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TSO World is a sister site of The un-Official TSO Fan Site, a fan based and maintained website. TSO World is a non-profit site and all fan pictures were contributed by the members of the TSO YahooGroup. Any copyright infringement is unintentional and will be dealt with upon request. We are in no way, shape or form affiliated with the Trans-Siberian Orchestra... although, we would really like to be. "One Fan's Opinion" (this page), was written by Scott Piehler and may be freely used for other non-profit sites, if you would like to use it in a for-profit manner, please contact the site owners at tsonut@yahoo.com. If you enjoy this site, please let us know by dropping us a line or signing the Guestbook. If you would like to talk more with other TSO fans, please feel free to join the TSO YahooGroup. Membership is restricted for your protection. Whew, that was a mouthful! Did I miss anything? |
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| And so it's good that we remember Just as soon as we've discovered That the things we do in life Will always end up touching others -Promises to Keep |
We have a radio station here in Atlanta, Peach 94.9, that's been playing nothing but Christmas music since 11/22. Kind of enjoyable, actually. It's given me an op- portunity to listen to a lot of different stuff. I also have a fairly eclectic collection of holiday CDs. I keep coming back to TSO for one reason: Majesty. It seems so much of modern Christmas music is divided into some fairly narrow slots. You've got the divas-du-jour trying to out-screech each other, or show their "sensitive" sides. There's everyone trying to be Nat King Cole (and for the most part, failing, miserably). There are the rehashes of the great Motown-influenced stuff. There's the rock and roll stuff, which is kind of interesting, but doesn't ex- tend too far beyond Springsteen (Santa Claus is Coming to Town, really a Motown redo), Tom Petty (Christmas All Over the World, the umpteenth remake of Run Run Rudolph, and far too many versions of Little Drummer Boy. Thankfully, for real rockers, there are the delightful Merry Axemas CDs from Steve Vai & friends. And of course, there's the whole Blue Christmas "do we really have to deal with this" sub genre. There are novelty Christmas songs. They're enjoyable, but get old quickly. Contemporary Christian artists get it mostly right, but sometimes they get soooo reverent, they suck the fun out of the holiday. Mannheim brought something new to the table for a while, but their Christmas CDs have fallen into repetition to these ears. I think I gave up after the Live disc. Then there's TSO. Power, reverence, majesty, and a true understanding of the culturally mixed bag that is Christmas. The variety of music on a single disc helps too. Let's face it. If you didn't know TSO, would you EVER guess that Sarajevo, Christmas Canon, Music Box Blues, and Old City Bar were from the same band? New music, grounded in familiar refrains. Hope and optimism, but with a slyly disguised sermon that it's not up to some supernatural power to change the day. We were put here to help each other. Just like the ghosts in A Christmas Carol don't actually do anything other than show Scrooge what was/is/could be, the Angel in TSO's trilogy makes the odd suggestion, asks a few questions, but it's simple human kindness that wins out. It's that message of hope that keeps me coming back. Whether it's a grizzled barkeep parting with his cash to send a little girl home, or a bitter wealthy man who gets a second chance at love, or a child who comes to believe again, these are uplifting images, paired with beautiful, powerful music. Scott Piehler 12/4/02 |