by Rick AndersonKim Robertson is a Celtic harper who, over the course of several recordings, has followed her muse from ancient Ireland to modern France, with predictably spotty results. But Celtic Christmas II, on which she is joined by cellist Virginia Kron, is a consistently lovely and tasteful program which manages to sample a wide cultural variety of Christmas traditions without sounding self-conscious or didactic in its inclusiveness. Several of the tunes are familiar, but most are not very well-known -- anyone who recognizes the Huron Indian carol "Jesos Ahatonhia" or the Austrian tune "Darkness is Falling" gets extra credit. But all of them hang together nicely, and Robertson and Kron perform them beautifully. This disc is highly recommended.