‘WINTER SONGS, VOL. 2’

April Varner. Cellar Music Group.

Before I tell you how utterly joyful and exuberant April Varner’s first full-length holiday album is, let’s take a moment to talk about a song that isn’t so joyful and exuberant, and wasn’t written to be holiday music per se.

I’m talking about Leonard Cohen’s 1984 classic, “Hallelujah.”

Although it’s come to be included in the holiday mix in recent years, Cohen didn’t write it with the holidays in mind. Nor did he write it as an overtly religious piece, though there are certainly some religious overtones to it.

But the oft-covered Hallelujah, a deeply moving piece that has caught the attention of multiple superstars over the years, is covered by Toledo’s own Varner in a way that no other artists have.

It is one of the best piec

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