Label: Lava/Universal Republic
Review by Tony Cannella
As the holiday season approaches, Trans-Siberian Orchestra gets ready to embark on their annual Christmas tour/extravaganza. In conjunction with the bands holiday dates they have released a compilation album from all of the bands rock operas.
The cool thing about TSO has always been their wide-ranging appeal, from kids to parents to grandparents and of course metal fans. With “Tales of Winter” all six of their releases are represented in one neat 74-minute package. The band has included a long list of musicians/writers from founder Paul O’Neill, Jon Oliva, Al Pitrelli and Chris Caffrey among others. They have also utilized numerous female singers throughout the years on their albums and tours since their inception in 1993. TSO’s sound and style is quite varied as you can tell from this compilation which obviously is a big reason for their universal appeal. It is easy to associate TSO with Christmas and their Christmas themed music captures the magic and the spirit of the season so perfectly, but the band has done some non-holiday music exceptionally as well. “Tales of Winter” is a nice compendium of what the band has accomplished thus far in an amazingly successful career.
Rating – 85/100
Tracklist
- Night Enchanted
- Sarajevo 12/24
- Believe
- Wizards in Winter
- Christmas Canon
- I’ll Keep Your Secrets
- A Last Illusion
- Old City Bar
- Dreams of Fireflies
- Christmas Nights in Blue
- Wish List
- Ornament
- Music Box Blues
- Mad Russian’s Christmas
- Epiphany
Line Up
- Paul O’Neill – Producer
- Robert Kinkel – Producer
- Dave Wittman – Recording & Mix Engineer
Performers
Backup
- Steve Broderick
- Luci Butler
- Jennifer Cella
- Britney Christian
- Rob Evan
- Dina Fanai
- Tommy Farese
- Allison Flom
- Tony Gaynor
- Christie George
- Alexa Goddard
- Kristin Lewis Gorman
- Erin Henry
- Steena Hernandez
- Kelly Keeling
- Robert Kinkel
- Danielle Landherr
- James Lewis
- Tany Ling
- Sanya Mateyas
- Ireland Wilde O’Neill
- Jennifer Cella
- Valentina Porter
- Andrew Ross
- Bart Shatto
- Evan Shyer
- Abby Skoff
- Zachary Stevens
- Jeff Scott Soto
- Adrienne Warren
- Scout Xavier
Guide
- Bryan Hicks – “Epiphany”
- Dina Fanai – “Night Enchanted”
- Robert Kinkel – “Night Enchanted”
Gospel Choir
- Keith Jacobs
- Lucille Jacobs
- Nathaniel Jacobs
- Shelia Upshaw
Child Choir
- The American Boychoir, directed by Fernando Malvar-Ruiz
Vietnamese Dialogue
- Truc Xuan Le
- Khanh Ong
- Nhattien Nguyen
- Nga Nguyen
Instruments
Band
- Paul O’Neill – Guitars
- Robert Kinkel – Keyboards
- Jon Oliva – Keyboards
- Al Pitrelli – Lead & Rhythm Guitars
- Chris Altenhoff – Bass
- Luci Butler – Keyboards
- Chris Caffery – Guitars
- Shih-Yi Chiang – Keyboards
- Roddy Chong – Violin
- Angus Clark – Guitars
- Jane Mangini – Keyboards
- Johnny Lee Middleton – Bass
- John O. Reilly – Drums
- Anna Phoebe – Violin
- Jeff Plate – Drums
- Alex Skolnick – Guitars
- Derek Wieland – Keyboards
- Dave Wittman – Drum, Guitar, & Bass Inserts
Strings
- Roddy Chong
- Caitlin Moe
- Anna Phoebe
- Allison Zlotow
- Lowell Adams
- Karen Dumke
- Lei Liu
- Chizuko Matsusaka
- Sarah Shellman