Quote Originally Posted by Geoffrey S
Whoa!

I've got that Beethoven's Last Night album. Didn't like it much. Wasn't the Christmas Eve Sarajevo song by Savatage though?
You are right Geoffrey. That song first appeared on a Savatage album. However, the Trans-Siberian Orchestra is sort of an alter-ego of Savatage. The main guys behind TSO have connections to Savatage in various forms: founder Paul O'Neill was a producer/promoter for several Savatage albums. Robert Kinkel was keyboardist, producer and writer on several Savatage albums as well. Jon Oliva, a TSO composer, is founder and just about everything else for Savatage.

Beethoven's Last Night is just an "okay" album when you consider the music alone. What makes it and the Christmas TSO albums that much better is the powerful stories they weave around the music. We were listening to the Christmas albums last night for the first time this year (to get psyched for the concert) and I was getting choked up and tears in my eyes on some songs. Some songs are sad, but others are just beautifully happy. This Christmas Day, about a Christmas day reunion between a "lost" daughter and her father, never ceases to hit me right in the heart - the pure joy expressed in the song brings tears to my eyes. But maybe I'm just an old softy. On a quick glance and listen, they sound like a rock band (in tuxedos!!), but they don't limit their style of music. Classical, jazz, and blues also find their way into TSO's music.

One of the things that I (and the rest of the family) like about TSO is the way they blend classic Christmas songs with their own original material. To me, they capture the essence and magic of Christmas and what it should be. The lyrics paint vivid pictures for the mind's eye and the mind's heart:

In this room where shadows live

And ghosts that failed learn time forgives

Welcome, friends, please stay awhile
Our story starts with one small child
Who spends this night in attics dark
Where dreams are stored like sleeping hearts
And so it's here that they must wait
Till someone wishes them awake

For somewhere on this night of nights
She's looking to believe
Here among the ghosts on Christmas Eve