Grammy nominee Elizabeth Mitchell ("Little Seed: Songs for Children by Woody Guthrie," "Blue Clouds") is a gifted singer of notable warmth and a torchbearer for folk music as an evergreen art form and a conduit to human connection.

Both are in evidence in this album of newly arranged seasonal selections originally published in the 1953 songbook, "American Folk Songs for Christmas," a compilation by noted early 20th century modernist composer and folk music anthologist Ruth Crawford Seeger (stepmother to folk great Pete Seeger). These soulful and upbeat songs, both intimately homespun and canonical, focus primarily on Mary and Jesus and are beautifully and variously shaped in the folk tradition--as acoustic and a cappella ballads, and call-and-response and gospel hymns. A sampling of the 24 tracks: "Mary Had a Baby," "Sing-A-Lamb," "Mary Was the Queen of Galilee," "Christmas Day in the Morning," and "Joy to the World." Peggy Seeger, Daniel Littleton, Natalie Merchant, John Sebastian, Dan Zanes and Suzan-Lori Parks are among the host of friends who have joined Mitchell in this heart-felt offering.