An Echoes Sonic Seasonings Classic
Will Ackerman & Friends and the California Guitar Trio play seasonal songs old and new.
In 2009, on a chilly day deep in the hills of southern Vermont, a group of musicians gathered at Will Ackerman’s Imaginary Road Studios to create the sound of Sonic Seasonings. Will Ackerman is best known as the founder of Windham Hill Records. He’s also a fingerstyle guitar player. Will not only founded Windham Hill Records, he’s also released several beautiful acoustic guitar albums over the years and won a Grammy for one of them. For this Sonic Seasonings program, Will gathered a bunch of musicians in his studio near Brattleboro, Vermont. They included pianist Kori Linae Carothers, the duo of Jill Haley and David Cullen, trumpeter Jeff Oster and Violinist Scarlet Rivera. Over the course of 2 days, Will Ackerman and friends performed music for the holiday season, both traditional and new.
We’ll hear that and a 2006 Sonic Seasonings performance from The California Guitar Trio. In that year the trio consisted of three students of Robert Fripp’s Guitar Craft and The League of Crafty Guitarists. Hailing from Japan, America and Belgium, these string pickers are as likely to play the surf hit “Pipeline” as a Bach fugue, or original songs that reveal elements of baroque
counterpoint and African cross-picking. In 2006, they came into the Echoes living room to play a set of seasonal songs, but not your usual songs.
counterpoint and African cross-picking. In 2006, they came into the Echoes living room to play a set of seasonal songs, but not your usual songs.
< td>O Come Emmanuel (live)The Carols of Christmas (v/a)
| Echoes Weekend, December 20, 2025 – Program 25-50A | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Start Time | Group Name | Song Name | Album Name |
| First Half Hour | |||
| Echoes Sonic Seasonings Classic | |||
| 0:01:00 | Philip Aaberg | Montana Sleighride | Christmas |
| 0:08:06 | Will Ackerman & David Cullen | O Come Emmanuel (live) | The Carols of Christmas (v/a) |
| 0:11:37 | Kori Linae Carrothers | Crystal Fields (Live) (with David Cullen, Jeff Oster, Scarlett Rivera) | Trillium |
| 0:16:32 | Jeff Oster | Fool’s Gold (live) (with Kori Linae Carothers) | |
| 0:21:35 | Kori Linae Carrothers | Midnight (live) (with Jeff Oster, Scarlett Rivera) | Trillium |
| 0:25:46 | Kori Linae Carrothers | What Child is This (live) (with Scarlett Rivera) | On a Cold Frosty Morning |
| Second Half Hour | |||
| 0:30:37 | Jeff Oster | Amazing Grace (Live) | Amazing Grace (single) |
| 0:34:15 | Jeff Oster | On One Knee (live) (with Will Ackerman) | True |
| 0:38:48 | Will Ackerman | Abide the Winter (live) | Winter Solstice II (v/a) |
| 0:42:38 | Will Ackerman | Visiting (live) (with David Cullen & Jill Haley) | Past Light |
| 0:50:17 | Will Ackerman | What Strangers (live) (with David Cullen) | Windham Hill Christmas Collection (v/a) |
| 0:54:24 | Jill Haley | Sunrift Gorge (live) (with David Cullen) | Glacier Soundscapes |
| Third Half Hour | |||
| 1:01:00 | Al Petteway and Amy White | Into the Light | Winter Tidings: An Appalachian Christmas |
| 1:07:17 | David Cullen & Jill Haley | High Country Waltz (live) | Exploding Colors |
| 1:12:38 | David Cullen & Jill Haley | O Christmas Tree (live) | On a Winter’s Night (v/a) |
| 1:16:56 | Will Ackerman | Unconditional (live) | Sound of Wind Driven Rain |
| 1:20:54 | Will Ackerman | Yazala Abambuti (live) (with David Cullen, Jill Haley, Jeff Oster, Kori Linae Carothers, Scarlett Rivera) | Windham Hill Christmas Collection (v/a) |
