way “Blue Christmas” does with it’s twangy electric guitar.

“Fairy Tale Of New York” makes for an interesting choice to cover but does the original Irish folk rock tune justice. Picking up the pace “Hark The Herald Angels Sing” is the shortest song on the album but shines in it’s brief appearance.

Closing out the album is the original “This Is War”. The song gives the impression both in title and initial instrumentation of something that is not a traditional Christmas song. In all fairness this really isn’t a mainstream, sing-along track but rather something that strikes to the heart of the Christmas story. The song details the birth of Christ as war on sin and death with his coming to earth. A somber but appropriate ending to the 10 song album which manages to resist the urge to sing about Santa coming to town.

Maybe it’s the amount of skill Dustin Kensrue possesses or the fitting musical style, but this Christmas album is an absolute must have for the holidays.

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This entry was posted on Monday, November 17th, 2008 at 2:28 pm and is filed under Full Reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.