Today, I'm awakening to the reality that there is a reason why much of what passes for Christmas music isso boring - no guitar solos! Apart from the epic Christian metal bands, Theocracy and Stryper, the prospect of a good guitar solo in a Christmas song is about as likely as a witnessing a reindeer flying through the clouds. However, the wait is over with the release of Lincoln Brewster's album, Joy to the World.

Lincoln treats listeners to a musical cacophony that is sure to please many kinds of music lovers - especially fans of sweeping Stratocaster guitar licks that have made him a household name. The album begins on atriumphant note with Brewster's version of Joy to the World. The arrangement is fresh and pulsates with the vitality that Isaac Watts surely meant to convey.

Hark the Herald Angels Sing is a reverent rendition that moves with a majestic series of notes and a killer guitar solo. I can see Charles Wesley slouching down in his chair and smiling to himself, caught up in the truth the song intends to convey:

Christ by highest heav'n adored/Christ the everlasting Lord/Late in time behold Him come/Offspring of aVirgin's womb/Veiled in flesh the Godhead see/Hail the incarnate Deity/Pleased with man to dwell/Jesus, our Emmanuel/Hark! The Herald angel’s sing/Glory to the newborn King!

Miraculum is a 6-minute Christmas feast for the ears. The tune makes eager listeners wonder when Lincoln will release a solo instrumental album. This is Lincoln Brewster at his best - a blues influence, laced with arpeggios that has a Keaggy feel to it.

The rest of the album is musically rich, doctrinally sound, and points listeners to the birth of our Savior. This is Christmas music at its finest!