| 1:27:23 | Kori Linae Carrothers | Crystal Fields Reimagined | On a Cold Frosty Morning |
| Fourth Half Hour | |||
| 1:31:22 | California Guitar Trio | Carol of the Bells (live) | 10 Christmas Songs |
| 1:34:18 | California Guitar Trio | Jingle Bells (live) | 10 Christmas Songs |
| 1:37:36 | California Guitar Trio | Eve (live) | CGT +2 |
| 1:41:50 | California Guitar Trio | Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence (live) | 10 Christmas Songs |
| 1:46:20 | California Guitar Trio | Happy Christmas (live) | 10 Christmas Songs |
| 1:51:43 | California Guitar Trio | Greensleeves | 10 Christmas Songs |
We remember. Many musicians from the Echoesphere left us in 2025. Among them, Joseph Byrd of the United States of America, Nicky Ryan from the Enya triumvirate, Jamshied Sharifi and most tragically, Mark Dwane. Sometimes you don’t realize how much someone is in your life until they pass. This was brought to the fore with the tragic murder of Rob Reiner and his wife two days ago. Reiner has been in my life since 7th grade when All in the Family debuted. But that is his least noteworthy accomplishment. He went on to direct influential moves like Stand By Me, Misery, When Harry Met Sally and perhaps most iconically, This is Spinal Tap. Reiner also fought for all the right social causes. He wasn’t a musician and honestly, I would play Spinal Tap, but that’s not quite Echoes, right? But his death does make me think of how much the musicians we’ll hear today have been part of our lives for the last 36 years on Echoes. They have left the planet but their music remains. John Diliberto remembers with Echoes in Memoriam from PRX. Turn it up to 11
| Start Time | Run Time | Artist | Song Title | Album |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Weekend, December 20, 2025 – Echoes Program 25-50B: In Memoriam | ||||
| First Half Hour | ||||
| 0:01:00 | 4:57 | Shakti | Mind Ecology | Natural Elements |
| 0:07:23 | 1:36 | David Lynch & Jocelyn Montgomery | Et Ideo | Echoes Living Room Concerts Volume 6 (v/a) |
| 0:08:54 | 9:29 | Soft Machine | Chloe and the Pirates | Six |
| 0:17:30 | 8:05 | David Parsons | The Gathering | Shaman |
| 0:25:13 | 5:07 | Foday Musa Suso | Fulada | The Dreamtime |
| Second Half Hour | ||||
| 0:30:00 | 6:40 | David Bowie | Warszawa | Stage |
| 0:36:45 | 3:26 | Mark Snow | The X-Files Theme | The X-Files Theme |
| 0:40:00 | 2:55 | The Beach Boys | God Only Knows | Pet Sounds |
| 0:42:40 | break | |||
| 0:45:00 | 5:24 | Mark Dwane | Aeon Five | Aeons |
| 0:47:54 | 5:23 | Jamshied Sharifi | One | One |
| 0:53:06 | 4:23 | Black Sabbath | Planet Caravan | Paranoid |
| Third Half Hour | ||||
| 1:01:00 | 4:59 | Gary Stroutsos | Silent Wave | Pacific Moon |
| 1:06:00 | 4:05 | Enya | Storms In Africa | Watermark |
| 1:09:59 | 5:14 | Enya | The Forge of the Angels | Dark Sky Island |
| 1:15:07 | 3:19 | Pentangle | Light Flight | Basket of Light |
| 1:18:15 | 5:09 | Danny Thompson & Zoe Rahman | One of These Things First | Way To Blue: The Songs of Nick Drake |
| 1:23:16 | 5:06 | Angelo Badalamenti | Twin Peaks Theme | Soundtrack from Twin Peaks |
| Fourth Half Hour | ||||
| 1:30:00 | 6:09 | Dogon | Chet’s Dream | notdunjusta |
| 1:36:03 | 3:08 | The United States Of America | Where Is Yesterday | The United States Of America |
| 1:38:51 | 3:00 | The Yardbirds | Still I’m Sad | Smokestack Lightning, Vol. 1 |
| 1:41:46 | Break | |||
| 1:43:20 | 8:24 | The Moody Blues | Tuesday Afternoon | Days of Future Passed |
| 1:51:05 | 8:55 | Jack DeJohnette | Peace Time 1 | Peace Time |