Christmastide (album)

Christmastide is Bob Bennett's eighth album; his second with the Signpost Music label. In this release, Bob captures many of Western Civilization's love/hate relationship with the Christmas season.

Track listing
All songs written by Bob Bennett, except where noted as "(words / music)".


 * 1) "God with Us" – 4:05
 * 2) "Brightest and Best" (Reginald Heber / James P. Harding) – 4:07
 * 3) "Come Thou Not Expected Bossa" (Traditional) – 5:48
 * 4) "It May Not Have Been December" – 3:41
 * 5) "Jesus Christ the Apple Tree" (Anonymous / Elizabeth Poston) – 5:36
 * 6) "The First Noel" (Traditional) – 1:13
 * 7) "Christmas for Cynics" – 3:12
 * 8) "Both Things" – 3:25
 * 9) "Tomorrow Shall Be My Dancing Day" (Traditional / John Gardner) – 2:09
 * 10) "December MIA" – 4:12
 * 11) "O Come All Ye Faithful" (Traditional) – 1:24
 * 12) "I Saw Three Ships" (Traditional - adaptation/arrangement: Bennett) – 2:49
 * 13) "Carol of the Moon and Stars" – 3:15

Personnel

 * Bob Bennett – acoustic guitar, electric guitar, vocals, composer
 * Roy Salmond – producer, recording, electric guitars, keyboards, percussion (including Egg Cup), Piano, Ukulele, Basses (except for John's three tunes)
 * Randall Stoll – drums, percussion (6)
 * Brian Thiessen – electric guitar (3)
 * Carolyn Arends – background vocals (1)
 * Joel Stobbe – cello (9, 13)
 * John Patitucci – bass (2, 3, 7)
 * Mike Janzen – rhodes (3, 7)
 * Larry Nickel – arranged choral vocals (6) and conductor (6, 9)
 * Fabiana Katz – choral vocals (6, 9)
 * Jennifer McLaren – choral vocals (6, 9)
 * John Nickel – choral vocals (6, 9)
 * Karen Mang – choral vocals (6, 9)
 * Larry Nickel – choral vocals (6, 9)
 * Ray Harris – choral vocals (6, 9)

Release history
Christmastide was self-released by the artist in 2009. It is distributed in Canada by Signpost Music.

Reviews
Christianity Today gave the album 4 stars (out of 5) in their November 2009 review; concluding that "Christmastide achieved the twin "Classic" Christmas recording goals of both making light of the season's chaos while ever so poignantly reminding us why we bother to celebrate."