The Daily News-Journal from Murfreesboro, Tennessee • 25

Thursday Dec. 18,1997 7VT Calendar, 80 TV kews, 7D Aeby, 2D ailiiNtms Journal i ii VI i mam mm x. m- fit a i- 1 i ts sJ i. DNJ photos by J. tntintoli and Nan Tucker Holiday activities have kept many people busy around the area, including St.

Mark's Children's Choir, above, who performed during the recent Oaklands' Candlelight Tour of Homes. Adult volunteers witli them are Dawn Eaton, far left; Beth Bimson, back; Becca Clark, far right; and director.Cathy Edwards, second to far right. Santa has been busy lately, too, making a few early visits to Rutherford County. Molly Thompson, photo at left, gets a surprise from Santa at a recent Murfreesboro Noon Rotary luncheon while her mother, Margrey Thompson, looks on. And the Middle Tennessee Choral Society, below, directed by Raphael Bundage, also has helped to spread cheer this season.

They are shown here performing for members of Rotary. 1 Early version of Beethoven opera more spontaneous By Mike Silverman Leonore," opera in3 by Beethoven (DG Archiv) features sopranos Hillevi Martinpelto and Christiane Oelze, tenors Kim Beg-leyan3MichaerSchade, baritone Matthew Best, and basses Franz Hawlata and Alastair Miles with John Eliot Gardiner conducting the Orchestra Revolutionnaire et Romantique and The Monteverdi Choir. Beethoven composed his only opera in 805. Unhappy with the result, he tried it again the next year. Still not satisfied, he overhauled it extensively a third time in 1814.

This tijne he changed the title to "Fidelio," the name his heroine adopts when she disguises herself as a man to rescue her husband from political imprisonment. It's the latter version that has become a repertory standard. But Gardiner makes an eloquent case for the younger and more impassioned composer's less stream- lined and polished but (according to Gardiner) more spontaneous and emotionally direct account. The differences are immediately apparent to anyone familiar with the mature work. To name just a few, Leonore's grand scene "Abscheulicher" is less grand in the original; the first version of the aria for Florestan, her husband, Jacks the inspired coda in which the delirious prisoner sings of his wife as an angel of mercy.

On the otherhand, their joyful duet of reunion after she has rescued him, is much longer in the first version. It's exciting music, but it delays the drama at a crucial point. On balance, Beethoven was right to impose the later cuts. JIhe cast is the same that brought this rarely heard work to the Lincoln Center Festival 96, Soprano Hillevi Martinpelto is a spirited heroine tenor Kim Beg-ley a light-voiced but ardent companion asFlorestanrand bass -Franz Hawlata makes Rocco the jailer as sympathetic as possible. The recording is available in two versions, either as a two-CD set or as part of a four-CD set that includes the 1978 Leonard Bernstein-conducted "Fidelio" with Gundula Janowitz and Rene Kollo in the lead roles.

Straddling fence By Eric Fidler Christmas albums can generally be broken into three main categories: more or less religious, secular traditional and more or less novelty. Each has its own pitfalls. Enter Asleep at the Wheel with a Texas swing take on Christmas with their "Merry Texas Christmas, Y'all." The band manages to straddle categories, with a lovely straight-; ahead version of "Silent Night" featuring Willie Nelson and Don Walser, a delightfully swinging "Feliz Navidad" with Tish Hino-josa guesting on vocals, and novelty tunes such as "Xmas in Jail." The end result is one of thfc most satisfying Christmas albums in recent memory. "Merry Texas Christmas, Vail" iaF absolute must for any fan of Texas music. Fuzztone pop Known as the "father of the fuzztone guitar," Paul Burlison was a Sun Records fixture in the heyday of Elvis Presley and Jerry Lee Lewis and a pioneering musician.

Here the sixtysomething guitarist surfaces with a host of killer co-stars on an album that's just plain fun to listen to. There's nothing fancy on "Train Kept just old-fashioned, rootsy rock roll played with conviction. Burlison, who does not sing, augments his (See Early, page 2D) I i I I Maniacal memories of Christmas make up new Ray Steven's album On Stage the school "fell down" when Kalb played the song for them, Stevens said. "We've all heard about how a -Jewish mother will lay a guilt trip on you Stevens said. "Well let me tell you something, Jewish mothers do not have a comer on the market." Kalb, who has penned other Stevens classics, including "Mississippi Squirrel Revival," also wrote or helped write eight other songs on the album.

The frantic "Redneck Christmas" pulls out all the stops. It discusses serving possum stew and putting runners under the outhouse to use it as a sleigh. Grandpa, of -course, is in it at the time and bellows, "Come back here with that catalog" a reference to redneck toilet paper. "It's a sound song, really Stevens said. "I wanted to do something 9 la Spike Jones with the gunshpts and that (glug-glug noise) and all that.

It was a just a -perfect, vehicle for all those sounds." Some one downsmanship comes into play in "Xerox Christmas Letter," in which the singer ponders 1 detailing his miserable year for all on his card list. "The first time I got one, I couldn't remember who the people (See Maniacal, page 2D) By Randall Dickerson Associated Press writer NASHVILLE Ray Stevens' Christmas album was 35 years in the making. Sort of. The CD broadens the theme of his zany 1962 song "Santa Claus is Watching You." In fact, an updated version of the tune closes the album. The original song told kids not to look for hidden presents.

The updated version warns adults not to cheat on lovers because Santa is "evetywhereThe's everywhere." "I think it's time for an alburn of Christmas songs that sort of has a different slant," Stevens said. booka little wider and get a few little insights into some things that a lot of people, I think, can relate to." "Ray Stevens Christmas: Through a Different Window" has 1 1 cuts. Most of them are irreverent not surprising for a 58-year-old guy who sang about a camel named Clyde jn "Ahab the Arab" and running nude in public in "The The opening cut, "Guilt for Christmas suggests giving it as a gift. "It's the best, it outlasts everything she (mother) ever bought me Stevens sings. C.W.

Kalb Jr. wrote the song while attending a cooking school in Frartce. Two Jewish women at i i I 1 Playing at local establishments; BELL BUCKLE CAFE MUSIC PARLOR, Bell Buckle Railroad Square, 931-389-9693; tonight and Dec. 25: writer's night hosted by Mike Duncan; Friday: Mike Duncan and band; Saturday: Bill And Laurie Sky; Sunday: Mike Duncan; Dec. 26: The Causeys; Dec.

27-28: The Mulberry Bunch. BORO BAR "AND GRILL; 121 1 Greenland Drive, 895-4800; tonight: Glossary; Friday: The Katies; Saturday: Fools Rush In. BUCKETS BAR AND GRILL, 2209 N.W. Broad St.r 849-3241; Friday and Saturday; Darrell O'Donnell And The Other Brothers; Tuesday: Tommy Moyers; Wednesday: Shawn Welling. BUNGANUT PIG 1602 W.

Northfield Blvd. (ih Georgetown Park), 893-7860; tonight: Albert Jelly; Friday: Crosstown Traffic; Saturday: Blue Like Me; Monday: Butter Boy; Tuesday: Gibson and Curtis; Dec. 26: Jim Gibson Band; Dec. 27: Crosstown Traffic. CACTUS JACK'S, 2433 S.

Church 890-8280; Friday and (See Stage, page 4D) AP photo RAY STEVENS LOOKS AT CHRISTMAS THROUGH A 'DIFFERENT WINDOW' ON HIS NEW ALBUM..