A Lyrical Toast to Christmas in ‘Holiday Guitar’

*** 1/2

DAN CRARY

“Holiday Guitar”

Sugar Hill

If you like traditional folk guitar instrumentals, and you like traditional Christmas songs, not adding this gleaming ornament to your collection would be tantamount to self-deprivation--and Christmas is hardly the season for that.

Crary comes highly credentialed for this, his seventh solo album. Before he became an internationally admired bluegrass musician who doubles as a communications professor at Cal State Fullerton, the Kansas native studied for the ministry. That was long ago and may not have a direct influence on Crary’s approach to his Christmas album’s mostly standard repertoire. But much of “Holiday Guitar” possesses a dark intensity or stately nobility that will help set the mood for celebrators who want a Christmas that’s about more than good cheer and material goods.

Crary excels with lyricism on ballads, and he has the good sense not to gild such lilies as “Silver Bells” and “Silent Night” with a lot of flashy overlay. In “Silver Bells,” using both brightly shining and muffled, dampened-string tonalities lends variety, and a pinging, airy descending figure that Crary interpolates makes you want to look out the window for falling snowflakes.

But his hallmark as a guitarist is not prettiness; it’s power. Crary’s combination of speed, muscle, clarity and control powers “Carol of the Bells,” “God Rest Ye Merrie, Gentlemen” and amazing versions of “The Little Drummer Boy” and “What Child Is This.” On “Drummer Boy,” Crary chops out chugging chords with the dramatic rhythmic flair of a Neil Young, setting the listener up for a boggling, quicksilver moment in which the dark march breaks into a giddy celebratory dance.

Crary’s Kansas youth serves him well on “Masters in This Hall,” an old English song that evokes both wintry chill and solemn communal celebration. It gets at Christmas’--and Christianity’s--traditional function as a source of shelter for body and soul in an world of inhospitable elements.

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While the album veers toward Renaissance and pre-Victorian music (on one piece, Crary is joined by guests on lute and a recorder-like wind instrument), it’s not without its 20th century touches, including the trenchant Bluegrass runs of “What Child Is This,” and a folksy original blues-trio number, “Christmas Blues a’ Comin’.” A second dip into the blues, “Santa, Baby,” is superfluous and not very Christmasy.

Other than that, “Holiday Guitar” is essential--a recording attuned to the traditional essences of Christmas and fired by a rare blend of purposefulness, lyricism and the crystalline sizzle of Crary igniting the acoustic-music equivalent of a controlled burn.

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Ratings range from * (poor) to **** (excellent), with three stars denoting a solid recommendation.