Christmas at the Ranch

Personnel: Ben Keith (vocals, slide guitar, steel guitar, dobro, vibraphone); Rusty Kershaw (vocals, guitar, dobro, triangle); Pat McLaughlin (vocals, guitar, mandolin); Neil Young (vocals, guitar, pump organ); Astrid Young, Pamela Brown Hayes, Jeff Foster, Torrey Rigan, Gustavo Stoll, Jon Napier Morales, Roberto Barruetto, Golden Gate Boys Choir & Bell Ringers, Benjamin Seeberger, Adam Skory, Noah Mewes, Samuel Wilkinson, Phillip Paredes, John Kevin Mulkey, Zachary Smedley, Michael Null, Eddy Wunch, Dominic Fagundes, Luke Stalcup, Michael Wood, Adrian Paredes, Noah Frank, Bobby Bohannon, Alex Diaz, John Nowland, Johnny Cash, Nicolette Larson, Paul Santos, Ralph Molina, William Levi Dawson , Pegi Young, Adam Miller (vocals); Jack Clement (guitar, dobro); Mark Howard (guitar, mandolin, ukulele); Grant Boatwright, J.J. Cale (guitar); Gove Scrivenor (autoharp); Rufus Thibodeaux (fiddle); Mickey Raphael (harmonica); Larry Cragg (oboe); Gene Rabbai, Jr., Charles Cochran (keyboards); Gary Davis , Kenny Malone (percussion).
Audio Mixers: John Nowland; Ben Keith.
Recording information: Chez Flames Recording, New Orleans, LA; Cowboy Arms Hotel & Recording Spa; Redwood Digital Studios, Woodside, CA; The Cabin, Hermitage, TN.
Photographers: Lisa Veneziano; Gene Mundy; Tommy Ramirez; Becky Lloyd; Oscar Butterworth; Rebecca Burns; Brenda Burns.
Arranger: Ben Keith.
Previously released in 1994 as Seven Gates: A Christmas Album, this Christmas record features steel guitar influences from New Orleans, Nashville, and Hawaii. Ben Keith, a longtime Neil Young collaborator, convenes a cast of many to deliver a seasonal instrumental/vocal combo of "country-folk new age." The sound is pastoral and unassuming, but imbued with a rootsy serenity and stamped with the cachet of guest turns by Young, Johnny Cash, J.J. Cale, and Nicolette Larson. Particularly fascinating is Young holding his own with a 27-member boys choir on "Greensleeves." ~ Roch Parisien